The Strange Ones | Interview with Lyndsey Parker (LPTV)

Hey there, this is Lindseay Parker here for LPTV at Licorice Pizzas Records with Oakland's finest, The Strange Ones. Welcome to Licorice Pizza. Welcome to Southern California.

Thanks for having us. Yeah, good to be here.

Thanks for coming. We're here to um celebrate Attack of the Strange Ones, your debut album, and uh why don't you introduce yourselves before we start the conversation, like your role in the band, your titles, if you will.

Sure. Uh I'm Kevin. And I started the band in uh 2020 as a solo project and then uh found all these guys uh through the years and it uh transferred into a band. So yeah, I uh sing uh lead vocals and play guitar.

Um my name is Tim. I play guitar.

I'm Dan. I play the bass. I'm Ruben and I play drums.

So I was unaware. I I'd read that the band had started in 23 which I was like oh it's pretty recent because it seems like you've done so much in just your time. But actually the origins the origin story dates back a little. didn't really do a whole lot before 23. Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of uh uh self-doubt uh writing a bunch of songs that I scrapped and then Yeah. So,

well, it started as a solo project. Was that because you did say it was 2020 and at that time people pretty much weren't doing anything together at that time.

Yeah. I was in a band for a while that was just um I don't know. I got really tired of it and I just wanted to do something a little more classic and so yeah, when everyone was just kind of locked down, I was just like at home on my laptop just plugging my guitar in and just making it real fuzzy and yeah, it was fun.

Kind of crazy. That was five six years ago.

I know, right? Yeah.

Six years ago. That's crazy. So, how did you guys find Yeah, I know, right? Cuz I feel like we're still talking about it like it just happened. But yeah, so eventually 3 years later, pandemic lockdown is ended. And how did you guys all find each other?

Yeah. So, uh I had posted a song on Soundcloud and a friend reached out and he was like, "Is this a band?" And I was He's like, "If it's a band, I want to be in the band." I was like, "You're in the band." Um and and his name is Israel. Uh and uh we wrote a few a bunch of these songs together. Um and he plays a bunch on the album. And uh when we were getting ready to make it a live band, I was like, "Well, maybe we'll just like hire a drummer for like a couple gigs and just like see you like what this turns into." Um and so I found Reuben through Craigslist. Um and

Craigslist.

Yeah. Yeah. I have good Craigslist karma, I think. So, um not in like a killer

Craigslist in some time.

Yeah. Like not like a killer way. Yeah. Yeah. Like in like a friends way. Yeah. Um

the Craigslist

friends.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just friends of Craig, I guess. But um but yeah, so we found Reuben through that and uh we paid him for a couple shows and I was like, "Yeah, I don't know if I can do this anymore." And he was like, "Yeah, that's cool. I'll just be in the band." And uh so that was kind of

and then uh and Reuben introduced me to Tim. Um and Tim started playing us with uh when Israel left the band. Um and then uh our the bass player we were playing with uh got COVID for our album release party.

Oh. So like it was the the pandemic was not over.

Yeah. Yeah. And so I was like, "Well, the hired gun thing worked out last time. I'll just find a hired gun bass player." and Inox Dan who learned the entire album in a day and a half. Um, and then uh, yeah, we just really liked Dan's vibe and we had just asked him to join the band. So, yeah. So, that was about a year ago, uh, January last year.

Also on Craigslist, I might add.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, again, more

people use Craigslist really anymore since they stopped

the only two people that use it actually.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, they stopped doing the casual encounters, I believe. And I think that hit their their traffic.

I know. So, I had to start using it for musicians instead. You know what I mean? So, yeah.

As long as you found it useful still. I don't know why I know that, but somehow I know that like they cracked down on the casual encounters.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's

the priceless killer. I don't know.

Yeah. It was a big cultural movement, I think. Yeah. Or moment. Cultural moment. Yeah.

As is this. As is this very interview. So, I know you've probably been asked this question before, but it's about the name cuz I am a big Supergrass fan.

Same.

And I don't know if the name is a nod to them.

Absolutely is. Yay.

Yeah. I'm a huge Superglass fan.

Okay, cool. Because you got like a lot of Power Pop in what you guys do.

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um Yeah. Yeah, I always tell people uh the supers. So, uh Supergrass, Super Drag, Super Chunk. Um those are my

Super Drag as well. The first album was Sucked Out.

Yep.

And I What's the lead singer's name? John.

John Davis, which is funny because that's the same name as the lead singer from that band K. Jonathan Davis.

Very different. John Davis's very different.

Yeah. Yeah. But uh

but yeah, he did a solo record a couple years ago that I liked.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, it's cool. So, let's talk about some of the Power Pop stuff. As I walked in, I was very excited. I was watching you soundcheck before this interview. You were doing like a Power Poppy version of Always Something There to remind me. More the Naked Eyes version, but the Strange Ones version. A very power pop version. And I understand you're going to do a an ELO cover tonight.

Yeah.

Which I'm super excited about. So, yeah, I'm a big Power Pop person. So, how would uh let's cliche question, but let's talk about the influences.

Yeah. Um I mean, definitely Supergrass. Um Buzzcocks. Um

they're my third favorite band of all time. Second or third?

Yeah. I I love that band. And I I was um honestly the the real influence for the Strange Ones um not to name drop, but I I a band I was in opened for Billy Joe Armstrong's uh side project, The Longot, um a bunch of years ago, uh when he was first doing it. And I was just like, "This record's awesome. These songs are so fun watching them do that." And I was just like, I just want to do something like this. And so I was like really inspired by like the type of music that he was listening to or inspired by. And I love his his project Foxboro uh Hot Tubs, too. But but that Longshot record I really liked and I was like, I want to do more classic rock and roll stuff like this. And so when I was hanging out with Israel, he was like, listen to this record, this record, this record. And I was like, how have all of these records been sitting around my entire life and I've never heard them?

What were some of the records?

Uh it was like um I mean like I knew like the Go-Os and I knew all the hits or whatever, but like I never really got into uh that first Go-Go uh record and

debut albums ever.

Yeah. and and like uh this town is like still like one of my all-time favorite songs and I've been trying to do a Strange cover of this town and I'm just like I don't think I can do it.

Try it tonight. You know, we're in LA. The song's about LA. This would be we're you're in this town.

This would be the place to try it.

Yeah. But like big like Elvis Costello, like I've always loved Elvis Costello. Um and uh and yeah, so like th those types of things. But um I mean these guys all bring in um their own kind of style to it and it's it's it's been a nice transition of like me trying to do something as a solo project and then what they bring to it to transfer it more into like an actual band that is weathered and playing these things and and locking it in. So yeah. But you guys have

What do you guys bring into it?

I mean yeah the Clash. I mean I like the Clash for sure.

I've always liked pop punk and fun drumming stuff that I would like to play live and I try to bring some of that into this band and we all just have a good time. Yeah,

I do love the fact that you guys Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want What do you bring in?

Yeah. just all the all the classic kind of melodic bass players, you know, from the who stuff, John Paul Jones, you know, Gizer Butler, uh kind of the our local stuff like Matt Freeman from Rancid is big influence of mine. Uh Duff McKagan, like any of the melodic bass players, um you know, I really love. So that's kind of my my influence.

I could talk about the Buzz Cox for like the rest of this interview. I love them so much. I was so devastated when Pete Shelley died. I got to interview him twice. No way. I was nervous. It was very It was early in my career. I was pretty I was pretty nervous about it. But yeah, I mean lyrically like I think I think he's so underestimated as a lyricist. Does he uh affect or influence what you write about?

Definitely. It gave me it gave me a nice lens to look at um what's a what's a nice power pop or punk song that can be about love or relationship that isn't like so trit and emo, you know? Um, and I loved the Bugs Buzz Cox when I was in high school, but I didn't really like I don't know if if you've ever experienced your in your life, but as you get older, you go back and revisit things, you're like, "Wow, I didn't really I didn't really appreciate this for what it was." And I like it so much more now that I've like heard more records or been through stuff or played in bands or whatever.

Um, and so going back to BuzzCox in, you know, my 30s was a much different uh experience than like in my teens. So,

some of the lyrics like ever fall in love probably hit different. You're like, "Yes, I am."

Way different. Yeah. Way different.

Stand out beat.

Yep.

Very cool. So you mentioned Rancid and like local bands and stuff. So I want to talk about the you know the Bay Area scene. It's famous for bands obviously like Green Day and Rancid and AFI and but uh maybe a naive question but what's it like nowadays?

Pretty amazing actually. Um yeah so we started a little small record label called Minor Chord Records and we were focusing on uh doing Split 7 in uh to pair two bands together and do a cross promotion. And we've been doing uh local uh digital albums, not pressing, but compilations. Um and so through that a bunch of we've met a bunch of new bands because as we ask bands to play, they're like, "Oh, reach out to this band.

They're awesome." So we've met a bunch of bands through that. Other bands have met each other. It's been this big crossotion thing. We've been doing showcases to feature bands that we've been having on comps and splits. And so like through all that, we kind of just like there was this thing already happening of like postco everyone's like really excited. There's a bunch of new bands. Venues are closing, new venues are opening. So, it's it's a little um shaky, but I think people are like really appreciating it for what it is. Um and so there's a lot of excitement. There's a lot of really excellent bands um that are coming through. And so, it's just a really great time to be in the Bay Area music scene right now.

What are some of the bands you want to shout out? Your peers?

Uh yeah, I mean, definitely uh you know, our friends Delta Wave. Uh we did our first split uh with them. Um the next split that the label is putting out is with our dear friends uh uh Dear Motorist and Dark Satellite. Um our friends Kua Beimo, uh Switch Crooks. Uh, we're actually at Crop Top. One of probably one of my favorite bands I've ever seen. It's like early Modest Mouse meets like

a DVO kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's really good. And they put on such a good show. It's really fun.

They all need to come to Licorice Pizza and play. I

I'm going to I'm going to drag them down here by the

curate festival. A minor chord festival.

Yeah. Yeah. And and then our our our homies Pinfall are actually in town right now. We saw them out front. They stopped by to say hi. And uh when we're done here, we're going to go catch them at uh Redwood in downtown.

Very cool. So Gilman Street's still open, right? Yeah, we did our first uh minor chord uh festival uh showcase at Gilman. It was a twoight uh show and so the people at Gilman have been really good to us. Um and uh yeah, we have a great relationship with them. We love playing there and it's still going strong.

Yeah, we're playing there on the 23rd, right?

We are. Yeah. Uh yeah. Yeah, we're playing there. Um I can't remember the bands off the top of my head right now. Um but I made a Rosemary's Baby poster. That's what I remember. So yeah,

that's is the spirit of that scene, that famous scene, like the Lookout Records era, the late 80s 90s scene. Is it still there?

Yeah, it is. I don't I don't think the SCA part of it isn't as popular, but like I'm just waiting for that SCA band to come back, you know? Like that one that's going to come back, I think it's going to open the floodgates. But like you see people like parked outside with like a custom like Green Day influenced like license plate, you know what I mean? So it's like people that are like grew up looking at those photos, you know, from Gilman or or listening to those albums or whatever and and looking for themselves in the crowd or whatever, like those people are still there and they're very much part of that spirit there. See, I read this book. I don't know if you know this book. It's called Sellout. And it's about it's an interesting book. It's basically about indie bands that moved to majors and some of them made the transition and did well like um like Green Day obviously and then some of them the backlash or whatever it just fell apart. Jawbreaker was one of the examples they used of where it did not work. But the jawbre it both Jawbreaker and Green Day stories are about the fact that there would be people locally who would see both those bands as having betrayed the scene for moving to majors. Is like which seems so like antiquated and quaint now that people thought that way then is there still some of that in the Bay Area wanting to keep it like in that contained thing?

Not really. I I I still think there's a little bit of like the like anti- Green Day tough guy [ __ ] that that happens you know just that nonsense of like people just trying too hard to you know whatever. Uh and I'm like a you know I love Green Day. I loved them when I was in high school. Um, and they do a lot for the community. Um, and they're even now they're still an excellent band. But, uh, I think it's a lot of it's like that like just like what year are you living in? You know what I mean? Like like that that that talk track you have died 30 years ago like Let It Go, you know?

I think the statute of limitations on like having a backlash against Green Gay. I think it's it's up by now.

They still walk the walk. I think

I think they're allowed to play at Gilman again, too. So like the the 86 that they got

they weren't allowed cuz they just played Coachella last year and like everybody all ages was there to see him which really gladdened my heart actually.

Yeah I think when they got big uh the people running Gilma at the time were that very much that you know sellout kind of mentality and so they banned them but yeah I think is I think that's that's done now. So

good. I'm glad about that.

Yeah. Yeah.

Um so you mentioned Rosemary's Baby and I like so you have this whole other kind of side hustle doing like posters with old movies.

Yeah. Um I'm just waiting to get sued I think. Um, I don't really know like what the

Okay. Well, no, don't people don't watch it.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't really know like what what's Okay, you know. Um, but I'm like it's punk rock, there's no rules. Yeah. I'm I'm more of like a collage artist where um I just love the old uh you know, horror movies like uh pulp uh horror and whether it's a movie poster or comic books or or whatever. Um and there's just so much awesome art out there that's just like really fun to like upcycle and kind of play around with. And so part of our aesthetic is kind of that like you know like the cramps or whatever. Like I basically just ripped off the cramps uh essentially with our

name. I I interviewed the Cramps and I went to their house.

Amazing. What is their house like?

Exactly what you would think.

Okay, good. Like Yeah. Yeah.

On the outside it was in Glendale. If you know where Glendale is, which is a suburb. On the outside looked like a normal house. And on the inside it looked like exactly like what you would expect. It was all red velvet and you know

what we do in the shadows. Yeah.

Yeah. It was it was like lot of leopard. It was a lot of velvet. They had underneath their house, they had a painted pink uh dugout basement, which I believe they told me they hadn't done legally, like they hadn't done it to co, but it contained all of their like vinyl and their VHS's and yeah, it was amazing.

It's pretty awesome. So, I'm glad I always love to hear any mention of the cramps.

Yeah, I mean, it was one of the best days of my life.

I love that band. Um, and I Yeah, I they were just I don't know. They were always so different and I loved that they like carved out this little piece of punk rock and I and I love I love that about punk is that there's all these little subg genres and everything's okay and everyone loves all these little little things but like I really loved the cramps a lot when I was in high school and um it dawned on me about a year into this project that I was like oh man I just I was like yeah it's like it's kind of punk it's kind of garage it's kind of spooky it's got this old kind of you know weathered uh aesthetic or whatever and then I was like oh yeah the cramps I just basically ripped them off. So

So it's it's called on Instagram Poster Zombie.

Uh yeah zombie. Do you you do this like as a service? Like other bands can hire you to make their flyers?

Yeah. And I I usually just try to do it for as cheap as I can. Um I've done album art for people. Uh anytime we play a show, I just do it for free. So like if we're playing a show, I'll just make the poster and if

you make one for this show.

I did. Um I made a couple. I didn't really do the the horror movie. I kind of used like our promo photo to try to like I don't know, put our faces here cuz like we're not from LA. So yeah. But

that's okay. But you know, actually since you bring that up, we're getting along very famously right now. But there's this weird rivalry between the North and the South.

Oh yeah. Northern California and Southern actually more like San Francisco versus LA. Yeah. And it feels very one-sided because I don't think know of anyone in LA who doesn't like San Francisco. San Francisco is great.

I love rivalries like that where it's like who are you? What's the problem? Yeah. Like

small and they have like San Francisco's small. If you live in LA, it feels small. And there's the whole like kind of tech Silicon Valley thing. But like I I don't know anyone here who thinks San Francisco sucks. But like is that still a thing that people in San Francisco don't like us?

Not with people I know. Yeah.

You seem to like

Yeah. No, I love LA. Yeah. like it here.

Yeah. No, I'm not really one for rivalries anyways. I mean, I grew up in Massachusetts, so it was like, you know, Red Sox versus Yankees. And when I moved to New York, I was like, well, I'm not going to watch the Yankees, so I like the Mets, I guess. But, um, you know, other than Massachusetts,

uh, Cape Cod, people are actually from there. Yeah,

I've been there. My mom's from Boston and she still hates the Lakers just because she's got it. So, she's into the rivalry. She's Celtics forever.

Yeah, some some things are just in your blood, I think. But, yeah, rivalries I'm not really big on. I'm kind of like, uh, let's cross pollinate. Let's let's find the good people in everywhere and, you know, connect them. Have you guys played many Los Angeles shows?

Last night was our first one.

Oh, wow. Where was

this? Our first time in LA as a as a band.

Okay. Where where did you play last night?

Uh where did we play last night? Uh yeah, Famous Regalin uh in Lakewood.

Yeah, it was a long beach show. Yeah,

it's not technically LA.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

It's LA.

My bad. Yeah.

No, it's okay. Whole Foods Long Beach is not LA.

Well, then Well, then this is our first LA show.

This was your first LA show. Studio City is the valley, but it as someone who's from the valley, I can tell you it's part of LA County.

It's part of LA city. you're in LA proper, but what have you thought of Southern California as a band?

Wonderful. Yeah, superant.

Oh, really welcoming. Uh we met uh some bands last night that we played with that were uh super welcoming. Uh their friends that were there like Yeah, everyone was really nice to us. Uh and we were like, yeah, how do we just play shows with you guys all the time? So, we're kind of like, let's just like come down more often. So,

that's so cool. So, you obviously are a very self-contained indie unit. You know, you have your own label. You do your own arts. you know, you're part of like a thriving scene that you support very well. How hard is it? I mean, I've talked to other a lot of the bands I interview who are bands that are in the same boat. They do it all themselves.

They're very DIY. They're very proudly DIY, but is not easy to get heard, to get gigs, to get seen, to make a name for yourself, to even like financially go on the road. Like, how do you do it? How do you make it work?

Uh, I don't know. Um, I think we're like kind of figuring it out as we go, really. But, um, I just I don't know. kept finding myself in this situation where I'm like, I wish there was like a thing that was doing this and then nothing's happening. So, I'm like, I guess I'll just do it, you know? And I'm lucky that these guys are just like so down for whatever, you know, like, oh, let's get the car and go to LA. Oh, let's get in the car and go to Reno, you know, uh, whatever it is. Like, they're just on board for it. So, you know, I think it takes, you know, someone willing to have ideas and other people just willing to like be on board for it, you know?

So, would you sell out and then be banned from Gilman Street if a major label came dangling a giant novelty oversized novelty check? I would rather do this and hang out with you and talk music than like, you know, punch keys on my keyboard any day of the of the, you know, I would rather do this for for work than anything. Yeah. So, yeah, if that's selling out, then I'm a sellout. But, you know, Yeah.

It seems like your spirit's in the right place. I mean, even though you've only been a band for two two and a half years at this point, you've you've it seems like you've done quite a lot in the short time you've been together.

I think um yeah, I just uh I think my ADHD brain just is like, you know, hyperfixated on this little this little thing. And um yeah, these guys are just really good at like letting me book a ton of shows or you know try to I don't know put a ton of like little singles out or whatever. So yeah, it's been uh it's been fun and like the rest of the scene is like really excited about it too and there's a bunch of people out there in that scene that like also want to do those things. So I think there's just like this nice like mutual excitement that's happening. So

very cool. Well, in the very immediate future I will be seeing you play uh Naked Eye/Dion Warwick slash uh ELO covers plus your own songs out there in the front room. But in the more distant future, what is next for The Strange Ones?

We've been working on our next album, uh, Return of the Strange Ones. Uh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. The whole horror thing. Now I understand.

Yeah. Yeah. So, first one was Attack of, second one's Return of, uh, I think the third one will probably be like Planet of. Um, yeah. And, uh, yeah, that'll probably have like a nice kind of like isolation kind of kind of theme. You

One of them should eventually be a sequel with that, but it's to

Yeah. Yeah.

Like Attack of the Strange Ones.

Yeah. Also or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So, when is um return the return coming?

I'm not sure. Uh I've been like really sick and so I have like a lot of vocals I have to record.

I'm sorry. You okay now?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just But like it seems like every uh every other week I get like a sore throat from a show or something, you know? Yeah. Cuz I don't really know how to sing all that well. So, um I just kind of put everything into it. I'm like, did I careful protect your

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how to do that. Yeah. So, that's probably So, that's probably on the on the on the uh

work on that.

Yeah. For this year. Yeah. But, um but yeah, so we're working on that album. Uh the label's going to be pretty busy. I want to do six splits uh this year for the label. Um and then um uh get into albums too. So put our album out and then uh yeah, we've got some plans to do uh another LA run um San Diego, uh Reno,

and then like Portland and Seattle. So just kind of like some regional stuff. So

well, I look forward to the return of the Strange Ones, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the attack of the Strange Ones, and I'm going to

enjoy the attack outside. And um thank you so much for making your LA debut. Thank you for having us

at Licorice Pizza.

Thanks so much.

Thanks everybody.