After recieving their great EP ´Cat Butt
Tattoo´ I just had to interview Candy
From Strangers. They´re a top band and
cool as fuck people as this interview
will show. Here´s what Pauli and Ruby
had to say.
Punk Globe: First off can you introduce
yourselves to our readers?
I’m
Ruby, the singer and bass player, and
this is Pauli; lead guitarist and
songwriter. Then there’s Ricky (drums),
Paula (keys/bass/vocals) and Jamie
(guitar).
Punk Globe: You´ve just released
the excellent ep "Cat Butt Tattoo´ so
are you pleased with the finished
product?
P: We’re happy with it. It’s an EP that
we’ve released while we’re finishing a
full length one called “Bad Girlfriend”.
We like Cat Butt Tattoo and it’s doing
pretty well on it’s own.
Punk Globe: By the way who´s
butt is that on the front cover?
P: That would be Ruby’s butt. She just
ran downstairs to a friend’s house and
they snapped the pic.
Punk Globe: So what inspires you
guys to write the lyrics and music that
you put out?
P: Neil Young said Rock and Roll can
never die. I am down with that. It’s my
life’s blood. I’ve been doing it since I
was a little kid.
Sex. It’s a big part of this music and
there is a good amount of it in the
songs.
Fun. It’s supposed to be fun and we have
that and we don’t get all serious and
full of ourselves in the songs. We don’t
feel that we have to share our angst
with the world. We’re just not that
important. Thank God.
This brings us to songs. That is what
it’s all about for me. In all the music
that I love the common denominator is
not the genre or the style or the singer
or the hot wanking solo. It’s about a
great song. We try to have grit in it
too. There is so much in popular music.
A lot of currently popular and hip stuff
is still formula and pretending not to
be. It could be the heavier indie stuff
formula: Kind of semi dissonant, semi
creative chords or keys and gruff dude
singing sensitive stupid lyrics, then
wall of guitar noise and screams. Then
there’s the ones with sweaters singing
syrupy sweet pop. Where the Hootie? This
is not even going to the Mariah, Celine,
Brittany (and whoever the fuck else)
place. The whole nu-metal cheese thing,
the guys with their white belts, one
star tattoo…I dunno. There is a metal
underground out there, cookie monster
vocals and all. It’s fun live but I
don’t listen to it. There is a lot of
great music of all sorts out there. It
just seems that a great deal of it
doesn’t fit a particular formula that is
in style and doesn’t get heard enough.
It’s not to say we’re breaking new
ground. We’re not trying to. We’re just
sticking to our guns and trying to play
shit that rocks, and is unpretentious,
and song oriented. It has punk AND pop
sensibilities. It’s also still rock n’
roll. We call what we do: GUTTER POP.
That’s us, take it our leave it.
Punk Globe: There´s a tour
coming up around Pauli´s birthday so any
news on that?
R: We’re just confirming the last few
dates now. Looks like we’ll be doing 14
gigs in 15 days focusing on the East
Coast. The gig on Pauli’s birthday is
supposed to be at a 400 seat
pro-wrestling arena in Cincinnati. That
should be weird! We were planning on New
Orleans, but no longer. This will be our
4th time out east and
the big challenge this time will be
coming up with gas money!
Punk Globe: Pauli you spend a
lot of time fighting AIDS/HIV so does
this involve charity work, counseling
and raising money for research/helping
people?
P: Yup. That’s what I do for work
besides music. I do a lot of trainings
and public speaking, to all kinds of
people from all walks of life. I also
supervise on the California AIDS Hotline
(and train the operators), and work with
the Needle Exchange. I supervise the
Friday 6th and Mission site which is
wild. The pay’s not great but I get to
fight the good fight. Candy from
Strangers has also put on six very
successful AIDS benefits, as well as
performing at several other benefits.
Again, ya do what you can do.
Punk Globe: Are there any plans
to release an album in the not to
distant future?
P: There’s the aforementioned “Bad
Girlfriend”. We’re hoping to have it out
in the late spring. We’re recording that
with Chris Dugan who works with Green
Day. He worked on American Idiot as part
of what he’s doing with them. They’re
obviously busy these days so we’re doing
it at the times when he’s off the road.
We have a bunch more songs in the can
that just need a few overdubs and
mixing.
Punk Globe: You´ve all played in
different bands so what´s special about
´Candy From Strangers´ and what makes
you connect?
R: Pauli and I started dinking around
jamming years ago and have developed a
great writing partnership. He writes
lyrics and grooves and I just have
spurts of ideas and hooks. Again, this
band is song-oriented. That is the key.
From there, we all like each other’s
company during rehearsal, on the road
and at shows. We spend half of practice
chatting and joking around. If it isn’t
fun, why bother?
Punk Globe: Would Ruby be up for
being adopted and being shipped to the
UK?
R: Yes, but only if I am fed lots of
chocolate and allowed to run wild. Oh,
and I’ll need to be provided with an
endless supply of hair dye and daily
Simpsons viewing.
I´m sure I
could accomodate all that Ruby:-)
Punk Globe: You guys look a
pretty fun bunch so any wacky stories
you´d like to share with our readers
which concern drinking?
R: Well, our most recent show was, of
all things, at the Hard Rock Café in SF
and sponsored by Sammy Hagar’s brand of
Tequila. The place loved us and lined
the stage with shots. I have no Idea how
many of them we drank and how many were
kicked over. But the stage was a puddle
in the end. We usually try to hold back
until we get on stage, but when it looks
like the night is gonna suck, we start
sucking ‘em down early. Might as well
have a good time. As it turned out it
rocked.
P:
I can remember a time at a
cocktail-soaked, big show when the duct
tape holding my song list was covering
the first song. While the best of the
band settled into the groove for the
opener, I let out a howl and jumped into
the second song-a Ramones style rocker.
After that “holy fucking shit!!!’ moment
of realization, when I saw the band and
the whole audience (a big one) laughing.
They weren’t exactly laughing WITH me
(does anyone ever really laugh “with”
you?). At that point I said “Thank You!
G’Night” in my best Nigel Tufnelese and
got a huge ovation. They were in fucking
love with us. Yes, I am a High Priest of
the Church of Nigel. Hey, I’ve been
doing this a while and have a million of
‘em. Stop by a show and we’ll talk.
Punk Globe: Seeing New Orleans
on the news sucks so any plans to do any
benefits for those people caught up in
it all?
P: We are donating all the sales from
Cat Butt Tattoo on CD Baby to the relief
effort and have a show at Red Devil
Lounge on 9/15 . I fucking love, or
loved New Orleans. It’s not there
anymore. I’ve been there almost 15
times. Along with San Francisco and New
York, it’s the other great US city that
is or was not generic. What are they
going to do to rebuild it? For a US
city, it was ancient. It is
irreplaceable. What are they going to do
now, put up a bunch of fucking boxes? If
we weren’t putting all our money and
resources into an illegal war in Iraq we
could have funded the levee’s and
defenses to protect New Orleans. Here in
SF we live on the fault line. Bush would
probably do even less (if that’s
actually possible) to help us. I would
love to do a benefit. I’m going to make
some calls about it and if anyone asks
us we’ll jump all over it. Ya gotta do
what you can do, even if it’s not that
much in the big picture.
Punk Globe: After seeing
President Bush make a dumb ass of
himself once again do you think the CIA
drugged America´s water at voting time
as no normal person would have put him
in office right?
P: I could go on a long, long, long time
about this. I am deeply afraid for us.
However, I’m going to keep it short. We
live in San Francisco and we didn’t vote
him in. Don’t blame us. This country is
completely divided. We vote too. The
thing is that the motherfuckers make
their own voting machines. I feel like
we’re being subjected to a
corporate-right wing Christian-fascist
takeover. They’re just going about it in
a new way. Ooops, I wasn’t going to go
into it. Once I start it gets me all
wound up. Me stop now.
Punk Globe: Anything you´d like
to add?
R&P: Well, Bush sucks. Ooops. There we
go again. One of our goals is to tour
Europe and England, so we hope to see
you one of these days, Steve. Thanks.
Cheers for Pauli and Ruby taking
time out to do this interview. They´re a
well cool band and well cool people so
check them out!
