A to Z With Karen O

It’s been six years since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs exploded onto the New York scene with the heady concoction of guitarist Nick Zinner’s angular riffs, Brian Chase’s pinpoint drumming, and frontwoman Karen O’s barbaric yawps. Since then, the freshly minted thirtysomethings have explored more territory than Magellan (he made maps; they made “Maps”). The trio continues its sonic evolution with third album It’s Blitz!, a sparkling, synth-laced gem. Proper analysis from Karen O requires the entire alphabet.

Apathy “Everyone says that when you turn 30, you don’t really give as much of a shit about things that used to bug you, that you used to be really self-conscious about, which I’m finally looking forward to.”

Beijing, China “Playing in Beijing, beyond the red curtain … and walking along the Great Wall of China with Nick and Brian was like, ‘Wow, it’s pretty amazing how far we’ve come, how many places this band has taken me.’”

Détente/Euphoria “[Recording this album] there was definitely a difference in the pleasure factor vs. the pain factor. Go towards the pleasure is what we’re trying to do.”

Farm Livin' “We wrote It’s Blitz! mostly in a farmhouse studio [in Massachusetts] and a pecan orchard/mansion in Texas. It’s liberating being surrounded by so much space.”

Geronimo, the Texas studio's pet raccoon “He would kinda climb all over you and try to bite your face off. You can’t really domesticate a raccoon like a dog or a cat; they’re still pretty wild.”

Heart-healthy “On the road, every night is like an hour of full-on cardio. The amount of sweat that pours out of me is insane ... instead of hitting the gym, I just hit the stage.”

Improvisation and "Jamming" “When we start a record we go in really having no idea what we want to do and no expectations of what’s gonna happen. We have a bunch of instruments around and we start, I guess, jamming. Even though Nick hates that word.”

Korea “Playing is a big part of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs—who we are and most of our strength is live performance. I’m half Korean and half Polish, and playing in both Poland and Korea last year was really kind of huge to me.”

Ladylike?/Madonna/New Attitude “I’ve been a tomboy most of my life, and I’ll always be fascinated and drawn to being—not necessarily gender-bending, but kind of androgynous. Now that I’m 30, I’m feeling like what happened to Madonna when she made the Sex book—like, overpowering femininity.”

Off the Playlist “There’s a few lost songs that maybe no one will ever hear that were like, this is what would’ve happened if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had tried to make Fever To Tell twice—this is what would’ve happened if we tried to make it three times.”

Quiet Rioter “Even being in a pretty punk-rock-spirited band for most of my 20s, I’m really shy, kind of painfully self-aware, overly polite.”

Dave Sitek (producer) and Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio “Dave has this family of extremely talented musicians and singers … he’d go out for coffee and come back and say, ‘Oh, I just saw Tunde and I’m gonna get him in here and maybe he can do some whistling on this track,’ and Tunde, like an hour or two later, would just stroll in and lay down some tracks!”

Unique Vestments “Clothing’s really important to me and also to my designer Christian, who has helped to make sense of it, helped construct this image to go along with the persona and the voice.”

John Waters “A lot of my favorite directors—Waters, Penelope Spheeris and early Peter Jackson—are really full-on, bold, visceral directors, ’cause that’s always been a part of me: visceral this, visceral that.”

EXciting New York: CraZy “In the very beginning, the thought of playing shows in New York was really kind of soul-crushingly terrifying. Like, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna be playing in clubs in New York City! That’s crazy!’ ... Everything was really shocking in a way, and I never thought we were gonna get out of New York.”