Over the past few years, Carol Bui has been working hard building a following for her inventive and emotive post-punk. After a summer spent in the studio recording the follow-up to her highly praised debut, This is How I Recover, Bui's show at next week's DAM!Fest kicks off three weeks of touring that will take her as far west as Madison, Wisconsin. Bui's reputation for excellent live shows precedes her, and material from the new album promises to be an eclectic offering. Her band, including Len Bias drummer Mark Raymond, bassist Ian Wright (who will be replaced on tour by Bui's former bandmate in punk outfit Princessed, Meagan Perkins) and cellist Jenny Petrow, will join her at The Red and The Black on Friday, October 28, along with Decibully and Laura Burhenn.

How did you get involved in DAM!Fest?

I was invited to play DC with Decibully. They're on tour and the DC date coincides with the festival. That's how we both got involved!

Some aspects of DAM!Fest remind me a little of the International Pop Underground Festival…that festival was obviously a watermark for a particular community, is there a feeling that this event might help to galvanize and bring together D.C.'s musicians in a similar way?

I think the creators of The International Pop Underground Festival had a more targeted mission in that they were specifically promoting DIY ethics/punk rock spirit and aligning like-minded music lovers against corporate music. From what I understand, the DAM!Fest serves a different purpose, but one just as valuable; to simply promote and bring in great music to our home town. I do think it will bring the D.C. music community a little closer, and that this community will include a wider range of fans and musicians. You don't have to be anti-corporate or religious about DIY practices (not that there's anything wrong with that) to feel comfortable in taking part.

Photo by Shervin Lainez.

What does it mean to you personally to be a D.C. musician?

To be a D.C. musician is to be constantly inspired and motivated by surrounding local bands, fans, labels and other creative types. The many D.C. music peeps I know and respect are all talented, hardworking, and incredibly driven - many of them are self-booked, self-promoted with records self-released, and so on...they don't wait to be 'discovered' or whine about not being famous yet...they work for their art because they sincerely love it. I'm proud to say that I've done quite a bit of it myself (only because no one else can do it for me!!) and have looked up to many of these folks as examples to follow. People like Gist/Red Stapler Records, Katy Otto/Exotic Fever, Laura Burhenn/Laboratory Records, Miguel and Raul/Echelon Productions, Dischord and tons of others have been a total inspiration.

Tell me about your favorite D.C. show memory; either as a performer or an audience member.

I saw Sleater Kinney last year at the 9:30 club and was completely blown away. Carrie Brownstein is a fucking fireball. I'd kill to have the same kind of energy on stage as she did. Another one was when I teared up at an Aloha show while they played "Boys in the Bathtub". That line "and the sun turns your pillow to a rock/If I had my way, I'd just turn back the clock..." gets me every time.

How is work on your new record coming?

The record is coming along wonderfully. We hit kind of a roadblock in the schedule and are taking a lot longer than anticipated, but I'm confident that something really, really great will come out of it all. Chad and TJ (Silver Sonya) are fucking brilliant. I've been a ridiculous fan of both guys and their respective bands (Beauty Pill and Aloha) for awhile now and am still amazed that I get to collaborate with them. Not only are they producing and engineering, but TJ is also playing drums...and some fucking awesome beats, mind you. My sound has definitely been augmented by these guys.

We're covering a lot of musical ground. Sometimes I listen to the stuff we've done so far and think, OK, this is going to be a gothic, art-pop record; oh, wait, it's more of a classic blues-based rock record; no, it's a little on the weird, mathy side with epic, prog-ish numbers. I'm even doing my own rendition of an old Vietnamese folk song. I guess it's good that I can't easily explain it. I'm covering some scary territory as far as subject matter goes; the songs are mostly about the spiritual/cultural/general craziness that goes on in my family (and in my head).

How do you think you arrived at that diversity? What is your writing process like?

I just mess around on my guitar and piece stuff together until it feels right. A lot of it is trial and error and experimentation with rhythm and melody. Usually, I come up with base chord progressions, and then change the phrasing around by dropping or adding a beat where it feels right to. How it feels to perform a song is the most important thing to me...and at the risk of coming across as a total drama queen, the performance of each song has to be a somewhat cathartic experience for me. So if I don't feel like a song can exorcise demons, then I know it needs more work.