A few weeks ago, Seattle-based SISTERS graced the Bluff with good vibes and good music. We were able to sit down with the band over a plate of cove fries. Here’s what we talked about:
How do you guys like Portland?
(In almost unison): We love Portland.
Do you come to the city a lot?
Andrew Vait: Now that we’re on Tender Loving Empire, yea, all the time.
Emily Westman: At least once a month.
How long have you been signed to Tender Loving Empire?
Andrew: Since April.
What is one college memory you can think of?
Andrew: We went to college together, at the University of Miami in Florida. I don’t think we shared a lot of college experiences.
Emily: A couple of parties.
Andrew: I feel like we probably had very different college experiences.
Emily: We definitely did.
Andrew: I lived in a house that had been occupied by students of the music school for like 20 years. It got condemned two years after I graduated. We were taking good care of it- but there were rats just living in the baseboards. And they were bold rats.
What did you major in college?
Andrew: Jazz studies.
Emily: Classical.
Where are you from originally?
Emily: I’m from South Florida, from West Palm Beach. He’s from Alaska.
Andrew: We’re bi-coastal.
Emily: I feel like Alaskans go to Seattle. Seattle or Portland. I have no idea why I came to Seattle- I had never been there before.
What would you tell your twenty-something-year-old self?
Andrew: Drink more Bud Light.
Emily: Yea, you would save some money drinking Bud Light all the time… Probably like, you should probably quit school now, rather than two years later.
Andrew: I would’ve told myself to take more business and marketing classes.
Emily: Oh yea, for sure, or just like go into computers.
Andrew: A single business or marketing class would’ve really done me a solid.
Andrew asks us what our campus currency is called, referring to meal points.
Andrew: We were just trying to remember what ours were called, because they were called something cute.
Emily: Dining Dollars?
Andrew: Dining Bucks? I think it was Cane something (like hurricanes)… Cane Coins?
Emily: Cane Cash?
We also talked about our school mascots.
Andrew: Our mascot situation at Miami was really confusing because we were called the Miami Hurricanes, but our mascot was an Iblis.
Emily: Like a bird.
Andrew: A really dumb bird. An exceptionally dumb bird.
Emily: He’s go around doing stupid things to be cute.
Andrew: They named the Ibis the mascot of the Miami Hurricanes because it’s the last bird to leave when a hurricane hits, and it’s the first to return-
Emily: -because it’s so dumb.
Andrew: They’ll get lost. They’re water birds, but you’ll find them deep in the campus looking around, like “where am I?”
And finally, what are some bands you’ve been listening to lately?
Andrew: Y La Bamba. We love Solange. Tennis.
Emily: Thunder Cat. Billy Joel.
Andrew: Billie Joe Armstrong.