Andrew W.K. interviews Baby Dee

For her newly released sixth album, Regifted Light, transgender chamber-pop artist Baby Dee teamed with hyperactive party punk, motivational speaker and children’s television host Andrew W.K. The two friends share a love for (and ownership of) a certain Steinway piano, which is the centerpiece of the lovely, classical-influenced record. We had producer Andrew W.K. chat with Dee to discuss the instrument, their relationship and Cleveland, Ohio.

When we first met, did you ever have the idea that we would work together? It was already a dream of mine.
I remember that day. You [and guitarist Matt Sweeney] were living way over on the West Side, Hell’s Kitchen, in this wonderful loft space. Your piano looked so small in there!

I remember we talked about Bach, listened to some Bach and you played some Bach on the piano.
I always associate you with bigness of sound, and playing that monster of a piano must have put me in mind of it. There’s that choral prelude, “In Dir Ist Freude,” which is Bach being BIG. It’s so crazy with this huge riff. PUM PUM BOPPY BOPPY PUM PUM. You had a recording of it, but I was disappointed with it. The organist on it did such a wimpy-assed version.

It’s cool how the Steinway piano has been at the center of our relationship. It’s such an unwieldy object to bring two people together.
Pianos are very particular things, like snowflakes. A Steinway D represents the very best possible, but there are great ones and just okay ones. Yours is the best because it has the best bottom end. The bigness of the sound is astounding.

When I gave you the piano, it was immediately clear that not only was it the best place for the piano to go when I couldn’t keep it, but that I bought the piano for the very purpose of giving it to you. That’s why I came to Cleveland to record my piano album [2009’s 55 Cadillac]. That’s why it was important to record Regifted Light at your house. It’s where the piano is and has been. I can’t believe we considered moving it to a studio.
We dodged that bullet, didn’t we? That would have been stupid to not do it at home. What really made it work was that you had the ability to say after two takes, “Okay, I can work with that,” and we would move on. The tech guys said they’d never had so much fun recording as those three days.

I remember asking you how you decided when to have lyrics or when to let a song be music only. The album you made with Will [Oldham] and Matt [Sweeney] has one of the most beautiful songs, the instrumental “Flowers on the Tracks.” Where does that music come from inside you?
That song—and I think of it as a song even though it hasn’t got words—was written for a friend here in Cleveland that has some very rough times. Unspeakably so. I couldn’t find the words to say what I wanted to say, and there wasn’t anything that could be said. Some things are like that. So it came without words.

Cleveland rocks. I love the city so much. Do you think we got the Cleveland vibe on the album?
Well, I think we certainly got the vibe of being inside a warm place in the winter. And I feel like that about Cleveland. I like Cleveland. It’s big and ugly and beautiful and cold and warm.

Baby Dee visits the Hideout Thursday 5 (without Andrew W.K). Regifted Light is out now on Drag City.