Girls is an SF-based band that specializes in eating pop rocks and unifying the country through geo-political association. No really, they write great songs. Girls' mastermind, Christopher Owens, can somehow craft the perfunctory note and embody those kinds of themes that everyone can relate to: love lost, not acting fast enough, wanting to enjoy one's life, wanting to laugh, wanting to dance.
All of his songs sound immediately nostalgic and familiar, even on the first listen. But their glistening luster clouds over with a more shredded take-- steeped in the realities that with this freedom comes sacrifices, often material sacrifices, and that the life is not for everyone. He graciously pulls it off with the help of long-time friend, engineer and bassist Chet JR White. Together, they helm what is Girls. This particular interview features the likes of Hayes Hawk and Gregory Lee Boyd, both of the RustBelt region and White Williams collective. Hawk and Boyd came out to San Francisco to play a show in Point Arena, CA, with Girls, this past April.
Girls are...
Christopher Owens: lead vocal, lead guitar, songwriter
Chet JR White: bass, recording engineer
Hayes Hawk : guitar, back-up vocals
Gregory Lee Boyd: skins
Dina: keys, back-up vocals, percussion
Myles Cooper: guitar
Audio Interview Transcription
April 17, 2008
Golden Gate Park, Botanical Gardens, after hours
San Francisco
Interviewed by:
Jean Yaste & Lazlo Kovaks
LK – I’m going to make prince mouth drums with my mouth
JY – Okay, we’re officially recording now….so this is April 2008 interview with Girls – Christopher Owens, JR White, Greg Boyd and Hayes... What's your last name Hayes?
HH - Shanesy.
JY - Shanesy.
LK – Fantasy? You should change it , Warhol would be proud. He liked to name people coke and pop. Like for real it was all about making people super pronoun-like.
CO – We could just start calling Hayes 'Morphine Man.'
JR – Oops.
HH – The cat’s out of the bag (laughter). Meow.
CO – No that’s…for other reasons.
JY – oooo
CO – Because he can morph into a hawk
JY – So you guys want to get started?
HH – Yeah
JY – Alright, cool. So we’ll start with the easy stuff first. Where do you guys all live, officially?
CO – Mission (neighborhood of San Francisco).
JR - San Francisco.
GB – I live in Akron, Ohio.
HH – Cincinnati, Ohio.
JY– Where do you come from? Where is your hailings?
JR – I come from the water... I knew I shouldn’t have smoked pot.
JY – I come from the land.
HH – From the forest, California.
GB – Where do you come from Chris?
CO – Oh, I was born in Florida, my family’s from Miami, Florida.
GB – I’m from a village in Ohio called Canal Fulton.
HH – Cincinnati, Ohio. Well I was born in California but (JR- really?) hm mm, I was born in Los Angeles, but uh I grew up in Cincinnati.
CO – Did you like LA?
HH – Yeah, it was alright for a while.
JY – Where in LA were you born? What neighborhood?
HH – Well I was born in a hospital (JY – not a barn?) but, my family lived in the Hollywood hills. My parents moved out there. They moved from Cincinnati, and my mom lived in Hollywood. She was like in TV.
LK – How old is your mom?
HH – She’s like pushing 60. 125 on the dash.
LK – What’s her name?
HH – Uh Kit Anderson. She’s pretty cool.
LK – My mom’s like 63 and was a Hollywooder.
HH – Yeah, I bet they know each other.
LK – It was pretty small back in the days. Only like 200,000 people in the actor’s union at one time, now it’s like 6 or 7 million.
HH – That’s a big jump.
JY – What was the name of that show your mom was on?
LK – Doc Tari. She was on Flipper and Dobie Gillis and Donna Reed and stuff.
JR – I love Flipper.
JY – I had a cat named Flipper once.
HH – Did she know Rodney Bingenheimer?
LK – Yeah, she knew Rodent Bingenheimer.
JR – Really for real? (LK- yeah) Sweet ass.
LK – I dated one of Rodney’s girls actually, Seline. Which is kind of sick and fucked up cuz, it’s dirty.
JY – That’s dirty man. I can’t believe you’re telling these stories.
LK – There’s nothing like getting it on with a girl of Rodney's. Nice shoes wanna fuck?
JY – Um…
LK – He wears those orthopedic you know, hospital shoes?
CO – Dude he’s fucking cool. I just saw that show, what is it, "Mayor of Sunset Strip." Shoo. I love Rodney.
LK – I saw him in Canters in LA once and I went up to him and I was like "I’m touring with Momus" and then he was like "Matmos? You’re in Matmos?"
CO – Really? The guy with the patch? You toured with him?
LK – Yeah, I did that video with the bicycle theremin. It’s on YouTube. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it but I ride it.
CO – Whoa...so you know him; you’re good friends with him?
LK – Yeah, pretty much. He likes my friend Sean Talley more than me though.
CO – Have you ever seen his writings about Ariel Pink and Holy Shit?
LK – Have you ever seen his writings about Seahorse Liberation Army? No, I’ve been shown them by Matt [Fishbeck] though. Matt was like "look, he loves me." I was like "look, he loves me too." And then we were like, "we’re brothers." And then he was like "no, we’re not." Momus is the shit except he tries to steal everybody’s Japanese girlfriend. You got a Japanese girlfriend you’re in the danger zone. He flew in from Germany once just to have dinner at our house to steal my roommates’ girlfriend. And then she went for it.
JY – So JR, what was the last record you bought?
JR – I think it was the Go-Betweens. "Liberty Bell and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah."
LK – Does that have Corin on it?
JR – It might. No, I don’t think so.
GB – I bought a Lil’ Wayne mix tape.
JY – Really? Where you’d buy that from?
GB - I bough it from this store in Akron called Two-Live Music.
HH – I bought that Griefs record. What’s it called Greg?
GB – Throwing a Tempo Tantrum
JY – And the Griefs are from Columbus?
HH & GB (in unison) Cincinnati.
CO – The last one I bought was the Belle and Sebastion one that has "Don’t Look Back," "Fox in the Snow." (thinking of the name)...If You’re Feeling Sinister (album name).
JY: What about the last show you went to?
CO: The last show I went to (JR – John Maus?) the Oh See's, John Maus, Ariel Pink at the Smell.
JY – What about you JR?
JR – I think probably all the same. (laughs)
JY – You just follow Christoher around, basically?
JR – Yeah, basically. Drive him places. On my handlebars.
JY – Mobile. Pimpin the two-wheel.
HH – I was at that thing [SXSW] in Texas about a month ago. I don’t know man, I went to a lot....
I didn’t really have that much fun at any of them. I don’t know, I don’t really want to talk about it (everyone laughs).
LK – That’s a good answer.
CO – Yeah.
GB – About 2 weeks ago I went to see that band Fleet Foxes and Blizten Trapper.
JY – Fleet Foxes, where are they from?
GB – I believe they’re from either Seattle or Portland.
JY – So how did you guys meet? You two? (motions to Chris and JR)
CO – Liza Thorn, from partying with Liza. From partying at Jessica Gaston’s house.
LK – Jessica from Orange County?
CO – Yeah, Breastica?
LK – I’ve known her since I was like, 17.
JY – How long ago did you guys meet?
CO – 2005. We weren’t instant buds. Not like we are now.
JR – We liked each other right away though, and got along pretty well.
JY – How’d you meet these guys (now motioning to Greg and Hayes)?
JR – I met Greg when he was living in San Francisco, and I think I met Hayes in the same era.
CO – They showed up at my house the other night. It hasn’t even been a week. We met Greg. We hugged last Friday.
JY – And that’s when it was really real, for once. You could feel his heart beating on your chest.
JR – Cuz he couldn’t wait.
GB – We had a good night on Friday. It was a bonding experience. We killed a baby (slurping sounds).
JY – What have you guys been doing the last few days? What were you up to in Santa Cruz?
JR – We went down to Santa Cruz because we got kicked out of our rehearsal space and we can only get in on [the new one] in a couple days, so… (CO- We went to a birthday party.) But there was a house available in Santa Cruz to go down to.
JY – Yeah? What happened to the old studio?
JR – They just locked us out. Cuz we don’t…
LK – Pay the rent on time?
CO – No…they always thought we were weird from the beginning.
LK – Secret of the people you were subletting from?
CO – It was one girl I worked with who said "why don’t you come and share the rent at our place?" There was also a cocaine dealer.
JY – And he liked you. (CO – No, not really [chuckles].) No? No repeat business? No good customer relations? That bastard, he’s going to go out of business soon.
JR – His coke sucks.
JY – Good, fuck him
JY – So now we’ll switch gears over to band talk. So why Girls?
JR – I never really had a choice. Go ahead Chris.
CO - It’s like a reference to the beginning of me trying to have my own band, called Curls. And then JR actually made the spin off called Girls, cuz it sounds so similar. That’s really why it came up. But right away I really liked it. And I usually think that names, well I don’t like a lot of ‘em. And Matt Fishbeck said you should start a band called Curls to me and I was like "right on man, do it."
LK – Like shooting the curl?
CO – Naw just Curls. Like someone’s hair, you know. Cuz it sounds romantic.
LK – Cuz it sounds romantic.
CO – (laughs) But uh, it’s pretty sweet. It sounds good. It’s gonna stay in your head. Cuz it’s so simple. It’s like, you don’t think someone’s going to say my band’s called Girls cuz it’s, it could almost be too simple. But there’s no such thing. So to a lot of people it could seem. They could just think, that’s that band that calls themselves Girls. They might think it’s silly at first.
LK – Is there a Hurls? I heard Hurls on the radio once. No I mean literally. I heard Ariel go "Hurls."
CO – Oh yeah, at the Cobain in a Coma thing?
LK – Yeah and Liza was screaming, "I want Girls."
JY – So how do girls inspire your content? Not curls, or maybe the curls on girls’ heads….
JR – I don’t know, it doesn’t inspire the song writing I don't think. Do you?
CO – Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever written like a love song, you know? Or maybe I have…I have to think about it (starts thinking).
Okay the first song we let people listen to, the last line "come on come on come on Kaila." And people would say oh, that song, he wrote that song about Kaila. But that’s…not true. It’s like a silly thing. One little thing in the song. It’s just about life. Girls are pretty…they come up a lot in life (laughs). But it’s not about girls.
JY – Well when you sing, or when you wrote or even when you play the song "Lust for life," who are you channeling? Who is the speaker? Cuz when I listen to it, it sounds like you are imitating a whiny girl.
CO – No that’s not it at all. It’s just a stream of consciousness. It came out all at once and it’s just like an idea. It’s about not being satisfied and stuff. And the very end is like come on come on, it’s just taunting Kayla to come out and have a good time. Come on, like, let loose.
JR – Right away we knew it was going to be interpreted 20 different ways.
CO – Yep
JR – Right when we finished it we were like, "aw fuck."
LK– This might be stupid but would you say your songs are silly love songs with b-sides or a class war? If you could pick either side, what side would they lean towards?
CO – What?
LK – Like there’s the Paul McCarthy silly love songs with b-sides and then there’s the class war, like Clash, approach. I don’t know if there’s really a question or answer here. In your songwriting is it constantly searching to be meaningful? Or change you?
(Chris looks to JR.)
JR – Don’t look at me man.
CO – It’s all super meaningful. It’s not even trying, it is just meaningful. None of those songs are silly jokes at all. They’re really serious.
JY – SERIOUS.
HH – They might as well be, you know?
CO – I understand bands. I understand there used to be all types of expression. But this is definitely not silly. They’re not love songs. They’re really meaningful…I think. They mean a lot to me.
JY – So how did the band come to exist? Like when you knew each other, and then it was your (motioning towards JR) idea to start Curls right?
JR – No, just change it. Chris had a…at some point he came over and played me some of the songs, and I heard some of it before; there were a couple songs he had played before in another incarnation.
CO – I made a really bad recording. I wanted JR to get involved. So I was showing him what I was writing and….
JR – We just started recording on four track and at some point it was like….
JY – In that first incarnation, what were you playing?
JR – I wasn’t playing anything. I was just recording. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be involved other than record it. There were plans. We never even got past the point of recording guitars and vocals. At that point we were starting to think about drums, and I was looking at the four track and I was thinking this thing sucks, I don’t want to use this. There’s too many limitations to it and stuff. It only had two simultaneous tracks, it was the really cheap one.
I think he had written some stuff that I really liked. I decided let’s record it but I had a studio at some point so I had a bunch of equipment left over. I decided let’s do this right, I guess, and at some point we started looking at something I always wanted to have which was an eight track reel to reel. So I convinced him that we needed that, which we probably could have just used my computer but then we got one of those and we just decided to start recording. The first song came out really well and at that point I think I decided I want to do this now.
JY – So when you decided you wanted to do this, that was when you started playing with him?
JR – Yeah, playing bass and drums.
JY – When was this time period, roughly?
JR – Four months ago, five? How long has it been?
JY – So it was Fall, 2007?
CO – When we got the tape machine and actually started, it was November.
JY – Then you’d been writing these songs for a period of time before then. How old were the songs?
CO – Summertime was the first one, and it was in the summer of 2007.
JY – So it’s recent material.
LK – I remember Ariel saying that one time he and Matt Fishbeck encouraged you to record your material. How did that come about?
CO – Well they would say stuff to encourage me too, but it was mainly when I saw what they were doing, what they were doing with music. It was something right in front of my face, seeing guys, songwriters. I just wanted to do it right away.
JY – Cuz you saw someone else doing it and you thought, I can do this too?
CO – Oh yeah, I wanted in on that. Just the feeling, I could tell how much they loved their songs.
JY – How did you meet Ariel and Matt Fishbeck?
CO – I met Matt at Liza’s birthday party.
JY – And when did you start playing with Holy Shit? For a couple years now?
CO – The summer of 2006. I’ve been playing with them, up until about a month ago....
LK – So you’re not playing with Holy Shit now, by that statement?
CO – I don’t know if I’m gonna say that.
JR – And that comes out of the bushes.
JY – There’s insanity....
CO – I don’t think you ever really leave Holy Shit.
LK – Like if Matt comes out of the bushes, you mean he’s not leaving Berkeley, coming out of hiding?
JR – Is he there right now?
CO - He said mum’s the word on that man.
JY – Yeah that’s like... strangeness, happening. That’s not what this is about.
LK – We were just trying to interview him too.
JY – Okay so here’s a good question. Why did you and JR decide to tap some session men from the RustBelt?
JR – The what?
JY – Okay so I’m going to classify these guys as the session players, you know, they’re a solid crew that can be depended on. And the RustBelt is where we’re from, it’s an industrial wasteland. What made you reach out all the way out there when you know, there’s so much creativity in California and blah blah blah.
JR – Just myspace stalking Greg.
JY – Oh right because you used to live out here. How long did you live in San Francisco?
GB – Maybe 6 or 7 months.
JY – And that was last summer?
GB – I left in the summer.
JR – So Greg I knew, and I knew he played drums, and I always wanted to play music with Greg but I never got a chance to. And he wasn’t playing and we needed a drummer and I’d rather play with people that I want to hang out with, you know, than just some guy. And we had a drummer but he’s not always available for some things, like he’s in another band. It’s always kind of been rotating and we just needed people and Greg wanted to come out, so…it was our chance to play together. Then I mentioned that maybe Hayes would want to do it; because our friend, Abby, said that Hayes had played her one of our songs and I didn't even know Hayes knew who we were or what we were doing. So then I just mentioned it to Greg without thinking too much about it, thinking it was like, why not. And then he said yeah so we lucked out. Two for the price of one.
JY – Yeah, double bonus. So did you guys come out on a little plane together and everything?
GB – We took separate planes.
JY – Aw, really? You didn’t share snacks and look at the stewardess together?
So, Christopher, how do you survive in San Francisco, as a musician?
LK – As a person, regardless of music.
JY – You know, some people have their ways…how do you do that?
CO – Well at this point, I don’t know man. Really, honestly, the whole starting of this project. I’m trying to think… I’m really stoned.
JY – Sorry about that, we weren’t trying to subvert anything.
CO– It started as a really isolated thing. I didn’t think about playing out, it was a recording. I really wanted to get those songs recorded well. And people could have never given me a show. I mean, it could have happened anywhere in the whole city, so I don’t think it…I think I survive playing here…I know what you mean, cuz it’s not…you know…
JY – Cuz it’s just expensive here. Like you know, in Cincinnati $300 is your rent.
CO – Yeah, we’re not about to go play Monterey Pop. There’s not a big summer of love music explosion happening in San Francisco. But I survived because I said I was going to do it. I don’t view myself as trying to survive here. It’s just happening.
JY – Well you are living. It is happening.
CO – Or are you talking about money?
JY – Well it is a part of survival I think unless you live in a log cabin and have a little potato patch or you could steal the potatoes from the children.
CO – We just work, like everybody else. At jobs.
JY – So you do have a job?
CO – Well no I don’t have a job. (everyone laughs)
LK – How long has it been since your last job?
CO – It’s been since December.
JY – Do you do freelance stuff here and there? Well I guess you do get paid when you play out.
CO – Well we’ve only played twice. And the first time we didn’t get paid. And the second time we paid our practice studio rent.
JY – Because the first show you played was a benefit, right?
LK – Did she (Betty Nyugen) interview you guys?
CO – For First Person Magazine.
LK – How did that go?
CO – I never saw it materialize.
JY – She never got it published?
JR – It’s a work in progress.
CO – She shelfed it. She’s waiting for a couple more Pitchfork reviews. Then she’ll be like, "back in the day…."
(Now everyone starts talking about the upcoming show, dubbed "Awesome Fest," and if people will make the trek up to Mendocino.
LK – Do you think many people will get out there?
CO – I don’t know, lots of people said they were going.
LK – Do any of them have cars?
JR – That’s the thing is that no one has cars so….
HH – If there’s a will there’s a way.
LK – We were thinking about the Cal Train.
CO – Love finds a way.
JR – How far away is Mendocino?
LK – 3 hours.
JR – Fuck, it keeps growing.
JY – It’s just over that next hill.
JR – I think we’re gonna ride bikes.
JY – That’s good. You can just tie a rope between you and then if someone falls down in a ditch the other one can be there to help.
CO – Hitchhike man.
HH – We’re leaving right after this.
CO – This is California. We can hitchhike.
JY – I saw your knapsacks stowed behind the bushes. So I was talking to Dean a little bit and he mentioned that you guys are putting an album together. And are you releasing one single, or two singles?
CO – At least two 45s
JY – Which two?
JR – "Hellhole Ratrace" and "Morning Light?"
CO – Yeah, that’s two singles.
JR – It’s a double A-side.
CO – Pullin a fast one on him.
JR – We tricked him.
CO – Yeah we tricked him into putting out two singles at once. So it’s like each side of the sleeve is going to be a cover and then we will have two A-sides. One’s gonna be one side of the coin, "Hellhole Ratrace," and the other’s gonna be the other side of the coin, "Morning Light."
LK – So it will be an A and an A?
CO – Yeah, two As, it’s two singles. (laughter)
JY – And then he mentioned that the first 100 copies get a corsage?
JR – That’s something he flippantly mentioned on the phone but I guess he’s really into doing it.
JY – Yeah he’s totally into it. I think it’s good.
LK – Corsages like the flower?
JY – So do you know what the album’s called? Have you picked out a name yet? Self-titled?
CO – Nope. Haven’t thought about it.
LK – Why aren’t you self-releasing your record?
JR – Cuz we’re not that together. And Dean’s really supportive, and it’s cool. And I’d rather work with people. I mean, we don’t really have the capabilities to do something like that, I mean who does? We need someone to do that. It’s too much work to even record the songs ourselves.
JY – Well you gotta focus on making the music. And it’s hard to do it all cuz then you start thinking about numbers and crap and you’re just like…fuck. So how did you first hook up with True Panther Sounds?
CO – He is the future man, this was like when the first song was up he was into it. This was the very beginning.
JY – So this was before the first show or anything.
JR – He offered to do the first 45 and we were like "just do it, I don’t care who you are." And then we started talking on the phone, and the more we started talking on the phone, the cooler of a dude he turned out to be.
CO – Turned out we knew him.
JR – And he found out we had an album’s worth of material. We though we were just going to be doing a couple of songs, not even a band. Then he said, I’ll do the album.
CO – One time he asked me about it at a Holy Shit show too.
JY - So you knew him before he approached you somehow? Through some crazy line?
CO – Yeah, he mentioned it at that show. He was like, "I would like to put something out, like a single or something." And I was like, "yeah I’ll have to think about that. (Everyone laughs.) I’ll get back to you on that, maybe (in bad Italian mafia don impression).
JY - Also Dean mentioned playing a few shows in New York City before the album’s release maybe, and before you go to MIDI Festival, in July.
JR – Yeah, we’ve got a lot of big plans (laughs). He offered that as well. I’ve actually never been to New York and I always wanted to go so, there’s my excuse.
JY – Yeah, well it’s definitely a good time to do it cuz if you’re releasing the album sometime this summer, like July or August, you should definitely have the album.
CO – On the East coast?
JY – Oh you guys will get it done. It’ll be rad. Don’t worry.
JR – Yeah, it just seemed like a prime opportunity, on the way to Europe, we could maybe stop, hopefully it’s not too expensive (laughs). Yeah, that’s the plan. It just seemed like the perfect timing.
JY – So are you guys (motioning to the session men, Greg and Hayes) going to new York too?
JR – We’re still trying to decide.
JY – The line up…it’s still in question?
JR – They’ve had the formal…they’ve had the invite, the golden handshake.
CO – Yeah, they can play whenever they want.
JR – There’s money issues and time issues.
GB – We’re pretty sure we will.
JR – You’re going? Alright!
GB - Yeah.
LK – Is Yann (MIDI Festival organizer) paying for you guys?
JR – No I don’t think so, they’re paying us but they’re not paying for us to fly.
JY – To get there.
JR – Yeah.
CO – To Europe?
JR – Yeah, after the first album.
JY – There should be some kind of deal.
LK – It’s cheaper to go to New York, London, fly from London to Niece. It’s because it’s really fucking expensive to get to Cannes, to that part of France. London’s the cheapest landing spot in Europe.
CO – We might just fly straight to Paris, play there first, and then take the train. I took the train last time. It’s like a euro train. It’s like a three hour thing. It’s only like 100 euros each or something. Or a hundred bucks…
JR – Damn
JY – It might be cheaper.
JR – *Sighs
JY - It’s cuz you’re going to Niece. They just figure you have money.
CO – But the festival will pay for that train thing.
JY – Oh cool.
CO – So that’s if we can just get to Paris, and then Dean might book us shows in Barcelona and we could keep going down south.
JY – Cool
CO - I think we can make it.
JY – Make it to Cadiz? to Seville?
CO – Possibly. We have a friend that used to live here, lives in Valencia, he said he could get us a show, for sure.
JR - (chuckling) he said he knows somebody (Erik laughing in background).
JY – (saying that she knows somebody too) I actually, I have a friend in Madrid right now that’s playing music and teaching…English. But I don’t know, if you guys are trying.
HH – Want some carpet?
LK – You might meet a lot of friends, other bands at that festival.
CO – Yeah, totally.
JY – Yeah, maybe Dean will find a booking person in Europe. He’ll connect the dots.
JR – Yeah, we’ve talked about it.
JY – That’s what he does. He’s good at it. So are you guys looking forward to New York then? And playing shows and doing it all up?
CO – Definitely.
JY – I think it’s exciting.
JR – Yeah, it just seems like a long ways away still. Right? I don’t know. I’m excited.
JY – That’s good. A long ways always means you have lots of time to prepare for it, maybe.
CO – Yeah!
JR – Yeah, I’m sure we’ll wait to the last minute to pull it together.
JY – That’s what keeps it exciting, and uh…spontaneous.
LK – There’s not that much time.
JR – You’re right it’s not.
HH – We’ve, I mean, it’s been a week so...
JY – and look at the magic that’s already transpired. You’re all glowing, it’s…
HH – it’s a solid dude session, every time man.
CO – It’s like a real band. We were like, "we could be a four piece right now, in the sessions."
JY – Do you guys like, brush each other’s hair sometimes?
HH – We don’t really brush hair but...
JY – Braid it maybe? Do you wear slippers, together?
JR – I don’t really wear slippers.
JY – No? What about loafers?
CO – We sleep on the beach together.
JY – Yeah? in Santa Cruz? in a pile?
GB – Hayes and I have been sleeping in the same bed.
JY – Nice.
HH – Yeah, I mean, that’s an older connection. Strong.
CO – We hear Greg’s a real firecracker.
JR – Fireball.
HH – Flip the script: the night that I turned into morphine. In the middle of the night I woke up and I don’t know if it’s confirmed if I was dreaming or if I was wide awake. But I kind of woke up and we usually sleep pretty close, but this was especially close. And I was going like this (performs a back rubbing motion on Greg), and I woke up and was like, "was I just…?" And then I fell back asleep and I asked him about it the next morning and he was like "I don’t know man, whatever."
JY – He was laying close to you, like on your chest?
HH – We’re buds.
JR – What happens in Santa Cruz...
ALL – ...stays in Santa Cruz
HH – Stays.
JY – So what’s the MIDI festival? How did you hook up with the MIDI festival and find out about all that?
CO – Um, I made pretty good friends with Frederick.
JY – Is he the guy that started it?
CO – I’m pretty sure he owns the villa that it’s at, that it happens at.
JY – Oh, so it’s on private property?
CO – Yeah. But that might not be true. He might be some kind of…
JY – We’ll say that he’s the director.
CO – Yeah, he definitely puts the festival on though. And we made good friends.
JY – Did that happen when you played there before, with Holy Shit?
CO – Yeah, Holy Shit played there, and I guess he was looking at my myspace or something. Cuz he was like, is this your new band?
JY – The beauty of myspace.
CO – And I was like, yeah, that’s the new band, and then we just… he said do you want to come play the…he said (JR starts laughing) I think what he said was uh "how about you put together a little European tour and come and play the MIDI festival? I can’t pay for the plane tickets but I’ll do this and that." So then I said, this is exactly what I wrote him back in an email, I said "only write me back and ask me again if you’re DEAD SERIOUS. I don’t like to tell people I’m going to do something and then have it not work out. And he wrote me back, "yes this is FOR SURE SERIOUS." And…anyway....
JY – Wait, what was in capital letters?
CO – Sure
JY – Oh okay, for sure (laughs).
LK – For sure or just sure?
CO – FOR SURE SERIOUS.
JY – For sure serious. Dead serious.
CO – So then I said yes and then I immediately picked up the phone, JR was at work, and his phone was off so I called 411 for JR’s work and I was like "is Chet JR white there? I know he’s at work, but this is really important news I have to tell him." And then-
JY - and then he started screaming into the phone.
JR – Yeah, we were in a menu meeting, where we all sit down and talk about the menu for the evening-
CO – and I was like, wanna go to France dude?
JR – I thought someone had died,
JY – Oh no.
JR – and everyone at my work was like, "do you have to go home?" I shoulda said yeah, but I was was like, no.
HH – But the thing you have to realize is that JR’s work, is like, we went there to try to get a key the other day. I just thought you know, it’s a casual stop by the office. Anyway, you’ve seen Blues Brothers, the movie.
JY – Yeah.
HH – It’s just like when they go, when Jake and Elmo go to get their horn player back and he’s working as the maitre’d. You gotta like, he’s a serious chef, you can’t just walk in on him , he’s a busy dude.
CO – Yeah.
HH – So, I’m sure, I wasn’t there for that situation, but I’m sure it was pretty funny.
JY – Were there big men blocking the gate to the kitchen…brandishing?
HH – Naw naw, it’s just, it’s just cool.
LK – Is JR from Dallas or is that more deep?
HH – ...a couple tough guys. If we wanted to take em on....
LK – Like where did the name come from?
JR – My first name’s actually Chet. It was my father’s name. So everyone always assumes JR’s Junior. But it’s not it’s actually, he and my mom, they actually named me JR as my middle name. They’ve always told me it wasn’t Junior. My sister’s middle name is just J. There's not really, I’ve never gotten a definitive answer. And I don’t think there is one. I think they were just …
CO - High?
JR – I think they just got it form something…(trails off).
CO – You’re parents were high (laughing) JR.
JY – Do you know Frederick’s last name? The guy that does the MIDI festival?
CO – Yeah….
LK – Is Yann from MIDI too though? Ariel told me to talk to Yann about it.
CO – No, Yann is just a guy that lives in Paris. He ended up moving to LA. He met a girl from LA when she was on vacation. And he ended up moving to LA, to hang out there, and he actually played in Holy Shit a couple times. And he was good friends with Matt.
JY - Yann did?
CO – Yeah, so I met him on that last trip too, when we went to Paris.
LK – I’ve got a lot of friends in Paris if you guys are looking for shows I could just-
JR – Yeah!
LK – myspace on the SLA one "the Girls band is looking for shows" and you’ll probably just get four or five responses that are realistic.
CO – Yeah, and make sure that we can play with another band so we can borrow their equipment.
JY – It’s pivotal.
LK – It’s kind of sick and twisted too but my goal for the longest time was to make a myspace account that was connecting us with every girl in Paris who knows. "We are going to tour Paris."
JY – Yes, a priceless network
LK – It never got used. It’s now just sitting dormant on myspace unfortunately.
JY – Okay so these are a few questions that Lazlo wrote so just keep that in mind….
LK – (laughs) I was involved in all of these questions.
JY – Yeah, um, okay, there’s four questions.
CO – This is where it gets weird....
JY – and there’s four of you, so we’ll ask one of you--
LK – Why don’t you ask all of them, you don’t have to…which ones are the weird ones?
JY – These ones, these four. They’re not…you know…..
LK – Do you get high?
JY – Is one of them.
JR – Not anymore.
JY – Never?
CO – Always, always.
JR – Not enough.
JY – Only when there’s a blanket nearby? (they're sitting on a blanket right now)
CO – I personally am always high.
KJ – How do you feel about writers on drugs, i.e. William Burroughs or anybody at all?
CO – I love William S. Burroughs.
LK – Stimulants like psychedelics, like uppers, downers, the whole coffee…the whole writing on drugs.
CO – It means they’re probably liberal.
LK – What about making things I guess, they’re not really writing…something that like…have you ruled it out?
JR – I really haven’t given it much thought to be honest, I don’t know about as far as my opinion whether these things are relevant. I don’t think what we do is ever really effected positively by doing drugs. I don’t think drugs make, are something that…(sees the look on Lazlo's face)...what?
LK – It’s not a DARE intervention, first of all, it’s your personal opinion.
JR – Yeah, that’s my personal opinion.
JY – JR do you think that the road to excess is the palace of wisdom?
LK – It leads to the palace of wisdom.
JY – Or it leads to the palace of wisdom?
JR – Probably not, no, not necessarily.
LK – Not even temporarily?
JY – But then, is it really wisdom if it’s only temporary?
LK – I don’t know, forgetting is the botany of desire so…you can’t really remember anything forever.
JY – Hmm. I think you can remember something forever.
LK – Can I get a second response in writing things or making things on drugs?
JR – Hmmm, that wasn’t a good answer.
LK – No, I just want a group spectrum, it’s not a singular answer, to each his own, you know, at least that’s what Hunter Thompson would say, ultimately.
JY – Okay, or we could try to come back to it or use it in this next question. (Clears throat.) Maybe you’re on drugs right now, but if you were on more, and you thought you were a guitar all of a sudden, what kind of guitar would it be?
JR – Ahh, I like that question. Chris?
CO – I’d be mine.
LK – What guitar is yours? Describe it in detail.
CO – It’s a…from behind, if you look at it from behind…
JY – It’s like a shapely woman?
CO – I said this before to someone and it really freaked them out, but it’s true. I’ve looked at the guitar and checked it out, from behind the guitar looks like a naked 12-year-old boy. Cuz it’s skin colored, and it’s thin, it has, not much curve on the bottom.
LK – That’s kind of what a girl is.
JY – Not much curve on the bottom.
CO - But then, from the front, it looks like he’s wearing whitey tighties because of the white pick guard. But you know it’s a joke. It’s just wood. A wooden guitar.
JY – It’s just an image.
CO – It’s pretty wood.
LK – This question’s for everyone.
JY – What kind of guitar is it though? Besides the shapely boy….
CO – Rickenbacker?
JY – It’s the Owens special.
LK – What year?
CO – I don’t’ even know, 2008… maybe? I don’t know anything about, I can’t remember the number that it is. It’s the classic….
JY – What about you Hayes?
HH – What was it again? Being a guitar or something?
JY – If you were suddenly on drugs
HH – hm mmm
JR – "Suddenly on drugs" (laughs) what happened?
HH – (still listening) alright
JY – and you turned into a guitar, what guitar would it be?
HH – Okay I’m just normal, and suddenly on drugs,
JY – you like, fell into a pot hole, of drugs
HH – I fell into a pothole of drugs.
JY – and a sea of LSD.
CO – Morphine, he would say.
HH – I just turn into a guitar, what guitar would it be? Well….hmmm….
CO – What about the one Lil’ Wayne plays?
HH – Okay, have you seen the "Lollipop" video? Lil’ Wayne’s "Lollipop" video?
Alright, you’ll like this, cuz you like to rep Cincinnati so hard, is it Reno? Las Vegas? Las Vegas. Somewhere in the big city lights, he’s on the top of a…a….
GB – Stretch hummer.
HH – Stretch hummer, thank you Greg. And Lil’ Wayne loves guitars. He’s got ‘em in almost all of his videos. He’s got ‘em, he plays ‘em. And he’s sitting on this guitar, on this car, JESUS, playing the guitar, he’s got a Cincinnati Reds hat on and he’s just, looks like he’s just enjoying the shit out of playing guitar.
GB – It looks like a cheap, junior Les Paul.
HH – It does look like…I would be that guitar. That guitar.
JY – Alright, from the "Lollipop" video. What if it was a different question and we phrased it as a drum kit?
GB – Oh, it’d be my drum kit.
JR – Yeah?
JY – What kind of drum kit do you play?
GB - A ’64 Ludwig.
JY – Really? Oo, wow. What color is it?
GB – It’s blue.
HH – What is it called?
JY – Is it a pearly blue?
GB – It’s a…it has a name.
HH – The kit or the color?
GB – It’s swirly,
LK – Oh it’s one of those 60s....
GB – It has a name.
JR – Is it plastic?
CO – (laughing) It has a name.
GB – I don’t know, but it’s a small kit. It’s an 18” bass drum. And the floor toms are 14” or 16”. It’s all really small. It has a good song.
JY – Cool.
GB – But if I, if I was to be a guitar it’d probably be an old 60s, uh, I like hollow bodies--
HH – Finish dude.
GB – Thin hollow body, maybe a Gretsch.
JR – If I was on drugs I’d be the one behind Randy Rhodes I think because the spots--
GB – (still thinking) or maybe that acoustic flying dude we saw in Santa Cruz.
CO – It’d be sweet to suddenly be a Jimi Hendrix guitar, like when we was lighting it on fire and fucking it, playing it with his mouth, that’d be sweet.
HH – Yeah I didn’t even think about like other people’s guitars man, like who’s holding it, that changes it a lot.
CO – Yeah, like a babe’s guitar.
JY – Yeah, Lita Ford maybe?
JY – Um…okay.
LK – Each person has to answer this one.
JY – Christopher, how are you not a misogynist?
CO – Whew, you’d have to give me the actual definition. I don’t really even know what that words means.
LK – You should.
JY – A misogynist is…
CO – I’ve heard people say it, and I go yeah…I don’t know what it means.
mi·sog·y·ny –noun
hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women.
Phi*log"y*nist, n. [See Philogyny.] A lover or friend of women; one who esteems woman as the higher type of humanity; -- opposed to misogynist.
JY – I’ve never actually looked it up or anything, but I think it’s someone who generally has problems with women. Or just doesn’t like them.
CO – Oh, that’s not me at all. I was raised by my mother, I have two older sisters, I have to be around…I have to have feminine love.
JY – You do have a heart tattooed on your chest.
CO – That’s not about that. For the record, that’s a memorial tattoo.
JY – Oh, really?
CO – I just...no. I would never be that.
JY – you’d never be that (a misogynist).
CO – No. I…women…I need a woman’s love.
JY – What about a girls’ love?
CO – I need mama’s love back.
JY – Give it back to me.
CO – Unconditionally , you know like your mom loves you, cuz she’s your mom. That’s sweet.
JY – What about you guys? How are you not a misogynist? (starts laughing)
LK – Defend yourself.
GB – I just love women. I like Italian women.
CO – Lay it all out there, you want to know the answer to this question. Greg, what are your top five requirements of, what is it? Top five qualities you are looking for in your next potential lover?
GB – Um…she must be 26 or older, she has to have hair past her shoulders, Italian, she has Verizon Wireless, and what’s the fifth one? I forget.
JR – Septum piercing.
GB – No, that was the sixth.
HH – I think it was the weight issue.
GB – She must be under 150 pounds.
LK – What if Verizon Wireless doesn’t exist in the country that you find her in?
JY – So wait, there were 10 though actually?
GB – Well there were five that i started out with, then I started to make them grow.
JY – They started expanding....
CO – So far I’ve seen him compromise every single one of them.
HH - Constantly.
JY – Well that’s what really constitutes a lover, I guess, of the moment.
LK – JR, how are you not a misogynist?
JR – Uh, I don’t know. Maybe I am. I think you kind of…everyone is, right?
LK – Well, it’s not to ask this. I’m a misogynist by definition because I’m male. It’s a made up word.
*all words are made up
JR - Because I’m not.
JY – I think that out of anyone that I’ve ever known, I haven’t known anyone that I would really say was a misogynist, except for maybe one person. And he really really hated his mother. Like, always talked shit about her. And had issues with his father and their relationship, so I think it stems from that.
JR – Well I’m not like that.
JY – But then it’s interesting because that’s what Christopher says, you know, you love your mother, you know? It’s so simple, but…
LK – Back on topic, what kind of tape machine do you use?
JR – Otari MX 50/50.
LK – Eight track?
JR – Half inch, yeah, yeah.
JY – Do you use a four track that’s similar to a model that Madonna recorded "Like a Virgin" on?
JR – I don’t think so.
LK – That’s the eight track.
JY – The Otari?
LK – No, some eight track thing. I was just curious because you’re process is down to two tracks.
JR – No, I bounce it all down to Pro-Tools and eight, cuz usually eight’s not enough, and the way we work is limited, a lot of restrictions. We can’t, we don’t even really listen back to the final thing till everything’s done.
LK – So are you going to master these things eventually? Onto tape or something?
JR – I think we’ll master it from, just from that. They turn into digital files cuz we throw it into Pro-Tools and it’s just easier for us to bounce it from just wav files on the computer.
LK – Because the recordings are so warm, I guess it’s hard to tell at some point what you’re dealing with.
JR – The tape's nice with bass and drums and vocals. But mixing digitally is just so much better, there’s way less equipment.
CO – I’m starting to have a ….
LK – You can bounce all the tracks, separately?
JR – Yeah, well then I can add a little compression and some digital EQ and stuff.
LK – That’s cool.
JR – Yeah.
CO – I’m starting to have an anxiety attack about everything I’ve said in this interview (laughs).
JY – Aw, it’s okay. Anything we quote you on, we’ll call you or send it to you so you can verify it, it’s cool.
LK – I have some more questions.
CO – I think we need a little more weed. You have more [questions]?
LK – A couple more. I don’t want to pry or anything.
CO – Okay
LK – What happened with you and Liza [Thorn]. How come….
CO – What des that have to do with my band? I don’t know….
LK – Well, it’s Girls.
CO – It does have a lot to do with my band.
LK – It does from what I’ve been insinuated to.
CO – Well....
LK – I don’t want to make this a problem or anything, I’m just curious.
CO – No no. You could just say as far as in relation to the band…I’ll tell you what happened, she split. She took off, so then Curls had to break up and it was like sink or swim.
LK – She split and was just like--
CO – "do it yourself maaan." So that’s when I tried being the singer songwriter. Before that I was writing all the guitar and she was doing the vocals and lyrics.
LK – Would she sing your songs ever?
CO – I wrote one song called "Headache." It’s real good. I might bring it back as a Girls number (laughs). That’s a love song.
JY – So with Liza the band was called Curls.
CO – Yeah, I mean..that’s what happened. She came around, and then she took off.
JY – And then Girls started. You were like, "I’m going to keep doing this."
LK – How long were you together for?
CO – Two years. We lived together. She’s the first person…she introduced me to everybody I know here. So she was like, huge in my life.
LK – You came from where originally again? Sorry.
CO – Amarillo, Texas.
LK – So you came here from Texas, and then you met her here.
CO – Yep. She yelled at me in a park, "hey crazy." And I knew she was talking about me. I don’t know why. I was looking at the floor, I had on sunglasses, but I knew when I heard "hey crazy" I knew it was someone yelling at me. I turned around and looked, and you know, I expected what I see all the time, but instead I see Liza, Raina.
JR - Chicks.
CO - With her shirt way unbuttoned. And Patrik [Sandberg] and Erin Rush. I was like, she started it, I’m gonna walk over there. You know? I spent the first half of the year here, not really knowing who to hang out with. But right away I was like, yeah, I wanna go hang out with them, for sure.
JY – Cool. Do you have any more questions? Did you guys have anything else that you want to add? Or if you have questions that you want to ask each other?
JR – We have no questions between us anymore.
JY – You’ve become intimately acquainted.
CO – No, we should think about that.
LK – Oh yeah, are any of you guys single at the moment? You know...Tigerbeat…
JY – Oh yeah we’re gonna Tigerbeat treat this, so….
CO – (in an extremely high and girly voice) Yep, single and ready to mingle. Just turned 21!
GB – I’m single.
CO – Accepting applications.
JY – Waiting for that Italian goddess? Somewhere.
GB – I’ll find her.
JR – I’m single. Looking for a new girl to verbally abuse.
CO – Oh god.
HH – Wasn’t there something about a misogynist question?
GB – Hayes you have a girlfriend.
H – I do have a girlfriend (Rockin Rosie in Cincy).
LK – You cold?
CO – I am pretty chilly.
JY – I’m cold too. Let’s go. I think that’s good. Thanks guys.
CO – Yeah, you’re welcome.
JY – Thanks for your time.
CO – Oh I want to ask, I want to ask….Hayes and Greg, you guys havin a good time playing so far?
GB & HH – Yeah, for sure, we’re having a great time.
LK – I got a question. Is there any guest list for your show if we were to bust our ass out there so we could come?
Min 50:15