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…