The Mindbuzz
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The Mindbuzz
MB:204 with Aixa, Go Betty Go Unplugged: Candid Conversations on Music and Shows
Aixa is the drummer for Go Betty Go, an all-female punk band from Los Angeles.
https://www.facebook.com/GoBettyGoOfficial/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-betty-battle-her-cancer-away
We're back on the airwaves, ready to burst your earbuds with the latest from the world of music and comedy after a 12-day hiatus. We've got Aixa from Go Betty Go in the studio, sharing her musical odyssey, tales from the music industry trenches, and the scoop on her band's forthcoming shows and album. There's also a sneaky peek at our holiday-themed open mic night and a special surprise gig. Just when you thought we'd run out of juice, we plunge into a wild ride through LA traffic, recounting our touring adventures in an RV, and our morbidly fascinating visit to Jeffrey Dahmer's neighborhood.
A drumroll, please, as we venture into a chat about a love for drumming discovered purely by chance and how it shaped our guest's musical career. We reminisce about Stuart Copeland and The Police's massive influence, while our guest delves into why Sting's "wildcat" drumming is worth checking out. We've got a mishmash of comedy, music, and riveting personal stories on the menu. So, buckle up and get ready for a jam-packed episode!
My Grito Industries
mygrito.net
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See you on the next one!
"King without a Throne" is performed by Bad Hombres
King without a Throne Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNhxTYU8kUs
King without a Throne
https://open.spotify.com/track/7tdoz0W9gr3ubetdW4ThZ8?si=9a95947f58bf416e
It's been 12 days and we're back. Three, two, one.
Speaker 2:Why didn't the music play?
Speaker 1:Because it's all the way low. Can you just pull it all the way up? Nope, 12 days is too long for you. What happened? 12 days is too long for both of us.
Speaker 3:That's when things start breaking.
Speaker 1:There we go, all the way up.
Speaker 2:I don't know where was that button? All right, let's try it again.
Speaker 1:All the way up. It's all the way up. Okay, go for it. Hit the music. What is up? Ladies and gentlemen, people of the Mind Buzz Universe, yes, we are back, and obviously it's been way too long since we're back. So how you been, amber?
Speaker 2:I've been good.
Speaker 1:You've been good. Yeah, you okay.
Speaker 2:I had a brain fart there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so did I.
Speaker 2:I was like so many buttons, which one is it?
Speaker 1:But it's all good because we're live. We're alive, we're well, we're doing great. We're back on the podcast.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's been forever.
Speaker 1:It has it's been 12 days or 11?
Speaker 2:days, are you serious? Yeah, dang, this is probably the longest.
Speaker 1:Well recording days.
Speaker 2:I think it's been 13 to 14 days because the Kind of like dog years or what Recording days and regular days? Yeah, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:Anyways, what's up, I'm Gil, your host. If you haven't remembered, if you've forgotten all about us. I'm your host, Gil, and then working the board with the one, two, three and fours is You're right? So I've wound the buttons, forgetting what to press, but Amber's in the back.
Speaker 2:I'm here, I'm here, you're here. Yeah, it was all that turkey from Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:Geez, how long has that been too. How long has that been, I don't know. Another long time.
Speaker 2:I feel like from my birthday in November all the way to the end of the year, it's just this like blur, like everything just melts together.
Speaker 1:For the next two months it's just going to be a blur, yeah it is because there's always something happening and I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know what day I'm in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's actually a lot of things happening this week and next week, one of which is can we get that on the screen? Let's talk about that for a bit. I'm trying to move the blended thing in. Anyways, I will be at the Comedy Chateau in North Hollywood December 9th, 10 pm. Oh yeah, there's going to be links to the show if use promo code G I L L to get free tickets, okay, don't tell anybody, but again, tell everybody. G I L L promo code for tickets. Show starts at 10 pm. It should be a good one. It's a stacked lineup. Cool comedy club in North Hollywood. I am super, duper excited.
Speaker 1:Besides this one, if you can't make it to this one, I'm going to be hosting the open Mike night at Orchathedia in the city of Paramount with Amber. Come hang out with us. Amber is going to be in an elf suit. I will maybe be in a Australian, did we? Did we decide that I'm going to be in a? I'm going to be a Hawaiian Santa. We'll see. I don't know, hawaiian Santa or Australian Santa. I had to work on my Hawaiian thing, but anyways, what do we have in the world of my agrito?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have the my agrito weekly. So three LH will be performing at La Santa on December 15. Also, for anyone in the Chicago area, la Rosa Norm will be celebrating their album release on December 16. So if you're in the Chicago area, go check them out. Also, our friend Maria Sanchez will be celebrating her birthday this Saturday and her band will be performing along with another one of our friends, harry Katz and the pistachios. I think you can go RSVP for that. It's like a secret show. So, yeah, go check that out.
Speaker 1:And if it's a secret show, don't tell anybody, but tell everybody. Okay, so if you can make the show, we have so many things going on. If you like comedy, go check out a comedy comedy show. If you like music and want to dance and groove like me, go to the show with our friend from Maria Sanchez.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you want to hear some comedy, poetry and music, come to our open mic in the city of Paramount.
Speaker 1:December 14,. The signups are still open. So go to our link and sign up, but sign that sign up if you want to. Yeah, and it's a 14 days is too long, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2:Sorry, christmas sweater theme.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's right. I totally forgot about that. Yeah, okay, and winner gets a prize. Winner gets a prize. Who won the last contest?
Speaker 2:Las motitas All right.
Speaker 1:We won't talk about that but they won. But they won. Let's get into our guest for this evening. I am super excited. We've been had this interview booked for a very long time. I'm super excited, aitza, with Go Betty Go.
Speaker 3:Hey guys, nice to be here.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being here, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:So how was this a good drive for you?
Speaker 3:We talked about it a little bit. You know it's LA traffic. What time did I leave home? Yeah, about six o'clock. Got me to this location about 730. So you know, you told me.
Speaker 1:I asked you about like how far Hollywood is. I've only been there a couple of times. I'm asking because I have that show on Saturday and.
Speaker 3:I just I figured, as you were plugging your North Hollywood show, we were talking about traffic. I put those together, I was like, okay, he's trying to figure out how long it's going to take him to get to his own show.
Speaker 1:I'm planning for it. I have to. I'm very neurotic.
Speaker 3:But wait, it's Saturday night.
Speaker 1:Saturday night Should be a little better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, unless there's an accident.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:You should be good.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:You can map it out.
Speaker 2:You'll be good Are you going to say a?
Speaker 3:map quest. I was about to say map quest.
Speaker 1:Do you remember map quest yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, we used to tour with map quest. Yeah, that was before Google maps and Apple maps and all that stuff. You have to print it out. Go to Kinko's.
Speaker 1:That was crazy. Yeah, crazy times.
Speaker 3:And then just follow directions and then you know go with it if you didn't get there and start asking people.
Speaker 1:How was it Like? Just it blows my mind. You were talking about an RV earlier today and I was being negative and say I don't know how people drive those. They're crazy People who are insane, just a little bit.
Speaker 3:Well, the RV that I pointed out was a big old RV.
Speaker 1:It's huge. It's as big as the house.
Speaker 3:That's an Arleigh RV.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Very cool RV was not that big, but on the highway an RV is pretty decent, you can run smoothly. It's when you get into the city streets, and then even worse is when you got a park, so that could be pretty gnarly. Or when you're going through dips and stuff like it just sounds like you know you're dragging a dinosaur.
Speaker 1:When you guys were touring. How big was the vehicle then? Or did you have like multiple vehicles?
Speaker 3:Well, the RV was a 26 footer 26 footer, that's still huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty big. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty big. I took the one my parents have.
Speaker 1:And you had equipment, yeah, so you guys had a trailer too. Oh really.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, we had a trailer. We had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere in an RV with the trailer. It's pretty jolty.
Speaker 1:So how accurate was that scene in the Selena movie with the RV and them getting stuck? How is that? Pretty on point.
Speaker 3:Is that the scene with the cholos?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like it's accurate except for the cholos, I don't know. They could have been in Texas. We don't know.
Speaker 3:I mean. Remind me of the scene, though, because do they get pulled over? They're touring in an RV and they get pulled over. No, they break down and the cholos want to help them out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they get stuck in the sand.
Speaker 3:They get stuck or not the sand, but like Off the dirt.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:We got stuck in the snow. One time up in Lake Tahoe. We got stuck in the snow and it was after show, so it was already like two in the morning, so it's completely dark. We just spent the night there. That was a nice thing about the RV, because you could turn on the heater as long as you had propane and in your battery was powered up.
Speaker 1:And where was this?
Speaker 3:Lake Tahoe Lake.
Speaker 1:Tahoe, the middle of winter oh.
Speaker 3:So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:And it was snow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we got stuck in the snow Really and we're from LA so we're definitely not used to being in snow conditions, so there was nothing we could do except spend the night there, and then I think the promoter called a friend the next morning and helped pull us out.
Speaker 1:Was that the only time you guys got stuck Like was in the snow, or was there no time?
Speaker 3:We got stuck in Wisconsin at the venue. The driveway had a big dip so when you would drive into it like the rear bumper would kind of like curve down and just get stuck in that ditch and the trailer hitch would get stuck in holes from other bands doing the same thing. So that was right around the corner from Dahmer's like neighborhood oh cool. So we started just exploring it while some of the guys were trying to take it out, they're like let's get off, yeah, and we walked into a bar and they're like oh, that's the refrigerator where he used to put.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, some like macabre stuff, you know.
Speaker 1:Do you remember the name of the bar? The bar no.
Speaker 3:The bar was the neighborhood where his apartment was, which has been destroyed now. I mean, I think they demolished it shortly after that happened the apartment, the apartment, yeah.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I mean it's a place where it was, just, you know, a lot of police activity, plus it was probably a rundown building as it was, and I think it's an empty lot now Just because it's like it's such a morbid place. You know, I don't know, maybe they could have done something positive there to try to give it a new life, but I think until a few years ago it was a empty lot.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and a lot of his stuff got sold to people you know, who are just into collecting weird stuff. I wonder why. And I think it collected sorry, I think it collected money for the victims. I think that was part of it too, so at least some of the families maybe got some. I could be remembering wrong, but at least there's some positivity.
Speaker 2:Sure, I wonder why we're so obsessed with what's your yeah.
Speaker 1:It's true crime, it's the macabre, it's mystery, it's passion.
Speaker 3:Why were we fucked?
Speaker 2:up in the head yeah, so I see that.
Speaker 1:I'm just justifying it. I was trying to be nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or there's something wrong with us. I honestly I am interested by a lot of that stuff and then sometimes I wonder what's wrong with me. I think it's just the complete dark side of humanity that sometimes just you know is hard to understand.
Speaker 2:I've seen that the US and we like to get scared. Yeah, you're right, that's it. The US is like 10 times like 10 times more that we have serial killers than anywhere else in the country.
Speaker 3:Or in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean in the world, I mean to say yeah, yeah yeah, I think.
Speaker 3:I mean, if you think about it, we have a pretty big population though. So we've, you know, I think we're over 300, 350 million people in the country. So, yeah, if you're gonna come compare that to other places, that's probably one of the reasons why, statistically, there's just more people. But there obviously are some dark sides to our culture, maybe that, you know, bring people to those places and create these monsters.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it is, I don't know, I don't know, but whatever it is, it's still, it's fascinating, and there's-.
Speaker 3:It's interesting, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Even with podcasts like True Crime is probably it's way up there. It's probably like the number one-.
Speaker 3:Genre, genre, yeah, go compete with that right, exactly.
Speaker 1:I, like you, can't.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:It's on every podcast, it's on A&E, it's on every different channel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and even like streaming, like TV shows. You know, I mean Dahmer itself. The Netflix show was one of, I think, the best just producing document, not documentaries, I mean series. It just did so well, but you know it was really. It was a bit hard to watch.
Speaker 2:But I admit.
Speaker 3:I watched it and I was fascinated by it, and then there was a lot of controversy behind it. Yeah, like the family, of course of course I mean put yourself in the shoes of those family members and just, you know, glorifying. It's not that they glorified Dahmer and made him look nice and all that. I mean they were telling the story. But you know people are out there today and that this happened to them personally. It was their family, so it's horrible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Wasn't there something about, I guess, some of the family of the victims they didn't get Like they didn't get asked permission Right, something like that right.
Speaker 3:To tell the story, or I don't know if it's not even about money. I think they just weren't acknowledged. I think that's part of it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's what it was.
Speaker 3:It's like you know, at least run it past us, but you know it's.
Speaker 1:I wonder if all that is like IP, like intellectual property of the story that's crazy to think about.
Speaker 3:I mean it is public domain in the sense that it's stuff that happens you know it's news, it's history.
Speaker 1:right, yeah, and yeah it's events. How can you brand like an event like that?
Speaker 3:Right, right, I guess, I don't know. Sometimes you have to sign off on stuff, I would think.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:But then a lot of celebrities have movies made about them and they were like I never signed off on this. But things get made.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's super wild. What to do?
Speaker 3:It's the world we live in. And then you get sued, you know, for I don't know, there's too much stuff in the contract that we have no idea about.
Speaker 1:There's lawyers for everything, so I'm pretty sure you gotta hire a lawyer.
Speaker 3:I'm not a lawyer, yeah.
Speaker 1:No idea, but if somebody would play you in a movie, who would it be? If they did a go betty, go movie based on you guys, what would be? Because you play the drums, right, yeah, who would be the drummer in the movie?
Speaker 3:Well, she's not an actress, but I get told a lot that I look like Shakira. So I don't know if it's the hair. Shakira does play drums too. I've seen her. I've seen footage of her playing drums.
Speaker 2:I don't know. There you go, Shakira.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could see that.
Speaker 3:I could see that. Yeah, there you go, but she's not an actress.
Speaker 1:So how long have you been playing the drums for?
Speaker 3:I've been playing drums since I was 12. So it's been a few decades now.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:I'm up there. I'm in that range where you're like, wow, I made it to my 40s here I am yeah.
Speaker 1:Were you a student of a drumming instructor or drum instructor? It was a-. Or did you pick up something? Was it school? It sticks up to yourself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was at school. It was a music class. I was supposed to be in an art class and they accidentally put me in a music exploratory.
Speaker 1:So you know how to read music and all that good stuff I learned in junior high and that was it.
Speaker 3:That's my education with music. It was junior high. I did a little drumline in high school. I didn't like the teacher, and then I just started starting my own punk bands.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I didn't continue my education in music, but I just played on the side.
Speaker 1:Who's your favorite drummer? I ask drummers this all the time who their favorite drummer is.
Speaker 3:Fair enough question. I'm a big Stuart Copeland fan.
Speaker 1:Stuart Copeland. Yeah, can you pull him up? Who does he play for the police?
Speaker 3:Oh, I mean they don't play anymore, but I did see them when they did a reunion tour back in 2008. Actually, Foo Fighters had opened up for them. It was at Dodger Stadium and his style is just all over the place. I love it. I like the way he does his grooves. The police mixes in that they kind of like that reggae rock vibe and Sting. He's a great song composer, so they have good stuff. I can't play anywhere near him, but I like his style.
Speaker 1:Sting is crazy. He's another wildcat.
Speaker 3:I think was it.
Speaker 1:Sting I'm trying to think of the guy that was on that show that have a nice day trip, or something like that. I think, was it him? I'm trying to think.
Speaker 3:I don't remember Sting being on a TV show.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:But is it someone that an English guy, an old English guy?
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know, I don't think so I don't think we're talking about the same person.
Speaker 3:Okay, you're thinking of someone.
Speaker 1:Do you want to?
Speaker 3:show you who Sting is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, please.
Speaker 3:I know who Sting is Well Sting was like in the early 80s. He was in some movies, but obviously he's known more for musician than an actor Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Okay, to the left, that's my Sting. To the right is that's my Sting from the WCW.
Speaker 2:Right, right, here yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's a wrestler called Sting. I wasn't thinking of him. I know he's different from that band, but that's okay. I think he was. Look up Sting and have a nice day.
Speaker 3:Just look it up. So what is have a nice day? I'm not familiar with that. It's besides, have a nice day, it's like a documentary on Psychedelics. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:It was on Netflix.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:Was it him? I don't think so, no.
Speaker 3:I have.
Speaker 1:No, somebody else? Yeah, I'll figure it out. No.
Speaker 3:I guess it was in him. We'll have to circle back to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause he was talking, it wasn't Sting. Was somebody else talking about this? Yeah, bon Jovi. It could have been Bon Jovi, maybe no.
Speaker 3:Oh no, that's probably a song they have. That's his album or something right Nice day yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'll look it up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can you do that, go down the rabbit hole.
Speaker 1:You handle that, yeah, so how long were you playing before you started playing with Go Betty Go?
Speaker 3:Well, I guess it wasn't that long after, because so Junior High was, yeah, when I picked up the drums I didn't, like I said, I started my own bands and just started playing with other, you know, friends from school. And then we met Betty just through a mutual friend in high school. Betty had gone to Junior High and even elementary with us, but there were a lot of kids in the school growing up so we actually weren't really friends in school. So, again, it was just through a mutual friend. So that was, yeah, like towards then to high school. Betty was still in high school, I had just graduated. My sister, nicolette, who sings, she was still in school as well. She ended up graduating early because she couldn't stand being in high school anymore. She wanted to get out. But yeah, that's when we started the band, like kind of in our late teens and you know, right after we graduated and some of us were still there.
Speaker 3:And then we met Michelle through another mutual friend a few months after we started the band and you guys started playing in what city you know we're based out of Glendale, At least the three of us Michelle grew up more like in a near like USC that type of neighborhood but we started playing locally, more like in the Highland Park area at Mr Tees Bowl, which had a lot of like bands come and play their residency on Tuesday nights, and we just kind of started growing a following there and then we just started booking any show that you know we would be offered, just because, you know, especially at that age, you know you're just so young and you have so much energy. I can't imagine playing every single song that you have on your album. So much energy, I can't imagine playing every single night now, especially locally. It's just, you know, it's exhausting.
Speaker 3:But yeah, we would play five, six nights a week all over the city in Orange County. And then, you know, we caught the tension of one of the local indie labels, Side One, Dummy Records, at the time that we were based in Hollywood and we got signed and, you know, recorded our first EP and then we hit the road and started touring with a bunch of other bands and did a warp tour South by Southwest and just kind of, you know, the momentum was picking up and we were just like a full-time band by that point, so a few years after we started.
Speaker 1:I missed the Vans Warp Tour.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was so awesome.
Speaker 3:It's almost nostalgic at this point to think about. You know those summers and the memories that everybody made when they would either. I mean, I went to them when I was like 16, 17. And it was just like the highlight of the summer. You know to be a kid and go out to those shows.
Speaker 1:Amber, can you look up when, the how, when they started the Vans Warp Tour?
Speaker 3:I believe it was 1996, but you shall correct me now with the, and I think it was like Sublime, no doubt, oh, 1995. Okay, A lot of you know bands from that era. But yeah, it grew, it expanded, it became huge.
Speaker 1:See if you can find the first flyer I want to send.
Speaker 3:And we did a few of them. We did 2003, 2004, 2005. And then my sister Nicolette. She quit the band in 2005. And then we ended up doing, I think, a few shows 2008 or so, and then they had a 25-year reunion a few years ago.
Speaker 3:And I think it was one on the East Coast, one here on the West Coast, and that was really cool because they just brought back a bunch of bands that throughout the years had done Warp Tour and it was a big party to just celebrate the 25 years of Warp Tour.
Speaker 1:They used to have this on the East Coast.
Speaker 3:Well Warp. Tour was throughout the entire country, even in Canada, and I think they even did not during the same summertime, but I think there were even some Warp Tours in Japan and Australia.
Speaker 1:Whoa, that would be cool.
Speaker 3:Kind of just one-off stuff. We never did those overseas but yeah, Warp Tour here in the summers, yeah, they would do all the states and into Canada. So Warp Tours a lot of times would make or break bands because Really.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, great exposure, lots of fun. But especially when you're a small-time band, it takes so much effort because you are playing all day in the heat and you're exhausted so you're not resting well, and then you're driving all night to try to get to the next city and you'd have to be there early in the morning to set up and start all over again. So it's a lot of effort. I mean, I guess, again going back to being young, you have a little more energy and you're able to keep up with that. But I saw a lot of bands just call it quits and understandably, Because of the fatigue of touring and doing all that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, really yeah. It gets to you. I mean, you're living like a gypsy on the road Again, you'd be traveling in a van doing this all yourself, and then you have all these big headliners and tour buses and living it out a whole different way. And that's not even easy too. You're away from home and all that, but it becomes difficult. It's a grind after. Imagine doing that 30, 35, 40 days yeah, a lot.
Speaker 1:Consectively just Day in, day out.
Speaker 3:Warped tour. I think would do about five, six shows in a row.
Speaker 1:Whoa yeah, so a lot of driving.
Speaker 3:I mean a lot of fun. You're seeing all these awesome bands and you're making tons of friends, and even behind the scenes, with the crew and catering and the people working at the production office, it takes a huge effort and it's a huge team that puts it all together. So that was always the fun part of just getting to hang out with people and make friends. But it was grueling and grinding for sure.
Speaker 1:So where do you guys fit Like rehearsals in between all that moving equipment and just moving in general to place to place? Where does that come in?
Speaker 3:You mean literally the logistics of being on the road, or like Right, yes, yeah well, I mean, we had a roadie, sean, who's a good friend of ours and he put up with a lot of crap of ours too and he helped drive us around and load our stuff and sweat his butt off for a guy and got to use a bathroom and go to the 110 degree porta-potties the life of luxury.
Speaker 1:But yeah, when do you guys like practice and rehearsal for shows?
Speaker 3:While touring I mean obviously not no, no, no, no. You get plenty of practice. That's the best practice, just doing it. But yeah, before you'd hit the road we would rehearse, or before shows and for home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At that time Betty's garage was our rehearsal spot, so we would actually our Come On video. There's a scene where we open the garage and that's her house where we're in the reverse.
Speaker 1:The actual video has the spot on it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's the legit spot.
Speaker 2:So how do you even start? I'm thinking because a lot of times when you do things that are new or aren't necessarily, I guess, like things that are foreign to you, right, and again I can speak for myself, like us that you know my family has a business. We're the first in our family to have a business, so no one really walked us through how to get there right. You're like, okay, where do I go? What do I need to get? What do I need to do? Things like that, like for you guys, I'm taking that it's going to be kind of the same thing. How did you guys even figure out? Or was there someone working with you guys, or was there someone advising you, or was it just all try-on error of kind of like going from just playing, you know, at like a place and then all of a sudden you're on tour, like how different, and how did you guys navigate that?
Speaker 3:Like, well, I think it's like most jobs, you know, in a way it's like fake it till you make it and also just learning on the job with us. It was always just having the courage to just not let anything hold us back and just do it. Like, at least for myself. Personally, I'm kind of a problem solver, so instead of seeing it as a problem, I look for solutions. So you try to resolve. You know, how do you? How do I get a show?
Speaker 3:Okay, well, I'm going to call my friend who knows a guy. I'm going to call that guy and I'm going to say, hey, I am in a band and we want to play a show, and you just, you got to get rid of any shyness that there, you know, could hold you back from doing those things and just do it. And then what you find is that it's a snowball effect and one opportunity leads you into another. You meet a new person, you're invited to do one thing. Then, before you know it, you're meeting these other people who you know invite you to come out to this party, and then you meet other people at this party and then they tell you, hey, I've got this TV show, and you go to the do the TV show and you show. You just got to show up and then just go with the flow.
Speaker 1:That's half of it, right? Yeah, just showing up, that's 50%.
Speaker 3:Hell, yeah, hell, yeah. Like you know, just show up. You know, of course, there were shows where there was nobody there except two people, and those two people became fans and then, you know, they told somebody else, if you show up, things happen yeah.
Speaker 1:I like that and I feel like that's all it is. You got to show up and just do the best you can with what you got right.
Speaker 3:It takes so much effort to just move yourself and like, make things happen, that it's that action effect. You know, with a reaction there's going to be a reaction. So the reaction is that snowball effect Like it just creates. We don't think about it, but every small decision we make does create this timeline for us that brings opportunities that when you look back you're like, oh crap, if I wouldn't have done this, I wouldn't have had this opportunity or I would have never met this person. So everything just kind of like sets itself for an investment towards your future that you're not even thinking about in the moment you're making those decisions.
Speaker 1:So first step is showing up. Second step you talked about shyness, and how can, how would you begin to describe to somebody to if they wanted to get rid of their shyness, to do something like play drums or pick up a guitar or go and do stand up? How would, how would you get rid of that shyness?
Speaker 3:I think it's just having that courage and dropping the fear of having people care of like you, you worrying about whether they are going to like it or not, and just do it because you want to do it and not care about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Shifting the focus to something positive, to what you're doing, to focus on that right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean you can't, you can't stop and overthink it, Just go for it. Obviously it's easier said than done and then with practice you build a little more confidence. But I was, I mean, as a kid I was deadly shy, Like I couldn't talk to adults, Like I, you know, I had my small group of friends, but I just I realized how much that held me back and it's, I think, in life you just got to just go for it and and not let those things hold you back, because opportunities will be given to someone else if, if you don't step up.
Speaker 1:And that that one stinks too, I know. I know, at the end you think about it. It's like, okay, if I don't do this, somebody else is going to take my place.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, Fortunately. You know you hear it all the time, but we are all replaceable at the end of the day and you just got to be able to just make an opportunity, because you don't know what tomorrow holds. So you got to be able to just enjoy the moment and just go for it. And who cares what people think? Like it's your life you know like enjoy enjoy your moment.
Speaker 1:And even being replaceable in Los Angeles and Hollywood and the entertainment industry. We're in the mecca of entertainment. I know Like if you better take that shot if it's giving to you right.
Speaker 3:But at the same time, I mean, we used to be all about go, go, go, go, work, work, work, work, play, play, play, play. That takes a toll on you too. So you got to, you got to be able to find that balance, and that was a hard lesson for me. I I was that person in the band, I was the person that said yes to everything, and, and you know that that will wear people out not physically, not only physically, but mentally as well. So you know, sometimes it's okay to say no and take a break and and take care of yourself as well.
Speaker 1:How soon after that do you realize that that was an even even an option. To do that it took a few years you know, because also. A few years is a long time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And also you have a lot of people. You know there was a point in in in our timeline where we had a big team behind us, you know, and it's like that's when you feel like you're working for other people too it's not just your band Like you've got a team of people that, like, are pushing you and their day job is to get you ahead as well. So you feel like you have to obligate you know those roles and and be able to commit to the obligations of other people, schedules and and just all sorts of stuff that you got to, you got to complete. So you feel like you have to be doing these things.
Speaker 3:One. Maybe you don't want to. You know some of us more than others and I had to, you know, get to spot where I was like, okay, we should have taken a break sooner. Or you know we should have talked about these things before. But, yeah, I think in life you have to be able to assess and reset the situation when the time is right, instead of pushing yourself all the way through, because that could get you into trouble too, out of that fear of like saying, yeah, everybody is replaceable, so if it's not us, it's gonna be someone else, but you know what? Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 1:Well, no one's gonna make that call for you right. Like, who else is gonna make that call for a band? Yeah, hey, you guys seem tired. I don't think you guys should play the show.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. It'll be like yeah, okay, yeah, drink some water.
Speaker 1:Here's a monster, here you go.
Speaker 3:Right, I know drink water.
Speaker 1:That's the healthy one. Here's a zinger and a cup of water. You'll get through it.
Speaker 3:Go take a nap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but naps fix everything. I'll tell you that once you know.
Speaker 3:A good 10, 20 minute nap. That'll do the trick.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:How would you describe for some of our listeners that maybe haven't heard you guys as band or you don't wanna get into it, like how would you in a nutshell describe your band? Like what type of music is it? Or what kind of collective of different genres? Or how would you describe it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean we definitely fall into that punk pop, punk, rock and roll genre, you know, just like a lot of other bands, a lot of times we've been compared to like the go-go's meet the Ramones.
Speaker 3:So in that world, you know, we always just we were very much influenced by a lot of those bands I just mentioned and we just love to play music and they influenced us and sparked creativity for us to write the songs that we did with a lot of their influences and just for the love of playing music, and we were just fortunate enough that people enjoyed what we were making and that that's what you know, till the state keeps us going.
Speaker 3:It's like we write music, not as much as other bands, you know, and we have slowed down in the last few years with, you know, our personal lives and other things going on. But it's nice when, after everything you've done, you know, you get acknowledgement and you realize, wow, like we did this for ourselves first, but it really means a lot to a lot of other people and you know, if it's the lyrics, if it's the music, it's just that feeling that we bring to some of the people that like our music and have followed us for many, many years. Some people have just discovered us, so it's very humbling.
Speaker 1:Nice, have you been to the Punk Rock Museum in Vegas? I have not been there yet. Have you seen this amber? It looks so cool. I wanna go see it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we actually have some stuff there, so I have to go see us represented in the museum. Oh, so you have some stuff there, can?
Speaker 1:you pull it up. Let's look for this.
Speaker 3:Really. Yeah, we donated a lot of stuff. I don't think obviously they've displayed it all. I know for sure there's a shirt of mine that's on display, because I've had people tell me they've seen it on display and that's amazing, you know. Just to know that we are part of this community and the Punk Rock community is truly a community where you know we've met a lot of people over the years and we've made friends and you know it's like a club. You know you go to shows and you start seeing these same people around and you're all there for the same passion of the music and the bands that you're there to see. But yeah, this is a really cool location. I have not had the chance to go see it in person yet, but next time I'm in Vegas with a little extra time I'll definitely stop by.
Speaker 2:How like. I mean, I like punk music, but I don't know too much of it.
Speaker 3:Right, there's a lot but yeah, yeah, I'm in a punk band and I don't even know all of it.
Speaker 2:But how like? Because your guys' band is an all-woman band right. Yeah, how like, how common was that or how common is it? And was there anything like adversity as far as like because you know I mean a lot of like music or a lot of bands and I feel like a lot of like just rock bands in general are always kind of overpowered by male bands, right Of course, yeah, I mean rock and roll in general has been very much male-dominated and yeah, that's very true.
Speaker 3:The good thing is that, especially after being a band for over two decades at this point, is that we've noticed a lot more women coming into the punk rock world, which is a great thing, in a lot of young ladies as well, and you definitely see it way more than when we started playing. I mean when we, for example, going back to Warped Tour, like we were probably one of the only all-girl bands during the summers we were playing. There were other bands that maybe had some female singers or some other musicians in the band, but it wasn't something that you saw as much, and obviously that created curiosity with a lot of people that were just kind of hanging out and didn't know us, and of course they were like, oh, these girls are all gonna play, you know, and then if they ended up liking us, awesome and you know they appreciated the music we made, so it was like we were able to show them.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, we are girls and we play, but we never. That was never a thing for us Like. It's like living your life. You're in this body, right? You don't think about it all the time like I'm a girl. I'm a girl.
Speaker 1:I'm a girl.
Speaker 3:And I'm gonna, you know, like you're just living your life the same way. That, dude, you're a guy, you know. You're not constantly thinking I'm a guy, I'm a guy.
Speaker 3:And I'm going to work and I'm gonna go get gas and it's just, it is what it is. You know, you're living your life, so you know, of course that gets asked a lot in the sense that's like, well, how was it? Well, I don't know how it wouldn't be, because I'm just being myself, you know, right. So, but it is nice to see. What I like seeing now is like it's like here's a band. It's not like here's an all-girl band. It's like, well, we're all bands, you know, like that's the one thing that we're still, we still do. You know it's like you don't call a band with four dudes a guy band. You know they're just a band, but if it's a band with four girls, they're like what's the girl band, Unless that's the name of the band Unless, that's the name, and that's fine.
Speaker 3:There's nothing wrong with that? You know the four dude band.
Speaker 1:The four dude band, the fab four, about that one.
Speaker 3:Exactly, yeah, yeah, so you know again. For us it was like we happen to be girls, we love playing music, and it wasn't about that, it never was. It was just, coincidentally, the people we met in our lives. We happen to be girls and we just made it work, cause and we've played with guys in the band too, like we've had people fill in bass players over the years.
Speaker 1:I seen that when I was looking at your guys' thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, friends of ours, betty is going through a cancer battle right now, which she's a freaking ass, strong ass woman Like it's unbelievable what she's going through. I mean, I was just talking to her about it today and we're talking about what's next for her as far as her treatment goes. And she's like my doctors are stumped because a lot of their patients haven't made it to this point and they're like, okay, you're still here, all right, let's see what's next. You know, and it's unbelievable.
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:It's really amazing. And she's still fighting like hell and she's literally fighting for her life. You know and we did some shows that we had some tours that we had booked before we knew of her cancer status. You know, we had her friend Adam from the 210s fill in, Great guitarist and a really good guy. So, yeah, now we've had guys in our band as well. So, yeah, again, it's not about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just I think like I guess I see it in a perspective of representation for myself, you know Of course, because I go to shows, or we've gone to shows, or even just when I was in high school and it was like it was exciting to even see like a girl drummer or a girl guitarist or anything like that, because it was like, yeah, that's really awesome.
Speaker 3:Like you just said, representation it's nice to see yourself up there. It goes with sexes, it goes with culture, it goes with your nationality. It's like, oh, that's cool, they're families where my family's from, or whatever it is. It's not just a standard cookie cutter kind of lineup that you see all over the place. It's nice to be able to see that diversity and see that women could do the same thing that men do, and again, they're just as badass. You know, and it's not about the girl guy thing, it's just like everybody gets to do it. I mean, it's a 50-50 world that we live in, you know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. My mom has always been like really obsessed with like the drums and I think it was something that she always wanted to do. And my mom was a teen mom and just kind of had to grow up really early and she never did so. When my sister was always like an athlete and a dancer, so she was hoping that I'd be a musician at least, and she always pushed like, oh, you should try the drums, you should do the drums, and you know, cause that was something that she always wanted to do and I did. I think we talked about it a few episodes back where she took me to lessons and I started going and I was like, all right, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. And that Christmas of when I started going to lessons, they bought me a drum set and it probably lost like six months and then I was like, yeah, this isn't for me.
Speaker 3:Aw for illusions, out the window.
Speaker 2:I loved it, I love the idea, I saw myself in it and everything. But there's just an incident that happened that kind of like you know just discouraged me and it had to do with the instructor. I told my mom like years later which I should have told her there, and then now I regret it, but it was. I had like one-on-one sessions with him and he was a little creepy. He would kind of like rub my back.
Speaker 2:And then at some point it like kind of was like my lower back. And that was the last time that I and I would make excuses, that I would tell my mom like, oh, I just don't wanna go.
Speaker 3:Or oh, I don't like it.
Speaker 2:So it was.
Speaker 3:I'm kind of sad now that I that that was the pivotal kind of thing for me, but it was just one of those like he ruined it for you In that moment. But, yeah, no, I understand, being in that situation, the guy was being completely inappropriate.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And it's unfortunate for you that you had to go through that. I'm sorry, but hey, you're breathing right, I am, I am, I really am. There's plenty of other instructors. Or, even better, like you don't have to go to anyone, just go on YouTube, which you seem to be very good at, look up a video with a good instructor that won't creep you out and rub you no creepy instructor and just pick it up.
Speaker 3:And if it was your mom who truly had this drumming passion, I'm sorry. Is your mom still around? Yeah, she is Okay. Good, I was gonna say, have her pick of the drums. That's what I say. There's God. There's this drum group I follow on Facebook of women drummers and I'm forgetting the name now, but there are women on there that are like older ladies who are in their 60s and 70s and they're-.
Speaker 1:She has like short brown hair.
Speaker 3:There's a woman named Dorothea.
Speaker 1:I think I watch her.
Speaker 3:She was like on the late night shows and she does like Blink 182 songs.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't think so. Oh, it's not this woman you're thinking of. I don't think so.
Speaker 3:But what I'm trying to say is like, don't let her age hold her back. If she always wanted to be a drummer, tell her, I tell her, I'm gonna tell her watch this episode.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tell her that she needs to pick up the drums and you don't have to get a drum set, because obviously people are like, oh my God, drums, they take up half my house. Yes, that's true, a lot of instrumentation and parts and pieces and they take up a lot of space. But she could just start off with like just drumsticks and a drum pad and just like work patterns out and just have fun with it, play along to music. I'd love to see her she should do it, tell her, I tell her to do it, because she plays like the air drums again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, she air drums and she like blasts music.
Speaker 3:Well, there's these new like features where, literally like you can, there's these sticks I forget what they're called stuff that comes out every day, you know so new stuff all the time, where you can air drum and they actually sound like real drums.
Speaker 1:I've seen those before. Oh, it's true, yeah, so she could start with that.
Speaker 2:Maybe we should get her that for Christmas.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Don't watch this mom, turn off the show now, that'd be cool.
Speaker 1:Those things are cool. Have you seen them?
Speaker 2:I haven't.
Speaker 1:They're rad, look them up.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna look them up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're super cool. But even, yeah, working out different patterns, yeah.
Speaker 3:Just playing along to songs, the basic stuff right. Start with simple stuff to keep it fun and not overwhelming.
Speaker 3:The fundamentals yeah like when I started playing like I just play a basic beat and I thought it was so cool that, like I'm like, oh wow, this basic beat that I'm doing actually goes along with a lot of songs, and just having fun and playing along to other songs was made it so much more fun. And then meeting people that played music and then I was able to jam with them, so maybe your dad could jam with her.
Speaker 1:Your dad could pick up the guitar or something, or the bass or the flute.
Speaker 3:You know the recorder that's what we had in school. It's like those are cool. Play the recorder or saxophone.
Speaker 1:Tell them to pick up the saxophone so I can borrow it All right just get two different mouthpieces. Do you play any other instruments beside?
Speaker 3:the drums. My first instrument was guitar, so I play a little guitar and then, after I picked up the drums, I felt like that was my calling.
Speaker 1:That was it. Yeah, yeah, the bass would have any other percussion what now? What, besides the drums, what other instrumentations are in the in the percussion world?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I mean, you've got xylophones Do you play that I mean I've messed with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know just like, is it the same thing?
Speaker 3:I mean the rhythmic Portion of it, but it's like that combination of knowing how to play the piano. You know, because you're actually playing like notes and stuff. Actually, you know, playing the piano the rhythm is kind of like playing drums.
Speaker 1:Oh, it is.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, I can see that right, because you know with, with drumming, your, your and even with your feet, because with the piano You're, you know, pushing the pedals down. So a lot, of, a lot of drummers. I don't, I don't know how to play piano. I again, I could just pretend like I'm playing in jam and like make it sound like I'm potentially doing something by knowing a few chords.
Speaker 1:But no, by by no means am I a piano player does drum set placement where you put the hi-hat, and does that have anything to do with if you're right-handed or left-handed?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely Does it if, yes, if you are a right-handed drummer which most people in the world are right-handed You'll see the hi-hat on the left on on your left hand side. Yes, right, if you're a left-handed drummer, then the hi-hat will be on your right side. So everything is just flipped the opposite way, based from always staying the same spot.
Speaker 1:What about the? What about the toms?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so exactly this, the snare and the floor tom will be flipped. Yeah, because it's it's like a left-handed floor. Yeah, they'll play Kind of upside down the strings are strings.
Speaker 1:the strings are flipped, yeah, and it's facing.
Speaker 3:It's like if you're playing guitar as a right-handed player, the neck is on the left and then the opposite neck would be on the right if you're left-handed.
Speaker 1:So for a left-handed drummer, your left foot is hitting the bass drum. Yes, okay.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly, you're, you're, you're working your whole left side, because that's your, your go-to.
Speaker 1:I don't think I've ever seen a left-handed drum set before.
Speaker 3:No, no, it's a pain in the ass, poor left-handed drummers, but it's a good pain in the ass, not that they're literally a pain in the ass, but if you're sharing backline at a show right and you happen to have a left-handed drummer and you're all sharing them out. And you got to flip everything, and then you got to flip it back. That's, that's the pain in the ass. So so usually I've in situations have you dealt with that before?
Speaker 3:I have, and I think the not, not, not much, but in those situations I think they know they're a pain in the ass. Now, not that they know they're a pain in the ass no, not at all but they know that for themselves, even myself. Physically, drums have to accommodate your body because you know, like I've played, I've shared drums with like very, very big men that are like six, five and I feel like I'm a little kid trying to like reach the top of a shelf, you know, trying to hit a symbol. So that's kind of the same thing. If you're left-handed, it's like you got to, you got to physically set it up to, to the way your body is, is is used to hitting stuff and and In your safe zone, you know where you're comfortable.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's a pretty good workout, too right. It works out your whole body.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you what I. I play sports and I sweat way more. This is gross, but I sweat and and feel like I'm getting more of a cardio workout playing 45 hour minute our minute, 45 minute hour set Versus playing two hours of tennis or something like that like I'm physically more exhausted Playing drums, then even running and and doing other stuff.
Speaker 1:Is it because of the, the mental Muscles, that you're working out?
Speaker 3:I think it's the adrenaline, and yes, physically I mean especially with punk rock music. You know, maybe if you're like laid-back and playing more like you know laid-back, reggae or jazz.
Speaker 1:But even that too, because the the beats on the hi-hat are pretty intricate yeah, but a lot of those faster like 16th notes. It's all wrist action anyway right, oh yeah, so you're just like bouncing, yeah, so so you know, if not you'd, you'd completely wear yourself out, right, but I think, like a set technique right.
Speaker 3:There's some technique to not wear your body out so much. But I think the excitement of a rock show, of a punk rock show, like it just gets you going and and I know I, it's like you know you're like dancing almost on on this drum throne and and at least that's how I feel, like I Used to as a little kid, before I started playing drums. I remember seeing drummers and actually feeling kind of sorry for them because I Saw, I saw them just sitting there, you know, especially some, you know, like Charlie Watts from the Rolling Stones. He always looked like he was miserable, poor guy playing. So like does he want to be there, like you know.
Speaker 3:So I felt kind of sorry for some of these drummers and also because they were just locked into their drum throne, right. So like when I play, I mean the story is completely different now. Like I have so much fun and obviously I don't feel sorry for myself for playing drums, like I'm just like having a great time, but like I feel myself like Dancing as much as I can, being seated, you know, I just I just love feeling the music, like you know, go through my body and and just like when I'm making that connection with with my bandmates and and the crowd and everybody. It's just like it's this dance that's happening and, yeah, that'll wear you out.
Speaker 1:What's the craziest thing you've seen at a punk rock show?
Speaker 3:craziest thing that I've seen. I Don't know. Things flying through the air. I mean Nothing, nothing, you know too eventful. No, I don't know Thinking. I mean Michelle once had a condom thrown at her head. Okay, yeah, I think they're just throwing condoms on the stage and a hitter in the forehead.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, it was.
Speaker 3:It, though, the full box no, not a full box, oh just one.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's not even open sink.
Speaker 3:Little package, but um, yeah, I don't know. You know, I guess it's doesn't make it too much fun to tell the story, but not, not nothing crazy nothing crazy. Yeah, just people having a good time. I mean, yeah, just dancing and and enjoying the show. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:I've ever had, like have ever seen like any fights between like not Not guests, but like between other, like bands.
Speaker 3:Oh, I've only seen that online. I've never seen it in person. We're literally like online. I've seen. I've seen footage. There was a viral video of some like okay dad's like up on stage.
Speaker 3:You know, it's like someone go get your dad up there and come down. They were just like it was like the drummer like playing a beat and the singer you could tell obviously something had happened before. It's not like this just happened on stage spontaneously and all of a sudden the singer just drops the mic and like go, you know, goes behind the kid, grabs a drum, you know.
Speaker 1:There's gotta be some context between oh yeah, that's like the neighbor thing we were talking about. There's. There's more to the story. There's more to the story. It just happened out of the blue, yeah.
Speaker 3:I've never witnessed that in person myself. Gotcha no okay, not that exciting.
Speaker 1:Or it's probably happened, but you just never seen.
Speaker 3:I happen to miss it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean. Yeah, I mean, you know, if there's a show to be played, I'd you know the show must go on and people Will Get their shit together and they make it, they make it work, but I've never seen a physical, physical altercation go down. Oh, I I Nicolette always says I threw a drumstick at her once Could be so like on stage. I think during rehearsal.
Speaker 1:Oh, during rehearsal, I think.
Speaker 3:I was just threw a drumstick at her and and I didn't really mean to hit her, but I did hit her.
Speaker 1:But you guys are siblings. Yeah so that happens all the time yeah okay, it wasn't a drumstick, it was a pillow, or oh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I have kids. As kids, we used to get into a lot of fights, she, she pulled a butter knife on me one time. Oh shit, over a balcony.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I threw a hairspray can at my sister one time. Oh yeah, did it hit her, or hit her right in the face.
Speaker 3:So that probably bruised her.
Speaker 2:I didn't, I didn't mean, I didn't know my aim. Was that good?
Speaker 1:There you go. Hey, drums may not be your thing, but you can pitch for the Dodgers. Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe. So what, what's your? So? Okay, two questions. One, can you kind of name us everyone in the band and what they play or what they do? Sure, and also what's your dynamic with everyone? Like how, how's the vibe between?
Speaker 1:has been a band with your sibling For one.
Speaker 3:I mean my sister and I, okay so Nicolette, she's a singer, my sister, my younger sister. I think it gets awkward for the other members because we get into like Sister altercations, which are different than friend altercations or disagreements. We've got that comfort zone of just being sisters and growing up together in that family dynamic. I mean we've, we, we get along 99.9% of the time, but of course there's gonna be that circumstance and that situation where we don't get along and it's happened over the years, you know, like where we have a disagreement, or or you know my, my sister, she's a sensitive soul as well. So I Tend to brush things off and sometimes maybe I need to consider people's feelings a little more. Like is your sister?
Speaker 2:Neuquerious. She's um no she's an Aries, my sister's an Aquarius, I'm you and the sister duo.
Speaker 3:Okay yeah, and it's so mean. I I was a mean older young, like when we were younger I was kind of a bully to her. I had a completely admit it and I just would get off on it. And it's so messed up and like we've talked about it over the years she's like you're still laughing. I'm like I know it's fucked up. I would just get a kick out of it and then, like with other cousins of ours around my age, we would just pick on her, poor thing.
Speaker 2:But yeah.
Speaker 3:I blow to see. But we get along now, we completely get along. Michelle's a sweetheart. I mean, everybody who knows Michelle just loves her and she's just a very sweet person, big smile, she laughs a lot and and Michelle plays. She plays a bass, bass. Yeah, very sincere person she's. She's the one band member in the band who's a mom. She has a 13 year old. Oh wow, we can't believe he's 13 so and he's actually picking up guitar now too and he's really good. He's like a metal metal kid. They went to she. She took them to go see Metallica and Pantera at side five months ago.
Speaker 3:So they, they have the music thing going on and and Betty, she's, she's a badass. I mean, like I said before, she's, she, she's always been a rebel and Like I tricked her into into being into the band, actually like you tricked her.
Speaker 1:How did, how did that work?
Speaker 3:Well, basically, we just were jammed.
Speaker 1:It worked, but how did you know?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, first of all she didn't know we were officially a band. And I said we had a show and she's like, well, what do you mean? We have a show. I'm like, yeah, I booked a show. And she's like, okay, so this is like a real thing, like we're. We're a band. I'm like, yeah, what do you think we were? You know, so she always says I tricked her into being in a band and she's a person that is like again, like such a softy on the inside and she has a lot of people that just love her to death and she's just such a funny, sarcastic person and and and you can laugh for hours with Betty. Like she'll just crack you up, like sometimes she's a little too politically incorrect and she keeps that amongst our circle, you know there's, you know, like you have some friends you could joke with in certain ways.
Speaker 3:So she'll crack you up and I'm like, hi, betty Can't be saying that stuff, you know out in public, but she, we, we have a lot of fun with her and and so she has like this tough shell that people think is hard to break, but she's, you know she's a very sensitive soul as well and you know she's she's fighting the good fight right now and I think, I think, one of the reasons why she's been able to, you know, just keep doing this, even as hard as physically it has been on her body, is because she has so much support and we all have such good optimism about her recovery and and her.
Speaker 3:Just what other option does she have except, you know, work on physically getting better and overcoming her cancer and coming out at the end of this long fight and, and, you know, kicking cancer in the butt? You know so she's doing it and and that's what we're hoping for. We're, you know, in the meantime we've released some music we were able to record in between, you know, the the times where she was feeling a little better. There she's, she has, like some good days and she has some really bad days, you know, and and sometimes you look at her and you, you can't believe like this person is literally fighting for their life and it's unbelievable, like it really is unbelievable. It just shows you how strong willed we could be as people and like don't take cancer as like a death sentence, like there's hope and the advances in in medicine have been outstanding in the last few years and she's she's proving a lot of people wrong and and she's you know she's doing what she needs to do to get better.
Speaker 2:Good, good we we wish her, you know, send her all the good vibes and all good, positive everything, and thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she has. We have a go fund me for her. What's been tough is obviously and and you learn again. This is kind of like going back to that question Well, how do you know how to do this? You know, you know, and, unfortunately, when you go through bad times in life and a lot of us have have experienced this and and you know, in a way that we don't personally want to go through so it's like a slap in the face.
Speaker 3:But the way our system is set up is like Thank God she has a family and a support system to help her. She has this community, this music community, who have who has stepped up to help her and donate, because in her situation you have to quit everything in life to just focus on your health and and to get better. But in life you got to pay your bills. Still, as long as you're alive and breathing, you got bills. So you know, in her situation it's like she had to quit her job she to be able to get the health insurance to be able to cover it, otherwise you're completely broke.
Speaker 3:You know it's like a backward system, but at the same time she has no income. So that's why her go fund me. We never expected it to be in its second year, but we've kept it up because it's the only way she could at least pay her phone bill, pay her rent by groceries, because otherwise she, she has no other income. She has to be unemployed, first of all because she needs to have the time to rest and take care of herself, but she needs to be unemployed to have the insurance to cover her medical bills because otherwise it would be too expensive. It's like you know. Let's say you, you have an income, right, but your medical bills are 10 times as much as what you're making in a month. So it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah it's. It's crazy I haven't at right now. That's Fighting cancer as well to it it came back and the same situation. She has to not work. She has to know, you know, be at home and and kind of take care of herself and the same thing your bills don't stop and yeah. And it's not even enough. What she gets help from is no Anything in it. No, that's horrible.
Speaker 3:It's horrible and I think about people that don't have, like I said, a family or friends that can help and support them. What do those poor people do I? It just makes me think of Everyone that's out there that could use the help and they just I can't even imagine how hard that it to go through it With a community and then go through it alone. How tragic it's.
Speaker 2:It's very sad One day. We're healthy in the next. We never know. So yeah, yeah, it's about helping each other and being there, and because we don't know when it'll be our turn or whenever we'll need that.
Speaker 3:I know it and everything and it's absolutely One day exactly. You never know. You know your cards haven't been dealt and you have no idea what's. What's coming next?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Well, we we wish the best For her and you know any of our listeners want to help, we'll go ahead and and send them there too, with the link and all that.
Speaker 3:Thank you yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll put that down in the short description and they can click on that and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:Again, it's. It's. We completely understand. You know a lot of people need help right now and and it's just, if you happen to want to donate and you have the chance, it's greatly appreciated.
Speaker 1:So do you guys? You guys have new music. Are you guys working on it?
Speaker 3:We've we've released two singles with wiretap records the last A couple months here.
Speaker 1:Rob is a great guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Rob is super awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a pleasure to work with very professional. We've known him for a few years now and it made sense, you know, to kind of collaborate together and and be able to to have wiretap help us release this music. So, yeah, we've. We had a chance to go into the studio last year. I mean we start working on a few songs, kind of like towards the beginning of the pandemic, and then we were like, okay, well, I guess we got to take a break for a while and that was like when no one knew what was going on and it was a few months of not seeing anybody and being on lockdown and then when we finally started Kind of coming out of our shells again, it's like we got the news that Betty had cancer.
Speaker 3:So, you know, we've, we've, we've had some tough blows. You know everybody has. So we did what we could with the limited time we had. And and, yes, we recorded some songs With Davey Warsaw, who became a good friend and is a excellent producer. He has, you know you were talking about Long Beach, he's based in Long Beach, so we recorded all the stuff down in Long Beach. And then we had Ted Hut mix everything. He's someone that produced and mixed a lot of our first records and he's actually a Grammy award-winning producer, so we can we can throw that in.
Speaker 3:He's done some work, that one of some Grammys. So we're he's. He's also become a good friend over the years and he was nice enough to help us Mix these new songs. But yeah, we, we released them. We've never done that before. We've always like just released, you know, an EP, a record, just altogether at once. So we're kind of like doing this thing that is, you know, our intention spans can't even handle it anymore. You know, you release a full record, people can't get through it. So I guess it's kind of convenient for us that it's just, it is the way it is now. So we, we released some, some songs.
Speaker 3:My sister, nicolette, who's also very talented artists, did the music video for keep up, which was the first single that came out a couple months ago, and then she did a animated lyric video for the last single we put out called we talk a lot, and you know it's been nice to to be able to release new music after several years of not doing it and it the songs have been received very well and everybody's super excited. So we hope to release an EP, probably in in 2024, either like early spring or so. That's kind of the idea. We don't have an official release date. Well, we'll get that out as soon as we're ready to put it out, and my sister is currently working on a new music video for one of the songs that's called party at sea. That's gonna be on the EP and all I can say that it's I'm blown away with with what she's doing. She's actually we shot things on green screen and she's literally creating a world in AI and plugging us in there.
Speaker 1:Oh and that is awesome, that sounds cool.
Speaker 3:It really when she started showing. I'll show you guys a little clip. Okay yeah, not to the world, not yet Exclusive. But sorry guys, you got me here at the, at the studio, but I'm blown away. I, I, I mean she's. She's a little sister used to punk and bully and now she's like blowing me away with her. Like AI animation, video making skills. I was like fuck.
Speaker 1:That's where it's at.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she, um, she has been working in In design and graphics for the last 10 years. I mean, she went to art school but she hasn't like worked on her motion and animation skills. She actually became unemployed with the whole Hollywood strike thing because she was working making movie posters. So since she had some downtime, she started focusing on more of like the stuff she likes to, you know, work on stuff for the band, you know, and it's good practice. But she's very talented and and it's gonna be exciting to release this, because I've personally I've never seen anything like this. I think it's all the new AI stuff we're starting to see. So it's it's very cool that she can put all those elements together and create like this visually stimulating World that has come out of her imagination and she's putting it into life.
Speaker 1:And she has an older sister to do all that for. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, it's good skills to put into use, very convenient, it's benefiting the band and she loves doing it like she's been having a lot. It's a lot of work, she'll tell me took me all day. I'm like I believe it. I believe it trust me, I'm not taking any of that like credit away from her. She's working her butt off, you know.
Speaker 1:I never realized how much musicians work with artists. I've never realized that until I started interviewing all you guys.
Speaker 3:Part of the package and if you have someone in the band that could do it, it's such a right benefit because then, if not, you got to hire people to do it and it's expensive. Yeah, and I mean, you see, the world we live in, it's all content and you know, I mean we're saturated with it, so we're all spoiled, we're literally swiping things in seconds. I mean, you know, it's almost like you don't appreciate it, which is, which is a sad thing, because so much like again going back to her, it's so much hours and hours, and hours, and hours of work and then it's just like there, you know gone like a 10-second clip will take hours, hours, yeah, yeah, yeah so especially with this AI
Speaker 1:to yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I mean we can use them as tools, but still, like it's, it's depending on how, where you are with it exactly, I mean it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know. It's this, it's this. You know, tunnel that we're gonna start going through. We'll see how it involves. I mean it. Obviously a lot of us are worried that AI is gonna take over jobs but at the same time, it's creating jobs, like my younger brother just got hired for to do a job in AI and I was like what, okay, so you know it's Closing some doors open others, but we still need Humans to be behind the computer in some capacity, of course, some capacity but it's an evolving Universe and and we'll see where it takes us.
Speaker 1:I mean.
Speaker 3:It's funny, you know they talk about like oh, immigrants are taking our jobs. I know it's technology and AI taking our jobs, you know right. But we'll see. Like I said, we'll see how it evolves and what other opportunities it does open up right, it's interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like Ford. I mean, how many people thought that I Don't know where I was going with this, but like driving cars like it that probably took out like blacksmiths and people that worked on I don't know, horse hooves or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's, it's like one door closes or it evolves into something else and and then you know you have this whole other industry that opens up.
Speaker 1:You guys been playing for a very long time. Go, betty, go. What's the future for you guys at the moment?
Speaker 3:Well, the future is, first and foremost, betty's health, making sure that she she, you know becomes healthy again. We'd like to continue writing music and releasing music. Our band works very much together, so it's not like one person does everything. We're a complete puzzle and we, all you know, combine and put our pieces together to create the masterpiece. Oh, not that we make masterpieces, but you know music's masterpiece in our world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, no, just something that that we're proud of, but yeah, we, we very much work together, so it's always a collaboration. So we need all of our team members and to be team players and be able to to do this together. You know, once Betty makes it over this hump, you know we'll get back to touring, get back to playing, just just have fun with it. I mean, that's what we were doing the last few years. Anyway, you know, we all have regular day jobs and it's not the, the band is not our full-time Life anymore. That it's been many years that it hasn't been like that, but it's been.
Speaker 3:It was a good balance. It's been a good balance because we get to express ourselves artistically and musically and kind of allow that to still play a role in our lives. But at the same time, we have pretty normal lives too. When the band was full-time, it's like we were, you know, just people living on the road, which, so you know, it's its own world, but I think we all like having the comfort of having home lives as well.
Speaker 1:Do you like it?
Speaker 3:I do like it yeah. I like being home. I'm a homebody, okay, yeah, yeah, I enjoy Doing things with my family, with my dog you need a balance right.
Speaker 1:Exactly that's what everything's all about.
Speaker 3:I like the home life. I like to cook, you know I like. I like playing my tennis on Monday with my dad. I've got my Sunday soccer games. I like, you know, playing my drums and then I got to work to pay the bills.
Speaker 1:There you go, I exit. Thanks for coming out and doing the podcast with us. I really appreciate it. Go ahead and tell us where we can find go, betty, go and what you guys have coming up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we're on all social media, so you can look at us at go betty go official Instagram, facebook on what used to be Twitter is now X. You can find us there. You could see all of our music videos on YouTube. Look out for that AI video is talking about, with Nicolette creating it. We shot it with this very cool guy named Steven and, yeah, be on the lookout for the content we put out online and then hopefully in the next few months, we can get a show going and the tour and you'll see us out on the road.
Speaker 1:Yeah sweet, cool and all the links To go betty go will be down in the show description. If you're watching on YouTube, they're gonna be down in the podcast description, along with our listeners on iTunes and Spotify. Don't forget, we got a show. Well, I have a A little. I always say I'm playing, for some reason. Got a comedy show you're gonna stand up right, I have to say comedy show because I say I'm playing here, but I yeah.
Speaker 3:Know I a lot old people say what's your concert, like to say we have a show we have a show, yeah but that's a show, it's a comedy concert, that's funny.
Speaker 1:Let's say, I have a concert, okay Cool, performing, there we go.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's, that's nice North.
Speaker 1:Hollywood. That's gonna take me an hour and a half, hopefully not from here.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna take us an hour and a half. No you're ready dreading something. Better get there early than late.
Speaker 1:We also have an open mic on December 14th. The sign-ups are still open. If that's what you want to do, or just in general, come hang out this. Don't forget your ugly sweaters for the day.
Speaker 2:And they said don't forget your ugly. You can't have paused after the ugly. I was like dang.
Speaker 1:It's all timing, ladies and gentlemen, so we got to work on.
Speaker 3:I put that comma in there.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, peace and love. Thanks, appreciate it, yep.