BABY SHAKES are an amazing Power pop/Glam/Rock'n'roll quartet hailing from New York city. The band is featuring Mary: lead vocals/guitar, Judy: lead guitar/backing vocals, Claudia: bass/backing vocals, Ryan: drums.
A few weeks ago the band released their third full length, the aptly titled "TURN IT UP". Without any doubt, this is their best work so far and on this new record the group delivers infectious harmonies and high energy rock'n'roll songs that stick in your head for days!
So it was time for this blog to have a little chat with this nice bunch of people.
Girls,
we would like you to tell the viewers of this blog the full story of BABY
SHAKES. The origins of the band, who is playing what, how did you meet, what
happened for you since your first release "The First One"; We want to
hear it all from you!
Judy and Claudia met at a punk show at CBGB’s when they were teenagers.
They both had studded jackets, pink/blue hair and collected UK ‘82 and ‘77 punk
singles so it made sense that they’d become good friends. They used to jam out
to Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers songs together in their living rooms.
A friend of ours (the artist Avi Spivak) knew that we were looking for
band mates so when Mary moved to NY from Seattle he introduced us at his DJ
night. She liked the same kind of music and we used to make mix CDs for each
other when we first met. We all got along so well and when we heard Mary sing
we knew it was the perfect style for the kind of music we wanted to play and
she played guitar too. As for Ryan… well we’ve had many drummers in the past
but he was definitely the missing puzzle piece. We met him through friends when
we needed a drummer for our show with Protex.
About
your latest full length "Turn It Up", I can hear a tougher/more
powerful and more glam orientated sound (I love that!) do you agree and is this
a direction you are definitely aiming for?
It wasn’t the goal when we were writing the songs but it just kind of
happened that way so we went with it. We realized the mood was tougher after we heard the full
album. During the recording and mixing process we tried to go for a more raw
sound closer to our first two 45's.
To
what kind of music did you listen to as teenager girls and does it still
influence your today work? What was your favorite band as a teenagers? Name 3
bands that you consider still have a influence on your own work today.
Mary: Slade, The Ronettes, MC5
Judy: The Boys, Cocksparrer, The Beatles
Ryan: The Adverts, Motörhead, The Damned
Claudia: Ramones, Bowie, The Cars
Is
there a main composer in the band or is everybody involved in one way or
another?
Everyone is involved in the song writing process.
What
is your favorite topic/topic that comes easily when you write a new song?
Having fun!!
Is
there any video made to promote one of the songs of the albums?
We shot a music video for Do What
You Want this past March during our Japanese tour. It was filmed in Tokyo
at Shelter by Mike Rogers and his awesome crew. You can see the video here:
We also have a really great idea for the next music video that we’re
currently working on. Stay tuned!!
What
can concert goers expect at a BABY SHAKES gig? Are you playing any famous cover
songs?
We try to really have fun onstage and get people dancing with us.
Tequila is the 5th Baby Shakes so we love it when people bring us
shots while we play!!!
We mostly play our own material but we’ve got a good amount of covers
that we work into our sets for different shows. The Scientists, The Boys, The Undertones,
The Starjets and Zero Boys are some of our favorites.
Is
there a new rock'n' roll scene in New York these days and are there any other
bands you are feeling close to?
There’s a bunch of bands always popping up in the NY scene and some that
have been playing around for a while. Some of our favorites are Daddy long
Legs, Dirty Fences, and Wyldlife.
What
are the plans for 2017? Are BABY SHAKES coming over to Europe soon?
Yes!! We’ve got shows coming up with Flamin’ Groovies and we’re playing
with the BOMP band ‘B’ Girls and two amazing Japanese bands in September (The Fadeaways
and The Mellvins). We’re also playing a killer show in Puerto Rico with Los Tom
Toms, Ardillas and Los Vigilantes plus the Growlers Festival 6 in L.A. this
October. We’re working on a Euro tour for the end of the year and we plan to
play in Europe, Scandinavia and the UK in 2018. Hopefully we get to play some
more awesome festivals next year. We always have fun at festivals. Especially
in the summer!
Anything
you want to add?
Burger Records just released the cassette version of our new album, Turn It Up. We can’t wait to get back to
Europe! If anyone out there has any info on festivals or wants to book us
please contact jonk@alleycat.se or us directly at babyshakes@babyshakes.com.
You can purchase all the goodies here :
1 comment:
Hello RATBOY69,
I was interested to but the 3 CDs of this group. 63 US Dollars for the price including the shipping to France from the Baby Shakes Shop (they don't propose any numeric format). Even for very known groups the price is not so expensive ... I don't think such kind of price is an incitation for people to but the music to the artists.
I found a workaroung, buying the 3 CDs in MP3 format on Amazon Web site, for less than 30 euros. It is a shame to give the money to Amazon instead to the artists, even in this case the price is defined directky by the artists.
Regards and Thanks for your post
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