_p.png)
Today we catch up with a band who are no stranger to the site, Manic Pixi! The guys just recently released their debut album called "Sugar Bomb" much to the delight of many who got their wish recently to see the band perform in the Boston area at The Middle East Upstairs after several shows in the Brooklyn area. The lovable foursome was cool enough to do an interview following that said show while partaking in some eats as the night grew darker and the laughs started increasing expotentially as you'll see in the transcript of the interview right here:
Give us your names and what you do in the band?
Emmett: I'm Emmett, I play drums.
Marshall: I'm Marshall, I play guitar.
Drew: I'm Drew and I play bass.
Kat: I'm Kat and I sing.
Can you talk about how all you guys met to form the band?
Emmett: Kat came to me and said “I want to play pop-punk with you” and I said “OK”. And then there was a band of 6 people including a fiddle player, we had 1 rehearsal and then we quit. And then we waited a year and then Kat came back to me and said, “Hey, remember that thing we didn't quite ever do?” I said “Yes” and she said, “Let's do it again!” And then we went through 5 guitarists and 3 bassists and here we are.
Kat: We had so many instrumentalists, Marshall was referred to me through a vocal teacher I had who's like “I have this kid in my ensemble, I think you should see him.” So I show up in my pink spandex pants and this striped sweater thing cause I wanted to look cool. I go and see the ensemble, I actually thought she was talking about the other guitar player. (Intense Laughter) We met Drew cause we played a show in Marshall's hometown and he was there. Drew texted me and said “Yo Kat, I'm in NYC, want to hang out?” and I said “Sure”. We became best friends and had a string of sleepovers everyday for a month.
Previously you were known as Sugar Bomb, can you talk about the reasoning behind the name change?
Kat: It was really a confusion between a former band that had disbanded in 2001 under the same name. We were within the legal rights to use the name, it was a gray area.
Marshall: Apparently the former record label and the band still owned the rights to the name so if ourt debut album was in any way successful, we would be in a lot of trouble.
Emmett: Also the debut album we released called “Sugar Bomb!” was a continuation of that sound we were trying to achieve.
Can you talk about the energy and nature of your live performances and what makes it so spectacular?
Emmett: I would say it's the interaction between the crowd, there's a lot of Kat talking and trying to hype people up, there's a mild thread of sexual tension at times, people are intrigued why they feel that way. I put more of a bulldozer to the drum set at all times.
Marshall: I would like to extrapolate on that, Emmett is a humble human being but the way he plays drums is insane! This band wouldn't be what it is without him. It's like 75% of the power we get at our live shows is Emmett.
Kat: I mean when I went into wanting to be in a band, I really wanted it to be fun and not take itself too seriously. It wouldn't be us just crossing our arms, frowning, we don't even do band pictures that way it's so generic. That's just not our vibe. We like telling dick jokes, especially about Marshall's gigantic one.
You guys just shot the video for “Kiss Me” done by the people of Yacht Club Films, can you talk about what the experience was like for each of you?
Kat: The music video was awesome, the experience was pretty cool because it was tough to get everyone to make out on one day with a lot of people and be open to it. We kind of stumbled upon Yacht Club out of necessity because the person who was going to do the video dropped out. They sent us their reel and it was booty's twerking, that was their reel. And we knew they were the one.
Drew: I grew up watching music videos every day before I went to school. I remember watching Fall Out Boy's “Sugar, We're Going Down” video and just stare at it, so getting to do “Kiss Me” was a dream.
You just recorded your debut album “Sugar Bomb!”, can you talk about what the whole effort was like?
Emmett: I would describe it in a way as horrendous, completely unprofessional, deplorable, a nightmare. (Laughter) This is a CD that took almost 2 years to construct from start to finish, it should've taken 9 months so I recorded drums in March of last year.
Marshall: I would like to interject, Emmett recorded the entire album in 12 hours, he sat down and recorded the album in 1 day, this motherfucker is a machine!
Kat: It was an SOS, who can make this album? Sulene recommended a guy who did her EP, he's really good so we ended up shelling out the extra cash and he missed our deadline which is why we falsely put out a date that wasn't correct. Tom Shani played bass on the album.
Marshall: Recording the album was an awesome experience for me. I got to track in the Berklee studios, in New York. It was my first time tracking a full length album and it was fun to watch it all come together amidst the struggles.
What does it feel like to perform in Boston where you guys all went to school?
Marshall: It's nice to come somewhere we have friends who appreciate us.
Kat: When we announced we were playing here, people have been waiting for this. We had people leaving the band, trying to build it up in New York, and I missed the food here.
What's coming up next for you guys this year, any musical events coming up on the horizon?
Kat: Well we have some dates booked at CMJ. Drew is going to Florida for a month and a half, he's playing drums in a musical. We're tentatively booking a PA tour and we are one of those bands where we aren't able to plan things in advance.
Where can people find more info about you guys?
Kat: You can go to www.manicpiximusic.com We're on Facebook, Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, Twitter, Soundcloud, CD Baby, we're the sluts of the internet, but we don't get paid for it.
Lastly, if you guys had to describe your band in 1 word, what would it be?
Drew: Tremendous.
Kat: Surprising.
Marshall: Edible.
Emmett: Marshall's dick!
Thanks once again to the guys for being so awesome in doing this interview. The guys have a total free wheeling sense of humor and what you see is what you get with them, and I couldn't love and respect the more for it. Plus, the fact that Emmett likes to unobjectively take his shirt off while performing just oozes charisma and charm that can't possibly be contained. Check out their official website above where you can find the links to their other pages as well.