How do you manage to combine a young, childish feel while still creating enjoyable music?
That’s just my personality popping out in the music, I work with children and senior citizens on a daily basis and that sensibility tends to take over the brain whether you want it to or not. Most of the melodies and some of the lyrics are inspired by just absorbing the strangeness that is happening in the room, and if you tweak your thoughts enough you can tap into what others find amusing as well. Children also tend to be a good test group for some of our tamer tunes, as children’s reactions and critiques tend to be pretty instanteous. While some of the friendlier senior citizens inspire tracks with gravy and wisdom. Hopefully, the melodies and lyrics will tap into the recessive memories of everyone and inspire some festive toe tapping / thumb-twiddling.
Is there more to most of your lyrics than it seems?
I personally don’t think so. The lyrics tend to be colored from personal experience and flights of imagination. So it truly depends on the mind-set of the listener as to how they take it. I’ve been told our lyrics are as pure as the driven snow, while others think there two shades past obscene. But either way you take it is fine with me, once their launched into sonic orbit there isn’t much we can do about it.
Have you considered making a movie — say, maybe, Cannibal Stewardess Two?
Interesting you should bring this up. Right now where in the process of scouring senior homes to put together an amateur senior citizen acting troupe tentatively dubbed “Golden Veins”. We’re adapting some of our more out their tracks into stage musicals. Things like “The Saga of Space Fruit”, “Grandpa’s Monkey Baby”, and “Fish House” Basically if your over 70 and interested in creating we will cast you. There is a wealth of acting and stage experience living in retirement communities and their itching for a chance to show off their skills to a new audience. If this proves successful and we don’t scare off our audience during these productions then we’ll try to branch out into some digital media. I think “Cannibal Stewardess” starring someone well into there 80’s would be enticing and altogether unique.
How does your rough recording style contribute to your musical style?
The way we record is fast, cheap, and loose. I am a very impatient man when it comes to laboring over takes. So we tend to bust things out as quickly as possible. That more than anything else is the reason we sound the way we do, although I do find the lo-fi aesthetic very appealing and I believe if we labored over our tracks we would crush some of the charm they hold. I view a lot of our tunes the way you would view a grape. You want to eat it before it transforms into a raisin.
Who would you say your music appeals to more — small children, acid-tripping teenagers, or people with a love of the whimsical?
Hopefully all three and maybe some pets as well. If you drop a petting zoo in with the children, teenagers and the whimsy lovers they all will find something to enjoy and or stroke. Oh yeah and don?t forget the geriatric fan base their always overlooked.
What is the primary influence in your music?
That?s the type of question that?s difficult to answer. It?s a mixture of all the music that we grew up loving as well as the circle of friends, family, and life experiences that have tilted my worldview. I could give a laundry list of musical influences but that would only touch the surface. If I had to sum our influences into a tidy package I?d say it?s one-third pickles, one-third people, and one-third stereo.
Is “The Magical Chocolate Flute” about what I think it’s about?
If you’re thinking of something you?d like to stick in your mouth and blow on then…..yes.