Pink Lady – Thanks for Asking!

Pink Lady – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: We all get a little support from those around us. And we also can be impressed by our fellow performers. Who do you admire in your community, and why?

John- I’ve always been a sucker for Bird Week, their melodies and heavy folk rock get me so excited. I also love bands like Safety Meeting and Lemon of Choice for making music fun while also being catchy as hell.

Justice– The Albany community is so tightly knit it has been a blast to grow some roots here, but I gotta say Joe and Sam of bands like Cheesy Snacks and Lemon of Choice have to be the ones that seriously have pointed us in the right direction countless times, and we strive to just have fun on stage like they do every time we are up.

James– I love our bustling community especially the folks in cheesy snacks, lemon of choice, and safety meeting because they are dedicated to having fun on stage.

Annamae– I think the band that inspired me the most to pursue making music might have been Mildly Allergic, even though they are more local to SUNY Purchase and Connecticut, but to high school me, they were doing shit that I had dreamed of doing one day

Evan– the Albany scene is full of love. all the folks at tummy rub records, and those who work with them are some of the most fun and uplifting people around. They also know how to make some catchy ass tracks.

RRX: A band is a business. A business of love, but you got to work for it. Let’s pretend, instead of a band, you all owned a business. What would it be, and why would it be good?

John– If I owned a business it would be a shitty gas station that smells but has really really good snacks and beverages in stock

Justice– I could see us all doing evil shit at an evil headquarters of some sort. Our goal would be to take over the world. You guys are lucky we are in a band and not off doing this.

James– My grandfather opened up a restaurant in Albany many moons ago so I would probably steal it

Annamae– Pink Lady as a business would probably be us making stupid shirts. It would be dope

Evan– if we all owned a business it would be a VHS rental store. no work would get done. but, our staff picks would be superb

RRX: Cover art is cool. It shows listeners what the artist thinks the album is all about. Because music can be felt visually. If you had to give the public a visual image that you think they would see and just “get” your groove right away, what would it be?

John– Our vibe in the form of a visual image would be an old polaroid of a bunch of best friends having fun at a sleepover and watching “Step Brothers”

Justice– Imagine 5 people running and jumping around, but each ‘frame’ becomes a still image and tracks the movement of each person. That would match our sound pretty good. Lots of colors too.

James– Our whole vibe can be visualized by a kid being pantsed while his friends laugh  all while someone in the corner throws the horns up

Annamae– I think my ideal album cover art would be a little clown dude

Evan– put yourself in a boring classroom. whatever you doodle on the page in-front of you. that’s pink lady

RRX: Artists, musicians, we immortalize. We set it in stone. Is there anyone who has passed that you feel you have been immortalized in your work? If so, can you tell us a little about them?”

John– I am a huge fan of Johnny Ramone, every single Ramone lives on in our music. I try and down pick through whole songs in order to tribute Johnny and Dee Dee

Justice– Dog Date is a great band that broke up (they didn’t die) but I’d like to imagine I have captured a bit of their essence in the music I write.

James– As a drummer I can say that the work of John Bonham lives in every stroke of my sticks whether I realize it or not.

Annamae– Someone who I will always look up to musically, especially when it comes to writing in guitar, will always be Elliott Smith (even though I play bass for Pink Lady)

Evan– the influence of old jazz musicians such as Coltrane or Davis stick with me to push bounds and keep things groovy

RRX: Stereotypes are a bitch. I mean, aside from the really bad ones, you have cultural stereotypes about everything, including music. Would do you think is the stereotype for the music you play, and how far are you away from it?

John– A stereotype for garage rock is that we just copy Ty Segall and the Oh Sees,

THIS WAS TRUE AT SOME POINT BUT NOT ANYMORE

Pink lady is Idiot Rock….Remember that

Justice– We are the first idiot rock band and I’d like to imagine we have become the stereotype. For our fake genre…

James– With one punk adjacent EP under our belt it is easy to group us in with that crowd, but we don’t love to confide ourselves to a genre. A lot of the new songs we recorded are completely different from our previous work.

Annamae– Recently on a flier we were labeled as ‘idiot rock’ and I couldn’t agree more.

Evan– with 100+ years of recorded music there’s bound to be some overlap, not conforming to any one genre helps us beat out any one. However, we will always just be having fun.

RRX: Our style comes from the extension of our influences. It’s like an evolution. We’re influenced, and it inspires us to influence. What can you say about your influences, and What do you feel you’ve done with their influence as a musician or band? Have you extended their work?

John- We were recording songs for our record last night and our engineer Sam who plays in Cheesy Snacks and several other bands told us how we inspired him to go home and work on his own songs. This was an awesome feeling for us because we love Sam and his music has greatly influenced ours so It’s awesome how we are paying it forward. We also met Ishka Edmeades from the bands Tee Vee Repairman, Gee Tee, and like 2000 others and we hope we can influence him as much as he’s influenced us. ROCK IS BACK

Justice- I cant think of just one so I will list a ton. Daughter Bat and the Lip Stings, Dog Date, Teeth, Tee

Vee Repairman, PHF, King Gizz, Forth Wanderers, Floatie, Quasi, My Son the Doctor, Mac DeMarco, Thee Oh Sees, The Moondoggies, Mike Krol, Helvetia, and Low Measure. Oh and Super Ego and the Id.

James- The whole band has a pretty wide range of influences but I would cite king gizzard for teaching us that you don’t have to stick to a certain genre or vibe. They also inspired us to invite all our friends into the band for shits and giggles  Annamae- Quasi.

Evan- We pull from a swath of artists, however australian punk has a home in our hearts. Each member has their own genre they bring in, and that’s what breeds Albany’s finest idiot rock.

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