Tu Fawning, a brand-new outfit pairing 31Knots’ Joe Haege
with solo artist Corrina Repp, hit the ground running. Well, jet
setting really. After three months of songwriting and just two Portland
shows, the duo sped to Europe for a two-week tour.
Oh, and did I mention Haege and Repp are a couple? They are. Which
comes in handy sometimes—like when you’re almost killed by
out-of-control cars spinning down icy roads in the Swiss Alps. At least
you’re not dying alone. Makes for a nice dinner afterward, you know?
But there are downsides.
“On tour, we can only get laid by each other,” laughs Repp. “That’s
a big con.”
Seriously though, Repp and Haege, together two years before starting
the band, hope the music, rather than their relationship, will be the
band’s draw. Nonetheless, the couple’s bedrock helps.
“We have the communication thing down somewhat, which seems to be
essential for us when writing,” Repp explains. After all, making music
together seriously intensifies and often scrambles regular connections,
so maybe doing it with your significant shortens that giant leap.
“Hell, I’ve been getting into relationship spats with Jay
[Winebrenner, from 31Knots] for 11 years,” explains Haege. “We just
don’t sleep together.”
The band began to take shape after Repp released The Absent and
the Distant. “I felt like I didn’t have anything to say as a
singer/songwriter,” she says. “I wanted to focus on writing music, as
opposed to just songs.” Repp talked to Haege, who was on tour, and once
he returned they went at it.
Judging by the few recordings available, the group is cultivating a
very picturesque sound—of dusty, old, abandoned vaudeville
stages; nighttime floors littered with burnt-out, broken opium pipes;
walls smudged with cigar smoke, peeling paint; a pretty bird perched in
the rafters in a time mysterious, past and surreal.
The two share the singing duties and switch around on piano, guitar,
and drums, as well as using samples. Things are still fresh and subject
to change, but the tour was like hitting a fast-forward button on their
progress.
“It was the best thing that could’ve happened,” Repp says, with
Haege in agreement. But it wasn’t easy. For both—and Haege
especially—performing out of their comfort zones took some
getting used to.
“Those first couple days it threw me for a big loop,” Haege
explains. “With 31Knots I’ve grown very comfortable with the fact that
the variables are known beforehand.”
After a few shows, however, the two settled in and embraced
thedifferences. Without the pressure of being the bat-shit crazy
frontman, as he is in 31Knots, Haege was able to relax a bit. Repp
found solace in singing songs that didn’t require “ripping out her
heart.”
Neither is abandoning their respective projects, though Repp says it
may be a while before she returns to performing solo. 31Knots is still
full on, but Haege puts Tu Fawning on equal footing.
Soon the duo will record an EP and add new members. Both Haege and
Repp are excited for the possibilities before them. But for this show,
and for perhaps the last time, Tu Fawning perform as a duo. Up there,
side by side, it’ll just be the two of ’em.