Molly Neuman — The Collapse Board Interview
You’ve said previously that “Spain is my cultural heart centre”.
[Laughs] Yeah it is.
You’ve visited there, what were your first impressions of the place? What do you love so much about it?
I can’t even count how many times I’ve been now. The first time was on tour so it was just fascinating because it was like, whoa! look at all this. It’s such a different world. Over the years I met a group of friends – like you know when you’ve met a group of friends that you feel like you’ve known them for the last 50 years and you just want to be with them and talk to them, they make you laugh – we didn’t really do anything special, we just sat in a bar and laughed and made fun of each other. There’s just something about that dynamic sometimes that really draws you in, so that, and just being in that atmosphere and learning about a lot of the traditions — just finding a connection with the culture was something that I really, really, really enjoyed. It’s almost like there’s five or six different countries within the geographical limits of Spain. There’s so much to learn about and know about within the country, that’s another thing I find fascinating. I could say the same thing about the United States – I’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the United States. I really do love visiting new places and learning about them. I also travel quite a bit to Central America.
Has there been any other place you’ve traveled that has had a big impact on you?
Every one! I haven’t been anywhere where I’m like, oh that place is so boring! [Laughs]. I’m really grateful and feel so lucky that I’ve been able to travel so much in different parts of my life. When we first started our band we were able to travel lots all around the States and started going to England. For my work I’ve been to Europe quite a bit and Japan. Now that I’m at a different stage of life I’m able to go for holidays and that’s been wonderful.
I’ve read in interviews that when you go to places like Central America you always learn more stuff about yourself than planned and one of the things that you realised was that you wanted to have more of a connection to places rather than just be the tourist. Have you found a way to do that yet?
Not really. Actually, that’s a good question. I’m trying. The last few years I’ve been trying to get this business going, the cooking. I just moved house and you know sometimes, you just have to get your own foundation in order before you can spread it out a bit. You know what I mean? That’s what I’ve been working on.
I hear that! The last couple of years I’ve been spending time trying to do the same.
That’s been the priority for me lately. It makes me feel good, feeling that a lot of these cornerstones in my life are in a good place so I can reflect and look at all the different things I would like to do that are more along those lines.
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