September 17, 2025 • 64 mins
Joining MLD from a New England hotel lobby in the middle of tour, Monique Powell of Save Ferris talks with Graham about the band's 1997 album, It Means Everything. They discuss questionable major label expectations in the 90s, being dropped from that label, and perseverance through a spinal condition prognosis which threatened Monique's ability to perform.
Also, clam pizza.
📻🎚️
“Come On Eileen” (1:08)
“Spam” (21:50)
The Specials “Ghost Town” (22:54)
Save Ferris “New Sound” (24:11)
“Goodbye” (24:57)
“The World Is New” (27:00)
Wanna watch MLD on YouTube?
Need an MLD t-shirt or mug?
And everything else from Major Label Debut!
Also, clam pizza.
📻🎚️
“Come On Eileen” (1:08)
“Spam” (21:50)
The Specials “Ghost Town” (22:54)
Save Ferris “New Sound” (24:11)
“Goodbye” (24:57)
“The World Is New” (27:00)
Wanna watch MLD on YouTube?
Need an MLD t-shirt or mug?
And everything else from Major Label Debut!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Major Label Debut, the podcast about major label Debuts.
My name is Graham Wright. Opera SKA two pretty different
genres of music anyway you slice it. And to go
from being an opera singer to being a SKA singer,
you'd have to think is a pretty major change, considering
you're kind of doing the same thing with like your
(00:28):
vocal chords and your air and your breathing and all
the sciences singing. Indeed, as far as I personally am aware,
it's a transition that has only been pulled off one
time by today's guest Monique Powell of Save Farris. And
not only did starting as an opera singer before evolving
into a SKA singer set Monique up with like better
(00:49):
vocal habits than most rock singers ever acquire, I have
to think that that big transition, that huge pivot, must
have really helped prepare her for all the changes that
are inherent when you make a career in music. Save
(01:26):
Faris is one of those bands about whom most people
maybe know like one or two things they do that
kick ass, wonderful version of Come On, Eileen, and they're
in the movie Ten Things I Hate About You but
of course Monique and Save Faris did and still do
way way more than that, and their story is much
deeper and much more complete, and it includes, of course
(01:50):
a major label debut. It means everything is the name
of that record. It came out in nineteen ninety seven
on Epic Records. That record is ostensibly our topic of
conversation today. But of course we all know by now
that here at major label debut, we don't let little
things like what the podcast is called restrict our conversational ranging.
And I had a great time yacking with Monique about life,
(02:13):
making music and how she's navigated her many adventures through
a few decades. At this point of Save Ferris, we
caught up while she was on tour in Connecticut, and
my main memory of playing in Connecticut is sampling their
unique local spin on pizza pie. So we started off
by talking about that. And let me just say, I
(02:33):
love the good people of New England. And while you
are momentarily going to hear me Graham write bad mouthing
clam of pizza, in no way should my personal pizza
preferences be taken as an insult to the state of
Connecticut or any of her fine citizens. We celebrate all
local delicacies here at major label debut in theory, if
(02:54):
not always in practice. So with that being said, here
is my talk with the wonderful Monique Powell of Ferris.
You mean, have you ever had the famous Connecticut pizza?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I believe I just had it. It's that very thin
salty pizza. Who makes it?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Is it like stews or something like that?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Somebody's name. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
We played space ballroom and they someone was like, you
got to have We're going to send out for this
special pizza. And it came and it had clams and
white sauce on it.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh oh no, also the one I had weird clam pizza.
But how was it, I guess is the question.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
It was too weird for.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Meeh okay, because I was going to say it sounds
like clam chowder on a crust.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, well it was. No, it was like solid clams,
distinguishable clam entities like slice by sice, like.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
With all the thing, all the clam things.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I'm no marine biologist.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Clam wizards and feet and all that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
God, I don't think it had feet.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Were the clams screaming claries?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yes, the clams were and remain vocal. I hear them
even now as we speak. That's why I do the
podcast primarily to drown out the voices. I think that's
true of most of us.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
To drown out the voices of the clan.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
The clent. Oh my god, how has it been touring
New England and the Eastern Seaboard?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Awesome?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
You know. We try to play like every night because
that's just how you have to sustain. And it's our
first time visiting some of these towns in many, many years,
and some of them we've never been to before in
our thirty year history, you know, and so you kind
of you have to sustain when you're on your own label,
(04:50):
you know. And so we play every night, and sub
clubs are really small, and some shows are much substantially
a bit larger, but the small clubs people have just
been so grateful, Like bounds don't come through the city,
you know, like ever. Yeah, so it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
That's great. Yeah, what's your experience of touring like now
compared to twenty years ago? You know, it's obviously it's
changed in a million different ways, but I certainly found,
you know, twenty years into my career, my just everything
about what I appreciated on tour, what I enjoyed on tour,
just sort of how every room hit me when I
walked into it was really different and for me it
(05:32):
was way better.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, it's true. I think when I geared up to
start touring again years some years later, I thought about
my previous touring experience in my early twenties and late teens,
and realized I didn't remember anything. I didn't remember any
(05:55):
of it. That all of that time, all of those
places i'd been too, I didn't recall any of it.
I just wasn't present. And so the agreement I made
with myself was that I would agree to be more present.
And so I don't know if that's like it's like
age or you know, I don't know what it is,
(06:18):
but I'm trying to be more present.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Do you have any tricks that you use for staying present?
We're staying present, Yeah, because I think we all need
to stay I try to stay present in every element
of my life, and I find it easy rarely.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, because practicing mindfulness is a goal, you know, But
it's like retraining my brain out of this like habit
that it formed a long time ago when it just
didn't want to connect to the things around me. So
I just take a deep breath and I find something
(06:56):
to look at that I can find something positive about
out trees or clouds or a piece of art on
the wall, even it's a bad art. I'll find something
a color or something in there, and I'll take a
deep breath and I'll really focus on the positivity of
that thing, you know, and then gratitude is the next part.
(07:19):
You know, that comes next.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, gratitude on tour it feels in retrospect, and I
think it looks to the outsider like, well that would
be the It could never be easier to feel grateful
than when you're on tour. I mean you're on stage,
people are hooting and hollering. It looks like so much fun,
and it is so much fun. Yeah, but it's not
always in the mailstrom of the touring lifestyle. It can
(07:41):
be now really hard to stay grateful.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yes, And it's just like it's so much more work now.
You know, we had the major label and the big
signing in the mid nineties. Now we don't. I mean
that's just what bands do now. Well, it's a lot
more work and so it's very easy to forget to
(08:05):
be present and grateful, you know, all the meanwhile, trying
not to base too much of like who I am
on the accolades of the fans or lack of accolades
from the fans, just trying to not base my identity
on that. So trying to be conscientious of those things.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
It's a well, it's a full time job in the
midst of another full time job. But I hope you
feel like it's all paying dividends.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I mean it is, you know, Like my restructuring of
my values when I brought this band back was just that,
like this would be about people who want to see
this band and bringing as much of an experience to them.
I mean, I like to say joy, but maybe it's
(08:58):
not always joy. Maybe sometimes it's just a feeling. And
I just want to bring as much of that to
the people that love this band. And so I get
to do that, you know, big or small. Yeah, And
so yeah, I just try and be real grateful about that.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I mean that sounds mindful and present to me too,
which is well, that's probably a good way of going
back in time a bit. Is that idea of what's
the value set of a new band, a young band,
a band that's signed, the big deal, that is in ascendence.
I know, in my experience, when I look back and
think of the moments when I was, when I wish
(09:36):
I'd been present and instant, you know, the coolest moments,
the biggest shows, the Coachella, this Lollapalooza, that Glastonbury, and
I feel like one thing I kept having in common
was that they were never enough, or they were never
quite right, or we deserved a better time slot, or
they bumped us for some other band. I was mad.
I was frustrated, and it was all about how it
wasn't conforming to the narrative expectations I had already built
(09:59):
for it, right. You know, that was hard enough when
I was a twenty year old indie rocker Canadian kid.
I can only imagine what it was like for you
and for Save Paris, with the major label deal, with
the hit single, you know, with the MTV of it all,
the Hollywood of it all. I mean, there was so
much swirling around. How could you have been present? But
(10:19):
what do you think were your values back then? Or
what do you think we're the band values?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Well, I mean I can't speak for the rest of
the band. I know my values were my values were
similar to my values are now in that you know,
I try and just be the best entertainer I can
be because I understand that some people that come to
our shows can't really like I mean, everybody is spending
(10:47):
their harder money to come and see this show, and
they deserve the best of what I have to give.
So yeah, I think that's always been like an overarching
theme for me ever since I was a kid. But
I mean, you know, like I this is what I do.
I've been doing this since I was eleven years old,
(11:08):
you know, Like my situation is. I mean, I know
guys who picked up a guitar just to get chicks
at one point, you know, in high school, and then
we're like, hey, I want to be cool and that's
why I'm in a band. That is okay, I'm not
judging it, that's cool whatever, But that was definitely not me.
(11:29):
Mine was like, this is this is this is what
I know how to do, and I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You trained as an opera singer, am I correcked?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I did? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Do you think that that sort of set you up
for that kind of professional attitude towards it. I mean,
there's not the same kind of indie club world for
for opera as far as I'm aware. You know, you
got your you're working, you're you're getting gigs, and you're
working your way up the ladder. And I wonder if
that maybe instills a slightly more see you for lack
of a better word, way of looking at the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Maybe. Yeah, Like I said, I was a kid when
I started studying opera, so I'm sure that that definitely affected,
like how I look at all of this, maybe in
a more serious way. I don't know, that's a good
that's a good question, though. I'm not sure what.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Got you into the opera training in the first place.
And I guess you know, what were you in love
with about music when you started singing?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Well, you know, I my dad had a beautiful voice,
and he was sort of like a quiet singer, like
he would just sing to my sister and my mom
and I. You know, he wouldn't really sing in public
or anything like that, but he loved to sing. And
when I was about ten years old and decided I
(12:51):
didn't want to be a ballerina anymore, did that for
a long time. It was about ten, I was like,
now what, all right, maybe I'll sing like dad, you know,
and that wasn't very good, but my parents decided to
put me in voice lessons and that voice teacher. My
original intention was never to sing opera that was not
(13:15):
on my radar. But she and I developed a very
special relationship. She's kind of like a mob to me
a little bit. And her name was Marilyn Cronin. And
one day she said to me, do you want to
hear what I do? And she gave me a little
cassette tape with her name on there and some Italian
(13:35):
stuff written on it. I remember listening to it and thinking,
this is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. And
it was just all of these famous Italian arias. It
was her singing wow, some French and some America, some
American opera but anyway, so I was like, yeah, this
is what I want to do. And at that point, yeah,
I started training as an opera singer. So, I mean
(13:57):
I was always like into pong In and stuff like that,
but because of my sister's influence, but like when I
was going to shows, I was still studying opera I
was like going to punk shows and I was still
studying opera. It was really like not the thing that
people in my department did. And so when my friends
(14:19):
were like, you're a singer, why don't you be in
my band? I was like, how am I going to
do that? All right, I'll figure it out, and I did.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I'm really curious for your perspective on the difference between
opera singing and rock singing, you know, be a punk,
scot swing, et cetera. I've never been trained vocally at all,
so I'm not sure what the words to use to
ask the question are. But I'm wondering if you can
just remember what your experience was like changing gears in
(14:51):
that way, you must have had to sort of relearn
a few things or forget a few things.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Oh God, you're so right. You said it so perfectly.
It was forgetting a bunch of stuff purposely and remembering
certain things. I remember, like I had studied like musical
theater in high school. I went to forming arts high school,
so I studied some different techniques, and I remember buying
like a seth Riggs local warm up book and CD
(15:20):
and going, uh, maybe this will help, right, So I
kind of already knew how to belt just through doing
musical theater, but literally had to listen, like really listen
to how other musicians sang in order for me to
figure out what kind of tone I wanted, you know,
(15:42):
and how to not sound like an opera singer. And
I was in a few bands before I was in
say Faris, and that helped me figure it out a
little bit, helped me develop my sound, But it really
just had everything to do with well, first, you know,
the breast support is like the basic foundation of every singer.
(16:04):
So and the breath support in the use of the
diaphragm is like what you learn in opera, so I
could apply that easily. But then there were a lot
of no nos in opera that I had to be like,
it's okay, you can do this. You can do this, now,
I give you permission, Like what just sounding a little dirtier,
(16:25):
sounding a little messier, Yeah, letting go a little bit
more and not being afraid of like any of that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, you can be a little outside, a little off
piece as it were. Yeah, Yeah, it's outside the boundaries
without it being wrong exactly. Yeah, it's more wrong to
be inside the boundaries. Sometimes. Yeah, true, sure it must
be useful now, you know, continuing to tour and as
you say, play play a show every night, having that
(16:57):
just that knowledge of like where it's coming from and
what to do with it. I mean, I know so
many rock people who had to learn. I mean our
band for the first couple of years, we were canceling
shows once every tour. We'd at least have to cancel
a show because our singer would blow his voice out
because no one taught him how to sing, and so
he's just shouting his head off on stage while we
jump around, you know, yeah, like indie rock idiots. And
(17:19):
eventually he realized, oh, I have to go to a
voice teacher and learn how to sustain what I do.
But it felt really like a voice teacher. Well, we
don't want to polish this up too much. You know,
you don't realize or we didn't realize, that you can
learn techniques to support what you already sound like, as
opposed to having you know, the voice teacher is going
to change you the first thing they do.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, that's a lot of that. I hear that as
a fear, and a lot of singers in our industry
like they're going to try and change my voice.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, And I think that kind of ties into I mean,
you know, the conceit of the show is the major
label of it all in the way that the major
label coming on the scene does or doesn't change things musically,
et cetera. And I think that that fear of professionalization
or of being polished, or of being sanded down in
(18:11):
some way is it's true across the board. It's scary
to co write for a lot of people, or you know,
it used to be when we are coming up. I
think kids now are less frightened of it. Yeah, it's
scary to get a hot shot producer. It's scary to
outsourced the mixing of the record, you know. I mean,
it's scary to get a manager. Christ And I know
that you were the first manager of Save Paris, so
(18:31):
you know what that process feels like.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, it was scary and you know for me and
ended up being kind of like I've had some nightmarish
management experiences, and I think that a lot of bounds
hear those stories and heed those warnings, and so that
may be why you know, they're hesitant, And I think
(18:54):
that's healthy. I think it's healthy to have hesitants when
it comes to management, and I can tell you from
mixed experience, and you know, signing a deal, it's healthy
to have hesitation. It's healthy to be careful with those things.
But when it comes to learning good technique, and I
(19:15):
say good technique because good technique isn't going to change,
you know, good vocal technique isn't going to change the
character of your voice. It shouldn't, you know, A good
voice teacher should be able to harness your voice and
who you are, unless the voice that you've created is
(19:35):
just like so unhealthy and out there that like, oh God,
like you're going to lose your chords if you keep
saying like this. But I do believe there's enough good
technique out there for everybody, you know, to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, So it's always good to try. It's great to try.
And like I said, the basic fundamentals of singing star
with the breath, control your breath and if you can
just learn that you're going in the right direction. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
So I wanted to go back to the specifically how
the Save Farris sound came together. You know, I first
encountered your band and other bands of that ILK when
I was, you know, a little suburban Ontario boy, and
so I had no you know, when I heard third
(20:30):
wave Sky later, I was like, what was the I
don't what were the first two? I had never heard,
you know, an upstroke guitar until Save Fais came on
the radio in Newmarket, Ontario. I had no knowledge of
the many threads that sort of gathered into into this
really interesting and cool moment in popular music where all
of a sudden, all these influences from like, you know,
(20:51):
big band swing to Jamaican dub or whatever, we're all
coalescing and making this new sound that wasn't just you know,
underground and bubbling. It was the mainstream for a second.
You know, I first heard the cherry pop and Daddies
from my like normal cousin, who just, oh my god,
have you heard the coolest new song ever? It's called
(21:12):
zoot Suit Ryot. And I didn't know what a zootsuit was,
and I'm not sure I knew what a riot was really,
so I may have learned it all in that moment.
And you know, I think that Save Ferris is a
really interesting blend of styles and of sounds and of
sonic approaches. And I would love to know, like, what
did you sound like the first time you all jammed together,
(21:33):
and how much did you know how conscious was incorporating
these different influences, how much did it just come naturally
out of what you were what we were into.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Well, say, Ferris was birthed out of another band and
they had a couple songs already like Spam.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Didn't have fun.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Things and like maybe under twenty one like songs that
I A'll be honest, I don't really feel comfortable playing
now because I feel like I've aged out of that
kind of it's just but you know, but the fans
(22:23):
really want to hear them, so we still play them
sometimes and that's cool. But yeah, I mean, I think
my goal has always been for our sound to grow
with us. That's always been my goal. And bringing in
other influences there's always really important to me. I grew
(22:47):
up listening to Second wavesca Specials and Madness and stuff
like that, loving songs like you know, nightclub and ghost Town.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
And this song those times, all the gloves I mean,
close down.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
This place, but also loving like pop punk like Buzzcocks
and stuff like that, and so I enjoyed the idea
of like writing these songs with Brian that group thus,
and then when Brian was no longer in the band
(23:37):
and it was just about me, I was a little scared,
you know, but I just sort of relied on that thought, like,
all right, these songs should just be a reflection of
who I am now. Checkered Past, which came out in
twenty seventeen. It was just five songs that I felt
sort of embodied the different voices of say Pharaoh's there's
(24:00):
one like sweet, happy, loving song, there's one sort of angry,
punky song, there's you know, there's a little bit for everybody,
and then there's one song called New Sound. There's a
little bit more reflective of like a new sound for
safe Paris. And so yeah, I've just been kind of
(24:36):
following that direction, you know. Growth.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
It feels like a very live music, which is maybe
obvious to say maybe you know, all rock music to
some degree is, but this music in particular, really it
sounds like your vocals sound like they're often like direct
to dress. They're sort of like like even something like Goodbye,
which has that kind of you know, vocal jazzy, torchy
noss beginning deep.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
In the heart of every man lies in dream or
plan to be a million live without out a care.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
That has that sort of you know, the way that
you sort of like look over your shoulder with an
arched eyebrow or whatever at the audience, The way that
you communicate it's kind of musically, not in terms of
like how it's composed, but in terms of the attitude
that I hear in it. That seems to me, you know,
to a be characteristic of music that's under the broad
sort of punk umbrella because it was happening at shows
(25:40):
and at parties and in these moments. And also it
seems freeing to me, because you know, it's one thing
on to sit down in a studio with the big
board and say, oh, should we add this instrument or
this lick that sounds like X or y Z. But
when you're doing it live, you just do it because
if it's fun and if it gets a response, and
if it charges you up and it charges the crowd up,
then like, why would you not do it? It'd be
(26:01):
silly to even have that conversation. Is that accurate to say?
Is that you know, were you guys coalescing while you
were gigging? Were you gigging right from the start of
Say Faris. I know you were already all in band,
so you had gigs under your belt.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
We were gigging from the start, but we would slow
down to write. And it's interesting, you know, my favorite,
and I've said this before, my favorite, like Say Fari's
album is introducing Say Faris. It's the first one we did.
It was basically recorded live. We just like blocked out
(26:36):
a twenty four hour time slot in the studio and
literally lived in the studio and recorded through the night.
It took shifts and it was recorded to tape. And
I love that album because it does have that live
sound to it, and I think it really beautifully captured
(26:57):
who we were in that moment, you know, the youthful
news is who we were in the world is near
(27:18):
one and Say First has always been an incredible live band.
And I've always said, like, if you really want to
know Say Ferris, come to a show. Our songs are fine,
like our recordings are fine, but our show is fantastic.
(27:41):
And so yeah, there is a live aspect probably to
the recordings, because like we've always just been more of
a live band.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Do you remember the first Save Faris show I do.
Where was it.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
It was in Palm Springs. There's this like small, like
kind of punk venue. And that was the moment when
everything connected boom right then and there, it was like that,
here's the voice, this is the voice, this is this
is the persona. I just sort of went, okay, just
let go, you know, the songs, Let's see what comes out.
(28:16):
And at that point everything connected.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It's cool, that's great. Yeah, so you you come to
life on stage rather than get shy.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I come to life on stage. Yeah. I feel very
comfortable there.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
That's great. That's a good attribute. I wonder again that
sounds you know, opera, you gotta be coming alive on stage.
Indie rock, you can crunch up your body a little
bit and sort of, you know, whisper wistfully into the microphone,
your precious art. But when it comes to opera or
say Farest songs, you know you gotta you gotta have
that diaphragm open.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, I guess. So, yeah, it's true. I don't know.
And I move around a lot, very active on stage
and in heals nonetheless, so in that sense it is
a little different. But in the sense that you're pointing
out you are absolutely spot on.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Thanks for saying, we'll clip that. We're going to clip
all the parts where you say, I'm right, that's actually
what the podcast is. It's quite short, but it takes
a while to get there.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I mean, it's really cool to be doing an interview
with someone who gets it. You can. You can clip
that too.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Believe me, I will. That's going My parents are going
to put that on the fridge. I'm going to print
out frame by frame with like impact font captions. They
used to print out like our band, the band's good reviews.
They print them out from the internet, like the way
that parents will print stuff out, and we'll still have
like the U R allbar on it. You know, I
don't even know how you do that.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I'm dying.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You're right, and there would be on the fridge, like
all three pages with their strongest magnet.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You have no idea the things I found after my
mom passed away a couple of years ago. I've just
been sort of cleaning out this my childhood home, you know,
and it's literally a lifetime's worth of cutout articles and
multiple multiple copies of magazines. This is the same magazine.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, yeah, like five Toronto Stars the whole paper. There's
like a blurb about our show.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, and like and those printouts that you're talking about
on top of the print out of the article from
online as well as the physical article. It was also
in the magazine. It was like, oh my god, and
all the printer paper are sort of like recycled or
something on the other side of it, and it's like sort.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Of, yeah, like my parents were teachers. There's like a
test on the other side of it. Some poor kid
got a D minus. But at least on the other side, you.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Know, and they print everything in draft, so it's really
hard to read.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Really, I print everything in draft. This is I'm reading
draft script questions right now. I don't know if it
does anything. It doesn't look any difference, but you know,
you got to take something from the old uh family tree.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
So in all of my reading and research, there comes
a point where it's sort of YadA yadas through Save
Faris played a Grammy showcase and then got signed to
Epic Records, which seems to me like it technically tells
the facts of that part of the story, but it
raises a lot of questions insofar as like how does
one get on the Grammy showcase. Because I've played on
(31:23):
some showcases in my time, where you know, some record
industry people come out for a couple of beer tickets
and they ignore the bands and then go home after
the show. This doesn't seem like one of those. This
seems like more of a real deal thing. How did
that come to pass?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, Like it's weird. Like the Nares Foundation was doing
this quote unquote best Unsigned Band in America contest and
someone entered us to do that. I don't remember who
it was, and they were like, Okay, well we have
to play the Whiskey. Sure went, we played at the
(32:00):
Whiskey and we won. Okay. Cool. And then next thing
I knew, they're like, we're flying it in New York
City and we're like huh. And then they flew to
New York City and then they put us up in
a nice hotel and we just felt so fancy and yeah,
(32:22):
and then we played there and David Mause, who was
the head of an R for Epic Records, was one
of the judges and he signed us immediately. How old
were you maybe twenty maybe nineteen?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Contract sign and age?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
You mentioned healthy hesitation a few minutes ago about things
like getting a manager and like signing to a record label.
Did you hesitate healthfully or otherwise as a twenty year
old with an Epic Records contract in front of you? No?
Were there any other labels in the mix at any point?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yep? But I can't remember who. We're just like, we're like, okay,
where do I sign to under page contract? Sure?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yep? What did that mean to you at the time?
I mean, you know, I, in my mind, every young
band wants to sign that exact deal, Like that's the
story that I thought I would have when I was
fourteen years old and started trying to learn how to
write songs. Did it feel that way to you? Did
it feel like, yes, this is it, here we go.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yep, That's exactly what it felt like. And we had
an attorney, had a great attorney good which uh, you know,
she was wonderful, and you know she negotiated some things
on our behalf. But overall, the way I see it is,
there's just like no bank who would have given a
nineteen year old a two million dollar loan to start
(33:48):
a business. And that's basically what the Regrant label did
for us. Now, The problem is that after you pay
off the loans, the bank, record label, they still own
a large percentage of your home or whatever it is.
(34:09):
But at the same time, I'm grateful because it gave
me a career. All of that money and promotion, all
of that gave me a career, and thirty years later,
I still have a career doing what I do.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
If you're going to sign a big deal, if you're
going to sign with a major label, at least back then,
I don't know if this is even still true, but
you wanted it to happen at the point in the
wave that you did it at. You know, your kind
of music you were making was about to be extremely
in demand in a way that only a major label
in the nineties could quickly respond to. And there you
(34:45):
were on a major label. And I mean, well, as
we're about to discuss, things transpired in a way that,
at least from the outside, looks like about what you
want to happen with, you know, with your major label
debut record. What did they want you to be? Do
you feel like, you know, they liked, they liked the show,
they signed the band. But there's many stories where that
(35:07):
start that way and then once the signatures on the paper,
the ideas start coming out, and it turns out they
actually wanted a pretty different band that just kind of
looks the same and has the same name. Did you
did you go to the studio quickly? And did they?
Did the label have a lot of thoughts about like
what the record should be, what kind of producer you
should work with, etc. Do you remember sort of those
(35:29):
those initial conversations.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
I do, and yes they did all of that. I
think they just kind of like wanted the sound, but
they didn't, but they wanted They didn't want me to
look the way I looked. They liked the way I perform,
they like the way I sounded, But you know, why
(35:52):
can't she be thinner? The nineties is really tough for ticks,
Like it was really hard in that sense. And yes,
we went to record very quickly. Yes, it was a
producer that they found and there was just this weird
relationship between the producer and the label, And yes, stuff
(36:16):
was like going on there that we were really privy to,
I think. And but overall they you know, they want
to protect their investment.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
M M.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yeah, well that's what I mean. One's perfect At nineteen
you know well.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
And that's the trick is knowing you know which advice
to take and when you know when it's your ego
getting in the way, and when it's actually your heart,
you know, that's that's warning you for a good reason
against whatever path. I mean, that's most of these things
can only really be analyzed in retrospect, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah, And it's the difference between you know, having one audience,
which is a smaller audience of just you know, these
pointed fans that you've already established prior to signing, or
the possibility of branching out to a more broad audience.
(37:18):
But then the issue comes like how much do you
want to compromise, because then you compromise who you are,
you compromise your sound, or you compromise your vision, and
then the label drops you and who are you at
that point? Yes, you know, yeah, so there's always that question,
(37:39):
but you don't when you're nineteen, you're not thinking ahead
like that. You're just like this is cool.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
And you you know, these experts are defining for you
what you want and what you should be and what
is the correct course of action. And you know, if
you don't know any better, then what are you going
to do other than listen to them. I mean they're
supposed to have your best interests at heart, and in
theory they have your best financial interests at heart because
they're aligned at least temporarily.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yeah, totally and you and they should be experts. I
mean they're getting paid a lot of money to do
what they do. They should be experts. They're not always experts.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
No, And they're always people. They're always people, and their
ideas are all over the map. One person involved with
it means everything is Peter Collins, who was the producer
who you know has a long and varied resume, the
resume of like the producer that labels call and feel
(38:35):
they can trust, you know, like Brian Setz or Orchestra
and letters to Cleo and Sean Mullens in nineties, contemporaries
of yours like that, but also like Rush and bon
Jovi and you know, sort of all sorts of things.
Did you have any say, did they present you with
a menu of producers from which you picked or was
it sort of a phatocompley by the time that you've
heard about it.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
I believe they may have presented us with a few
different producers, but I think it was just always going
to be Peter for that. And he also produced musical youse,
like oh that was kind of cool. Yeah, But he
was also the guy who was just like, you can't
be in the control room while we comp your vocals, okay,
(39:20):
And I was like, why he goes, because that's just
not how it's done. I was like, oh, all right.
This really made me feel kind of like, huh, it's.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Very old fashioned, Like the band stays on this side
of the glass and you play and we tell you
and then we make the record on this side of
the glass for the record label, Like, did it feel
like he was working for the label more than he
was working for the band sometimes?
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
And were there label people in the studio most of
the time some of the time, well.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Some of the time. But again, because I think he
was working so closely with the label, I don't think
that they felt that they needed to be.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
There, right, yeah, you know, so did they fiddle with
the tunes at all? Was there that kind of production
of changing structures or harmonies or you know, lyrics or
any old thing in search of the elusive.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Hit that I believe? Yes, there was all of that.
I don't think there was a big fight, but I
don't remember all of details there. Yeah, that was a
long time ago.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
I mean through all of this, both with making the
record and you know you alluded to the label having
opinions about your your look, et cetera. And I have
witnessed myself to this day how the difference in treatment
between men and women in the music industry, just in
terms of how free the people in power seem to
(40:55):
feel to be Like you're a blank slate. Yeah, you've
got a great voice, you've got a great look, or
your brain is good to your social media presentation is good,
but surely you will be thrilled to hear my advice
on the kind of songs you should sing, or the
kind of clothes you should wear or whatever. You get
that a bit when you're a dude or in a
band of dudes, but it's presented in a way that
feels a little bit more humble, or they offer these ideas,
(41:17):
but you have the right to say no. And it
seems like often when I see women go through these things,
that's kind of presented as like, here's the answer, we
did it for you. You should be saying thank you
and hopping too, not like having your own opinions, did you.
I mean, I'm sure you experienced that to some degree,
and I'm not trying to dig up traumatizing memories, but
I'm really curious what your experience was with that, you know,
(41:40):
horror show.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
I mean, I do think back on it, and I
feel like it was a little bit of a horror show.
There were so few women around, and so you know,
the things that probably should have been dictated by other
women or not dated but suggested or conversed with other women.
(42:06):
Not so these ideas were imposed upon me by groups
of myth that made me feel insecure. Yeah, so it
was very hard. It's taken me years to sort of
get to the other side of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Yeah, I mean I can't imagine it's I because I
know how battered I got going through it in like
the most privileged way you possibly can. And I'm still
just beginning to reckon with that at the at the
end of my band's career. Yeah, and nothing about me
or my life like put me in a vulnerable position
at all. It's still kicked my ass. So I can
only begin to imagine a mind fuck. It almost have been.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
It really was. It was a very weird hard time,
I think for women.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
And meanwhile, your dream is coming true ostensibly, and this
is like embedded within it, and so you know, it's
what a strange cognitive stew You.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Are so correct. Yeah, it was a strange cognitive stew.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Clip it. What's your relationship now? Like with come on, Eileen?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I still love it?
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Great, that's the best answer. I'm so glad.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
I love it. I love how everybody gets super excited
when we play it, like so excited. And I love
closing out a shuttle with that song. It's just a
perfect little cherry right on top of the set.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Oh yeah, send everyone out the door smiling.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Yeah, I love it. People put their hands up in
the air, wave them back and forth. It's cute. It's
really cute. I love it.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I confess I had cynically long assumed that, as I
often do when I hear a cover on a record,
that it was a record label suggestion or you know,
a dictate from on. But I learned researching for this
conversation that you had been playing it live long before that,
which is great another relief for me that you didn't
(44:08):
get because then it became the big hit song and stuff,
and if they'd forced you into doing that, and I
know that happens to some bands, complicated to have your
hit be a song that you know you didn't necessarily
want to do in the first place. So I'm glad
that was not your experience.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
No, well it wasn't. I don't know if I would
have chosen that as the single, right, it's good, it's
really good, But I don't know if I would have
chosen a cover song as our single.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Did they start coming to you with other covers after that?
Like I can imagine the A and R guy being like, so,
if you do a good come on, Eileen, then imagine
what you could do with SKA. God only knows.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
I don't remember what they were, but yes they did,
and I remember it was all kind of like rolling
our eyes a little bit, like, oh good, No.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
This is a classic music industry thing. Is just repeating
what worked the last time. You know. Tune that was
like had a halftime chorus, and we were recording it
the same summer that We Are Young by Fun came
out and was a big hit, and that song has
a halftime chorus. So everyone on our team was flipping
their wigs over our halftime chorus song, and they were
(45:16):
certain it had to be the single and didn't become
a single, and it wouldn't have been a success had
it been one. But all they could hear was that
halftime chorus, and people love halftime choruses. They're so hot
right now.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
It's hilarious and so true. Yeah, it's just exactly how
they think.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
It's.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Well, it's an old fashioned industry.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
I mean for people in like a creative industry, they're
very not creative to a certain degrease.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah, yeah, it's very reactive. Yeah. Well, I think that
worked for a long time. And I mean even when
you know, when it means everything came out, there was
still enough time to if skall is popular, or if
pop punk is popular, you know, if if Blink one
eighty two is a hit, We've got time to like
scar Out sign produce, release records by MxPx and some
(46:04):
forty one and you know, Phoenix t X and whoever
else and still probably stand a pretty good chance of
capitalizing on that trend. Whereas by the time our our
Halftime Chorus song came out, it was like six months
later and there'd been three other hits that sounded completely different,
and so all those old fashioned ways of responding to
trends are like going away. And I can only imagine
(46:27):
the terror that that instills in the older generation of
the music industry.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yeah, the industry has just changed so much, my god,
Like artists have voices now, yeah, and they and they
have control.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Do you feel like you were able to hold on
to your voice throughout all of the madness and promotion
and everything that surrounded you, know when it means everything
came out and the song was a hit and you
you know, you were intent things I Hate about You,
which was a big deal movie, and like the perfect
(47:01):
from a business perspective, like this is a teen movie
for teen kids, our number one demographic, and here's a
song that is like irresistible, amazing. Obviously, you know from
the first note, you just know it's going to be
a success and we're gonna pipe it right into the
brains of these teens. I mean, it's it's perfect, and
that's ex I'm sure it was really exciting for you guys.
(47:23):
I'm sure it was also extremely well. As you were
saying at the beginning of our conversation, hard to stay
present hard to be that aware of all of it.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
Yeah, yeah, that was like Ten Things I Had about
was really cool because we had never been on a
movie set before and they like just like flew us
out off of warp Tour for like one day, and
so that was cool.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
But you know, we had no idea what we were
getting into, Like, we didn't we didn't know that this
movie was going to age as well as it has.
It's really cool.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
I mean, what a unique very very very few bands
had that experience. You know, even in the heady alt
rock days of the nineteen nineties, there weren't many bands
who got to be in the movie not just their
song but literally them.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Yeah. True. Yeah. Thinking about that now, I'm like, huh,
that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
And to fly, well, this is classic storytelling of the
old days, where you know you're just really quickly like, oh,
we flew in from Warped Tour to film our cameo
and Ten Things I Hate About You, and we flew
back to Warped Tour. And I'm sure it felt about
that fast as well. But then when you actually think
about what that means and what that entails, it's pretty amazing.
Shit to be on warped tour, which is the whole
(48:36):
cattle Fish in to itself.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
It was a really tough tour and we I've done
three of them and we literally had one day off
and on that one day we flat seattle that scene.
It's cool though.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
I mean, you're only young once. Yeah, You're only young once,
and you can make it through that stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
And I mean it's interesting because you know, thirty years later,
I'm sort of worrying in a very similar way where
we just did it. Twenty eight shows in thirty days.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
And I mean, I'm so grateful for my training and
not having to cancel a show. Yeah, knowing one to
pull back, knowing how to save my voice, but then
also understanding now that I have limitations, like my body
doesn't recover like it used to. It just doesn't. So
(49:28):
I'm learning now how to do it a little bit different. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
Did it feel successful when it was happening when the
record came out, when you were touring it and promoting it,
did it feel We were talking earlier about the sometimes
the difference between your expectations and reality and how that
can get in the way of appreciating it. Obviously, it
was a successful record. But did it feel successful or
was there like another brass ring that you were always
(49:56):
reaching for?
Speaker 2 (49:58):
It felt successful, I felt hopeful. You know, anything is possible,
and this is the beginning of like my life, this
is the beginning. Yeah, it's all it's all happening. That's
what it felt like.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
And then it did, I mean, and it happened. You know,
you made another record pretty quickly, and then you know,
kept going until the early aughts. Two thousand and two
or two thousand and three was the last two were
of sort of that first say faris era as the kids.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Say, correct, yeah, two thousand and two.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Did you think it was ending when it stopped that
first time? Did you think that it was a full stop?
Speaker 2 (50:45):
No, because even though we had been dropped from our
label at that point and that was very hard.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
How did that transpire? How does that like? What is it? What? Actually?
How did you get a phone call one day and email,
a letter.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
A phone call from our manager, you know, and we
were just gearing up for our next single and to
record the video. And we also knew that the administration
was just changing epic and they were getting a new president,
(51:22):
and that a lot of the times when that happens,
they come in and they clean house and so. But
we didn't think that we were going to be one
of the bands to be dropped because we were still
we felt like on this upward projection, you know, so
(51:43):
we thought maybe they won't drop us, but Polly Anthony
did and that was a hard hit for us. I
think we based a lot of our identity on the
fact that we were assigned band, and that wasn't necessary.
We were a great and I believe that we still
(52:04):
had a future even without a label. I believe that
we could put out our records independently and keep one
percent of the profits. And I believe that that was
and this was before the entire industry smashed into a
billion pieces. I believe that could be a sustainable life
(52:24):
for us, and other people in the band didn't and
they left. And then I kept going until the wheels
fell off for me emotionally and physically. I had these
physical limitations, spinal issues and stuff like that, and I
had stopped for like ten years try and get my
(52:47):
shit back together.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
You know, to what extent did you stop making music?
You stopped touring with Safe Faris, you stopped making those records,
but were you able to do it, you know, for
the love of the game during that time at least,
or did you want to do it?
Speaker 2 (53:02):
I did, and I sang. I was a studio singer.
I sang on a bunch of records during that time, so
I was still connected in that way. And I was
working in entertainment business management, so I still felt some connection.
But I didn't know if I was going to get
on stage again. And I recorded some demos in there,
(53:27):
you know, trying to figure out what's the next sound
going to be, what's the next phase going to be.
But nothing, you know, nothing as like definitive as what
happened in twenty thirteen when I got the diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
And was that the impetus to get back into the game.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
That was because that was like, oh my god, I've
had three doctors ask me, you know, how important is
it for me to sing anymore?
Speaker 1 (54:04):
What a question?
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah, But I was losing motor skills on the right
side of my body, and I was in a really
sticky predicament. And then I thought about a life without singing,
and I thought about a life without making music, and
I thought, oh my god, like that's not a possibility.
(54:28):
That can't happen. Then I thought about a life without
being able to dance, and I thought, well, that can't happen.
So I became really determined to figure out how to
make it work. And I was able to find a
team of doctors that perform the surgery that I needed
(54:50):
and on my neck. And that's kind of like a
promise I made to my dad that right before I
went under, like if I wake up from this and
if I can still sing, I can still dance, So
you can still walk remembering the band back, and I did.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
It's so clarifying. We talked about all this, the major
label of it all, and the influences and the business
and is it a success and does it feels like
a success. But when you put it that way, when
you go through something like that, what an effective way
just sweep all that bullshit off the desk and what
(55:27):
remains is singing and dancing. And that's what's important. That's
what it is. That's what you do and what we do,
and what people love and gather at these shows. As
you said, big crowd, small crowds, towns where they never
have a band come through, making that sound, letting people dance,
letting people feel that it's the only real thing about
(55:49):
anything we do.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
It's true. It's a uniting force.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Now more than ever.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
It's go now more than ever, Scott.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
I heard you say that on another interview, So thank
you catching my Easter egg.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
That's our motto.
Speaker 1 (56:03):
And there's a certain genre of music, or or maybe
just certain albums where I, in my mind, I think
you know the best case scenario. I've always thought this.
We didn't really coincide with the CD era, and I
always felt a little sad about that because it like,
I want one of our CDs to be like rattling
around under someone's passenger seat in a smashed jewel case,
you know, a sun bleached album artwork, and it's still
(56:24):
there and they still pull it out and put it
on all the time because it's like one of their
car CDs. Yeah, and I feel like, say Feris was
a car CD band, and that is talk about music
for people.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
That's true. Were people show up to the shows with CDs? Still?
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Do you sell more CDs or records? Do you now?
At the merch table, not to talk dollars and cents,
but well that's a.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
Hard one because we don't like sell it means everything
or introducing or modified on CD because.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
The record label still owns.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
Those, yes, and we just don't get copies of O CDs.
I'm hoping at some point they'll be printed on vinyl,
because I do feel like our audiences written they love
vinyl now.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
So vinyl and an important part of the lineage of
SKA in the first place.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
Agreed, I just inherited a original Specials record.
Speaker 1 (57:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, And while listening to that on vinyl, Wow, what
a treat.
Speaker 1 (57:32):
And it's so I mean, I know people can get
too caught up in the you know, the warm crackle
of vinyl is the only way to listen to music,
and it's whatever. But well, because everything's on that, We're
doing this interview on the computer, and then we'll finish
this and I'll do my email on the computer, and
I'll do my banking on the computer, and I'll dooom
scroll on the computer. And we recently, my wife and
(57:55):
I bought like an old stereo and speakers for her
turn to which is also old, and you'd put an
old record on it. And you're just experiencing a complete
experience that does not involve your computer, does not involve
really any computer and is a fifty sixty year old
experience in totem other than you yourself. And it's I
(58:20):
don't know, you know, the meta text or whatever they
call it of these experiences is less and less relevant,
maybe because it's all on your computer on your phone.
But when you get that chance to listen to an
old original Specials record, that's the exact thing that people
heard when that record was new.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Yeah, that's exactly what I say. Is like, one of
the coolest experiences I ever had was listening to David
Bowie record that was an original printing from the eighties
on a sound system record player that had been made
in the eighties recently, and it was so cool to
(58:58):
listen to it on headphones, just like, oh, yeah, this
is exactly the forum that they recorded this album for.
This is the format. Yeah, And to hear it here
in a completely different way. The production and everything is
so different, the panning of the sound from left to
right and it's all there. It's very cool.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
That is very cool. Well, I hope you get those
Sayerst records pressed.
Speaker 2 (59:26):
On wax, yes, manifesting.
Speaker 1 (59:30):
Speaking it into being. I won't take up too much
more of your time. I will conclude by asking what
we consider to be the sort of most meaningful and
important question there is to ask about making any record,
which is, of course, what were you eating in the
studio while you made it?
Speaker 2 (59:51):
Oh my god, I do not remember. Maybe for modified
we were eating killer shrimp because we were like, I
don't know if you know. This place is in LA
We're recording in the valley, and I think it was
next to a killer ship. So I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
It's so interesting to me. Some people are like, oh
my god, so on Mondays we'd have these burritos, and
then on Tuesday we'd have these burritos, and other people
don't remember at all. I'm not sure what that says
about these various records. At the end of this podcast,
when it's all sit and down, I'm going to go
through every single album and sort them into people that
can remember and can't remember, and then I'm going to
figure out what is the fundamental difference between the two tracks,
(01:00:30):
and then I will solve the mystery of rock and
roll and we'll clip that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Congratulations on thirty years of Save Faris and thirty years
of doing it. I mean and you sounds like more
than most have put some effort into doing it, and
I just think, like I was saying, I mean, it's
it's the most important thing in the world music and
bringing people together with music. Not to be corny, but
it's true. I agree, And God bless you for keeping
(01:00:56):
it going. Bless us all, bless us all. Thank you
so much. Wonderful to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Likewise, thank you, Monique Powell.
Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Of Save Ferris. We obviously talk a lot about the
music business here at major label Debut. It's right there
in the name of the show. And one of the
things about popular rock music in the nineties is that
they really churned through genres. Now we're doing pop punk,
now we're doing rap metal, now we're doing ska. If
you listen to the episode I did with the authors
of the book Tearing Down the Orange Curtain, all about
(01:01:31):
the OC punk and ska and adjacent scenes, Save Ferris
is in that book, and they come out of that scene,
which is like a real place where people were just
making music, you know, and then all of a sudden,
from beneath the ocean of commerce, this mighty current rises
and lifts ska music to the top of the mainstream
for a moment, and now all of a sudden, bands
(01:01:53):
like Save Faris are the toast of the town, and
then the wave naturally ebbs, as these waves always do.
Genre people suddenly look at it as like yesterday's news
and as like an expired novelty. But meanwhile, Save Faris
and every other ska band, we're making ska music before
it and are still making ska music after it. You know.
Such is the fickle nature of this business we call show.
(01:02:16):
But it was really cool to speak to Monique about
riding those waves, and I was really happy to hear
that Monique Powell is unapologetic and still happily proudly making
ska music and being Save Ferris on stage, on tour,
in the studio. It's just great stuff, you know, And
I really kudos to her for doing that, because it
(01:02:38):
is genuinely not always the easiest process, and I think
ska is a genre, maybe more than most, that has suffered.
I know, when I was a younger, sillier, less wise person,
I'm so wise now. I know. I'm very serious to boot.
I myself was guilty of sometimes looking at the side
of my eye at ska and I was as wrong,
of course, as people usually are when they do that
(01:02:59):
sort of thing. Monique Powell fortunately smarter, wiser and cleverer
than me and maybe than most of us also. Not
to put too fine a point on it, but going
through the music business as a woman is particularly a
fucking nightmare. As Monique alluded to in that conversation. It
does take a chunk out of you, and it can
take its toll on you, and it's not always easy
(01:03:21):
to keep going with it, and Monique is, and you know,
makes me feel a little better about the craziness of
it all to know there's people out there like Monique
doing it. Say Faris is on tour in the United
States of America right now. Sayfaris dot com is. Their
website has all their tour dates on it, and they've
been putting out new music as well, so you can
look into that. And that's the show. Major Label Debut
(01:03:44):
is as always produced by John Paul Bullock and Josh Hook.
Our music is as always by Greg Alsop. We appreciate
any like, follow, subscribe, positive review buttons that you press
and click and you know, if you know someone that
loves Say Ferris or scam music or is in did
in that world of things as well that hasn't heard
Major Label Debut yet. What better opportunity to tell ten
(01:04:06):
friends and tell them to each tell ten friends as well.
It's like a pyramid scheme, but no one makes any money.
And speaking of money, Major Label Debut will return with
more tales from the intersection of art and commerce. So
long
Welcome to Major Label Debut, the podcast about major label Debuts.
My name is Graham Wright. Opera SKA two pretty different
genres of music anyway you slice it. And to go
from being an opera singer to being a SKA singer,
you'd have to think is a pretty major change, considering
you're kind of doing the same thing with like your
(00:28):
vocal chords and your air and your breathing and all
the sciences singing. Indeed, as far as I personally am aware,
it's a transition that has only been pulled off one
time by today's guest Monique Powell of Save Farris. And
not only did starting as an opera singer before evolving
into a SKA singer set Monique up with like better
(00:49):
vocal habits than most rock singers ever acquire, I have
to think that that big transition, that huge pivot, must
have really helped prepare her for all the changes that
are inherent when you make a career in music. Save
(01:26):
Faris is one of those bands about whom most people
maybe know like one or two things they do that
kick ass, wonderful version of Come On, Eileen, and they're
in the movie Ten Things I Hate About You but
of course Monique and Save Faris did and still do
way way more than that, and their story is much
deeper and much more complete, and it includes, of course
(01:50):
a major label debut. It means everything is the name
of that record. It came out in nineteen ninety seven
on Epic Records. That record is ostensibly our topic of
conversation today. But of course we all know by now
that here at major label debut, we don't let little
things like what the podcast is called restrict our conversational ranging.
And I had a great time yacking with Monique about life,
(02:13):
making music and how she's navigated her many adventures through
a few decades. At this point of Save Ferris, we
caught up while she was on tour in Connecticut, and
my main memory of playing in Connecticut is sampling their
unique local spin on pizza pie. So we started off
by talking about that. And let me just say, I
(02:33):
love the good people of New England. And while you
are momentarily going to hear me Graham write bad mouthing
clam of pizza, in no way should my personal pizza
preferences be taken as an insult to the state of
Connecticut or any of her fine citizens. We celebrate all
local delicacies here at major label debut in theory, if
(02:54):
not always in practice. So with that being said, here
is my talk with the wonderful Monique Powell of Ferris.
You mean, have you ever had the famous Connecticut pizza?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I believe I just had it. It's that very thin
salty pizza. Who makes it?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Is it like stews or something like that?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Somebody's name. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
We played space ballroom and they someone was like, you
got to have We're going to send out for this
special pizza. And it came and it had clams and
white sauce on it.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Oh oh no, also the one I had weird clam pizza.
But how was it, I guess is the question.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
It was too weird for.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Meeh okay, because I was going to say it sounds
like clam chowder on a crust.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, well it was. No, it was like solid clams,
distinguishable clam entities like slice by sice, like.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
With all the thing, all the clam things.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I'm no marine biologist.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Clam wizards and feet and all that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
God, I don't think it had feet.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Were the clams screaming claries?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yes, the clams were and remain vocal. I hear them
even now as we speak. That's why I do the
podcast primarily to drown out the voices. I think that's
true of most of us.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
To drown out the voices of the clan.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
The clent. Oh my god, how has it been touring
New England and the Eastern Seaboard?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Awesome?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
You know. We try to play like every night because
that's just how you have to sustain. And it's our
first time visiting some of these towns in many, many years,
and some of them we've never been to before in
our thirty year history, you know, and so you kind
of you have to sustain when you're on your own label,
(04:50):
you know. And so we play every night, and sub
clubs are really small, and some shows are much substantially
a bit larger, but the small clubs people have just
been so grateful, Like bounds don't come through the city,
you know, like ever. Yeah, so it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
That's great. Yeah, what's your experience of touring like now
compared to twenty years ago? You know, it's obviously it's
changed in a million different ways, but I certainly found,
you know, twenty years into my career, my just everything
about what I appreciated on tour, what I enjoyed on tour,
just sort of how every room hit me when I
walked into it was really different and for me it
(05:32):
was way better.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, it's true. I think when I geared up to
start touring again years some years later, I thought about
my previous touring experience in my early twenties and late teens,
and realized I didn't remember anything. I didn't remember any
(05:55):
of it. That all of that time, all of those
places i'd been too, I didn't recall any of it.
I just wasn't present. And so the agreement I made
with myself was that I would agree to be more present.
And so I don't know if that's like it's like
age or you know, I don't know what it is,
(06:18):
but I'm trying to be more present.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Do you have any tricks that you use for staying present?
We're staying present, Yeah, because I think we all need
to stay I try to stay present in every element
of my life, and I find it easy rarely.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, because practicing mindfulness is a goal, you know, But
it's like retraining my brain out of this like habit
that it formed a long time ago when it just
didn't want to connect to the things around me. So
I just take a deep breath and I find something
(06:56):
to look at that I can find something positive about
out trees or clouds or a piece of art on
the wall, even it's a bad art. I'll find something
a color or something in there, and I'll take a
deep breath and I'll really focus on the positivity of
that thing, you know, and then gratitude is the next part.
(07:19):
You know, that comes next.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah, gratitude on tour it feels in retrospect, and I
think it looks to the outsider like, well that would
be the It could never be easier to feel grateful
than when you're on tour. I mean you're on stage,
people are hooting and hollering. It looks like so much fun,
and it is so much fun. Yeah, but it's not
always in the mailstrom of the touring lifestyle. It can
(07:41):
be now really hard to stay grateful.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yes, And it's just like it's so much more work now.
You know, we had the major label and the big
signing in the mid nineties. Now we don't. I mean
that's just what bands do now. Well, it's a lot
more work and so it's very easy to forget to
(08:05):
be present and grateful, you know, all the meanwhile, trying
not to base too much of like who I am
on the accolades of the fans or lack of accolades
from the fans, just trying to not base my identity
on that. So trying to be conscientious of those things.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
It's a well, it's a full time job in the
midst of another full time job. But I hope you
feel like it's all paying dividends.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I mean it is, you know, Like my restructuring of
my values when I brought this band back was just that,
like this would be about people who want to see
this band and bringing as much of an experience to them.
I mean, I like to say joy, but maybe it's
(08:58):
not always joy. Maybe sometimes it's just a feeling. And
I just want to bring as much of that to
the people that love this band. And so I get
to do that, you know, big or small. Yeah, And
so yeah, I just try and be real grateful about that.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I mean that sounds mindful and present to me too,
which is well, that's probably a good way of going
back in time a bit. Is that idea of what's
the value set of a new band, a young band,
a band that's signed, the big deal, that is in ascendence.
I know, in my experience, when I look back and
think of the moments when I was, when I wish
(09:36):
I'd been present and instant, you know, the coolest moments,
the biggest shows, the Coachella, this Lollapalooza, that Glastonbury, and
I feel like one thing I kept having in common
was that they were never enough, or they were never
quite right, or we deserved a better time slot, or
they bumped us for some other band. I was mad.
I was frustrated, and it was all about how it
wasn't conforming to the narrative expectations I had already built
(09:59):
for it, right. You know, that was hard enough when
I was a twenty year old indie rocker Canadian kid.
I can only imagine what it was like for you
and for Save Paris, with the major label deal, with
the hit single, you know, with the MTV of it all,
the Hollywood of it all. I mean, there was so
much swirling around. How could you have been present? But
(10:19):
what do you think were your values back then? Or
what do you think we're the band values?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Well, I mean I can't speak for the rest of
the band. I know my values were my values were
similar to my values are now in that you know,
I try and just be the best entertainer I can
be because I understand that some people that come to
our shows can't really like I mean, everybody is spending
(10:47):
their harder money to come and see this show, and
they deserve the best of what I have to give.
So yeah, I think that's always been like an overarching
theme for me ever since I was a kid. But
I mean, you know, like I this is what I do.
I've been doing this since I was eleven years old,
(11:08):
you know, Like my situation is. I mean, I know
guys who picked up a guitar just to get chicks
at one point, you know, in high school, and then
we're like, hey, I want to be cool and that's
why I'm in a band. That is okay, I'm not
judging it, that's cool whatever, But that was definitely not me.
(11:29):
Mine was like, this is this is this is what
I know how to do, and I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You trained as an opera singer, am I correcked?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I did? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Do you think that that sort of set you up
for that kind of professional attitude towards it. I mean,
there's not the same kind of indie club world for
for opera as far as I'm aware. You know, you
got your you're working, you're you're getting gigs, and you're
working your way up the ladder. And I wonder if
that maybe instills a slightly more see you for lack
of a better word, way of looking at the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Maybe. Yeah, Like I said, I was a kid when
I started studying opera, so I'm sure that that definitely affected,
like how I look at all of this, maybe in
a more serious way. I don't know, that's a good
that's a good question, though. I'm not sure what.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Got you into the opera training in the first place.
And I guess you know, what were you in love
with about music when you started singing?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Well, you know, I my dad had a beautiful voice,
and he was sort of like a quiet singer, like
he would just sing to my sister and my mom
and I. You know, he wouldn't really sing in public
or anything like that, but he loved to sing. And
when I was about ten years old and decided I
(12:51):
didn't want to be a ballerina anymore, did that for
a long time. It was about ten, I was like,
now what, all right, maybe I'll sing like dad, you know,
and that wasn't very good, but my parents decided to
put me in voice lessons and that voice teacher. My
original intention was never to sing opera that was not
(13:15):
on my radar. But she and I developed a very
special relationship. She's kind of like a mob to me
a little bit. And her name was Marilyn Cronin. And
one day she said to me, do you want to
hear what I do? And she gave me a little
cassette tape with her name on there and some Italian
(13:35):
stuff written on it. I remember listening to it and thinking,
this is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. And
it was just all of these famous Italian arias. It
was her singing wow, some French and some America, some
American opera but anyway, so I was like, yeah, this
is what I want to do. And at that point, yeah,
I started training as an opera singer. So, I mean
(13:57):
I was always like into pong In and stuff like that,
but because of my sister's influence, but like when I
was going to shows, I was still studying opera I
was like going to punk shows and I was still
studying opera. It was really like not the thing that
people in my department did. And so when my friends
(14:19):
were like, you're a singer, why don't you be in
my band? I was like, how am I going to
do that? All right, I'll figure it out, and I did.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I'm really curious for your perspective on the difference between
opera singing and rock singing, you know, be a punk,
scot swing, et cetera. I've never been trained vocally at all,
so I'm not sure what the words to use to
ask the question are. But I'm wondering if you can
just remember what your experience was like changing gears in
(14:51):
that way, you must have had to sort of relearn
a few things or forget a few things.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Oh God, you're so right. You said it so perfectly.
It was forgetting a bunch of stuff purposely and remembering
certain things. I remember, like I had studied like musical
theater in high school. I went to forming arts high school,
so I studied some different techniques, and I remember buying
like a seth Riggs local warm up book and CD
(15:20):
and going, uh, maybe this will help, right, So I
kind of already knew how to belt just through doing
musical theater, but literally had to listen, like really listen
to how other musicians sang in order for me to
figure out what kind of tone I wanted, you know,
(15:42):
and how to not sound like an opera singer. And
I was in a few bands before I was in
say Faris, and that helped me figure it out a
little bit, helped me develop my sound, But it really
just had everything to do with well, first, you know,
the breast support is like the basic foundation of every singer.
(16:04):
So and the breath support in the use of the
diaphragm is like what you learn in opera, so I
could apply that easily. But then there were a lot
of no nos in opera that I had to be like,
it's okay, you can do this. You can do this, now,
I give you permission, Like what just sounding a little dirtier,
(16:25):
sounding a little messier, Yeah, letting go a little bit
more and not being afraid of like any of that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, you can be a little outside, a little off
piece as it were. Yeah, Yeah, it's outside the boundaries
without it being wrong exactly. Yeah, it's more wrong to
be inside the boundaries. Sometimes. Yeah, true, sure it must
be useful now, you know, continuing to tour and as
you say, play play a show every night, having that
(16:57):
just that knowledge of like where it's coming from and
what to do with it. I mean, I know so
many rock people who had to learn. I mean our
band for the first couple of years, we were canceling
shows once every tour. We'd at least have to cancel
a show because our singer would blow his voice out
because no one taught him how to sing, and so
he's just shouting his head off on stage while we
jump around, you know, yeah, like indie rock idiots. And
(17:19):
eventually he realized, oh, I have to go to a
voice teacher and learn how to sustain what I do.
But it felt really like a voice teacher. Well, we
don't want to polish this up too much. You know,
you don't realize or we didn't realize, that you can
learn techniques to support what you already sound like, as
opposed to having you know, the voice teacher is going
to change you the first thing they do.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, that's a lot of that. I hear that as
a fear, and a lot of singers in our industry
like they're going to try and change my voice.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, And I think that kind of ties into I mean,
you know, the conceit of the show is the major
label of it all in the way that the major
label coming on the scene does or doesn't change things musically,
et cetera. And I think that that fear of professionalization
or of being polished, or of being sanded down in
(18:11):
some way is it's true across the board. It's scary
to co write for a lot of people, or you know,
it used to be when we are coming up. I
think kids now are less frightened of it. Yeah, it's
scary to get a hot shot producer. It's scary to
outsourced the mixing of the record, you know. I mean,
it's scary to get a manager. Christ And I know
that you were the first manager of Save Paris, so
(18:31):
you know what that process feels like.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, it was scary and you know for me and
ended up being kind of like I've had some nightmarish
management experiences, and I think that a lot of bounds
hear those stories and heed those warnings, and so that
may be why you know, they're hesitant, And I think
(18:54):
that's healthy. I think it's healthy to have hesitants when
it comes to management, and I can tell you from
mixed experience, and you know, signing a deal, it's healthy
to have hesitation. It's healthy to be careful with those things.
But when it comes to learning good technique, and I
(19:15):
say good technique because good technique isn't going to change,
you know, good vocal technique isn't going to change the
character of your voice. It shouldn't, you know, A good
voice teacher should be able to harness your voice and
who you are, unless the voice that you've created is
(19:35):
just like so unhealthy and out there that like, oh God,
like you're going to lose your chords if you keep
saying like this. But I do believe there's enough good
technique out there for everybody, you know, to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, So it's always good to try. It's great to try.
And like I said, the basic fundamentals of singing star
with the breath, control your breath and if you can
just learn that you're going in the right direction. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
So I wanted to go back to the specifically how
the Save Farris sound came together. You know, I first
encountered your band and other bands of that ILK when
I was, you know, a little suburban Ontario boy, and
so I had no you know, when I heard third
(20:30):
wave Sky later, I was like, what was the I
don't what were the first two? I had never heard,
you know, an upstroke guitar until Save Fais came on
the radio in Newmarket, Ontario. I had no knowledge of
the many threads that sort of gathered into into this
really interesting and cool moment in popular music where all
of a sudden, all these influences from like, you know,
(20:51):
big band swing to Jamaican dub or whatever, we're all
coalescing and making this new sound that wasn't just you know,
underground and bubbling. It was the mainstream for a second.
You know, I first heard the cherry pop and Daddies
from my like normal cousin, who just, oh my god,
have you heard the coolest new song ever? It's called
(21:12):
zoot Suit Ryot. And I didn't know what a zootsuit was,
and I'm not sure I knew what a riot was really,
so I may have learned it all in that moment.
And you know, I think that Save Ferris is a
really interesting blend of styles and of sounds and of
sonic approaches. And I would love to know, like, what
did you sound like the first time you all jammed together,
(21:33):
and how much did you know how conscious was incorporating
these different influences, how much did it just come naturally
out of what you were what we were into.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Well, say, Ferris was birthed out of another band and
they had a couple songs already like Spam.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Didn't have fun.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Things and like maybe under twenty one like songs that
I A'll be honest, I don't really feel comfortable playing
now because I feel like I've aged out of that
kind of it's just but you know, but the fans
(22:23):
really want to hear them, so we still play them
sometimes and that's cool. But yeah, I mean, I think
my goal has always been for our sound to grow
with us. That's always been my goal. And bringing in
other influences there's always really important to me. I grew
(22:47):
up listening to Second wavesca Specials and Madness and stuff
like that, loving songs like you know, nightclub and ghost Town.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
And this song those times, all the gloves I mean,
close down.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
This place, but also loving like pop punk like Buzzcocks
and stuff like that, and so I enjoyed the idea
of like writing these songs with Brian that group thus,
and then when Brian was no longer in the band
(23:37):
and it was just about me, I was a little scared,
you know, but I just sort of relied on that thought, like,
all right, these songs should just be a reflection of
who I am now. Checkered Past, which came out in
twenty seventeen. It was just five songs that I felt
sort of embodied the different voices of say Pharaoh's there's
(24:00):
one like sweet, happy, loving song, there's one sort of angry,
punky song, there's you know, there's a little bit for everybody,
and then there's one song called New Sound. There's a
little bit more reflective of like a new sound for
safe Paris. And so yeah, I've just been kind of
(24:36):
following that direction, you know. Growth.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
It feels like a very live music, which is maybe
obvious to say maybe you know, all rock music to
some degree is, but this music in particular, really it
sounds like your vocals sound like they're often like direct
to dress. They're sort of like like even something like Goodbye,
which has that kind of you know, vocal jazzy, torchy
noss beginning deep.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
In the heart of every man lies in dream or
plan to be a million live without out a care.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
That has that sort of you know, the way that
you sort of like look over your shoulder with an
arched eyebrow or whatever at the audience, The way that
you communicate it's kind of musically, not in terms of
like how it's composed, but in terms of the attitude
that I hear in it. That seems to me, you know,
to a be characteristic of music that's under the broad
sort of punk umbrella because it was happening at shows
(25:40):
and at parties and in these moments. And also it
seems freeing to me, because you know, it's one thing
on to sit down in a studio with the big
board and say, oh, should we add this instrument or
this lick that sounds like X or y Z. But
when you're doing it live, you just do it because
if it's fun and if it gets a response, and
if it charges you up and it charges the crowd up,
then like, why would you not do it? It'd be
(26:01):
silly to even have that conversation. Is that accurate to say?
Is that you know, were you guys coalescing while you
were gigging? Were you gigging right from the start of
Say Faris. I know you were already all in band,
so you had gigs under your belt.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
We were gigging from the start, but we would slow
down to write. And it's interesting, you know, my favorite,
and I've said this before, my favorite, like Say Fari's
album is introducing Say Faris. It's the first one we did.
It was basically recorded live. We just like blocked out
(26:36):
a twenty four hour time slot in the studio and
literally lived in the studio and recorded through the night.
It took shifts and it was recorded to tape. And
I love that album because it does have that live
sound to it, and I think it really beautifully captured
(26:57):
who we were in that moment, you know, the youthful
news is who we were in the world is near
(27:18):
one and Say First has always been an incredible live band.
And I've always said, like, if you really want to
know Say Ferris, come to a show. Our songs are fine,
like our recordings are fine, but our show is fantastic.
(27:41):
And so yeah, there is a live aspect probably to
the recordings, because like we've always just been more of
a live band.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Do you remember the first Save Faris show I do.
Where was it.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
It was in Palm Springs. There's this like small, like
kind of punk venue. And that was the moment when
everything connected boom right then and there, it was like that,
here's the voice, this is the voice, this is this
is the persona. I just sort of went, okay, just
let go, you know, the songs, Let's see what comes out.
(28:16):
And at that point everything connected.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It's cool, that's great. Yeah, so you you come to
life on stage rather than get shy.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I come to life on stage. Yeah. I feel very
comfortable there.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
That's great. That's a good attribute. I wonder again that
sounds you know, opera, you gotta be coming alive on stage.
Indie rock, you can crunch up your body a little
bit and sort of, you know, whisper wistfully into the microphone,
your precious art. But when it comes to opera or
say Farest songs, you know you gotta you gotta have
that diaphragm open.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, I guess. So, yeah, it's true. I don't know.
And I move around a lot, very active on stage
and in heals nonetheless, so in that sense it is
a little different. But in the sense that you're pointing
out you are absolutely spot on.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Thanks for saying, we'll clip that. We're going to clip
all the parts where you say, I'm right, that's actually
what the podcast is. It's quite short, but it takes
a while to get there.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I mean, it's really cool to be doing an interview
with someone who gets it. You can. You can clip
that too.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Believe me, I will. That's going My parents are going
to put that on the fridge. I'm going to print
out frame by frame with like impact font captions. They
used to print out like our band, the band's good reviews.
They print them out from the internet, like the way
that parents will print stuff out, and we'll still have
like the U R allbar on it. You know, I
don't even know how you do that.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I'm dying.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You're right, and there would be on the fridge, like
all three pages with their strongest magnet.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You have no idea the things I found after my
mom passed away a couple of years ago. I've just
been sort of cleaning out this my childhood home, you know,
and it's literally a lifetime's worth of cutout articles and
multiple multiple copies of magazines. This is the same magazine.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, yeah, like five Toronto Stars the whole paper. There's
like a blurb about our show.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, and like and those printouts that you're talking about
on top of the print out of the article from
online as well as the physical article. It was also
in the magazine. It was like, oh my god, and
all the printer paper are sort of like recycled or
something on the other side of it, and it's like sort.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Of, yeah, like my parents were teachers. There's like a
test on the other side of it. Some poor kid
got a D minus. But at least on the other side, you.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Know, and they print everything in draft, so it's really
hard to read.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Really, I print everything in draft. This is I'm reading
draft script questions right now. I don't know if it
does anything. It doesn't look any difference, but you know,
you got to take something from the old uh family tree.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
So in all of my reading and research, there comes
a point where it's sort of YadA yadas through Save
Faris played a Grammy showcase and then got signed to
Epic Records, which seems to me like it technically tells
the facts of that part of the story, but it
raises a lot of questions insofar as like how does
one get on the Grammy showcase. Because I've played on
(31:23):
some showcases in my time, where you know, some record
industry people come out for a couple of beer tickets
and they ignore the bands and then go home after
the show. This doesn't seem like one of those. This
seems like more of a real deal thing. How did
that come to pass?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, Like it's weird. Like the Nares Foundation was doing
this quote unquote best Unsigned Band in America contest and
someone entered us to do that. I don't remember who
it was, and they were like, Okay, well we have
to play the Whiskey. Sure went, we played at the
(32:00):
Whiskey and we won. Okay. Cool. And then next thing
I knew, they're like, we're flying it in New York
City and we're like huh. And then they flew to
New York City and then they put us up in
a nice hotel and we just felt so fancy and yeah,
(32:22):
and then we played there and David Mause, who was
the head of an R for Epic Records, was one
of the judges and he signed us immediately. How old
were you maybe twenty maybe nineteen?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Contract sign and age?
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
You mentioned healthy hesitation a few minutes ago about things
like getting a manager and like signing to a record label.
Did you hesitate healthfully or otherwise as a twenty year
old with an Epic Records contract in front of you? No?
Were there any other labels in the mix at any point?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yep? But I can't remember who. We're just like, we're like, okay,
where do I sign to under page contract? Sure?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yep? What did that mean to you at the time?
I mean, you know, I, in my mind, every young
band wants to sign that exact deal, Like that's the
story that I thought I would have when I was
fourteen years old and started trying to learn how to
write songs. Did it feel that way to you? Did
it feel like, yes, this is it, here we go.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yep, That's exactly what it felt like. And we had
an attorney, had a great attorney good which uh, you know,
she was wonderful, and you know she negotiated some things
on our behalf. But overall, the way I see it is,
there's just like no bank who would have given a
nineteen year old a two million dollar loan to start
(33:48):
a business. And that's basically what the Regrant label did
for us. Now, The problem is that after you pay
off the loans, the bank, record label, they still own
a large percentage of your home or whatever it is.
(34:09):
But at the same time, I'm grateful because it gave
me a career. All of that money and promotion, all
of that gave me a career, and thirty years later,
I still have a career doing what I do.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
If you're going to sign a big deal, if you're
going to sign with a major label, at least back then,
I don't know if this is even still true, but
you wanted it to happen at the point in the
wave that you did it at. You know, your kind
of music you were making was about to be extremely
in demand in a way that only a major label
in the nineties could quickly respond to. And there you
(34:45):
were on a major label. And I mean, well, as
we're about to discuss, things transpired in a way that,
at least from the outside, looks like about what you
want to happen with, you know, with your major label
debut record. What did they want you to be? Do
you feel like, you know, they liked, they liked the show,
they signed the band. But there's many stories where that
(35:07):
start that way and then once the signatures on the paper,
the ideas start coming out, and it turns out they
actually wanted a pretty different band that just kind of
looks the same and has the same name. Did you
did you go to the studio quickly? And did they?
Did the label have a lot of thoughts about like
what the record should be, what kind of producer you
should work with, etc. Do you remember sort of those
(35:29):
those initial conversations.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
I do, and yes they did all of that. I
think they just kind of like wanted the sound, but
they didn't, but they wanted They didn't want me to
look the way I looked. They liked the way I perform,
they like the way I sounded, But you know, why
(35:52):
can't she be thinner? The nineties is really tough for ticks,
Like it was really hard in that sense. And yes,
we went to record very quickly. Yes, it was a
producer that they found and there was just this weird
relationship between the producer and the label, And yes, stuff
(36:16):
was like going on there that we were really privy to,
I think. And but overall they you know, they want
to protect their investment.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
M M.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Yeah, well that's what I mean. One's perfect At nineteen
you know well.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
And that's the trick is knowing you know which advice
to take and when you know when it's your ego
getting in the way, and when it's actually your heart,
you know, that's that's warning you for a good reason
against whatever path. I mean, that's most of these things
can only really be analyzed in retrospect, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah, And it's the difference between you know, having one audience,
which is a smaller audience of just you know, these
pointed fans that you've already established prior to signing, or
the possibility of branching out to a more broad audience.
(37:18):
But then the issue comes like how much do you
want to compromise, because then you compromise who you are,
you compromise your sound, or you compromise your vision, and
then the label drops you and who are you at
that point? Yes, you know, yeah, so there's always that question,
(37:39):
but you don't when you're nineteen, you're not thinking ahead
like that. You're just like this is cool.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
And you you know, these experts are defining for you
what you want and what you should be and what
is the correct course of action. And you know, if
you don't know any better, then what are you going
to do other than listen to them. I mean they're
supposed to have your best interests at heart, and in
theory they have your best financial interests at heart because
they're aligned at least temporarily.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Yeah, totally and you and they should be experts. I
mean they're getting paid a lot of money to do
what they do. They should be experts. They're not always experts.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
No, And they're always people. They're always people, and their
ideas are all over the map. One person involved with
it means everything is Peter Collins, who was the producer
who you know has a long and varied resume, the
resume of like the producer that labels call and feel
(38:35):
they can trust, you know, like Brian Setz or Orchestra
and letters to Cleo and Sean Mullens in nineties, contemporaries
of yours like that, but also like Rush and bon
Jovi and you know, sort of all sorts of things.
Did you have any say, did they present you with
a menu of producers from which you picked or was
it sort of a phatocompley by the time that you've
heard about it.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
I believe they may have presented us with a few
different producers, but I think it was just always going
to be Peter for that. And he also produced musical youse,
like oh that was kind of cool. Yeah, But he
was also the guy who was just like, you can't
be in the control room while we comp your vocals, okay,
(39:20):
And I was like, why he goes, because that's just
not how it's done. I was like, oh, all right.
This really made me feel kind of like, huh, it's.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Very old fashioned, Like the band stays on this side
of the glass and you play and we tell you
and then we make the record on this side of
the glass for the record label, Like, did it feel
like he was working for the label more than he
was working for the band sometimes?
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
And were there label people in the studio most of
the time some of the time, well.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Some of the time. But again, because I think he
was working so closely with the label, I don't think
that they felt that they needed to be.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
There, right, yeah, you know, so did they fiddle with
the tunes at all? Was there that kind of production
of changing structures or harmonies or you know, lyrics or
any old thing in search of the elusive.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Hit that I believe? Yes, there was all of that.
I don't think there was a big fight, but I
don't remember all of details there. Yeah, that was a
long time ago.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
I mean through all of this, both with making the
record and you know you alluded to the label having
opinions about your your look, et cetera. And I have
witnessed myself to this day how the difference in treatment
between men and women in the music industry, just in
terms of how free the people in power seem to
(40:55):
feel to be Like you're a blank slate. Yeah, you've
got a great voice, you've got a great look, or
your brain is good to your social media presentation is good,
but surely you will be thrilled to hear my advice
on the kind of songs you should sing, or the
kind of clothes you should wear or whatever. You get
that a bit when you're a dude or in a
band of dudes, but it's presented in a way that
feels a little bit more humble, or they offer these ideas,
(41:17):
but you have the right to say no. And it
seems like often when I see women go through these things,
that's kind of presented as like, here's the answer, we
did it for you. You should be saying thank you
and hopping too, not like having your own opinions, did you.
I mean, I'm sure you experienced that to some degree,
and I'm not trying to dig up traumatizing memories, but
I'm really curious what your experience was with that, you know,
(41:40):
horror show.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
I mean, I do think back on it, and I
feel like it was a little bit of a horror show.
There were so few women around, and so you know,
the things that probably should have been dictated by other
women or not dated but suggested or conversed with other women.
(42:06):
Not so these ideas were imposed upon me by groups
of myth that made me feel insecure. Yeah, so it
was very hard. It's taken me years to sort of
get to the other side of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Yeah, I mean I can't imagine it's I because I
know how battered I got going through it in like
the most privileged way you possibly can. And I'm still
just beginning to reckon with that at the at the
end of my band's career. Yeah, and nothing about me
or my life like put me in a vulnerable position
at all. It's still kicked my ass. So I can
only begin to imagine a mind fuck. It almost have been.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
It really was. It was a very weird hard time,
I think for women.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
And meanwhile, your dream is coming true ostensibly, and this
is like embedded within it, and so you know, it's
what a strange cognitive stew You.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Are so correct. Yeah, it was a strange cognitive stew.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Clip it. What's your relationship now? Like with come on, Eileen?
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I still love it?
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Great, that's the best answer. I'm so glad.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
I love it. I love how everybody gets super excited
when we play it, like so excited. And I love
closing out a shuttle with that song. It's just a
perfect little cherry right on top of the set.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Oh yeah, send everyone out the door smiling.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
Yeah, I love it. People put their hands up in
the air, wave them back and forth. It's cute. It's
really cute. I love it.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I confess I had cynically long assumed that, as I
often do when I hear a cover on a record,
that it was a record label suggestion or you know,
a dictate from on. But I learned researching for this
conversation that you had been playing it live long before that,
which is great another relief for me that you didn't
(44:08):
get because then it became the big hit song and stuff,
and if they'd forced you into doing that, and I
know that happens to some bands, complicated to have your
hit be a song that you know you didn't necessarily
want to do in the first place. So I'm glad
that was not your experience.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
No, well it wasn't. I don't know if I would
have chosen that as the single, right, it's good, it's
really good, But I don't know if I would have
chosen a cover song as our single.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Did they start coming to you with other covers after that?
Like I can imagine the A and R guy being like, so,
if you do a good come on, Eileen, then imagine
what you could do with SKA. God only knows.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
I don't remember what they were, but yes they did,
and I remember it was all kind of like rolling
our eyes a little bit, like, oh good, No.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
This is a classic music industry thing. Is just repeating
what worked the last time. You know. Tune that was
like had a halftime chorus, and we were recording it
the same summer that We Are Young by Fun came
out and was a big hit, and that song has
a halftime chorus. So everyone on our team was flipping
their wigs over our halftime chorus song, and they were
(45:16):
certain it had to be the single and didn't become
a single, and it wouldn't have been a success had
it been one. But all they could hear was that
halftime chorus, and people love halftime choruses. They're so hot
right now.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
It's hilarious and so true. Yeah, it's just exactly how
they think.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
It's.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Well, it's an old fashioned industry.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
I mean for people in like a creative industry, they're
very not creative to a certain degrease.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Yeah, yeah, it's very reactive. Yeah. Well, I think that
worked for a long time. And I mean even when
you know, when it means everything came out, there was
still enough time to if skall is popular, or if
pop punk is popular, you know, if if Blink one
eighty two is a hit, We've got time to like
scar Out sign produce, release records by MxPx and some
(46:04):
forty one and you know, Phoenix t X and whoever
else and still probably stand a pretty good chance of
capitalizing on that trend. Whereas by the time our our
Halftime Chorus song came out, it was like six months
later and there'd been three other hits that sounded completely different,
and so all those old fashioned ways of responding to
trends are like going away. And I can only imagine
(46:27):
the terror that that instills in the older generation of
the music industry.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yeah, the industry has just changed so much, my god,
Like artists have voices now, yeah, and they and they
have control.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Do you feel like you were able to hold on
to your voice throughout all of the madness and promotion
and everything that surrounded you, know when it means everything
came out and the song was a hit and you
you know, you were intent things I Hate about You,
which was a big deal movie, and like the perfect
(47:01):
from a business perspective, like this is a teen movie
for teen kids, our number one demographic, and here's a
song that is like irresistible, amazing. Obviously, you know from
the first note, you just know it's going to be
a success and we're gonna pipe it right into the
brains of these teens. I mean, it's it's perfect, and
that's ex I'm sure it was really exciting for you guys.
(47:23):
I'm sure it was also extremely well. As you were
saying at the beginning of our conversation, hard to stay
present hard to be that aware of all of it.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
Yeah, yeah, that was like Ten Things I Had about
was really cool because we had never been on a
movie set before and they like just like flew us
out off of warp Tour for like one day, and
so that was cool.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
But you know, we had no idea what we were
getting into, Like, we didn't we didn't know that this
movie was going to age as well as it has.
It's really cool.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
I mean, what a unique very very very few bands
had that experience. You know, even in the heady alt
rock days of the nineteen nineties, there weren't many bands
who got to be in the movie not just their
song but literally them.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
Yeah. True. Yeah. Thinking about that now, I'm like, huh,
that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
And to fly, well, this is classic storytelling of the
old days, where you know you're just really quickly like, oh,
we flew in from Warped Tour to film our cameo
and Ten Things I Hate About You, and we flew
back to Warped Tour. And I'm sure it felt about
that fast as well. But then when you actually think
about what that means and what that entails, it's pretty amazing.
Shit to be on warped tour, which is the whole
(48:36):
cattle Fish in to itself.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
It was a really tough tour and we I've done
three of them and we literally had one day off
and on that one day we flat seattle that scene.
It's cool though.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
I mean, you're only young once. Yeah, You're only young once,
and you can make it through that stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
And I mean it's interesting because you know, thirty years later,
I'm sort of worrying in a very similar way where
we just did it. Twenty eight shows in thirty days.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
And I mean, I'm so grateful for my training and
not having to cancel a show. Yeah, knowing one to
pull back, knowing how to save my voice, but then
also understanding now that I have limitations, like my body
doesn't recover like it used to. It just doesn't. So
(49:28):
I'm learning now how to do it a little bit different. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
Did it feel successful when it was happening when the
record came out, when you were touring it and promoting it,
did it feel We were talking earlier about the sometimes
the difference between your expectations and reality and how that
can get in the way of appreciating it. Obviously, it
was a successful record. But did it feel successful or
was there like another brass ring that you were always
(49:56):
reaching for?
Speaker 2 (49:58):
It felt successful, I felt hopeful. You know, anything is possible,
and this is the beginning of like my life, this
is the beginning. Yeah, it's all it's all happening. That's
what it felt like.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
And then it did, I mean, and it happened. You know,
you made another record pretty quickly, and then you know,
kept going until the early aughts. Two thousand and two
or two thousand and three was the last two were
of sort of that first say faris era as the kids.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Say, correct, yeah, two thousand and two.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Did you think it was ending when it stopped that
first time? Did you think that it was a full stop?
Speaker 2 (50:45):
No, because even though we had been dropped from our
label at that point and that was very hard.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
How did that transpire? How does that like? What is it? What? Actually?
How did you get a phone call one day and email,
a letter.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
A phone call from our manager, you know, and we
were just gearing up for our next single and to
record the video. And we also knew that the administration
was just changing epic and they were getting a new president,
(51:22):
and that a lot of the times when that happens,
they come in and they clean house and so. But
we didn't think that we were going to be one
of the bands to be dropped because we were still
we felt like on this upward projection, you know, so
(51:43):
we thought maybe they won't drop us, but Polly Anthony
did and that was a hard hit for us. I
think we based a lot of our identity on the
fact that we were assigned band, and that wasn't necessary.
We were a great and I believe that we still
(52:04):
had a future even without a label. I believe that
we could put out our records independently and keep one
percent of the profits. And I believe that that was
and this was before the entire industry smashed into a
billion pieces. I believe that could be a sustainable life
(52:24):
for us, and other people in the band didn't and
they left. And then I kept going until the wheels
fell off for me emotionally and physically. I had these
physical limitations, spinal issues and stuff like that, and I
had stopped for like ten years try and get my
(52:47):
shit back together.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
You know, to what extent did you stop making music?
You stopped touring with Safe Faris, you stopped making those records,
but were you able to do it, you know, for
the love of the game during that time at least,
or did you want to do it?
Speaker 2 (53:02):
I did, and I sang. I was a studio singer.
I sang on a bunch of records during that time, so
I was still connected in that way. And I was
working in entertainment business management, so I still felt some connection.
But I didn't know if I was going to get
on stage again. And I recorded some demos in there,
(53:27):
you know, trying to figure out what's the next sound
going to be, what's the next phase going to be.
But nothing, you know, nothing as like definitive as what
happened in twenty thirteen when I got the diagnosis.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
And was that the impetus to get back into the game.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
That was because that was like, oh my god, I've
had three doctors ask me, you know, how important is
it for me to sing anymore?
Speaker 1 (54:04):
What a question?
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah, But I was losing motor skills on the right
side of my body, and I was in a really
sticky predicament. And then I thought about a life without singing,
and I thought about a life without making music, and
I thought, oh my god, like that's not a possibility.
(54:28):
That can't happen. Then I thought about a life without
being able to dance, and I thought, well, that can't happen.
So I became really determined to figure out how to
make it work. And I was able to find a
team of doctors that perform the surgery that I needed
(54:50):
and on my neck. And that's kind of like a
promise I made to my dad that right before I
went under, like if I wake up from this and
if I can still sing, I can still dance, So
you can still walk remembering the band back, and I did.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
It's so clarifying. We talked about all this, the major
label of it all, and the influences and the business
and is it a success and does it feels like
a success. But when you put it that way, when
you go through something like that, what an effective way
just sweep all that bullshit off the desk and what
(55:27):
remains is singing and dancing. And that's what's important. That's
what it is. That's what you do and what we do,
and what people love and gather at these shows. As
you said, big crowd, small crowds, towns where they never
have a band come through, making that sound, letting people dance,
letting people feel that it's the only real thing about
(55:49):
anything we do.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
It's true. It's a uniting force.
Speaker 1 (55:53):
Now more than ever.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
It's go now more than ever, Scott.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
I heard you say that on another interview, So thank
you catching my Easter egg.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
That's our motto.
Speaker 1 (56:03):
And there's a certain genre of music, or or maybe
just certain albums where I, in my mind, I think
you know the best case scenario. I've always thought this.
We didn't really coincide with the CD era, and I
always felt a little sad about that because it like,
I want one of our CDs to be like rattling
around under someone's passenger seat in a smashed jewel case,
you know, a sun bleached album artwork, and it's still
(56:24):
there and they still pull it out and put it
on all the time because it's like one of their
car CDs. Yeah, and I feel like, say Feris was
a car CD band, and that is talk about music
for people.
Speaker 2 (56:33):
That's true. Were people show up to the shows with CDs? Still?
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Do you sell more CDs or records? Do you now?
At the merch table, not to talk dollars and cents,
but well that's a.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
Hard one because we don't like sell it means everything
or introducing or modified on CD because.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
The record label still owns.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
Those, yes, and we just don't get copies of O CDs.
I'm hoping at some point they'll be printed on vinyl,
because I do feel like our audiences written they love
vinyl now.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
So vinyl and an important part of the lineage of
SKA in the first place.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
Agreed, I just inherited a original Specials record.
Speaker 1 (57:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, And while listening to that on vinyl, Wow, what
a treat.
Speaker 1 (57:32):
And it's so I mean, I know people can get
too caught up in the you know, the warm crackle
of vinyl is the only way to listen to music,
and it's whatever. But well, because everything's on that, We're
doing this interview on the computer, and then we'll finish
this and I'll do my email on the computer, and
I'll do my banking on the computer, and I'll dooom
scroll on the computer. And we recently, my wife and
(57:55):
I bought like an old stereo and speakers for her
turn to which is also old, and you'd put an
old record on it. And you're just experiencing a complete
experience that does not involve your computer, does not involve
really any computer and is a fifty sixty year old
experience in totem other than you yourself. And it's I
(58:20):
don't know, you know, the meta text or whatever they
call it of these experiences is less and less relevant,
maybe because it's all on your computer on your phone.
But when you get that chance to listen to an
old original Specials record, that's the exact thing that people
heard when that record was new.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Yeah, that's exactly what I say. Is like, one of
the coolest experiences I ever had was listening to David
Bowie record that was an original printing from the eighties
on a sound system record player that had been made
in the eighties recently, and it was so cool to
(58:58):
listen to it on headphones, just like, oh, yeah, this
is exactly the forum that they recorded this album for.
This is the format. Yeah, And to hear it here
in a completely different way. The production and everything is
so different, the panning of the sound from left to
right and it's all there. It's very cool.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
That is very cool. Well, I hope you get those
Sayerst records pressed.
Speaker 2 (59:26):
On wax, yes, manifesting.
Speaker 1 (59:30):
Speaking it into being. I won't take up too much
more of your time. I will conclude by asking what
we consider to be the sort of most meaningful and
important question there is to ask about making any record,
which is, of course, what were you eating in the
studio while you made it?
Speaker 2 (59:51):
Oh my god, I do not remember. Maybe for modified
we were eating killer shrimp because we were like, I
don't know if you know. This place is in LA
We're recording in the valley, and I think it was
next to a killer ship. So I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
It's so interesting to me. Some people are like, oh
my god, so on Mondays we'd have these burritos, and
then on Tuesday we'd have these burritos, and other people
don't remember at all. I'm not sure what that says
about these various records. At the end of this podcast,
when it's all sit and down, I'm going to go
through every single album and sort them into people that
can remember and can't remember, and then I'm going to
figure out what is the fundamental difference between the two tracks,
(01:00:30):
and then I will solve the mystery of rock and
roll and we'll clip that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Congratulations on thirty years of Save Faris and thirty years
of doing it. I mean and you sounds like more
than most have put some effort into doing it, and
I just think, like I was saying, I mean, it's
it's the most important thing in the world music and
bringing people together with music. Not to be corny, but
it's true. I agree, And God bless you for keeping
(01:00:56):
it going. Bless us all, bless us all. Thank you
so much. Wonderful to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Likewise, thank you, Monique Powell.
Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Of Save Ferris. We obviously talk a lot about the
music business here at major label Debut. It's right there
in the name of the show. And one of the
things about popular rock music in the nineties is that
they really churned through genres. Now we're doing pop punk,
now we're doing rap metal, now we're doing ska. If
you listen to the episode I did with the authors
of the book Tearing Down the Orange Curtain, all about
(01:01:31):
the OC punk and ska and adjacent scenes, Save Ferris
is in that book, and they come out of that scene,
which is like a real place where people were just
making music, you know, and then all of a sudden,
from beneath the ocean of commerce, this mighty current rises
and lifts ska music to the top of the mainstream
for a moment, and now all of a sudden, bands
(01:01:53):
like Save Faris are the toast of the town, and
then the wave naturally ebbs, as these waves always do.
Genre people suddenly look at it as like yesterday's news
and as like an expired novelty. But meanwhile, Save Faris
and every other ska band, we're making ska music before
it and are still making ska music after it. You know.
Such is the fickle nature of this business we call show.
(01:02:16):
But it was really cool to speak to Monique about
riding those waves, and I was really happy to hear
that Monique Powell is unapologetic and still happily proudly making
ska music and being Save Ferris on stage, on tour,
in the studio. It's just great stuff, you know, And
I really kudos to her for doing that, because it
(01:02:38):
is genuinely not always the easiest process, and I think
ska is a genre, maybe more than most, that has suffered.
I know, when I was a younger, sillier, less wise person,
I'm so wise now. I know. I'm very serious to boot.
I myself was guilty of sometimes looking at the side
of my eye at ska and I was as wrong,
of course, as people usually are when they do that
(01:02:59):
sort of thing. Monique Powell fortunately smarter, wiser and cleverer
than me and maybe than most of us also. Not
to put too fine a point on it, but going
through the music business as a woman is particularly a
fucking nightmare. As Monique alluded to in that conversation. It
does take a chunk out of you, and it can
take its toll on you, and it's not always easy
(01:03:21):
to keep going with it, and Monique is, and you know,
makes me feel a little better about the craziness of
it all to know there's people out there like Monique
doing it. Say Faris is on tour in the United
States of America right now. Sayfaris dot com is. Their
website has all their tour dates on it, and they've
been putting out new music as well, so you can
look into that. And that's the show. Major Label Debut
(01:03:44):
is as always produced by John Paul Bullock and Josh Hook.
Our music is as always by Greg Alsop. We appreciate
any like, follow, subscribe, positive review buttons that you press
and click and you know, if you know someone that
loves Say Ferris or scam music or is in did
in that world of things as well that hasn't heard
Major Label Debut yet. What better opportunity to tell ten
(01:04:06):
friends and tell them to each tell ten friends as well.
It's like a pyramid scheme, but no one makes any money.
And speaking of money, Major Label Debut will return with
more tales from the intersection of art and commerce. So
long
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