Hello Hayley and the Crushers……Welcome to the DeClunk universe.

I thought this was The Crusherverse! Damn, I guess we need to be more careful about falling into digital wormholes…

Please describe your surroundings so that we can all get cosy.

Currently? I am sitting at a cute coffee shop (shout out Kitab Cafe!) in Detroit, Michigan sipping on my go-to order: Medium iced Americano with caramel and a splash of oat milk. Because I am a millennial after all! As someone who claims the “California sober” lifestyle, I allow myself to splurge endlessly on fancy coffees and CBD-infused drinks of dubious character/efficacy. 

Please introduce the band and tell us who does what.

Hayley Crusher Cain – Vocals, guitar, costume changes, random bruises and late-night spicy Taco Bell potato tacos Dr. Cain ESQ – Bass, Vocals, slow mornings and mechanical bull champion Ryan Deliso – Lead guitar, plain hamburgers (don’t ask), chonky dogs and never sleeping Gabe Masek – Drums, disc golf, elite manners and ska proponent

Why the name Hayley and the Crushers? What is being crushed? Were there any other names in the hat?

You bring it, we crush it. A “crush” can be an ooh-la-la I’m going to KISS you or an OMG I’m going to KILL you kind of thing. Every day, I feed two wolves, essentially. Which one will I feed today? Stick around and find out (if you dare). The band name was always going to contain my real first name. Why? Basically, so that I wouldn’t chicken out. It made me take on the full responsibility of the “front person” and show up as myself. When Dr. Cain and I had chickens, we briefly became “Hayley and the Cluckers,” but that’s a different tale. RIP to all of my sweet hens, by the way. Damn you crafty ninja raccoons!

“Blood and Treasure’ is the latest single, we love it. Tell us all about it.

Thanks! If you’ve heard the oft-shat-on Ramones album “End of the Century” produced by Phil Spector, then you understand the pie-in-the-sky concept of a punk band striving to create lush and shimmering pop sound. Paul Roessler is our guy, and he helped us pull out all the stops. So this is our version of “Baby I Love You,” except instead of the Ronettes or Ramones, you’re getting a bunch of mouth-breathers who enjoy throwing as many things as possible into the mix – glockenspiel, whistle solo and gratuitous backing vocals, to name a few. The song itself is about the idea of irreplaceable love – but, by all means, read the lyrics yourself, or do you want me to listen to it for you as well? JK. We appreciate the love!

The EP is coming soon, ‘Unsubscribe From The Underground’. Could you give us an insight into the songs?

My elevator pitch goes like this: Five songs, and they all sound like the Crushers. But none of them make you want to do the same thing (Dance? Cry? Eat an orange in the shower?). Think of Unsubscribe from the Underground as a melodic Easter basket of pop-forward / punk adjacent goodies. Except a few of the eggs are actually hand grenades. The EP drops September 10th on Kitten Robot Records and we just got to do the most fun part – picking out the color of the vinyl! It is going to be SLIME GREEN. 

How would you describe your sound?

Poolside glitter trash is the one that sticks (everyone has something to say about it). Like the cool loot you’d scrape up from the bottom of a raging pool party. You could also say: Modern snark with an oldies heart. One part pop punk / one part poison. I’m a copywriter well versed in the dark arts of marketing. Can you tell? Someone once said we sound like the Go-Go’s on speed and with more facial hair. Have not been able to top that one since. 

Is there a tour? Are you coming to the UK? What’s on your rider?

No, there is not an “official” tour for this release (at least not yet), but we are playing a handful of shows in the south, including New Orleans and Nashville, this October. Check our website for more info. We aren’t a huge band, but we have a tricked out van and the gumption to get out there and go go go. If anyone wants to book us, please, for the love of all things holy, send us an email! Our tour manager is a small, elderly chihuahua named Peanut and she has a lot on her plate, including many naps. Just so many naps. Hit her up at [email protected]. Booking has never come easy to us, and it continues to be a DIY effort. BOOK US PLEASE. NO I AM NOT KIDDING.

My friend and I go fishing overnight a couple of times a year. It involves copious amounts of beer. A two-man disco breaks out around 11pm. This involves two blokes, in wellies, throwing shapes in the dark. What would be on your playlist for a drunken bankside disco? 

The entirety of Donna Summer’s Bad Girls, the only disco album that doesn’t suck! Well, anything by ABBA is also cool. I just googled “Is ABBA Disco?” and found this: “Although they’ve been retroactively deemed a disco act, ABBA were shunned by club DJs until the early ’80s, when Björn Ulvaeus’s lyrics reflected the recent unraveling of both domestic unions that gave these two sets of married couples uncommon cohesion.” WOW. That is dark. Anyway: Toot. Toot. Hey. Beep. Beep.

Do any of you have any hidden talents away from music? Maybe one of you is talented on a pogo stick or brilliant at making apple crumble, for example.

 Dr. Cain ESQ is a surprisingly good fine art painter and can build anything with his two hands and a few tools! He also won “best bull rider” and “best dressed” at the recent Howdy Fest country music event in Detroit. Ryan can rollerskate like nobody’s business and smoke a real juicy brisket. We’re talking 20 hours, falling off the bone good! 

Gabe’s talent, besides riding his bike really far,is being on time and generally  being the nicest and most together drummer I’ve ever worked with. I am sure he has oodles more great qualities, but he is still keeping it close to the vest. This just in from Gabe, via text: “If you tell me a somewhat major city, I can probably tell you what minor league baseball team is there. Is it a talent or a touch of the tism?” His words not mine! I, Hayley, am really quite great at “cooking by the seat of my pants” and wearing SPF 50 sunscreen daily, which doesn’t sound like a talent, until you consider the fact that no one is doing what the American Skin Cancer Association tells us to do. Not to brag, but I also reapply every half hour. Oh, and I do an OK Axl Rose impression.

DeClunk recommends for you the following albums: Tongues by Tanya Tagaq, Braindrops by Tropical Fuck Storm and PF1 by Pill Fangs. Your turn.

I raise you Moon Tropics by Healing Gems, Weekend by BRONCHO, Entre Barrotes by Prison Affair, Clean Up Woman by Betty Wright, Sunshine by Taxi Girls and Forever & Ever by Thee Heart Tones. Oh and whatever songs the new X album has on it, because you know it’s going to KILL. P.S. I will never forgive you for making me listen to “Tongues” by Tanya Tagaq. Great, I am scarred for life now!

Many thanks for taking the time with DeClunk. We look forward to the EP and getting to see you do your thing.

All laughs aside, I do like the cut of your jib! Thank you so much for this fun chat. Now how do I get out of here? Nope. This door is a closet…

1.)   We’re super-excited to be speaking today with music chanteuse Hayley Cain who heads up the hard-charging – and at times whimsical – Hayley and the Crushers; greetings and salutations Hayley and welcome to Vents Magazine! Before we meander down the proverbial Q&A musical pathway, could you introduce our ever-inquisitive readers to the musical alchemists who comprise Hayley and the Crushers

Hayley Crusher Cain – Vocals and Guitar and Sparkles

Dr. Cain ESQ – Bass and Dad Jokes

Reid Deliso – Lead Guitar and Belly Shirts

Gabe Masek – Drums and Perfect Teeth

INTERVIEW: Hayley and the Crushers

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1.)   We’re super-excited to be speaking today with music chanteuse Hayley Cain who heads up the hard-charging – and at times whimsical – Hayley and the Crushers; greetings and salutations Hayley and welcome to Vents Magazine! Before we meander down the proverbial Q&A musical pathway, could you introduce our ever-inquisitive readers to the musical alchemists who comprise Hayley and the Crushers

Hayley Crusher Cain – Vocals and Guitar and Sparkles

Dr. Cain ESQ – Bass and Dad Jokes

Reid Deliso – Lead Guitar and Belly Shirts

Gabe Masek – Drums and Perfect Teeth

2.)   Major kudos and accolades on your freshly-minted new single “Blood and Treasure”! Starting at the top, what’s the VH1-Behind the Music story on what inspired this gem of a ballad?

Let me ask Chat GPT to help me write my response in the form of VH1’s Behind the Music (one of my favorite programs as a kid). 

In the summer of 2024, a small-town band from the heart of the California Coast skyrocketed to fame with their breakout hit, “Blood and Treasure.” Hayley and the Crushers captivated the hearts of millions. But behind the scenes, the story was anything but glamorous … But seriously, though: I was captivated by the term “blood and treasure,” which was used quite a lot on NPR during Russia’s shameful invasion of Ukraine, Spring 2022. Not to make light of that horrific event, but sometimes a random phrase inspires me. I wrote it down. The term got me thinking about the ways relationships can build up resentment and fall apart. How there is no “blood and treasure” to be had when you are truly in love – there is only one side, the side of the team, the couple. The chorus of the song is a little like a plea for surrender. Two lovers create their own world, and when it dies, that world dies too. There will never ever be another love affair quite like the one that exists between two people. It can’t be replicated.

3.)   Has working in tandem via Hayley and the Crushers only served to strengthen and solidify your deep love for your Euripedes-like bass-player (and full-time hubby) Dr. Reid Cain ESQ.?

It’s been the ten-year narrative of our story. We were always bandmates before we were together, so writing and performing this music feels natural for our relationship. We are on our ninth release together, I think. And it’s always some conversation in our house about creativity and art and what we want to put into the world. Sometimes it’s me supporting his idea – sometimes it’s vice versa. The best stuff is when we collaborate and reach a whole different perspective. We have learned to respect and support each other’s creative processes (for the most part). That is a big part of our life together.  We recently came up on our ten year anniversary, which is nuts. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. But here we are, on our second van, our third chihuahua (don’t even ask how many chickens). Somehow we are living in Detroit, so far from the Pacific Ocean. That really makes my head spin! In a way, every time we put out a new song via the Crushers it solidifies our bond. But I wouldn’t say working together is at all romantic. The end result is romantic, sure. But work is work and it is always work. We just love to bounce off each other and probably always will. 

4.)   Who did the producing honors on “Blood and Treasure” and what did the collaboration between Hayley and the Crushers and said producer look like in the studio while fashioning and shaping the new tune?

Electric guitar, bass and drums for “Blood and Treasure” were tracked in our guitarist and friend’s Detroit basement! Ryan Deliso (of The Lowcocks) has been an incredible part of the latest Crushers incarnation, someone who has stepped up and maybe even helped bring us back to life. When we moved here in 2022, we had a lot of upheaval and several unexpected drummer changes. There was a general sense of disease moving cross-country. Did we do the right thing? Ryan’s home studio, The Continental, doubles as our practice space. He’s got great dogs. He made us feel at home, and in a way, welcomed us to Detroit. He did a great job on the tracking for this song, plus recording the electric guitar parts. Our pal Gabe Masek, who had only heard the demo a few times, laid down the drums like a pro. We love Gabe – he is an excellent drummer and we hope we never lose him to another band / baby / spontaneous combustion. We went back to LA to do the vocals and add in those extra sparkles. We really love to work with Paul Roessler at Kitten Robot Studio in LA (owned by Kitten Robot Records label founder and general bad ass Josie Cotton). Paul is generally known for being a founding member of iconic LA band The Screamers, and his punk rock pedigree working with 45 Grave, TSOL, among others. But he is always looking toward the future, and reaching for the magic in the moment. He is curious about art, and what makes an artist tick. We love his approach to recording, vocals especially. It is all very real. There isn’t much Frankensteining of things happening. He wants you to knock it out of the park and encourages that. Of course, we annoy Paul just enough by wanting to sugar-coat what’s “real” until it sounds a little more sparkly, shiny. That is the Crushers way. Glitter trash, right? We knew we wanted a Nashville-style acoustic guitar over the top, and that happened in LA, as well as the adorable glockenspiel – Dr. Cain ESQ performed both. Our sweet friend John Miller laid down the EPIC whistle solo and backing vocals (it makes me cry every time). John is responsible for a lot of the bells and whistles on our last album, Modern Adult Kicks. A jack of all trades! It was mixed by Paul and John. Almost forgot, but Jeremy Long out of Nashville contributed the pedal steel remotely. Sorry, but you asked. So you got the LONG answer.

5.)  In your humble opinion, what differentiates “Blood and Treasure” from the distinguished competition in the 2024 music scene?

It has glockenspiel and a whistle solo on it. Pedal steel – sure. But who among our peers is saying “You know what this tune really needs? A freaking whistle solo!”?

6.)  Hot on the heels of the recent release of the new single “Blood and Treasure,” Hayley and the Crushers has an EP entitled Unsubscribe from the Underground which is set to drop this coming September 10; congratulations! Can you give fans a hint or three as to what they can expect and look forward to with the new EP?

I mean, it all sounds like the Crushers. But that is where the unifying theme ends. The genres don’t walk a straight line. We blend in a little country vibe there. It’s certainly punk rock, done our way. We look at genres a little in the same way as we look at hot sauces. Our fridge is full of them, and they’re all seeing some action. We are known to sprinkle in a bit of surf sound. Sprinkle in some 80s pop. We like to play. We like to feel like we can go wild and have fun. We did this on the new EP. And the vinyl is going to have a really interesting surprise on it (just you wait!). Kitten Robot Records allows us to “get real weird with it,” as the wise Frank Reynolds says. 

7.)  What does the touring/performing dance card look like for Hayley and the Crushers in the wake of the release of the new single and the forthcoming EP Unsubscribe from the Underground?

We are playing select shows in the East Coast and Midwest at the moment. In October 2024 we play our first-ever southern gigs, hitting places like Nashville and New Orleans. We recently played Oh Bondage, Up Yours Vol. 2, put on by the amazing Jenny “Thunders” Manfredi. We played that one with Motor City icon Nikki Corvette and this new band we love Judy and the Jerks (go look em up!) among other rad female-fronted bands. After that awesome show I think we kind of feel satisfied! The bar is set a little bit higher, you know?

8.)  Listening to “Blood and Treasure,” we get a great retro-throwback vibe to the Phil Spector ‘Wall of Sound’ from the 1960’s! Musically, who inspires Hayley and the Crushers?

You hit the nail on the head. Phil Spector was a tremendous asshole, but his ideas about production were–and remain–golden, if not totally crazy. Wall of Sound is always the goal. That said, we are still a punk band. So it’s always important that the music has that vitality, that energy that first got us all into punk music. For me, that was bands like Op Ivy, Black Flag, Agent Orange, the Adverts. I also grew up on 50s and 60s music from the oldies radio, my mom’s copy of The Go-Go’s Beauty and the Beat and all the great burned CDs my guitar teacher gave me like X (a major guitar influence for me is Billy Zoom, hence the sparkle Gretsch). Dr. Cain is inspired by outlaw country bands of the 1970s, the production styles of 90s country, and his favorite Bay Area crust bands that took a discordant and theatrical approach to sound. He also loves old soul music and indulges in mall pop like Tiffany and early Madonna (not even joking). He always wants to add an element of chaos to a song. And I always want to add some sort of whipped cream-like topping. So in that way, it works. Who knows how, but it does! Can you even imagine our record collection? Do yourself a favor and don’t…

9.)  Creatively, what does it look like when you and Reid come together to create new music? Is there rhyme and reason to the glorious creative insanity?

Not really. We work separately for the most part, then come together when we have something to show the other. So that might look like a demo with scratch guitar and half the lyrics (the other half being filler mumbo jumbo), or he may bring me just the bridge for a song, and we then write something around that together. We have to have a foothold to cling onto. Sometimes I need him to finish the last 20% of the lyrics, or tell me if a chorus is bad. I do not understand how people write together simultaneously, as if from one mind. I imagine Fleetwood Mac burning sage and writing together in a circle. Sounds horrible!

10.)  Unsubscribe from the Underground is being released via Kitten Robot Records. What makes Kitten Robot the perfect home for the music of Hayley and the Crushers?

I’ve already given a million reasons in this interview, but I will say it again. They let us play. They believe in us. They are eccentrics too. The label is run by musicians and passionate artists, like Josie Cotton. No one is getting rich at this game but everyone is having fun, pushing boundaries and causing a ruckus. I learn a lot from working with KR, especially label head Bruce Duff. He has such an interesting past in the LA music scene for the past several decades, and he is always reminding us of how far the musical landscape has gone askew. It’s shocking to remember that there was once a real industry there, one with certain expectations, rules and such. In some ways, it’s better now, although not when it comes to the practical stuff. These days, the industry belongs to a lot of passionate people doing it because they want to, because it feels good! That feels like home to us! 

11.)  Any final thoughts you might like to share with readers about your new gem of a ditty “Blood and Treasure” as well as your upcoming September 10 EP Unsubscribe from the Underground?

Journal out your thoughts before you repeat them. You will thank me later. Or, better yet, write a song!

Faster and Louder

Punk and rock n’ roll reviews from Lord Rutledge and friends

Hayley and the Crushers were already one of my favorite bands. So it feels a little strange for me to say they’ve made an album that completely blows away everything they’ve done before. But sure enough, Modern Adult Kicks (out today on Kitten Robot Records) is a next-level step for the now Detroit-based Crushers. This album, my friends, is everything. Remarkably, the band has managed to make a very serious album without losing the fundamental joy of the Crushers experience. If you’re putting on this record with expectations of punk, pop, and fun, you will not be disappointed. But it’s a different kind of fun on this record — one that the band has pulled off marvelously. 

As the title suggests, Modern Adult Kicks finds Hayley and the Crushers fully embracing maturity. That can be the kiss of death for a punk-pop band, but the “grown-up” Crushers are truly the best version of themselves. Of all the pandemic inspired albums I’ve heard over the last two and a half years, Modern Adult Kicks is definitely my favorite. It’s not necessarily about the pandemic, but it was inspired by all the heavy real-life stuff the band members went through post-COVID. Songs on this release address themes such as isolation, disappointment, addiction & co-dependency, longing, disillusionment, and just general angst. At a time when almost all of us have been “going through some shit,” this album has the feel of the Crushers giving the world a great big hug and telling us that it’s okay to not be okay (but to always keep dancing!). As I ponder how I’ve largely suppressed my own pandemic anxieties for the past 30 months, I find myself really feeling Modern Adult Kicks. I was either going to have this album in my life or one day randomly have a breakdown in the cereal aisle at Target. 

One thing that I appreciate about Modern Adult Kicks is how perfectly the Crushers’ recent singles (“Cul de Sac,” “She Drives,” “Click and Act Now!”) fit in with the album as a whole. I remember hearing “Cul de Sac” for the first time and thinking, “Wow, this is an amazing new direction for the Crushers.” Now I’m hearing the fulfillment of this direction on Modern Adult Kicks, and I’m blown away. Working with legendary producer Paul Roessler, the band has achieved a timeless yet modern new wave pop-rock sound that demonstrates that a punk band can grow up and still be, you know, punk! And with Roessler’s support, Hayley Cain has elevated her singing talents to new heights. Vocally, she taps into emotions ranging from sorrowful to angry to tender to wistful to wicked to feisty  — and every note rings true. Hayley and the Crushers have always had a knack for writing those immediately catchy pop songs, but Modern Adult Kicks is full of tunes that slowly and sneakily get into your bones. The album’s absolutely perfect side 1 culminates with two such songs: the intensely emotional “Broken Window” and the deeply yearning “I Fall.” The aforementioned “Cul de Sac” and “She Drives,” exceptional singles in their own right, take on a new power within the flow of this album. 

As serious of an album as Modern Adult Kicks is, it’s not without its lighter and brighter moments. “Click and Act Now!”, which hilariously skewers late night TV infomercials and shady product pitchmen, will have you starting a mosh pit in your own living room. “California Sober” pokes fun at people who get high and call it “spiritual.” “No Substitute” is a wonderfully uplifting cover of The Shivvers’ power pop cult classic. “Overexposed” is a reflective and nostalgic recollection of the heyday of online chatrooms. Altogether, this album is as advertised. It finds Hayley and Dr. Cain navigating growth, change, and the sometimes unpleasant realities of adult life in this post-pandemic world. And yet that light that Hayley and the Crushers have always emitted shines as brightly as ever. They are here to remind us that when real life knocks us down or sets us back, our best choice is to keep grinding and hold on to hope. The irony of 2020-21 being such a tough spell for the Crushers is that it was also when Josie Cotton recognized their talents and welcomed them to her record label. The Crushers have benefited greatly from working with a label and producer that fully “get” them. Combine that with a heavy dose of real-life inspiration, and you’ve got a formula for something special. I can’t even name a favorite song off this record because I have a different one every day. If “maturity” for Hayley and the Crushers means such things as emulating Pat Benatar and writing songs inspired by Ira Levin novels, then I am all about it. Get your Modern Adult Kicks on blue-raspberry vinyl while supplies last!

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Hayley and the Crushers are releasing their second single off their upcoming album. Slated for spring 2022, “She Drives” is an ode to claiming one’s freedom and leaving the BS in the past.

The band are one part pop-punk, one part sunny surf, and all “poolside glitter trash,” according to the band.

The track was written by front woman and guitarist Hayley Crusher Cain, who chats more about the process of building the song:

“I wrote ‘She Drives’ in the bathtub after getting a stressed out call from a friend who had just had a massive fight with her husband,” Cain says. “This friend of mine is known to drive like a bat out of hell on a normal day. But after this particular fight, she drove and just kept driving, eventually ending up in Malibu. I was inspired by the idea that we can’t outrun our worst feelings, but it sure is human nature to try.”

Check out the new music video for “She Drives” below:

San Luis Obispo’s Hayley & the Crushers come at you with a wallop and a wink, churning out old-school, sweet/tart power-pop while dressed like they’d found the thrift store you’ve been looking for your whole life. “You know how after a really good party, you have to scrape up all the stuff at the bottom of the pool?” says singer-guitarist Hayley Crusher Cain. “That’s us: Poolside glitter trash.”

Signed to New Wave heroine Josie Cotton’s Kitten Robot Records and working with stalwart L.A. punk producer Paul Roessler, the group — Cain, bassist Dr. Cain Esq. and drummer Action Ben Cabreana — have tried to singlehandedly beat the COVID-19 pandemic into submission. Last year’s full-length “Vintage Millennial” was followed by the singles “Jacaranda” and “Church of Flag.” Then, last week, the exuberant “Cul-De-Sac,” a rocker that’s as good a metaphor as any for being stuck in one place going in circles.

“2020 was a bitch, so it’s probably somewhat expected that the ‘summer jams’ of 2021 would be tinged with a bit of PTSD,” Cain says. “My bassist and I were literally stuck hanging out in the cul-de-sac where we live. I’d walk the dog 10 times a day, waving to the same neighbors. The paranoia and despair of a global pandemic unfolding day-to-day became part of the daily ritual, like watering the vegetables. This song reflects that silent screaming feeling that so many of us now know so well.”

The video, filmed by Thomas Ignatius and Curtis Campbell, was a pandemic project as well.

“Like so many practice spaces during COVID, ours became an abandoned room! So, we decided to paint the walls black and turn it into our music video set piece, instead,” Cain says. “Bassist Dr. Cain hand-wrote all the ‘Cul-De-Sac’ text throughout the walls and we basically rigged a flashlight to shine on us while someone moved their hands in front of the light. For the vignettes, we took advantage of San Luis Obispo’s brief but vivid spring colors: The rose garden at Madonna Inn (located just down the street from the cul-de-sac where we live), a pastoral hiking trail and a quirky tomb erected in our local cemetery back in the 1930s. The tomb is shaped like a pyramid and has its own strange history (I recommend looking it up if you ever come to SLO).

“We live in a sleepy coastal town midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and although there’s not much to do around here, we jump at the chance to capture the beauty all around us in our videos. We’ve filmed at our favorite local hot dog place, a mid-century shell shop, the drive-in — basically, wherever inspiration strikes. One good thing about living in a small town is you can DIY to your heart’s content. No one will ever try to stop you.”

||| Watch: The video for “Cul-De-Sac”