[Editor's note: This video previews UUVVWWZ's all-ages show at Daniel Muller's studio in Benson, Neb., tonight at 8. Mount Eerie will join the Lincoln band at 6066 Maple St., Omaha.]
words by Michael Todd | photo by Andrew Norman
Let's start with something subjective: Teal Gardner gives good hugs.
UUVVWWZ's vocalist, visual centerpoint and source of empowerment for some doesn't wrap her arms around air, as acquaintances are wont to do. No, upon meeting her at Dave Ozinga's apartment in Lincoln's Near South neighborhood on a warm Sunday morning in September, she hugs like family.
That doesn't mean she's all smiles, though. When we sit down to discuss the band's second album, hoped for an early 2013 release on Saddle Creek Records, Gardner gets serious about the purpose of Trusted Language. It's fitting that she says she'd like the record to function as a "question mark and an embrace."
"If we can ask the right questions but still support each other, then I think our relationships and communities can be strengthened," she says. "I think that's a role that I feel is important to me as a public artist, as a musician or whatever else I'll do."
Listen as Ozinga reveals details about the album, Gardner talks about Ozinga's role as the band's new drummer in the wake of Tom Ambroz's move to Australia and watch as the camera follows the cat, not one to allow these two-fifths of UUVVWWZ to take all the attention:
Video features "Castle" from UUVVWWZ's debut album
Interview conducted and video edited by Bridget McQuillan
Cameras:
Angie Norman
Andrew Norman
Michael Todd
Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. He doesn't mind being subjective if it means he gets to talk about a good hug. Reach him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.