Hey there dear readers... The Northside Festival is just around the corner, and here at HBR we are so excited about our showcase that we can't even sleep or eat, or really do anything other that drink beer and count down the days. Last year, one of my bands, The Planes, shared a bill with Crazy Pills, at The Whatever Blog showcase (and it was incredible), and we're lucky to have them on the Hearts Bleed Radio Showcase this year. Crazy Pills (Amanda on Guitar/Vox, Eddie on Bass, and Jim on drums) are a high energy three-piece, and kinda sounds like that point where rockabilly, garage rock, punk, and pop, all intersect. I sat down with Amanda and discussed her two main passions; music and cats.
Hearts Bleed Radio: I have to start with the most important question first. How are your cats getting along?
HBR: I heard that it can take a while for them to kinda smell the same, and that's when they finally accept each other. Snuggles? I thought it was Miyu.
HBR: Yeah, Baron is either "Bear," "Bearcat," or "Bearmuffin" to me. He's only called "Baron" when he's in trouble. So aside from cats... You also play guitar and sing in Crazy Pills. I would describe your sound as "garage rock 2.0". A lot of influence from 60's garage, but like, you obviously lived through the last couple of decades and take inspiration from that. Where are you coming from musically? What are you main influences?
Amanda: Hmm - good question! I guess that as with our tunes being thematically disparate from song to song - one song is inspired by cults, one is inspired by moving out of NYC, one is a good ol' "he done me wrong, mama" - so are our influences! Obviously, each player brings his respective influence to the table so...I can only speak for myself. I love the Stones. I draw a lot of that rock and roll swagger from my childhood dream of being the next, I dunno, Elvis? Who knows. I love the rockabilly from the 50s and 60s (and country, of course - I grew up in an Indiana town with...wait that's a Tom Petty song - I grew up in a blue collar town with tons of country music radio stations, I can sing along to any Trisha Yearwood or Dwight Yoakam song, dude), obviously, the garage and pop from the 60s through the 70s, post-punk or whatever you call it from the 80s... man...
Amanda: They are not! Ha. Apparently, they're trying to ascertain which is "alpha". I think they'll settle down. Apparently the small sassy female is going for the win. You know how that's gonna go. I'm pretty proud of Binky - he's being very tentative and careful around Snuggles. She's being alternately too cute for words and hissy... KITTENS.
HBR: I heard that it can take a while for them to kinda smell the same, and that's when they finally accept each other. Snuggles? I thought it was Miyu.
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| Clockwise from top left: Amanda's cats, Miyu /"Snuggles", Binky, my cat Baron, and my roommates cat, Storm NOW YOU KNOW |
Amanda: IT IS SNUGGLES. Eddie was like, "She's a little girl, she needs a pretty dignified name" or some nonsense like that. Since Binky's full name is Bibingka, which is this purple yam based, Filipino sweet, he thought it should be a girl's name in Japanese or whatever. So I went with Miyu, which is a girls' name in Japan which means "pretty [something, I forget]". But she is Snuggles to me... I LOVE CATS. Please, let it be known.
HBR: Yeah, Baron is either "Bear," "Bearcat," or "Bearmuffin" to me. He's only called "Baron" when he's in trouble. So aside from cats... You also play guitar and sing in Crazy Pills. I would describe your sound as "garage rock 2.0". A lot of influence from 60's garage, but like, you obviously lived through the last couple of decades and take inspiration from that. Where are you coming from musically? What are you main influences?
Amanda: Hmm - good question! I guess that as with our tunes being thematically disparate from song to song - one song is inspired by cults, one is inspired by moving out of NYC, one is a good ol' "he done me wrong, mama" - so are our influences! Obviously, each player brings his respective influence to the table so...I can only speak for myself. I love the Stones. I draw a lot of that rock and roll swagger from my childhood dream of being the next, I dunno, Elvis? Who knows. I love the rockabilly from the 50s and 60s (and country, of course - I grew up in an Indiana town with...wait that's a Tom Petty song - I grew up in a blue collar town with tons of country music radio stations, I can sing along to any Trisha Yearwood or Dwight Yoakam song, dude), obviously, the garage and pop from the 60s through the 70s, post-punk or whatever you call it from the 80s... man...
Of course there's 90s college rock that I think gave me the guts to go electric - thank god for The Breeders, BELLY, all those rad female fronted bands for having freaky amazing songwriters fronting rock bands. I could go on and on... Also - my guitar playing is influenced by separate factors beyond the songwriters and bands I'm influenced by so it's... not quite a conflict but it does take the tunes different directions than they start out heading.
