Once again, we bring you, The Charms. I love everything they have ever done, put them up high on the list of coolest bands ever, or best garagerock bands, or best Boston bands wherever you want to place them just make sure they are up high on that list. The weekend is here so kick back, turn it up, dance, have some fun….
We are…. The Charms
And our sound might be best described as….
Garage pop. When people ask me what we sound like I usually say people liken us to Blondie but I think we have a lot of girl group influence, some modern influences and The Sonics in there, too.
We are originally from…..
Boston.
some that have had an influence on our sound…..
The Lyres, The Romantics (who we toured with), St. Vincent, The Sonics, The Kinks, Lesley Gore, Buddy Holly, Liz Phair, Grady Martin, The Troggs
what do you think about the state of rock ‘n’ roll in 2015……
Rock and roll still moves people when they hear good rock and roll, but it’s not what’s new right now. Sometimes I think rock and roll is the artform of the past, but then a band like Temples or The Black Keys breaks through because they’re undeniably good. I guess rock and roll is something you have to do really well or not at all, especially now when it’s not in vogue. If you’re fakin’ it, you ain’t makin’ it.
We knew we were going to be a Band when………
Clubs from NYC were calling US and begging us to come down and play. That never happened with any other band I was in before The Charms.
Are you still having fun?
We have a lot of fun recording and jamming and playing gigs when we can. We used to tour constantly and made a record a year. Now almost everyone in the band has a kid or two so we don’t play live very often but when we do, we get babysitters and we have more fun than ever! Our last gig with the Love Me Nots in Boston was a blast. I think we played one of our best shows ever.
Can you tell us a little on how the new album came to be, ideas behind it, the process of writing lyrics and music and your plans for touring in 2015…
The new album is our most collaborative work so far. We started writing the EP when we reunited with Kat Kina. We went to the space and I played drums, she played farfisa, Joe played guitar. I’m a terrible drummer, but we wrote our psych jam song, ‘Fresca’. Then we got Jason Slone to play drums. He’s an old pal of ours from the 2000s music scene in Boston. Sometimes Kat and Mark were busy so we’d go to the space with Slone and jam. That’s how the song B.O.S.T.O.N came about. Kat would come over to our house and we’d write lyrics. We knew we wanted Scott Riebling to produce it and we’re actually still mixing the last couple songs. We released the the first single, Gimme Your Love, about a month ago.
As for plans to tour, I think we’re probably going to stick close to home because of all our kids. We have to teach all these toddlers guitar and drums for the Charms 2! There are 4 mini-charms so far so we have almost reproduced ourselves! Our fans who are far away can listen to us on the radio.
Our craziest gig ever was….
There was the time Jeff Conolly from the Lyres slept like a log under the farfisa during our whole set (while Kat was playing) and then he jumped up after we were done and played an awesome set himself.
What we are currently listening to….
Mac DeMarco ‘Salad Days’, Zepplin’s remastered ‘Physical Graffiti’, St. Vincents ‘Marry Me’, and I’ve been listening to 70s schlock rock like the Chicago/Beach Boy’s song ‘Wishing You Were Here’ and Olivia Newton John’s song ‘Little More Love’.
A few albums we could never part with….
The Sonics ‘Boom’
Zepplin ‘Physical Graffiti’
Liz Phair ‘Exile in Guyville’
Lyres ‘Lyres on Fyre’
For fun we like to…..
Eat great food, drink wine, hang out with friends, play our favorite music for and dance with our kids.
our hopes for 2015…
To get our entire record out!
Gimme Your Love, The Charms (new, 2015)
The Charms, Twitter
The Charms, Facebook
Yes The Charms did once perform “Walk This Way” with Run-D.M.C and here is the proof! — with Run DMC, Ellie Volckhausen and Joe Wizda.
