Patrice Pike and the Black Box Rebellion

By Alex Teitz

   Patrice Pike-Zain has been involved in the music business for ten years. She has been part of the synergy that was Sister 7, a jam band that came out of Austin and ended with two records on Arista (This Is the Trip, Wrestling Over Tiny Matters). The road there was long enough, but now Sister 7 has broken up.
Patrice Pike-Zain and Wayne Sutton have formed a new group called Patrice Pike and The Black Box Rebellion. Where Sister 7 was pure jam rock, The Black Box Rebellion explores new styles with their EP Flat 13, and with their upcoming album, Fencing Under Fire.
FEMMUSIC was lucky to speak with Pike-Zain regarding all of this. For more information visit Wikipedia

FEMMUSIC: When we last spoke you’d just finished a second CD with Arista. Then a final Sister 7 CD came out, and now we have the Black Box Rebellion. What happened?

PP: Sister 7 was together for ten years from Little Sister to Sister 7. We made a commitment a long time ago after we signed our first major label deal with EMI/SBK and went through a crazy process with them; our first of three experiences of people in major labels and the dynamics there of how people come and go so frequently. We decided once we were on EMI, first we made an independent album then we were on EMI and we made a major label novelty live album that was supposed to be followed by a studio album. When we made that album, and the president of SBK was asked to leave we had our first experience with the fickle and unstable aspects of records companies. We had experienced a considerable amount of progress and there was substantial growth and we expected that to continue and we just made a promise to ourselves that now matter what happened through the process of being together with people coming and going and changes that as long as we were experiencing positive progress and growth and everyone was felling like artistically and financially were not just comfortable, but happy with what we were seeing happen with the band we would stay together. And at the same time we made a commitment that if that was not the case we would disband. And with the demise of Clive Davis at Arista that was a major turn in our career and another check point for us to sit down and talk about what we could project in the coming couple of years and we decided that we had been together for so long and we had made so many records and we had toured over and over and over again that the likelihood of being able to find another major label, not only to support us creatively and financially but also the time it would take it took to made that happen, we decided that that wasn’t the best thing for us to do. So we all mutually decided to disband….We all agreed that we felt the project was complete. A lot of our fans have really had a tough time accepting that.. I think it was most important that we feel peaceful about it, and if we agreed that if we could feel peaceful about breaking up, we would.

FEMMUSIC: What about Black Box Rebellion? What are your goals with this band?

PP: The first goal before the band was even formed was for Wayne and I to continue to work together. The next goal was to find a rhythm section that we felt confident that would be able to interpret the music we had been writing in a way made us feel like the music was being communicated in a way that we had hoped. You know never when you bring in other people to play with if suddenly the dynamics of the songs you’re playing are going to change in a way, either it’s going to change in a way that is good and interesting or it’s going to embellish what you’re already doing. Bringing in new band members after working with the same band members for ten years was a big step in making the new band.
My point is baby steps. There’s not some grand plan we have. Wayne and I are committed to be musicians for life and most important thing for us if to be able to create a livelihood for ourselves and people who we work with through playing music. The next goal is to be able to expand outside our of home in Austin just like we did with Sister 7 and take music to other parts of the country and be able to grow the fanship of the band. That simple! That with the addition that we’re putting out a full length record in March. That’s a tough goal. On our own, we started our on record label Zain-Wayne Records.

FEMMUSIC: What would you say are the biggest challenges for you and the band right now?

PP: The biggest challenges are monetary. The thing about being on major labels for the last six years although we weren’t putting out records independently we still kept intact a lot of our strategy of promoting the band from the grassroots level. Being really mindful about communicating with our fans via e-mail, mailing lists, …all kinds of things that are important for you do to. I was also very involved in every aspect of promoting Sister 7. Learned a lot about retail during those years of being on the major labels. We have a really good solid idea of what we need to do, how it’s done. There are concerns as far as just not having the kind of money you would have when you’re being given advances and things like that from a major label and publishing. You have to be more creative which is a good thing I think. It forces you to be creative about how you’re going to go about doing things.
One of the things that frustrates me most about a major label is how much money can be wasted in that scenario. How much money tends to be wasted in that environment. It makes you really, really, really creative but also mindful of how you’re spending money and where. I think it makes you more appreciative of every little victory. Every little goal that you set that you accomplish just is huge.

FEMMUSIC: I’ve noticed on the EP there are things not heard on Sister 7 CD’s, such as a brass section on “Crazy.” Has your songwriting technique changed with the new band, and what sort of direction to you see yourself going in?

PP: A lot of the songs that we’re doing now, a good portion I wrote during the Sister 7 time. They were just songs that didn’t fit the Sister 7 agenda really creatively. I would bring songs to the Sister 7 band didn’t feel that really didn’t fit, and I wouldn’t bring songs to the band because I knew they really didn’t fit. I was playing solo concerts for last three years while Sister 7 was together when we would come off the road. It was sort of my creative outlet oustide the realms of what Sister 7 does. I think that…a lot of the stuff that I wrote with Sister 7 for instance, that’s very different from what I’m doing now, that stuff, the music was written by all four members of Sister 7 sitting in a room just cooperating together just coming up with parts. Then I would write the lyrics and the melody lines over the progressions that we would write. If you’ll notice on old Sister 7 stuff, “Under the Radar”, “Know What You Mean” and then a lot of stuff on the older records are totally like the songs that I’m writing now. They’re just songs that I naturally write alone is my point…

FEMMUSIC: With this album you’re working with Jim Watts. I was curious how it is working with him, and how you met?

PP: Well Jim and I met through mutual friends here in town. We actually met on a social level through a community of people here who are just healthy minded people. We would meet from time to time at different kinds of concerts and different kinds of potlucks, people talking about political ideas, community activities here in Austin. Just like minded people. And when I first met Jim I had no idea he was an engineer. The time that we got to know each other really well was actually at a yoga retreat. That was just after he completed the Emmylou Harris record and it was not yet out. I was just totally blown away that that was what he was doing, and that I liked this guy so much. That and we had become friends. He knew, of course, about my career through the circles of the local community here, but I had no idea about his.
As soon as the opportunity arose for Wayne and I to make a record outside of the Sister 7 spectrum, Jim popped up in my head immediately because I love the Emmylou Harris record so much. I loved his personality. That Red Dirt Girl Record was, at the time, one of Wayne’s favorite albums. So it all made sense. He’s wonderful to work with.

FEMMUSIC: With all your experience, would you sign with another record label, if offered tomorrow?

PP: Um….I don’t think that I would tomorrow. I think it’s really important in this time in the music business, for artists to feel like they have the capability to create value for themselves. To grow their perceived value in the music business. That it’s important to do that before going into a negotiation situation with a major label. If you look at cases in the past, like, for instance, Dave Matthews, Vertical Horizon, Lisa Loeb…the list goes on and on and on and on. The more that you can do for yourself the better off you’ll be in that scenario in communicating to people about what you want, your intentions are, what your needs are, what your expectations are from a major label even an independent label. It’s really, really important to not be lazy, and to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there for you all by yourself. I think with background that Wayne and I have, our experience with Sister 7 and all the record labels we’ve been involved with, and the fanbase that we’ve developed over the last decade, that Wayne and I have an opportunity to put out records, to tour, to develop more songs in our repertoire, so that in the event that we might talk with a major label in the future, especially with all the changes that are going on in the business right now, there could be some labels and some people who pop up in the business who it would be very attractive for us to work with. But right now it just really doesn’t make sense because first of all when you get involved with a major label you’re looking at a minimum of a year’s worth of development time, of communicating with the label, coming up with marketing strategies, agreeing creatively on how things are going to be approached, not necessarily compromising with them creatively but making sure they understand your vision, listening to what they say is their vision for you. So it would be counter-productive for us to go into a process like that, today.