The lights gracefully brighten the stage and the audience finds themselves looking at colorful scarves draped across the microphone. It was only last fall that this Brooklyn based band played a sold-out show here in Syracuse and tonight, the Westcott Theatre is packed with a returning jubilant crowd gathered to see one of their favorite jam bands play. To the right is a middle-aged woman in a wheelchair, circling around in anticipation as singer Kalmia Traver aligns her saxophone carefully next to the mic. To the left are a red plastic cup holding college students chanting, “Rubblebucket” repeatedly. It is evident this band appeals to more than just one social scene. Armed with their wide pallet of instruments, the eight-member band takes on the stage like a stirring of galloping ponies, ready to show the town how to have a good time.
The band opens with “Bikes”, which brings back the tootsie-rolling, toe tinkling feeling of the early Free Design records. Traver showers the crowd with glitter and pulls out crowd pleaser after crowd pleaser from her setlist. In the middle of the band’s performance of “L’homme”, she casually pulls off the bright yellow scarf from around her painted face, to reveal a clean-shaven head, with a heart shaped buzz cut in the center that she dyed red. One can leave it up to Traver to even turn her recovery from ovarian cancer into a fashion statement. Traver, who had to cancel her summer shows because of her sickness, seems to have emerged even better than before. Her humming-to-the-flowers melody in “Silly Fathers” makes that apparent.
By the end of the night, everyone left the show a little worn out from all the “silly” dancing encouraged by the band, but the huge smiles plastered on their faces said that the experience was worthwhile, even if that meant showing up to work a little hung-over the next morning.
November drifts into December as you watch your calendar pages saunter down to the week before Thanksgiving. Now you are left bewildered, scratching your head in search of a good way to kill time before you take the train home for the annual Turkey Day festivities. Look no further—Brooklyn based post-genre Rubblebucket is notorious for pulling out horns, synths, guitars, and smile inducing harmonies out of their red bag.
They put up raucous live shows, along with their handmade giant robot puppets and love-tunnels, to larger and larger crowds across the US, receiving love and affection from Paste, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Wall Street Journal, SPIN and so many more. Stereogum hails the record’s “tricky arrangements, whistle solos, and disco guitar leads” and Paste Magazine calls the album “instrumentally rich but catchy enough to ass-kick Katy Perry off the pop charts (in a just world)—mega-melodic without sacrificing an ounce of atmosphere or creativity.”
Over the past year, Rubblebucket has played several festivals, collaborated with Questlove for a Fela Kuti compilation, and made their late night TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live. All while writing and recording new material that will come in the form of the “Save Charlie” EP that also serves as a teaser to an album to come in 2014. So after you pack your bags, make sure to stop by the Westcott Theater this coming Wednesday to check out the line blurring seven-piece group that holds the reputation of upstaging even the jolly bearded old man when they come to town.
An eager crowd emerges from the Verdi Square station on 72nd & Broadway and makes its way down a couple blocks. Yellow taxicabs line 74th street and a stream of people pour through the entrance doors of the Beacon. Couples walk two by two, men loosening their ties and women touching up their lipsticks as they enter. It is, after all, a Monday night, so what better way to unwind from a hard day than to sip Pinot Noir in the orchestral seats, waiting for Fiona Apple to take you and your date completely by surprise with her antics?
photo via Beacon Theater
People begin to fidget in their seats as Apple is running thirty minutes behind schedule. Soft whispers begin to surface the air: “Do you think she left the venue?” It was only a week ago that Fiona Apple had a fan escorted out for calling her too skinny and unhealthy, so who knows what the singer is capable of doing next? But as the lights dim, so do the complaints and before you know it, a frail figure in a little black dress leans in against what seems like a blackboard. A sharp screech comes screaming in the concert hall, making its way row by row as the singer-songwriter scribbles “Teach me how to be free” in chalk.
California based singer-songwriter and producer, Blake Mills, soon joins Fiona Apple on stage with his guitar, taking a seat right in front of the percussion set, and they start the show with their new song, “Tipple”. Apple amuses the audience as she playfully picks up a selection of handpicked percussive instruments in the chorus. Though the rattle struggles more than it shakes, she stirs a majority of her audience with childlike enthusiasm alone. It soon makes no difference that the rattle is inaudible. Before performing the Tidal track “The First Taste”, she attempts several times in engaging the audience with witty banter but misplaces the punch line each time. The audience laughs forgivingly and she continues to play her first single off of The Idler Wheel, “Every Single Night”. Apple, immersed into the music, strikes herself with the artisan percussion that she has in her hands. In “Regret”, her animal gestures are akin to watching Mowgli hunt with his brother wolves, only instead of removing thorns from the palms of her brothers, Apple is planting them on herself. She proceeds to tread down this intense path performing songs like “Not About Love” and “Dull Tool”, but it is not until the last couple of songs in her set when she truly sucks the air out of the room. Her performance of “Left Alone” is as eerie and angry as it sounds on record, and during her live rendition, it almost makes Apple look and sound frailer than before. It is almost like she appears noticeably smaller on stage. She ends the night with “Waltz (Better than Fine)”, which proves to be the crowd-pleaser of the night. She cheerfully preaches, “If you don’t have a date, celebrate”, winning the heart of those few people who showed up to the stage solo.
Though Apple ends the show in a rather abrupt manner, in a way no one can tell whether it is actually over or if she is in between songs, most people walk out content, holding some form of merchandise or another, with the belief that they can be Anything They Want.
The hustle and bustle of Chinatown subdues itself into the night as Cantonese-speaking shopkeepers wind up their little theaters along the street. If you didn’t notice the group of people flocking onto the corner of Grand and Eldridge, you’d think that this Manhattan borough was done for the day. Outside Fontana’s, people are taking their IDs out, waiting in line to get in. Past the pool people, they follow the shredding and flowing music to its source in the room below and find themselves in the presence of jam band Jahman Brahman.
The place is dark and the only light comes from a bunch of girls’ light-up hula-hoops from across the room. A seemingly lost woman stumbles her way to the dance floor in her salmon colored dress and before you know it, the place is packed. There are couples holding hands, people sporting bizarre animal costumes…the works. And judging by the passionate crowd that has mustered, you would think that the band has played on this stage a hundred times before even though it’s their first time in the city.
The Asheville-based band fuels the crowd with a burst of energy as they open and it isn’t long before guitarist Casey Chanatry shreds his Paul Reed Smith guitar with Santana swag. As Brown sings the words “So much bigger than you”, the whole crowd starts singing along. Between rim shots in the dark scene and the delirious expressions on drummer Keelor’s face, the crowd cheers in excitement. Josh Loffer programs spacey animal sounds into his keystrokes, creating an elusive special atmosphere with his histrionics.
The groovy bass line pumps up the crowd as they close with “Cannonball”. Bearing traits from electronica to classic rock and jazz, the band’s unique style offers something for everyone. Whether it was the man in the suit trying to relax with his beer or the couple on a date, there is no doubt that everyone had a good time and left the venue content with what they heard.
Head For The Hills is not your typical bluegrass band. In their third record, Blue Ruin, the Colorado based quartet squeezes the hillbilly out of country music, infusing their sound with the bitter aftertaste of indie rock and a jazzy sense of restlessness. Granted, the record was a little less Rob Mathes/Abbey Road Studios and a little more Falzarano, and the band was able to weave in elements of baroque pop without scourging for The Beach Boys records.
Songs like “Never Does” sport teasing hooks from the string sections, and witty lyrics that deal with desk jobs and dirty dinner table politics. The cushy bass bottom complements their murder ballad aesthetic with phrases like “(he’s) looking at her, thinking she’s too good to be a bad spouse” and “trying to save her from a hell that only heaven knows”, giving it an almost theatrical aura.
Though “Breakfast Noir” is not as overheated as the title suggests, the plethora of tubby layers do make you wonder if you were better off ordering a sunny side egg. There’s no doubt, however, beneath the unnecessary amount of cackle and spatter, lies undeniably great musicianship.
The jailbird gang vocals serve as an instant pick up in “Dependency Co” and go to show that the band is definitely not trying to shoehorn themselves in a particular direction. The lyrics inject a splash of wit with lines like, “Trying to find the one and only we can fight to the death/ till our skin grows thicker than the ice we tread”.
Head for the Hills brings something new to the table with their comic book inspiration and acerbic tone. With great musicianship, solid lyrics and an inexplicable sexual appeal, their name begins to seem ironic because after listening to Blue Ruin, the last thing you want to do is head for the hills.
Key Tracks: Never Does, Breakfast Noir, Dependency Co
Oh, what’s that sound? That’s right. That’s the sound of my teenage hopes circa One Tree Hill Season 3 coming back knocking on the door. His raspy voice and seamless songwriting makes you wish every song with the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ was written about you. Ring a bell?
Yes, you’ve guessed it. It’s Tyler Hilton. Not only is he currently on tour with Ryan Cabrera and Teddy Geiger, but Syracuse’s Westcott Theater happens to be one of the venues he’s playing. And here’s the best part: the notorious Meg and Laura will be talking to this contemporary Howie Day this coming Monday about his latest record, “Forget the Storm” and will be broadcasting the interview on their SoundCloud at 3 PM EST, Monday May 6th. Details are available on Facebook.com/themegandlaurashow.
A content crowd of harmless hippies from all around the Finger Lakes region gathered at Syracuse’s Westcott Theater on Saturday night to watch Assembly of Dust. From a cloud of fragrant smoke, the band emerged on stage with their opener “Telling Sue”. Barely seconds into the song, the audience begins to mouth the lyrics to the song.
With Reid Genauer’s organic, raspy vocals and Adam Terrell’s Chuck-Ragan-esque raw attitude, the duo share chemistry that injects energy in their set. After the upbeat performance of “Paul Henry”, the band included instrumental interludes to go along with their cosmic lighting backdrop. Between the high strung guitar solos and the shimmering tinkle of the keyboard, it was as if every note had diffused itself like a pleasant haze over the audience. Assembly of Dust then played the synthy title track of their new record, Sun Shot, which was received by the audience with a roar of applause.
For someone who is not the biggest fan of the bluegrass-jam-band genre, this reviewed found it exhilarating to watch such a great band draw such a diverse crowd together.
Setlist:
Set 1: Telling Sue, Man With a Plan, Whistle Creek, Myth of Mine, Paul Henry, Avenue of the Giants, Love Junkie, Arkansas Down, Truck Farm
Set 2: Mama, Weekhawken Ferry, Speculator, Burned Down, Cluttered, Songbeard, Silver And Worn,
Westerly, Sunshot
There is something about SxSW that makes Meg and Laura want to hold hands and skip together and slide down a banister of razor blades into a pool of alcohol at the same time. By day three, the two of them were holding their heads in their hands, running on nothing but caffeine and two hours of sleep. After complaining about the nonexistence of cloning machines that would allow them to attend every amazing showcase at once over one, two, then three pots of coffee, they make peace with the fact that they just would have to prioritize.
That been said, Meg and Laura headed on over to the VH1 Cafe and tried to keep it cool as they weave their way around tables of celebrities to make their way to minimalist rapper, Zebra Katz. Laura suppressed the urge to point out that David Guetta just walked in as they sit down for the interview. The fashion-forward Zebra Katz shared the experiences that got him where he is today. He talked about growing up in New York City and how working as a staff manager at a catering company helped him in his rapping career. The graceful rapper rose out of the stereotype as he talked about the meaning behind the lyrics of “Ima Read” and the importance of education in society.
After the interview, Laura rushed to the Austin Convention Center and charmed her way to the front of the line for the SxSW interactive interview with Clive Davis. Bill Werde opened the interview with the question, “What do you do as the head of Columbia?” to which Clive Davis subtly responds, “You watch and you listen”. Though this industry executive has made enough contributions to the music industry for his work to speak for itself, he graciously tells all the stories behind the music. Werde tucks in controversy in his questions, asking the music mogul about his bisexuality, the on-going conflict with Kelly Clarkson and his reaction to Whitney Houston’s death. In the words of Werde “when you interview Clive Davis, you’re kind of just along for the ride”. This statement really couldn’t hold more true.
After the interview, Laura got her copy of “The Soundtrack to My Life” signed and lined up with Meg for the next panel. The two were ready to check off one major to-do off their bucket lists: seeing Stevie Nicks in person. And as the black dress donned Bella Donna herself took the stage, every empty night the duo spent singing along on the top of their lungs to “Edge of Seventeen” felt suddenly redeemed. Stevie Nicks dished on her experience with Fleetwood Mac and her decision to pursue her solo career along the way. She claimed that she just had so much music inside of her that not expressing it was not an option. “Yeah, Lindsay can go ahead and lock himself in a room, recording songs that no one will ever listen to but I had to put mine out there”. The singer-songwriter certainly doesn’t hold herself back at any point throughout the interview. Just like her music, her voice is raw and uncensored but lovable to say the least. “Some moments in life are sad but they make for a beautiful song”, says Nicks. She injected a sense of humor as she comes clean about the origin of the title “Edge of Seventeen”; she heard her friends say, “age of seventeen” but heard it wrong. “It sounded great so I decided to go with it”, professed the poet. The two left the panel covered in goosebumps, fueled by inspiration.
As the day turns into night, the girls decided to part their ways. Laura headed over to the Warner showcase at The Belmont to watch the incredible lineup of Joy Formidable, alt-J, and The Flaming Lips while Meg decided to head toRepublic Livefor Adrian Lux, Congorock and Benny Bennassi and then back to La Zona Rosa to catch Zedd, Krewella, and Wolfgang Gartner.
As she waited in line outside the red bricked Republic Live, Meg is filled with awe as she’s taken back to the moment in 10th grade when she first fell in love with EDM upon hearing Benny Bennassi’s track “Come Fly Away”. She then realized that she is about to finally see him perform. She could already hear EDM star Congorock’s blasting his track “Ivory” from the street and when she finally got through the usual gang of bouncers, she was handed a pair of raver shades and a giant glow stick. The nightclub is polarized by dueling stages where Congorock and Adrian Lux trade off their DJ sets, making the drunk music industry executives and geeks dance.
As amazing as The Joy Formidable sounded, Laura was willing to bet that it would have been a far better experience from inside the venue, rather than waiting in line outside. However, alt-J and The Flaming Lips make the two-hour-long wait more than worthwhile with their stage presence. It is true, alt-J really makes indie rock feel sexy. Between all the neon balloons, glow sticks and the inexplicable monster mascots, the venue is ablaze with energy. Though the Flaming Lips do not play Laura’s favorite, “Chewin the Apple of My Eye”, the set consisted of all the songs from Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The opener, “Fight Test”, set in itself was a guarantee for the night, nothing bad could possibly happen at this show. Wayne Coyne talked about the story behind “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell”, mentioning how they lost the original demo but decided to write a new song for the title. Their lush performance was enough to get Laura successfully through the night.
At a little past 2 AM, Laura casually witnesses a street fight as she marches past Lavaca and Colorado to catch the bus back to her hotel with Meg. Guess it’s just another night in Austin.
Missed Roger Waters on tour? Well, you’re in luck–The Machine is coming to town! The New York based cover band bring back Barrett’s creativity, Water’s compassionate songwriting, Gilmour’s simplicity, Wright’s compositional talent and Mason’s resourcefulness to stage.
Selling out theaters and large clubs across North and Central America, Europe, and Asia and performing at music festivals such as Bonnaroo, Riverbend, Gathering of the Vibes and Rock of Ages, they have earned worldwide recognition and the original members’ seal of approval. Receiving accolades from the likes of Spin magazine, The Machine are notorious for “sounding exactly like Pink Floyd.”
“The shows are different every night”, drummer and founding member Tahrah Cohen told NYS Music. “It really depends on the age of the crowd and the city. We get a feel for who’s in the audience and tailor a set list for each show.”
Make sure to catch The Machine live on their 2013 Spring Tour in Upstate New York!
It’s a sunny Wednesday afternoon in Austin, TX and Meg and Laura make their way to the Moonshine Grill on Red River Street to sit down for lunch with one of SXSW‘s must-see acts, the Swedish Synth Pop duo Icona Pop.
Mary Morgan Craig: So how has SXSW been treating you so far?
Caroline Hjelt: Great! It couldn’t be better!
Aino Jawo: It’s really been good.
CH: Everyone warned us that it would be crazy and we can totally feel the vibe and the craziness.
MMC: But a good kind of crazy, right?
AJ: Yes, definitely!
CH: It’s all about the positive chaos!
Gauraa Shekhar: Totally! How was your show last night?
AJ: Our show was amazing! Well, at least the first one we did. The second would have been amazing but we blew the sound system out so we couldn’t go through. We just played one song. Our lovely fans that were standing there for hours were so disappointed so we were like, “we’re so going to make it up to you tonight.”
CH: We have four more gigs to go and we’re so excited!
GS: Well I know everyone asks you this question, and there are so many different versions of this story, but how exactly did you guys meet?
AJ: We met in 2009, and I was heartbroken. We have this amazing mutual friend called Emily and she would call me everyday for two weeks and she was like, “you have to get out of bed” and then one day she just came over and forced me out of bed and she took me to an amazing party. This woman here, Caroline, she was the one hosting the party. She used to throw a lot of good parties those days.
CH: My apartment was like the center of the party and everybody was welcome. We were having a lot of fun.
AJ: Basically the hippie collectives, really.
CH: But yeah, I met Aino there and it was love at first sight. We definitely felt like we had this special connection immediately. We went out dancing the whole night. When I woke up the next morning, I was a little bit nervous that it was just the wine talking. I really wanted it to work out because we started talking about how we should do something together but Aino called me the day after and she was like, “Hey, I’m on my way to your place with a computer and a bottle of wine” and we just started over a drum, writing our first song, and since that day we decided that, “Okay, we’re a band”. A lot of our friends were definitely laughing at us but we knew that “Yeah, this is great”.
AJ: When you think about it now, it’s kind of sick how I can kind of just laugh at all of the situations we put ourselves in because both me and Caroline are people who do stuff and then we think and sometimes it’s good but sometimes it’s really bad. But I guess that’s how we kind of put ourselves in chaotic situations and kind of rise out of it. I feel like you two are kind of the same!
GS: Yes, definitely. Story of our lives!
CH: I mean, if we don’t have enough chaos in our lives, we create it. That makes us so creative also!
AJ: Yeah, we’re two girls from Sweden sitting in a sofa riffing this song we wrote four years ago and now we’re just cruising around in America!
GS: And now you’re one of the must-see acts of SXSW. That’s amazing!
CH: Yeah, that’s crazy! It’s a little bit unreal and I have to pitch myself once a day.
MMC: So how’s the transition been from Sweden to the U.S?
CH: It’s been a major difference, of course. Sweden is a very small country, you know. But really, we don’t even have a home anymore. My home is wherever this beautiful lady is (points at Aino). That’s the thing that keeps me going. I feel very home and safe wherever we go because we’re always hanging out and we have each other.
AJ: We’re good at creating homes. We’re like snails, carrying everything within ourselves.
CH: For us to come over here and not just be in New York and L.A., but to actually go to places like Milwaukee and meet people who’ve been listening to our songs on the radio; it’s crazy. It means so much to us to be able to share that connection with our fans. We really do love our fans, they’re the best. They’re such rebels. They stand with their fist in the air and dance their asses off every night too.
MMC: Yeah, I mean, back at Syracuse, “I Love It” is the biggest pre-game song.
GS: Actually, we opened our radio show this semester with your song! It’s actually incredible to be sitting here a couple months down the line and actually be interviewing you. I mean when you talk about crossing boundaries, it’s amazing because Morgan’s from Boston and I’m from Jakarta, Indonesia and we’re in Syracuse listening to a Spanish DJ remix your song and here we are discussing it Austin.
AJ: Wow! I feel so honored! Thank you! That means so much to us. You go, girls. A friend of ours goes to school in Syracuse. We must definitely perform there sometime soon. She’s a fashion design major.
MMC: Speaking of style, who inspires you fashion wise?
CH: I think we’re all about feeling, you know. Especially when it comes to performing on stage. We wanna express how we feel when we sing that song. We want something that extends our movements, you know. Dramatic stuff. But if you’re thinking about icons, we love Prince, David Bowie, Patti Smith…
AJ: …and PJ Harvey, of course. With the leather pants, leather jacket, in white. Ah, she’s so cool. I love it. Not to mention the red lipstick. But we don’t really follow any trends, we’re really bad when it comes to that. In the beginning, we would kind of sewing our own stuff. The first time we were in Paris, Air France lost our luggage and then we ended up cutting and sewing our own stuff after that. We love the side of fashion when it comes from an arty perspective.
CH: When it comes to expressing ourselves, we’ve been to a lot of fashion weeks and we love it. Just the energy and the clothes, you know. Some people spend a whole year working on it and it’s cool because it’s chaos backstage but when they go out there everything is perfect. It’s so beautiful and well put together. We’re actually really bad at following trends though.
GS: It doesn’t even matter because you guys set them, really.
AJ: Aw, thank you!
GS: Well, you guys have an amazing stage presence. Is there any specific routine that you guys follow before you go on stage to pump yourselves up?
AJ: Oh, yeah. We call it the band tattoo. It’s kind of like a horn. We stand in a ring and choose one person that stands in the ring and we stand around the person, doing…well, it’s actually really embarrassing.
CH: Yeah, it’s really embarrassing. We do this rock pose and we scream, “YEAH!”. And you can feel the energy when you’re doing it. It’s really amazing! It’s kind of liberating!
AJ: It’s liberating and yet at the same time you feel like the biggest geek on Earth. But you do it because you can’t be any more geeky anyway. And really, whenever we don’t follow through with this routine, it turns into the worst show ever.
MMC: Yeah, definitely keep doing that! Do you ever get nervous before you take the stage? And if you do, how do you deal with it?
CH: Oh yes. When it comes to lifestyles, we want to keep it interesting for ourselves all the time so we can also keep it interesting for the people in the audience. I mean, I’m always nervous when I go onstage because we always keep on adding stuff so I’m like, “Shit, the synthesizer and the vocals should be different, etc…” I mean it’s a lot of stuff to think about but when you’re out there you don’t end up thinking so much, you just become one with the whole thing.
MMC: Yeah, I bet. So how did you start learning to DJ?
AJ: Well, we just threw ourselves out there and we couldn’t even insert a CD when we started. It started out with the fact that we had a lot of parties. We decided to move in together and we had a lot of parties at our apartment, so much so that the neighbors started to complain so we had to take the party to another place; I mean, we’ve been club kids since we were sixteen years old so we knew everyone and were like, “Please, can we have a club?” and the club owner was like, “Yeah, I know you’re gonna draw a lot of people there” so we started having clubs and we didn’t even know how to DJ so that was a problem. We got so much energy out of it. In the beginning we didn’t see ourselves as DJs, we saw ourselves as just changing songs but then we saw an interest growing out and we started to love it. It was a way of expressing ourselves.
CH: Yeah, I think it’s very important to start somewhere.
AJ: Yes, you have to dare to make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Just learn from them. I mean, no one’s going to judge you for that, it’s very important to start somewhere. Worst comes worst, the crowd will be angry for messing up the song. But that’s the worst scenario. You just have to go to a club and practice. It’s crucial. You just have to do it so if you just play music that you love and have fun, it doesn’t matter if you make a few mistakes.
MMC: That’s great advice! Have you ever had people give you a lot of attitude?
AJ: Most definitely. We’ve been through a lot of shitty situations. Times when we would come into clubs and would try to play music and people would be like, “Who the hell are you”? It’s been terrible sometimes and I think that makes you become a stronger person. I mean, there are so many times when we went to clubs and guys have been DJing. So many guys DJing before us have been like, “So girls, this is the button you push to play a song and this is where you eject a CD”. I don’t think they mean to be condescending but they just don’t know better and I think we’re here to change it.
CH: Yes, and instead of trying to work against each other, girls should realize the power of supporting each other and building each other up. You have a lot to learn from each other and it would be so much better for everyone to understand that. That’s really important to remember. Sometimes you might feel like someone’s trying to pull you down but then you have to remember that that person is probably insecure. You should know better to do it back.
MMC: Solid advice.
GS: Who were your musical heroes growing up and what’s getting most play on your iPods right now?
AJ: Well, we love Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, David Bowie, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Destiny’s Child. Also, the one hit wonders and the boy and girl bands. But I think there’s a lot of women like Tina Turner and Beyoncé that we really love. The most played song on our iPod–that’s tough.
MMC: What about recently added?
CH: We love the producer that we worked from the start, he produced the Rihanna single, “Stay”. We love that one a lot, we’ve been listening a lot to that. The Knife is great, too. A lot of Swedish bands, too, ha.
GS: Do you think it is true that you need music the most when you’re falling in and out of love?
AJ: Yes. It’s a good way to escape. Sometimes when you’re really sad, you just listen to a song and it helps. When you’re talking about love, either you feel more or you feel less. It’s very important to listen to the right kind of music.
CH: If you’re hurt, it’s important to let yourself cry. When you’re sad, you just need to take your time but it’s also important to have those pick-up songs that really make you feel a little bit warmer inside and a little bit stronger.
MMC: We couldn’t agree more.
GS: Yeah, “I Love It” was that pick-up song for us, ha.
AJ: Thank you! It makes us very happy to hear you say that!
MMC: Well, you have already given us some very good advice and our final question for you is if you have something to share with us for aspiring females in the music industry?
AJ: Yeah, most importantly, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. That’s what you learn from. You learn from them so much more than you learn from people telling you what to do.
CH: If you just take a direction and go with it, the worst thing that could happen is you have to change the direction and move another way but if you never dare to do anything, you’ll be walking around in circles wondering what it would be like if you tried it. Just don’t be scared. Surround yourself with people you love and who love you.
Selling out theaters and large clubs across North and Central America, Europe, and Asia and performing at music festivals such as Bonnaroo, Riverbend, Gathering of the Vibes and Rock of Ages, they have earned worldwide recognition and the original members’ seal of approval. Receiving accolades from the likes of Spin magazine, 
Mary Morgan Craig: So how has SXSW been treating you so far?