|
Splendid is always working on ways to make our feature interviews unique, intriguing and twisted enough to appeal to our readers. Case in point: we've dusted off an old speech class chestnut and dragged it, kicking and screaming, into the technicolor-HTML future. Witness the dawn of Pointless Questions.
The concept is simple: a jar (or coffee can, or whatever) is filled with a broad assortment of general-but-quirky questions. The interviewee draws and answers a bunch of them. The idea being, in Splendid's case, that if the artist we're interviewing isn't utterly insulted by the concept, we'll touch on some previously unexplored areas of his/her life.
That's the theory, anyway. We'll leave it to you to decide if it worked.
Dressy Bessy's Tammy Ealom was kind enough to be our first victim. Camped backstage before Dressy Bessy's recent appearance with Beulah and The Apples in Stereo at Chicago's Lounge Ax, Tammy was a good sport as we worked the bugs out of this potentially-regular feature -- so we felt it only fair to ask her a few Dressy Bessy-specific questions, too.
Our POINTLESS QUESTIONS appear in green...just in case we weren't obvious enough.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
Tammy: My favorite toy...let's see...I had so many toys...I was really
into Barbies when I was little. I don't know what her name was, she was a tennis Barbie, from when they first started coming out with
those sort of "theme Barbies". A tennis player Barbie. And the
ice-skating Barbie. And I hate Barbies now, they're really really ugly compared to the ones I had back then...
Splendid: Did you have a Dressy Bessy?
Tammy: I did. Yes, I did. That's funny. I don't know if she was my
favorite, though. I liked the plastic dolls with
real hair.
Splendid: I just felt that if I didn't ask, someone would sue me or something.
Tammy: Well, who didn't (have one)?
Splendid: Does everybody ask that question right away?
Tammy: No! Actually, a lot of people --
Splendid: -- are too young?
Tammy: Yeah. People don't realize the connection.
Splendid: One down.
Tammy: Oh boy. This is hard.
Splendid: Most of them aren't math questions.
Tammy: Good.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BRUSSELS SPROUTS?
Tammy: I like frozen brussels sprouts with butter sauce. Fresh ones...I
don't know if I've ever eaten them. But I do like brussels sprouts, yes.
Splendid: Some of the questions are more intellectually stimulating than that.
Tammy: Oh God, that's scary.
Splendid: But there's no math.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY MEAL FROM ANYWHERE, WHAT WOULD YOU EAT?
Tammy: That's kind of hard because I'm not hungry at all right now. Any
meal...from anywhere? Umm, I'd probably like to have
sushi in Japan. I've never been to Japan.
Splendid: Good. Combining the travel aspect.
Tammy: Yeah, I'd make a trip there just for sushi.
WHAT BOOK ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
Tammy: Catcher in the Rye, as a matter of fact. My very first time
reading it.
Splendid: Really? Did you just wake up one day and say "Dammit, now I'm going
to read Catcher in the Rye?"
Tammy: Yes, I did. I picked it up at a thrift store, and I've been
reading it, and I like it. I've almost finished
with it.
Splendid: So is this (the questions thing) just awkward as hell so far?
Tammy: It's not that it's awkward...I'm sort of scatterbrained. We left
Denver yesterday at 6:00 p.m., and we decided
we were gonna drive until about 2:00 in the morning and stop, which brought
us to about Omaha. Well, there's some
Olympic...happening in Omaha, which means there are no hotel rooms
anywhere. So we ended up stopping at 6:30
this morning -- we found a motel in Des Moines, slept for 3 hours, and now
we're here.
Splendid: So you're living on caffeine?
Tammy: I don't completely have my wits about me, so bear with me here.
And I'm usually pretty witty.
TELL US ABOUT THE WORST AUDIENCE YOU'VE EVER PLAYED TO.
Tammy: The worst, as in the audience was crummy, or just made me feel weird?
Splendid: However you want to interpret it.
Tammy: I think the first time I played in front of my mom and my dad and
my brother at a show was probably
the worst show I've ever had. It isn't that they were a bad audience, but
I just couldn't do it.
AUDIO: Just Like Henry
Splendid: You just felt self conscious?
Tammy: Yeah. I couldn't remember songs...I totally freaked out. I mean,
they believed in me, and
now it's okay, but...
Splendid: I hope so, since you said earlier that you had a lot of family in the
house tonight.
Tammy: Yeah, now it's fine, but that was heinous.
IF YOU COULD LIVE AT ANY POINT IN THE PAST, WHEN AND WHERE WOULD YOU LIVE?
Tammy: Umm...
Splendid: You wanna pass on this one?
Tammy: Yeah, let me pass on this one and just think about that. That's a
tough one.
(a pause)
Tammy: Maybe in the forties in Chicago, actually.
Splendid: Okay. Why that in particular?
Tammy: Because my grandparents lived here then, and they seemed to have a
blast. I've heard tons
of great stories from them.
IS STARBUCKS EVIL?
Tammy: No. No. No. They always come through for me, actually. If all
else fails, you can always find a Starbucks. I'll do two more questions.
Splendid: I'm kicking myself for all these YES/NO questions now.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST ALBUM YOU EVER BOUGHT, AND DO YOU STILL LISTEN TO IT?
Tammy: The first album I ever bought with my own money was Michael
Jackson's Off the Wall, and yes, I still
listen to it.
Splendid: Do you still feel the same way about it that you did when you bought it?
Tammy: Yes. I do. Well, kinda. I don't dance to it as well as I used
to, but...that happens, I guess. I don't think he's as cute as I used
to, either.
Splendid: That's a relief.
WHEN WILL THE U.S. GET A FEMALE PRESIDENT?
Tammy: I'll have to pass on that one, that's anybody's guess. Can I put
it back?
Splendid: That's fine. It's really your interview. I just did this to make it
more interesting.
Tammy: Are you having fun?
Splendid: Yeah, sure.
NAME A MUSICIAN OR GENRE WHOSE POPULARITY YOU JUST DON'T "GET".
Tammy: Oh, there's so many... Matchbox 20. That I do not get. I
don't understand that.
Splendid: Bland is good.
Tammy: It's not even bland -- it's embarrassing, almost. But...whatever.
They're good. But there's
others...I don't want to get into that.
Splendid: I'll stop this and ask you some more specific questions now, if you
have time.
Tammy: Yeah! Go for it.
Splendid: I know you guys play in and around Denver a lot. Is this your first
full-scale tour?
Tammy: Actually, no. This is just a little weekend stint. We just toured
the entire country
starting back on May 11th, starting with Seattle and going all the way
around, so we've been
here... No, wait, we didn't play here. That's why we're here now. But we
were here once with
the Apples (in Stereo) before, too. We've had a couple tours. We played
CMJ last fall, and the
Apples did too, so we traveled out and then came back and played a show
here with them on
the way back. So we've been here twice now. This is actually the fourth
trip I've made, but we've
only had one extensive trip around the country, when Pink Hearts, Yellow
Moons came out,
back in May, for three weeks.
AUDIO: Makeup
Splendid: And rabid Dressy Bessy fans are waiting at every stop?
Tammy: A few, yeah. It was far beyond our expectations, actually, because
we had no idea that
people had even heard of us, or liked us. Well, we hoped...we knew people
would like us. I like us.
Splendid: From what I've read on your website, it seems like you've come into the
whole band thing
in sort of a sidelong way...kind of by osmosis. Did the touring lifestyle
come as kind of a shock?
Tammy: Not really. I love it. I love traveling. It definitely wears on
me, during the day, just being in
the car with everybody. I don't want to complain about being the only
girl, but it is kinda
difficult traveling with three guys. One of them happens to be my
boyfriend, though (the Apples'
John Hill), so he's okay, but still...
Splendid: Would you say it's more like a big vacation with friends, then, or work?
Tammy: Kinda both, I guess. It can be both. It's a lot of work,
definitely, but it pays off at the end
of the night. I get the biggest adrenaline rush I could ever ask for, so
it's worth it.
Splendid: Okay, now I haven't got lyrics memorized or anything, but... you've got
two pretty obvious
pop cultural references on the cover of your album -- your band's name and
the titular
Lucky Charms reference -- but that doesn't seem to be something you've
carried on through
the disc itself. Is it?
Tammy: Umm...I don't know what you're talking about. Like my lyrics
are...what?
Splendid: Erm, just that within the indie pop subculture it seems like there are
a lot of kids looking for
seventies Saturday morning cartoon references, breakfast cereal references --
Tammy: No...
Splendid: It didn't look like you were going that route, which is one of the
reasons I liked the album...
Tammy: We're all grown-ups, too. We aren't kids. But I guess I don't
understand the question very well.
Splendid: I'm not sure I do either anymore. Ummm...I think in the past so many
artists on (your record label) Kindercore
have pushed the childlike, perpetual-puberty vibe --
Tammy: The twee kinda thing.
Splendid: Yeah. And then a lot of the last batch of Kindercore releases, the
ones that came out at the same time as
Pink Hearts, Yellow Moons, are finally getting away from that.
Tammy: Right, yeah.
Splendid: Kitty Craft, the most recent Mendoza Line...
Tammy: Yeah, Kindercore's getting a little more selective, taking
themselves a little more seriously. Just putting out good music.
Splendid: Are you sticking with them for the next album?
Tammy: We're definitely doing the next one with them. After that, we'll
see what happens.
Splendid: When will we see that?
Tammy: January, supposedly, but we know...no way. Maybe next spring.
We're excited to get started on it, for sure. We're definitely ready to
get going, now we've got the hang of it. We're ready to dig in.
Splendid: One last question. How's your "hometown" fan base? Big? Supportive?
Tammy: Yeah. There's an actual college radio station (KVCU,
1190AM) in Denver now, which there never was before. Well, it's not in
Denver, it's in Boulder, at CU.
Splendid: I remember hearing you guys on KVCU the last time I was in Boulder.
Tammy: Yeah, they play the album constantly. They're our biggest, loyalest
(sic) fans, and it's brought people -- we've had tons of people at shows
and I've been like "Who are you? Why are you here? Where'd you come
from?" And they'd say "Oh, we heard you on the radio." It's kinda cool.
AUDIO: Big Vacation
The conversation continues for a few minutes more, on topics not relevant
to the interview, including the godawful heat and humidity. Then, George
notices the tape is still rolling.
Splendid: Okay, I'm just babbling now, so I'm going to stop this.
Tammy: That's okay. That was fun! Did I do okay?
Splendid: Well, this is the first time we've tried this sort of interview, and I
can honestly say you're the
best one we've had.
· · · · ·
George Zahora is Splendid's Senior Editor. He's pretty sure his sister had a Dressy Bessy doll.
Jason Jackowiak provided camera and audio equipment, for which we thank him.
D R E S S Y · B E S S Y · R E S O U R C E S
Kindercore Records, Dressy Bessy's Label
The Dressy Bessy hangout
John Hill of Dressy Bessy's other band
Purchase Dressy Bessy recordings at Insound
Splendid's review of Pink Hearts Yellow Moons
|
