Audio Stolen Babies
There Be Squabbles Ahead

MP3: I thought we could just kind of start with a historical perspective of Stolen Babies. Your Web site offers some information, obviously, but I'm wondering if you could give a brief overview of your history up to, say, this morning. Dominique : Well...Rani, Gil, and I met in high school. We all went to an arts high school. We were all in the music department. They were in instrumental. I was in vocal. Although, beside the fact that I met them, if I could turn back time, I would have been in visual in a heartbeat. But then again, I never would have met the guys.

They had a band called the Fratellis, like from the Goonies. They named it, not me. It's not the most original of names I have to say, but you know, what do you expect, you know, they were like 15, 16, or something like that, and they had this little instrumental band. It was young Rani, drum and bass, and then they had a guitar player, a sax player, and a trombone player. I remember because when I saw them, my first impression of them, they were covering the theme from Kids in the Hall. Anyway, they were performing at the school, a winter jazz recital, and I was also performing there. I was just a typical quiet girl in high school. I had four friends, and we were all kind of like the outcasts, you know. We never really fit in with any specific social group, but we were really drawn to each other just because of our personalities and just how off we were anyway. I was performing a song at the winter jazz concert, and I guess that's when Rani, the bass player, and also my cosong writer, we write songs together in Stolen Babies, he saw me and the next day in school they approached me to be the vocalist for their band, the Fratellis.

I used to play bass and I had played in other bands, you know, as a teenager. I never really considered being the lead singer of a band, even though I was going to school for vocal. I never really thought about that, and I just said, "I'll give it a try." They were playing kind of ska music and Rani and Gil, especially Gil, have a background in traditional ska, not that third-wave stuff that was going on in the '90s. They were very much into traditional, and I was not exposed to it. It wasn't where I was coming from, but I always kept an open mind. So they were doing sort of traditional Jamaican ska music? I heard a Boingo influence in their music. At the time, I think Rani wasn't a hardcore Boingo fan, but it was one of those bands that was buried in his subconscious. I was listening to Oingo Boingo at the time, and Rani and I started really getting into Oingo Boingo together. Rani and I became instant best friends. We had so many artistic and musical similarities that we just hit it off right away and, yeah, and you know I was, gosh, like 15, and he was 17, and we just kind of clicked right away.

So, anyway, the Fratellis was kind of a ska-ish band, but it had--I wouldn't call them ska definitely--kind of how Stolen Babies is difficult to categorize for a lot of people. The Fratellis, we've always been like that. Everything we've written together has always been on the cusp of so many different genres because we were, like I said, we never really related with one specific genre or scene.

So the Fratellis was insane--an insane theatrical band full of teenagers acting crazy, very unorganized, but fun. And that went on for quite a few years. We had a good time and eventually it just fizzled out because we kind of grew apart. Yeah, we all went our separate ways. Everyone, we disbanded, and Rani and I stayed friends. Then Rani and Gil, because they're identical twin brothers, they just kept jamming together. Arnold, the guitar player and then our current keyboard player, they just kept jamming together. I had my own life. I was doing my own thing, but I kept getting together with them and writing with them occasionally, just fumbling around trying to find a different sound that wasn't ska at all. In fact, there were no horns. It was just kind of a very traditional rock band. Just guitar, keyboard, bass, drums, and then vocals, but we didn't take it seriously at all. So where are we on the--I'm sorry to interrupt, but where are we sort of in a timeline, just to put me on a sort of context? All right. I'm sorry. No, I'm just curious. It's so complicated. We've just known each other for so long. OK, the Fratellis lasted for what, maybe like five years. I think our last show was in 2000, either '99 or 2000. Actually, the last show the Fratellis ever played was at Danny Elfman's birthday party. We weren't theatrical. We just did the band thing at that point, but he asked us to play his birthday party--Rani and I were doing backflips and peeing in our pants and all--all the clichés...that kind of was a dream come true for us. That was the last show the Fratellis ever did, and that was the...I'm sorry, I can't remember if it was 1999 or 2000. So how did Danny Elfman actually come to hear of you? Well, the Fratellis recorded a cassette tape back in 1996 or 1997, and we were produced by John Avila, who is the bass player of Oingo Boingo, and he is like Uncle John to us. We've known him for that long. We still keep in touch with him and, I don't know if you noticed, but he produced our song "Push Buttons," that we made our music video for. He's very much still in the family. He is family without a doubt. But, anyway, he played our tape for Danny and also Danny Elfman's girlfriend at the time somehow got hold of the tape and played it for him as well, and he just...I guess he was smitten with it and decided that he wanted us to do his birthday party. But that's how he found us, and it was great. I remember, yeah, I remember that so vividly. I got so excited that I...his manager called my phone, and I remember getting so excited that I erased the message, so I never got a chance to play it for Rani and Gil. They were so mad at me. I lost it, I just got so excited. So when did the post Fratellis, you know, the occasional jamming begin? I'm sorry to use the word "jamming." That's terrible, isn't it? Well, you know, what else can you use for another word? Sometimes you just have to use...you have to go for the cheese. You do. You have to. Well, Rani and Gil are brothers, so they never stop jamming. They jammed in the womb, you know, they are the identical twin rhythm section. You have to be tight to keep up with them. There's no way around it.

So, yes, they kept jamming, and then I started playing with them, and we started Stolen Babies. We created the name Stolen Babies sometime in like 2001 or 2002, but we did not sound the way that we sounded now. Or we didn't really find our sound. We have some recordings that I'm not proud of, as do most bands and musicians. I'm sure many people can relate to that. I personally think Gil and Rani and Ben and Arnold, the guitar player, have always been on top of things. I just can't stand listening to myself, back then. And it wasn't until 2002 we recorded EP of Stolen Babies, and that is a CD that you can buy from us at our shows. At our merch table. I'm somewhat happy with that. I think we've started finding our direction on that CD. But it wasn't until our demo that we recorded with John Avila again, back to our roots, with John Avila in 2004, that I believe Stolen Babies was Stolen Babies. And that is the band that exists now. We recorded our song "Push Button," a song called the "Year of Judges," which is on our album, There Be Squabbles Ahead. That was when we found the sound that we have now, 2004. According to me, that's the beginning of Stolen Babies. So There Be Squabbles Ahead is a collection of material that had been previously recorded? Right. Yes. The song "Push Button" was recorded with John Avila on our demo. We actually just remixed it with Dan Rathbun from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the band that is also on The End Records and that we're incestuously close with. Yeah and also are huge influences on us not only as Sleepytime Gorilla Museum but in their previous bands Idiot Flesh and Charming Hostess. It has continued to influence us since...I first heard Charming Hostess when I was like 18, and it changed my life. But anyway, I digress like a motherf*****--I'm sorry. That's why our music sounds the way it does. Rani and I can't stay on a subject. No, it's fine. My next question was actually about Dan and the recording and mixing process. Did I answer your other question though, [finally]? You did. You did. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Well, obviously, you're on The End Records, which is now home to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and you recorded with them. Were you involved with them prior to your relationship with The End Records? Sleepytime Gorilla Museum you mean? Yes, I do. We have been friends with them for, oh gosh, since our first show. Our first show with them was Halloween of 2004. It goes back a little bit more than that though. I should clarify. Stolen Babies opened for Rasputina. We've opened for them a couple of times back when we were just getting our feet wet. We were very lucky 'cause we love Rasputina. I would consider them an influence for sure.

And as it turns out, Nils from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, his other band Faun Fables was opening the Rasputina show as well, they went on after us. It was us, Faun Fables, and Rasputina. And when Rani and I found out that Nils from Idiot Flesh and, I guess at the time Sleepytime, was at the show, we were freaking out. We were like, "Oh, my god, oh, my god. It's Nils." Just, I mean, you have to admit it you've got...when you're acting like a ridiculous band, you have to just have no shame and just come out and admit it, and that's what we were, to be honest with you. And we were doing our merch and Nils was doing the Faun Fables merch. Rani and Nils just bonded, and Nils was like, "You guys would be really appropriate to open for Sleepytime. Next time we come into town, I want you guys to open for us."

And that set everything off. We did the Halloween with them. We became fast friends. We got along, and then we continued to do some little tours with them through Arizona and stuff a couple of times, and a relationship formed. Rani started talking to Dan, and Dan said, "Hey, by the way, I record bands. I have my own studio. This is what I do for a living. So don't be afraid to talk to me about that. I would love to record you guys." And that's how it happened. And I assume this closes the circuit on how your relationship with The End began, as well. It's also because of them. We owe a lot to them, and we'll never not admit it. Andreas from The End was, upon signing Sleepytime, was asking them, "Hey, do you know of any other bands? Can you give me a few suggestions? I'm looking around." And I guess a couple of the people from Sleepytime said, "Hey, check out Stolen Babies." And sure enough he did, and that began that relationship. So we owe it to them for sure. And you're obviously at home with the theatrical element of your shows. Maybe for those of us that have actually never seen you live, you could provide some sort of brief description as to your live aesthetic? Extremely visual. We are very visual. Rani and I draw. We work with Crabs Scrambly, who really draws and paints. He is a silent member of the band. He designed our album artwork, and our album work then influences what we create on stage.

We have a very visual appearance to our show, but we are not--especially on tour with the lack of budget--we don't put on a big show. We don't have people running around in costumes live on tour. That's not what we do on tour as of now. We plan on doing that in the future.

We are a show on a smaller scale. We are theatrical on a smaller scale. It's very intimate. It's not constantly over the top and gaudy. I know that sounds strange coming from a band that wears makeup, saying that we're not gaudy. But according to my standards, I don't believe that we are. I feel that we are very toned down, and I feel like our show live is as if we are some kind of rejects from a bigger show where we couldn't quite hold together a larger production, so we are these just fumbling rejects that are really all about music first, and the look adds to the intensity of the music as a garnishment. But it is music first, production second. You mentioned earlier that your sound as Stolen Babies is somewhat indescribable. Well, not indescribable but that it pulls from a multitude of genres and influences? Yes. How would you as a member of the band describe what you do, musically speaking? Well, I say it's indescribable because I've tried to describe it, and I don't enjoy describing it. I've just never been one for genres. When people say, "What kind of music do you like?" and there's the typical answer, "Everything but rap and country." Well, I can't say that about any genre really because there's good and evil, evil being in every single genre. So I don't really feel like we fit into one genre, and that's what's cool about being on The End because now they are at a point where really all these bands that they are signing are along with that aesthetic, that they don't really have a genre or a niche, and it's great.

As far as describing our music, you know...I'm doing this interview by myself, so I'm going, "I might get in trouble for this" but sometimes I describe our music as pop to people. But that's only because of what I listen to. People say we're heavy. We do come across live as being very heavy, but I don't consider us heavy, you know, considering a lot of music that is out there. I consider us just pop that gets very mad at you--it's hard to describe. People definitely hear the Boingo influence, but I certainly don't want to say that we sound like Boingo all the time. There's the influence there. I don't know who we sound like. When you say "heavy" do you mean metal or just aggressive? Right. Heavy means so many things. Both. Heavy also means slow and doomie, you know, it means so many things. I'm using the word heavy in this case as defined by being aggressive, like you said, and loud. I know you've been out playing some shows this year and you're going to be doing some touring into next year. Yeah, we're going to be touring a whole lot. We're taking January off to write. It sounds strange because we're promoting a new album but some of these songs..."Filistata" is one of the songs on our album that is actually a song from the Fratellis. So we have a song that this is, what, 11 years old. We played that song with theatrics and horns. So we want to bring some new material out on the road. We're going to work on some new material in January just for our own sanity.

We're not going to deprive people who have never seen us of songs from the album. That's selfish. We don't want to be selfish that way. We want to stay sane, but we don't want to be selfish in the process. Yeah, so January off. February, we're going to be doing a little West Coast, Northwest run. I can't give you specifics after that, but there are plans. There are tours in the works. Mostly from what I know of right now is just going across the country. Nothing abroad just yet. That is definitely, without a doubt, a goal for us. Right. I was just going to say I'm sure that given your theatrics that Europe would be a place you're looking to go to? Oh, we can't wait. And hopefully, by the time we get out there we'll be able to recruit some of our friends, because right now it's just the band. It's a band and a friend of ours who helps us with the merch. We don't even have our own sound person as of yet, and we're the kind of band that would really benefit from that because we overwhelm soundmen. There's a look of fear in the eyes of every soundman that encounters Stolen Babies on the road, and most of them are very nice and do a decent, if not wonderful job, most of the time. Is that just a byproduct of multiple instruments? Yeah, from acoustic to electronic. We have a sampler. Our keyboardist is playing four keyboards, and an oil drum. We have an accordion, which is an acoustic instrument, and upright bass, which is an acoustic instrument. So we run the gamut, and we're still mastering that live. I think we've done a pretty great job so far. People seem to think so. So, you said that you were taking a break to actually record some new material in January? We're going to be writing. We have our own little studio that we work at, but we're not going to record our album. We're just going to be writing because we need to for our own peace of mind. I mean, we need to. We have to. There's no way; otherwise we'll be stopped up. We're going to, you know, we need a musical enema definitely, and that's January. Right. And then do you expect to possibly return to Oakland and do some recording next year? Oh, you better believe it. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. I should have just said yes. Well, we're pretty much done with the interview. Oh, that's great 'cause my phone is going to die, and I didn't want to tell you 'cause I didn't want to look unprofessional. No, we're done. OK. OK. Thank you. Take care.