insta - fanzine de colores

Fanzine de Colores: Well, for people who don't know about you, can you tell us something about your starts,etc?

Catherine: The Pastry Heros formed about a year and a half ago. We all came from other bands. Adam and I used to play in a spacey pop band called Alison's Halo. We did a 7" single with IPR (Arizona), a full-length CD with Burnt Hair Records (Michigan), and a bunch of Compilation stuff. Dave played with us for awhile in that band. He was in another popular Arizona band called Half String that released a bunch of stuff on IPR. Both those bands were very noisy but very pop at times. We just started writing cleaner pop stuff and put all our guitar pedals away for awhile and formed The Pastry Heros!.

Fanzine de Colores: When people think about Arizona, you usually imagine deserts, hot places... strange place for a pop band, isn't it?

Adam: I don't know if there is a normal place for any band, especially a pop band. Great music can come from anywhere, I don't think imagination and creativity are limited by location, but I will agree that Arizona is strange in that it is unbearably hot for 5 months out of the year. People shouldn't really live here, it's a wasteland.

Catherine: It is very hard to survive as a pop band in Arizona. There isn't a lot of support for local artists. Even though the tempereatures can soar to 120 degrees F. during summer months, the weather is pretty great the rest of the year so people choose to go outdoors and enjoy sports and camping, etc...rather than hang out in a smoky bar... Even though bars stay open til 1am , restaraunts usually close around 10pm or 11pm so there is really no "night life " to speak of. It's a very sterile environment.

Fanzine de Colores: Have you played there? How was it?

Catherine: We haven't played here in Arizona much in the past year. In the past and in previous bands we've played all over Arizona. The crowds here are taken back by anything that isn't cover songs, country music, hard rock, or industrial nonsense.

Fanzine de Colores: Apart from Beach Boys and B. Bacharach, which other bands have had any influence on you?

Adam: I'm flipped over most 60s pop bands like The Zombies, The Turtles, the Byrds, The Left Banke etc. I also like The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, and the Bee Gees.

Catherine: I'm only influenced by great songs. Although I do really love Guy Chadwick of The House of Love. He is truly a brilliant songwriter.

Fanzine de Colores: You have a single and a EP but only for the UK, so this "Horn rim fury" is basically your first worldwide release, isn't it?

Adam: The "Horn Rim Fury" EP is really the only thing that's been released at this point. The UK stuff (7" and CDEp) has been pressed and is sitting on some shelf somewhere... has been for 6 months. The label (Rainbow Quartz) wants us to deliver a full length before they'll release the 7" and CDep. We think that's absolutely silly because the single is excellent and would do really well if they'd just get it out there. If it was in my hands it would have all been done by now... Arrgghhh!!!

Fanzine de Colores: You've played with Ultra Vivid Scene, Curve, The Boo Radleys, the Verve. Was that in Europe or in USA? How was the experience?

Adam: All those shows were in the States. Shows with bigger acts is always wonderful. You get to play to new people who've never seen you. Noone thinks were from here when we play big shows here locally. The UVS was the best show because they were so nice and supportive. Bailter Space was a blast! They are so noisy but beautiful.

Fanzine de Colores: Most of the drums on this EP were recorded by an ex-Alice Cooper drummer, how did this come to happen?

Catherine: Ken Mari is a friend of ours, he owns a nice studio in town and we did some recording there many years ago. That's how we ended up meeting. He's a fan of the group and was happy to cut the drums. I think we fed him pizza in return for his services. Phoenix, Arizona is a big town but the music scene is still very small so it's not unusual that we stumbled upon him. He's a fantastic drummer, a one-take wonder really.

Fanzine de Colores: Your EP is the first release of Submersible, do you run the label? if so, why did you decide to start a label?

Adam: Yes, I run the label. Why? Because I wanted to get our music out to the kids. I care about what happens to the band so who better to be in charge than me? Big labels would do such a mediocre job with every aspect of the band. We write the music, record the music, press the music, and play the music. We know what's best for the band even if we do go broke most of the time. On the hand, there are other small labels that want to do releases with us and we'll do records with them, but only if they care and they love the music. They are real people running tiny labels, they release the music they like not what will please the accountants or stockholders. We should have a new 7" release on Sunday Records (USA) and a Japanese only full-length on Flavor of Sound. We'll take care the full-length here in the States and in Europe.

Fanzine de Colores: Does your ep/submersible have distribution overseas?

Adam: Yes, we have some distribution in some parts of Europe, Ireland, Spain, and Japan. It's really tough lining all those contacts and getting the wheels moving because of distance, luckily the internet and email have made the world a little smaller as far as all that is concerned.