Grand Ole Party Interview Transcript: 3/28/08 at the Che, before their set

*KSDT = Anna or Kelly interviewing

KSDT: Could you just state your name and…

Mike: My name is Mike, and I play bass.

Kristin: I’m Kristin, I sing and play drums.

John Paul: My name’s John Paul, I play guitar.

KSDT: Cool. Um, so where are your favorite San Diego hangouts, as you guys are a San Diego band?

M: Um…[pause]…I like the beach, and uh, you know, I don’t know…

K: I like Krakotoa for coffee and um, Ranchos for food.

JP: I don’t really go anywhere. I like…

KSDT: Are you a recluse, maybe?

JP: Yeah. I’m a recluse.

KSDT: So your house would be…

JP: Yeah, my house. I hang out in my backyard a lot.

KSDT: Cool. Doing what, if I may ask?

JP: Whatever, this and that. Puttering around. Reading, or playing music, or whatever.

KSDT: Okay, So you’ve opened for Rilo Kiley and the Elected, and um, Blake Sennett produced your full-length, and um, Blake Sennett is a notorious hat-wearer. I’ve just wondered, is he different without the hat…or, versus with the hat? [laughs] Is he different…persona? I don’t know, he seems kind of…

K: We met him and he had a hat on. Um, and I don’t think he ever wore one after that initial meeting, so I have no idea.

KSDT: There goes my theory. [Kristin laughs] Well, marry, fuck, or kill, um, I’m sure you guys have—

KSDT [Kelly]: I have seen him without a hat on…

KSDT [Anna]: Ridiculous!

K: He doesn’t wear the hat anymore. That was like a phase…five…[mumbles]…I know, really, I feel like I’ve talked to him this summer.

KSDT: Um, so, marry, fuck, or kill, I’m sure you guys are familiar with this little game. You pick, um – so you – there’s a group of three people and you have to marry, fuck, or kill each person, and you can only do one to each person. Okay, marry, fuck, or kill…

K: I don’t wanna play this game.

M: It’s usually all the same for the same person…

KSDT: Well, for this, it’s gonna be Hillary, Obama, and McCain. Marry, fuck, or kill. John Paul…[mistakenly points recorder at Mike, not John Paul]

M: John Paul says, uh…[laughs]

KSDT: Mike…

M: Um.

K: Well, you want Obama to succeed so –

M: I guess I should fuck him. [Kristin laughs]

K: Right?

M: Fuck Clinton too, but not in the way that you mean. [all laugh]

K: Um, yeah, I don’t know. We’re Obama people.

KSDT: Good times. Um, so, I’m gonna pull a little play out of the book of..fuckin’, what…Inside the Actors Studio! – James Lipton – um, what your favorite curse word?

M: Abracadabra.

K: Um.

M: Abracadabra!

K: …Goddamn, ‘cause I was raised Catholic.

JP: I really like, uh, Christ on a cracker. I heard that before, and I really liked it.

KSDT: I think I might use it now, though. That’s pretty awesome. Uh, where in the world would you most like to perform if money were no object?

K: Jamaica!

KSDT: You could play in the ocean, if you wanted.

M: I don’t know.

JP: I don’t know. People are everywhere.

K: I say Jamaica.

KSDT: Jamaica? May I ask why?

K: Um, I like Jamaican music. And it seems like money is an issue if you wanna go there, and I don’t know, you can’t really go there without money, I don’t think. It’s kinda dangerous, if not in some kind of, uh…I have no idea. I feel like…

KSDT: I’m sorry for prodding.

K: I feel like it would be expensive.

KSDT: Um, this is my last question. Uh, Kristin, you’ve been compared to, I know, obnoxiously so, probably, to Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O. What do you have that she doesn’t have? Some sense of inscrutable awesomeness or some other thing?

K: Uh, it’s not even an issue of that.

KSDT [Kelly]: You drum when you sing.

K: I drum, sure, uh, I don’t know, I try not to – I just don’t go there.

KSDT: All right. Fair enough.

JP: They have different voices and styles, so that’s one thing.

KSDT: Fair enough, okay.

KSDT: I would just like to know how much you’re influenced by Siouxsie. Or, if at all.

K: I think, yeah, um, never was that a phase that I was in, but I definitely think she, Siouxsie, rules. She has a great voice.

KSDT: I just saw her a couple months ago.

K: How was it?

KSDT: She was like, all over the place. Awesome!

K: Yeah, I think she, uh…

KSDT: Wearing her little, like tight spandex onesie.

K: Yeah, she’s really cool, but never have I, I never had the black hair and the, and, you know…

KSDT: Um, thank you to Grand Ole Party. And mazel tov. Any parting words?

M: Um, just keep on dying.

K: Good night.

JP: Yeah, same.

KSDT: Thank you.