This series of blogs is called IN PASSING, and in it I'll be interviewing bands/artists I love and trying to shed further light (in the small ways I can) on their music and give anyone who may come across this a reason to listen to them. I want to focus on smaller music that deserves more attention than it gets. All blogs in this series will include an unabridged (yet slightly edited) interview with the artists and a small write-up from me. As always, send music, shows, suggestions for artist interviews, and anything ever that you want to talk about or see covered to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
In February of 2024, Cheyenne and I got to interview Flagstaff's indie/post-punk rising stars, German Import for our radio show, The Local Shampoo. If you'd like to listen to our next interview, tune in to 107.1FM or here at 3PM every Friday. I'm so glad we got the opportunity to talk with these awesome ladies. This one's going to be quite long and edited a little more intensely than previous ones.
We've made a playlist of the songs we played for this show. If you'd like to listen to it as you read you can do so here.
Sydney (Vocals) = S. Annika (Drums) = A. Madalyn (Bass) = M. Ellie (Guitar) = E.
Since Cheyenne and I both asked questions and made a few comments here and there--my lines will be left-justified and hers will be right-justified.
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| photos courtesy of the band. |
When did German Import start?
S: Annika had a little potluck party and I was like, "yeah, my friend Kim and I are going to get in a band. We want a drummer." And she was like, "oh, I play drums." And then Madalyn was like, "I play bass." And we were like, "okay, I guess we'll have two bassists." And then Kim didn't do it. So it's just us.
A: And then we met Ellie, our angel.
E: Yeah, one of my roommates' boyfriends is friends with Annika's boyfriend and word got around.
M: It just kind of happened.
A: I met Ellie and I was like, "oh my god, we need you," and I got so excited. But yeah, that was probably when?
S: I was just gonna say April or March?
E: I came into the picture in like September.
S: Right. We went all of summer with no guitarist.
A: Yeah. It started to get real when we introduced Ellie in September and then we played our first show in like October.
Were you guys doing any keyboard stuff or anything like that before then?
S: No. We will be.
M: We will be. I did just get a keyboard in Phoenix, so it's in the works.
A: Sydney has Ableton that she splurged on.
S: I have a MIDI and Ableton as well.
Where did the name, German Import, come from?
S: It's an LCD Soundsystem lyric. In the song, Losing My Edge, which is essentially about vinyl hipsters, there's a lyric that says, "I heard you have every Seminole Detroit record on German import," and I thought that was punk.
So punk.
S: And they liked it. I didn't make it. They liked it.
A: We kind of just went along with it.
M: We're all a little German, too, so it's kinda funny.
What is an artist or artists that you guys listen to or look at and want to replicate in German Import?
A: For me, I would definitely say Pixies, Joy Division, and New Order--sort of the new wave genre. It's definitely where I pull inspiration from and I think it aligns with all of our music tastes. We all have unique, different tastes, but there's a little bit of crossover, so we try and hone in on the crossover we have as our musical influence.
M: Yeah. I don't know, anything that's really funky. I've been listening to a lot of Blue Cheer and ESG for bass, but anything that has a little three step or funk in it.
S: I'll always advocate for new wave or post-punk but that's that's a whole different beast. So, I guess mainly Fugazi with Germport. I really wanted to cover an Alien Sex Fiend song.
E: I think Annika kind of nailed it with Pixies. They've been a good common ground for us.
S: And Sonic Youth, too.
E: Sonic Youth too, yeah. I've been really liking Pavement. They've been good inspiration lately. I really like them.
Are there any influences outside of music that you want to put into your music?
S: Trent Reznor.
A: That's a good question, though. I never had really thought about influences outside of music. Maybe that's something that we can sit down and kind of like...
M: I would say, art-wise maybe even surrealist in a way--something that's not really even defined but something that can spin into something else. That's like a solid goal for us.
What about some favorite artists that may not necessarily align with Germport's vision?
A: I'll take this away. I feel like my music taste might be a little more on the basic side, but I love Alex G. If it's me and Kendall playing together, we play more of that indie genre. I know it's not German Import's vibe, but it's something I really enjoy. I love listening to Tame Impala's drums specifically because I just think some of the drum beats that Tame Impala makes are so sick.
M: Lately, I've been listening to a lot of rock in different genres. One band that I've been really liking is Vanilla Fudge and just a lot of experimentalism and trying out new things, too has been really fun--especially playing with other people. That's been pretty awesome.
S: I like a lot of pedal work. We have two... But a lot of the music I listen to does have a lot of pedals going on. So, I guess that because we're not quite there yet but hopefully will be. I know we've all talked about liking Hum and The Smashing Pumpkins, as well. I've been listening to a lot of Title Fight--for better or for worse. That's mainly where I'm at right now.
E: I am a total sucker for Lana Del Rey. I got to give her a shout out. She's been a huge musical influence for me. I also really like Fiona Apple. I like how she does her music and just channels a lot of emotions that you can really fee. I love her. I think she's been a big one for me, especially getting into guitar. Yeah, lots of fun riffs to learn there.
What are your guys' favorite movies?
S: Like our Letterboxd top four? Inglourious Basterds. The Shining. Seven. And another one...
M: What's in the box?
Not to be confused with Zodiac. It can be confused with that very easily.
S: Fight Club.
Two out of four for David Fincher.
A: Alright. We get it. You like Pixies.
E: I watch a lot of movies. I don't know if I can pick one favorite.
What's your favorite lately?
E: Gosh. I don't know. I do love the Harry Potter movies. I feel like those have just been an all-time favorite. I would watch them with my dad and sister every holidays. Those have been a big influence on my life. Lately I've really liked Kill Bill.
M: I was about to say that. I'm obsessed with it.
E: Yeah, Madalyn brought up the song from the opening credits. It's so good. It's a shitty, awesome movie.
A: Well, I don't really watch a lot of movies because I have no attention span to sit and watch, but this might come across as kind of corny. I don't really care. My favorite is the Disney movie, Cruella. It's not really there's music in it, but why I really like it is the fashion in it and just like the whole story. I just love it so much, and it honestly influences a lot of the things I do for fashion club. The runway shows we do, we have local bands provide the music and then kind of do a show. We have the models walk to the bands--in Cruella there's this scene where there's a punk band on a fountain and then she has this flash mob fashion show. I just remember seeing that and being like, "oh my god, that's so cool. I want to do that so bad." I've definitely pulled inspiration from that movie for my own club.
M: I'm just a sucker for Alice in Wonderland. I just love that storyline and it goes pretty far back in history especially with mushrooms. I think that's pretty interesting, the whole background behind it. Really cool. Any documentary-style movies, docu-series, murder mystery. I love sound effects in thrillers or anything horror. I love sound effects. I think it's really interesting how sound effects are made, too. Seeing the behind the scenes with that is really cool. Music docu-series. I pull a lot of inspiration from the Bob Dylan one. In our Halloween show I actually based my hat off of him.
No Direction Home?
M: Yeah, it's so good.
If German Import could be the soundtrack for any movie or for any director, what would you choose?
M: A crazy, animated, tripped-out...
A: Like an anime?
M: No, no, like a trippy animation that just falls into itself and you wake up and it was all just a dream.
E: I feel like it'd be fun to have our music be the soundtrack to something like Pineapple Express, something that's just kind of funny and stupid, but also just awesome. Something kind of goofy.
S: Let's do Pineapple Express trippy cartoon...
It's Rick and Morty.
German Import on Rick and Morty next season.
S: I don't think our music is anything like any of them.
A: We have one song brother... Freaky Friday.
M: If you ask me anything, it's gonna be a tripped-out, man.
Freaky Friday but make it trippy.
Trippy Friday.
A: But the Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis--that version.
That's the best one, and the music in it is great.
A: Yeah. We want to cover Take Me Away.
How has the live show experience been for you guys so far?
A: Do you want us to be honest?
Yes, 100%.
S: We get really, really, really, nervous--or, I do at the very least, and that leads to mistakes that we otherwise would not make when we are practicing in Annika's bedroom. It's a little bit discouraging to do so well in practice and then in the "showcase" just fall flat. The fact that we played last weekend and are now playing this weekend, like I'm not nervous really for this show because I'm just kind of like, "whatever." We messed up so bad last time, we can only go up.
A: To elaborate on that, obviously when we mess up we can pretend that people aren't going to say anything, but there are going to be people out there who are like, "oh my god..." and I just kind of came to the realization as a musician, there are so many people who want to do what we're doing right now and play a show and be up there, but they just haven't been able to bring themselves to do it. We should give ourselves a pat on the back for even being able to go up there and do it and Sydney to sing. That's so incredibly scary. I'm sure you guys know, too, as musicians in your own bands. I'm just at the mindset of, "hey, we're doing it and we're going out there and we're putting ourselves out there. Yeah, we're just playing covers, but we're just doing something we like as friends and it's all just fun." We're kind of just doing what we're doing. I feel like a lot of the people come because they love us and they are our friends and, you know, they're like, "music is good, too," but they support because it's us as individuals and as a band together. I was upset because I dropped a drumstick and it messed me up and I did this big build up and then missed the crash. It just completely threw off the thing, but at the end of the day I'm out here just doing it.
M: I think that's another thing for us as well. We kind of mess up sometimes, but every time we get back to that point which honestly awesome to see and hear from everyone, because nothing's ever going to be perfect, especially when we're still starting out. That's why I think things can be very loose when we are playing and that's why it is kind of hard when nerves overtake that, but at the same time, I don't really care because I don't think it really matters.
A: Plus, we're all brand new to our instruments. I started playing drums a year ago, Madalyn started playing bass in May. Ellie said she's been playing guitar for a while, but surface-level, right?
E: I've always played more indie/folk kind of guitar, so this style of guitar is way different for me and it's fun to perform and bring people together that share the same interest in music or just want to be there. It's just so fun and I love it. I love playing for people and watching other people play. I think live music is a great thing and I'm so happy that we're doing it.
M: It's definitely exciting to see people moving and not just standing there.
A: When we used to practice and mess up, we used to just stop and be like, "oh crap, let's start it again," but now I feel like we're transitioning into this thing that's obviously, just keep playing. You mess up, but at a show you're not just going to completely stop and start over, stop and start over. I dropped my drumstick but we picked right back up where we should have and it just kind of shows that we were growing and getting better as musicians.
S: We actually are, though, that's the thing. In practice the other day I was like, "guys, we like actually sound significantly better than when we used to." Significantly better than zero is which could mean anything but we are actually getting better--not even just in how we sound but the mindset behind it as well.
A: And comfortable with our instruments, I would say--getting comfortable actually writing my own drums. Just playing covers I'm not actually creating anything original, and when we wrote our original it was the first time I've actually had to sit down and write a drum part. It's so exciting and fun because it's I can play it different every time and no one would ever know.
E: It's definitely been a learning curve, but we're getting there.
A: Yeah, and we have a second one in the works.
What are some bands, collectively and individually, that you would just give anything for Germport to play with?
S: I told you, Slint. But that's not even possible at all. For multiple reasons.
A: Blur. Pixies.
E: Beastie Boys would be awesome.
S: Um, Adam Yauch is dead so we can't...
A: Coachella's like crazy thinking about it. Imagine waiting eight hours for Frank Ocean and then getting blink-182.
Or getting every Frank Ocean song acoustic and absolutely nothing like the studio version.
A: You're wearing your adult diaper in the front row...
E: Oh, I feel like Garbage would be so fun.
A: Yeah, I love Cowgirl Clue, Enjoy, and Puzzle. The Garden. Any of those would be so sick to open for. I just think they're so awesome. They usually do get local or smaller artists open for them. I think Glixen open for cowgirl clue, which was cool.
What are some of your favorite local bands?
A: I love Freud. They actually announced today that they're done. They're donezo. It's heartbreaking because they're such cool guys and so easy to work with. They were one of the bands that I had for the fashion show. They're just so cool. Also, Dreamboat. I love Logan and Dreamboat. I love all the people in Dreamboat. Their music is so cool. I love their genre, I don't even know what it is, but I just think it's so cool.
M: I also really love Bethany Home.
A: Oh my gosh. They are so good, too. Being nice just elevates a band so much. If they're cool guys and they're nice and they make crazy good music, you're just like, "aww."
That makes all the difference. I've covered with the blog some really cool gigs with some awesome sounding bands and they're just jerks.
They're coming to the show and they're just like, "yeah, we've done this and we've done that and we have really big cabinets, so obviously we're way cooler than you guys." Too cool to be here. We're going to disappear during soundcheck and then not come back until our set.
A: Don't even watch the other band set. That's something that irks me. How are you going to play a show with bands and not just disappear?
It's understandable when you have to do something else or work early in the morning, but there are some bands that are just known for the fact that they don't stick around.
A: They just play their set and leave. I feel like building relationships in the scene is so important and building connections and making friends just gives you so many opportunities.
Just being a genuine person and showing that you're passionate is really important. People see that and they're like, "okay, this guy's cool. This guy wants to actually be a part of it." It's not just that they're coming here to play and expecting everyone to appease that.
If you're a really experienced dude--it's usually a dude, I'm just going to say dude--if you're a really experienced dude and you play really technically well and a lot of crazy music but then you just don't even give two thoughts to anybody else... it's so much more important to be a part of the scene and be friends with people.
A: How can you call yourself like a part of the scene if you're not even interacting with other people in it?
E: It's just fun to make friends with it, too. To see your friends play is so much fun. Love it.
S: I really like Feed and Keegan Halvorsen and the Woke Mob. Unironically, Washed and Toothache--beyond the friend thing, are actually good.
A: I love Toothache, I listen to the Toothache EP like 24/7. And Washed, too, I guess... Just kidding.
Are there any smaller artists that inspire you guys?
E: I don't know if anyone's heard of her, but her name is Zella Day. Kind of an indie artist. I think she's insanely talented. She is also an Arizona native which is kind of fun. I saw her in concert over the summer and oh my gosh., one of the most talented people I've seen live. It was a small venue and I was up close. That was super fun, too. I love shows like that--where it's one of my favorite artists and I'm up front.
S: I'm inspired by actually local--No. I mean like friend artists. Kyler and Happy Medium had an awesome stage presence. That is something that I struggle with--like actually having a personality on stage. The fact that Kyler was able to dance and get in the crowd or whatever inspired me. Also Keegan Halvorsen's music style and the fact that they also do covers, which I think is really cool. They have their evil jam which is like six minutes long and crazy and awesome. I love their vocals. I love their instrumentation. I just love Keegan Halvorsen in the Woke Mob.
A: Well if we're going on people, I know it's corny, but my boyfriend Kendall. Oh my gosh. He's literally taught me everything I know about drums and it's just so cool having someone who's so passionate about music--just being so close to someone who's like that. And it's just something that we can share together.
E: I feel like sharing music with people in my life just helps my connections with them a lot. I know my sister and I growing up would always sing songs together and I'd play guitar and she would play piano. It's just so much fun. I think it helps our relationship a lot. It's a big part of it. It's a cool connection.
M: Off of that note, I would also say my brother. He's one of the people that got me into music, just hearing drums at every moment, especially when someone is learning drums. It's awesome to hear progress from that. Now he's so awesome and literally killing it. I keep trying to push him to join something soon. I would say locally, though, I've just been jamming with some guys and my boyfriend, Joe and his friend, John from Scrunge, which is pretty funny but it was really fun so it was pretty inspiring to play in that different kind of way.
Wait, I haven't heard of Scrunge yet.
A: They play like Mountain Top and I feel like they're in that scene--I would say different than like The Hive crowd. I've only seen them once. I'm friends with Kaden--he's the guitarist--'s girlfriend, Mia, and she was saying Nirvana is kind of a big influence. Alice and Chains.
M: That's for Scrunge, but we're starting a jam kind of band thing. I'm just kind of hopping in and I wanna hop in on keyboard and bass. That's kind of a totally different route from what they're playing because...
A: Similar guys, though. There's overlap of Scrunge and the jam.
M: It's pretty cool because it's just kind of like whoever can hop on will hop on kind of thing.
A: I feel like jamming with people like has taught me so much about playing drums. You just can play in your room by yourself, but then actually getting the opportunity to play with Ellie and Sydney and Madalyn has just improved all of our skills, honestly--just being able to bounce off each other and make new things up. It's just been really influential for German Import and our progress which is really cool to see.
E: It's just so hard to write music and come up with something new on your own. Every time I've tried to do it on my own it's just not good. But then when it's all together, we can actually come up with something that sounds cohesive and works together. That's pretty fun.
A: I honestly don't know a lot about guitar, I don't know a lot about bass, and I feel like it's kind of vice versa. You might know about drums, but I feel like we all have our instrument that we know really well, so we trust each other to write parts, and we kind of mesh it all together. Madalyn and Ellie will make something with bass and guitar and then I'll just hop in on my own thing. We all can trust each others' judgment, knowing our instruments to piece together something, you know? Which is kind of unique.
E: It's fun when it we're actually playing it and it comes together, and we're like, "wait, this actually sounds good, this is fun."
M: When we all do come together, it's so fun when we get on a similar page and it just goes into breakdowns and we can just read each other.
A: I can just decide to end the song and they'll just know. Every time we play a song, I swear it never ends at the same time, which is real. I can kind of just do a "donk, donk, shh." We look at each other and give each other the eyes of like, "okay, I'm going to end it right now," and we can just sense it from each other. I feel like that's just playing as a band--You are able to read each other and get the feel for playing.
S: Part of our improvement as a band has been developing a sense of knowing how a song should actually sound.
Being able to get to that point where you're tight with the music you're playing but can also feel out what everyone's doing and what's going on in your fellow musicians is incredibly, incredibly important. That's something that a lot of musicians don't find until later on or ever. There are a lot of musicians who are in their own world and don't really communicate with their band members in that way, musically, which is the most vital part of it. The bands that do, I mean, that's what sets them apart from so many others.
A: I just trust Ellie and Madalyn and Syd so much. If they write something, I just trust it. I think it's so cool. Having the ability to just bring it all together--it's something I've never really experienced before, this being my first band and just starting to play an instrument a year and a half ago. It's just really cool that I get to do it with these guys.
Music is such a beautiful experience when it's with people that you trust. Everyone has their own emotional connection to music and everyone has a personal stake and whatever you make and the songs you write together. It's just like so awesome, in the past few months seeing bands sprout up like you guys and Happy Medium who are just all such good friends. You can feel that the love of music and the love of just being with each other and making music pushes forward the whole vibe of the band in general.
A: I feel like Happy Medium is so good at that. Just from what I've heard, they all really can appreciate each other's original music. Kendall was telling me that Kyler wrote a song and then Noah wrote this really cool bass part and then Kendall made the song on his own and they all can appreciate that like, "holy crap, Kendall wrote this song. That's actually so cool we have to do it. Think about how much effort and time went into that," instead of just shooting it down. You can always be like "oh, I don't like this part, I don't like that part," but just appreciating that someone spent the time to create this for our band, I feel like they're so good at that. They're so accepting and it's just really cool to see.
It's awesome, the scene is really growing in a super positive way and I know I'm excited to talk with all the newer bands.
How long has Keegan been around?
A: Since like April? They played that open mic and that was their big debut.They played that Ice Spice song (Boy's a liar Pt. 2) and everyone was like, "oh my god." I love it. What band would cover that? It's so awesome that they decided to cover that because it's just unexpected and silly and funny.
S: Everything they do is because it's funny. But, they're actually good at it, too.
A: They added their own style on that song. If you can take the song and make it your own, that's really cool.
That song is always a highlight for me whenever I see them. I's so easy to play like a song that's in the same genre as what you want to play. I think it's so cool when you take a song that's completely outside of whatever genre you're playing and turn it into that genre or just to find a happy medium... But, I love the art of being playful. I think it's such an important part of art in general, too.
If you're not going to have fun, there's no point.
A: People get so hyped for that, too. Any time I mention Keegan Halvorsen and the Woke Mob they're like, "oh my god, Ice Spice."
I can't believe she's 23. That seems like such a normal age for a young pop star, but now being in my early 20s...
A: Wait, Ice Spice is?
Yeah, she's 23.
It is insane to find out how young some musicians are or like how young Slint was when they made their record. They were like 19 or something... like the Slint documentary, have you seen that?
S: No, but I was talking to my dad about Slint and he was like, "you can tell that they were really good at their instruments and then just played poorly because they could," and I said they, "were actually 19 when they were playing so maybe they weren't that good."
A: That's a funny thing to say.
Play poorly?
A: Like they just chose to.
Insane take, by the way...
S: Yeah his take on post-hardcore is that it's just played poorly on purpose but he's chill about it. He's chill about it.
I don't know if that's very chill at all.
In the future, how do you see your music being a part of your life?
A: Being a part of German Import is something that will never go away--just thinking back to college memories and being in a band is just so awesome. It's definitely a part of who I am, especially doing it with my friends. I know I keep saying that, but it just makes it so much more special and such a good memory.
S: I think creating and performing music will probably be something for me for a really long time. German Import for one genre, Bushmill for another, that thing with Kiva for another, and then my solo dance project that I'm making... It's all happening and I think that having gotten started actually making it, I don't think I could stop now that I know how to do it.
M: I think music is an art form and I just see myself as a creative. I feel like I'll always be creating something, which I want to expand from just this band in genre areas. I definitely want to go down more of an experimental tunnel, if you will. Maybe even a rabbit hole, you know... You never know how the story will unfold.
E: I feel like music has always been a huge part of my life, whether it's performing or just doing it alone in my room or listening to it. I'm kind of different from Madalyn in the sense that I'm taking more of a science route for my future. I know that I always want to have music in my life in some way, shape, or form, whether that be performing--ideally that'd be so fun to just keep going--or just having it somewhere close to me. It's just something that I need. I feel like even when I'm alone in my room I can't not have music playing. It's got to fill the empty space.
M: I feel like now that I've started, I just I can't stop.
A: This is kind of an elaboration on the question but, for me, even just my view on music after being in a band--I wouldn't really listen to music but when you actually start playing an instrument you start to really tune in on the instrument in the songs. Now when I'm listening to songs I've loved my whole life, I'll focus on the drums and it's a whole new listening experience. I can kind of just sit and listen to the drums and hear the kick and snare patterns. That's something that Kendall would quiz me on, and it's just kind of changed the way I listen to music. I think that will be something that carries on, even if I'm not in a band for the rest of my life.--just the way I can appreciate each individual instrument in a song and dissect a song in general is a really good skill that I think I've learned being in a band.
E: Being a band, too, is just something that I've always wanted to check off my bucket list.
The more you learn about music, the more you play music, the more you notice. I just helped tokillafly produce their single and I learned so much just by doing that, that I listen to music completely differently now. Every little thing you learn, it changes your viewpoint completely which is why it's this endless treasure trove of so much to understand.
That's the best part of playing with other people, too, is that everyone's musical journey is so different when everyone picks up an instrument for the first time or when they listen to music that really speaks to them on whatever level it speaks to them. I think it's really cool. For everyone I've met in the scene so far, I just feel like everyone has super promising futures with music or relationships with music.
It's really cultivating such an awesome culture
A: There's always something to unlock. There's so much music out there, the deeper you dive into it the more you're able to find and resonate with.
M: And the more tunnels there are.
A: Rabbit holes.
What are your plans for German import in the future?
A: Kendall is recording Happy Medium, a couple of their songs. I think they have like three or four. They're going to have a little recording set up at Kyler's house and are just going to record their music and they extended the invitation to German Import to record our song. We'll probably get that recorded, even if it's just a demo for now or something to have in our toolbox, I guess. So, that's in the future hopefully, when we start to create and write more music, an EP or something will be in the future. I'm pretty sure all of us want to get on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music and Bandcamp, so having the connection of Kendall and his skill of recording--he's just generous for offering that service to us. We're definitely going to take the opportunity to do it and see where it goes.
S: We kind of talked about, because we already have half of another original done--we talked about finishing that up before recording with Kendall just so we have more than one song being recorded. But, yeah I have a lot of people ask from Phoenix, who can't come up to see us whenever we play, if we have anything out and I say no. That is definitely a goal soon, and watching you do an independent release or with Dead Mothers. It's not like unachievable to actually put something out on streaming.
It's very available to everyone.
A: And I feel like there's this pressure that it has to be perfect or it has to sound like it's produced in an actual recording studio. People have high expectations but having someone local record it, it's just so cool. It's kind of cool to be like "yeah, Kendall recorded this. We didn't pay for studio time."
M: And that also keeps some creative freedom with it.
A: He'll definitely take our ideas and our sound into account when mixing it and I'm sure he cares about what we feel about how it sounds.
S: Well, yeah. He's our friend.
A: Well, duh, but people don't know that.
S: I don't know if you guys said touring or anything, but it was brought up that we would have two dates over spring break. Those are not happening for reason A and reason B being: I won't be here. But, I've got a friend who's extended their backyard--it's a pretty legit space in Central Phoenix. They said that I could always play there whenever we wanted, and we've got friends in Tucson as well who would extend their house as long as we were to play with Happy Medium.
A: Happy Medium is like the topic of the day. But yeah, Carter, Happy Medium's friend, he's a really cool drummer and he lived in Flagstaff for like a year or two and recently moved back to Tucson, but he extended his house as a gig we could play and I think it'd be really fun to just do a mini sort tour like Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson.
S: Yeah, that's something we're looking into over a holiday weekend or break or something is just doing like a three or four night run up and down the state, which would be easy in the three cities that Arizona has to offer.
I think that's a really important mental barrier to break through is, you can just put this stuff together. It feels like the idea of going on tour or even going out of state or something that's reserved for big bands for labeled bands or whatever, but it's not. You can just set it up. You have the ability in your hands and it's really awesome. That's what the DIY scene is about.
In the past year with my own band and Foster's band, Washed and meeting so many cool bands and watching them grow--once you start leaving your hometown the opportunities can just find you really fast, especially if you're just good people playing music. I love all the bands that I've played with and that I love listening to and stuff, but like Annika said with Bethany Home, if a band is nice, it just makes it so much better. I love you as musicians, sure, but as people I want to see you grow, I want to invite you to every show, and I want you to live in my pocket. I would be super excited to see you guys take that route.
The trials and tribulations of being in an all-female band and how it makes people perceive you as a girl band--we're in some kind of feminine cage that we can't get out of ever, feeling like we do make good music, but we're also the only female fronted or femme-led bands in town, so it's kind of like, "okay, do we really like deserve this hype and attention and love, or is it just because we're representing such an underrepresented community in Flagstaff?"
E: I kind of think it's cool to be in an all-girl band. I think it's fun to like channel that feminine energy when we're all playing. Even though we don't even always play female-dominated songs, we still put our own twist on it. It's my girls.
A: I feel like we would be more open to playing female-dominated songs if there wasn't this stigma of, if we did play a female-dominated song, we're girl punk. We have to push ourselves out of there, which kind of sucks because there's a lot of good girl punk bands and covering that as women would be really awesome, but also I feel like there's that negative stigma of, if we cover Hole or Veruca Salt or something in that genre... we wouldn't consider ourselves girl punk, so even if we wanted to cover that, people would automatically push us into that box of girl punk. We intentionally have to step as far away from girl punk as we possibly can to differentiate that. No, we're actually wanting to do this, not girl punk.
S: I am such a major downer, but every time they're like, "but Hole sounds really cool," I'm like, "guys, we cannot do Hole because of that," because whenever we're complimented by a man it's like, "it's cool you're doing the girl band thing," it's not just, "it's cool that you are in a band." Any compliment is always tainted by the fact that it's a girl band. We can't just be cool.
A: Like, "you're really good for a girl band, I guess." But, it does suck because, like Sydney was saying, I honestly love girl punk, that's something that I listen to I like and it just sucks that we have to stray ourselves away from it just so we aren't labeled. Me and Ellie are always like, "oh my god, let's play a Fiona Apple song or a Hole song," but there's always that argument of, if we play this are people gonna...
S: I would love to play a Fiona Apple song. We all would, some of the people that know us would be like, "oh, of course they're playing a Fiona Apple song, They're girls." I don't know, we're just scared to be put into a box like that, even though we love Fiona Apple, we love girls. We're just scared to only be known for that.
A: We are a girl band. If we're like breaking it down, we are all girls in a band and I just hate that there's this this negative thing because female bands are under-represented, and it is cool that Toothache, as one of the first female bands in Flagstaff probably in a long time, it's so awesome and I feel like it needs to be appreciated. But, pretentious musicians in the scene will kind of take that and put you down or put themselves on a pedestal because we're female.
E: It does make a difference. It definitely does, and like Sydney was saying, people will compliment us but be like, "oh, that's great you're doing the girl band thing."
M: It's always kind of backhanded.
E: It does seem backhanded.
A: I don't think people mean it that way, because people are trying to be like, "oh my god, that's so cool," but the way it comes across to us... it's just something that hits a nerve because that's something that we've been trying to stray away from and we're more than that. When people say that as a compliment, I don't think they're meaning it and, but it just sucks that they don't understand. I don't think people are meaning any like harm. Maybe they are. I don't think they are.
It's difference of support, where you mentally categorize people in bands. You can be like, "oh my gosh, awesome you're in an all-girl group and that's so punk and rock star," but it does like feel like it comes from a point of being patronizing to a degree because you have to acknowledge that it's a person with not-dude parts playing music. I think, while I love the fact that, at least for Toothache our base is younger people in high school, early-college age, usually femme, I think that's the crux of Toothache. I think it's maybe our responsibility to stop allowing that to be the label for you and letting that be the ceiling for what you can be, because I feel like it's just disingenuous to have an audience like that who's looking up to you or is inspired by you and then just use labels or random shit like that to hold on to. I feel like it's so important to demonstrate to the people who look up to you that you aren't really caged by whatever.
The inclination to put that in a box really puts so many female-represented or all-female bands into something they're not even close to. People say, "oh, that's girl punk when it's not even punk," it doesn't make any sense. Music should transcend that kind of thing and it's really sad that it's not. I think Flagstaff is definitely at the forefront of being a little more equal and being better about that than... you look at Phoenix and it's all dude bands, but in Flagstaff there's so much more female representation or femme representation in general. There's still a long way to go with how that's perceived, I think.
A: Another thing to add is just like, presentation and looks-wise, we very stereotypically give that alternative... when you think of a girl band you kind of have this vision in your head and it kind of sucks that we're all kind of alternative presenting because also just our looks kind of put us into the box of a girl band, too.
Especially in all-girl groups, there's so much more of a focus on how you look on stage or the vibe you're curating and the aesthetic, because every male band I've seen look like they could have just walked right off the skate park before hopping on stage. I feel so much pressure, as a femme person, before going on stage to feel like I'm looking my best and doing my best and I hate that. Sometimes I really hate that being intertwined with music, but it's almost like what I feel people expect if it's from a girl band. It has to be a badass, sexy, girl group who is up there. It's so different what you feel like the crowd expects from you versus if you were a dude band.
A: Totally. I wouldn't just go up in pajamas. It's that pressure to look the part, almost, which is kind of contradicting to what we were saying about girl bands, but it's that mindset of, you kind of have to unlearn what you know. I go up there and I'm like, "oh, I have to look cool and I have to put on a cool outfit," and I don't actually have to do that.
S: You can play drums like either way.
A: Yeah I can, totally.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Keep going to shows and doing the thing.
-Foster
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