On CD, Seattle folkie Jesy Fortino – aka Tiny Vipers – makes entrances with spare, haunting melodies and lyrics that stir up weighty, existential sentiments.
“Nearly every song makes mention of death, interment, or ghosts; summertime easy listening this ain’t,” Matthew Solarski of Pitchfork.com writes in his review of last year’s “Life on Earth,” the second of Fortino’s two critically acclaimed albums for Sub Pop.
Expect an earnest vibe Sunday as the 27-year-old singer-songwriter plays at Squeak and Squawk Festival; her show will be held at 745 St. Helens Ave. in Tacoma.
But solemn sound aside, Fortino came across as lighthearted, with a self-deprecating sense of humor, as she talked about her first public performance in Tacoma.
She even revealed the dweeby origins of her stage name, an inside joke that can be traced back to teenage Dungeons & Dragons sessions.
“I used to play D&D with my friends,” she recalls. “One of my friends, he used to use tiny vipers in the game. They were these little snakes and he’d torture people with them and stuff. He was obsessed with them.”
She laughed. “I just loved the words ‘tiny vipers.’ I just thought they were so funny. I stored it away in my mind to use later. Some day I’m gonna use the words tiny vipers. I don’t know what for.”
She also found bewildered humor in some reactions to the aesthetic she’s channeled over the last six years as Tiny Vipers; for example, an oft-referenced New York Times quote that differentiates her from other folk singers: “She’s not telling stories; she’s after incantation and trance.”
“I’m not really after anything. I just write songs,” she said. “People’s reactions are a total mystery to me.”
Regarding her creative process, she added, “I don’t really think about what I’m doing most of the time. When I write music, I just try to clear my mind and start playing. And then I try to just develop the songs tastefully and do what seems right. It’s a lot of intuition. It’s not really planned out. I don’t really know why it went in the direction it did.”
It’s a process that can stretch over months. The most popular cut from her last album, “Dreamer,” for example, took three years to write. “I don’t force anything. That’s why I’m so slow,” she said, laughing. “If I’m writing and it’s too hard, I put it down.”
Fortunately for Tacoma fans, Fortino has had new material simmering for a while. And she thinks maybe, just maybe, she’ll unveil new songs at Squeak and Squawk.
“I’ve been thinking about trying ’em out (but) I get too nervous,” she confessed.
“But it is a low pressure enough show. I feel like maybe I could do it and get away with trying something new. I don’t know. We’ll see how far I get in the next couple of days.”
In coming months, fans also can look forward to hearing a number of projects she’s been working on with other artists.
She said she has recently collaborated with Portland’s Benoit Poulard and will soon fly to New York to work with bassist Rob Lowe of Lichens and 90 Day Men fame.
Perhaps closer to completion is an as-yet-unnamed side project with Seattle electronic musician Rafael Anton Irisarri.
“It’s kind of dark, ambient – more freeform,” she said. “He definitely does electronic, ambient music, and then I do my music. So it’s a mixture of the two. It’s pretty interesting. I’m really curious how it’s going to sound in the end.”
Ernest Jasmin: 253-274-7389, ernest.jasmin@thenewstribune.com, blog.thenewstribune.com/tacomarockcity
Tiny Vipers
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: “The Squawk Box,” 745 St. Helens Ave., as part of the Squeak and Squawk festival
Admission: $6
Information: www.myspace.com/squeakandsquawkfestival
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