Candy Ambulance – Xperience History – by Rob Smittix.

Candy Ambulance is a three piece group hailing from the Saratoga Springs area or maybe it’s Queensbury. I guess it doesn’t really matter now because they are actually relocating to Troy. I do like the sound of that, Troy-based Candy Ambulance, yup it does have a ring to it. However, I was thrilled to have visited the band’s house in the North-Country for this interview and a private performance previewing some new material. I may just be a fan-boy posing as a journalist.

Lifelong friends and band-mates Jesse Bolduc (Bass) and Jon Cantiello (Drums) joined their queen, Ms. Caitlin Barker (Guitar/Vocals) in a conversation with me on the floor of their rehearsal space. Barker so eloquently places F-bombs in so many of her sentences. For obvious reasons we had to omit these parts but you are encouraged to imagine them in your own mind. Let’s begin.

RRX: “I really want to get to the core of what defines you, let’s dig deep. Who is Candy Ambulance? What is your message?”

Caitlin: “Boys?” Nothing but silence from the boys.

Caitlin: “We just want to Rock and Roll and do it with people.”

Group: (Laughter)

Caitlin: “So for me, I was kind of in that place in my life, like okay it’s time to have babies; do that thing. When these two came along (referring to Jesse and Jon) I was in a relationship, I thought I was going to get married. I was settled on that, he was older and he had money, I was like alright this is cool, this will work. It took two weeks of jamming with these guys in my apartment bedroom and one open mic to move in together, we’ve been together ever since. It was just a snap decision (snaps fingers) and I think in doing so I was able to be empowered to go through and really look at myself.”

“I feel this next record is very um… very personal and I think that my song writing style is kind of introspective rather than us necessarily having a message. But… I think it’s a good time for my voice to be heard because it is about sexual abuse that I had suffered from childhood; I guess I wouldn’t say suffered… but it led me into this whole spiral of not thinking. I don’t know, I drink way too much. I have a lot of issues, fortunately functioning alcoholism is my only dangerous issue. I’m kind of lucky to have gone that route. That’s why it’s called “Traumantic” (the forthcoming album). It’s about the trauma that I dealt with and how that effected my personal relationships and the way that I viewed myself in the world after. From that point on I’ve been in a lot of bad relationships. I was with a guy for two years that was incredibly abusive, he ended up stalking me. It was awful, it was crazy, it’s like mind control, it’s like you’re in a cult.”

“So then I get with these guys (the band) and I was like F-that. I cut off people I don’t want in my life anymore, I started therapy, I am easily the happiest I’ve been in my life and it was from being in a band. So I guess the point of our band for me was that it saved me.”

RRX: “Well a band is family.”

Caitlin: “Yeah it did, it created a family and it’s two people who love me, support me and have taken care of me for 5 years, it’s amazing to have a relationship between two people work for 5 years, to have it be between three people is really special.”

RRX: “You mentioned you were on the path of starting your own family and getting married. That didn’t happen obviously. What about you guys? Same deal not married, no kids yet?”

Jesse: (Laughs) “Not that we know of at least.”

Jon: “Right, not that we know of.”

RRX: “You all look young, I can place your ages between a ten year time-span but not really sure; how old are you?”

Jesse: “I’m twenty-seven, he’s twenty-six.”

Jon: “Yeah, I’ll be twenty-seven at the end of the month.”

Caitlin: “I’m thirty. It’s probably a good thing to be in a band at thirty because it’s like a second crack at my twenties, except I like myself now. So that’s cool ya know, I’m not insecure.”

Jon: “So we’re all in our late-twenties.”

Caitlin: “I know, I get a pass until you guys are in your thirties.”

RRX: “Thirty is still young. I know it was tough for me, but none of you are struggling with getting older?”

Jesse: “I’m pretty okay with it.”

Jon: “Yeah, I’m fine with it. I mean sometimes it’s hard not to feel the pressure.”

Caitlin: “Yeah I feel that way, all my friends are having babies, they’re all married. I’m so not there, it’s very isolating. Then people are like, oh my God you guys are doing it, touring all the time and you’re successful; what’s your secret? We work our asses off 24/7 on a hobby or a passion I guess. We have this drive to do it but there’s also that simultaneous self-loathing, what am I doing with my life? You know what I mean?”

RRX: “Sometimes you ask yourself, do I need to grow up? But at the same time you’re always going to have that dream. Without having a family, kids or the obligations that come along with it, have you thought about dropping everything and becoming full-time musicians?”

Jesse: “I feel like we’re working towards that. We can’t do it just yet, it’s a slow ride.”

Caitlin: “I think that there will be a moment where it’s like, I want to cling to my security. I’m a bartender full-time and I make so much money at it. I love making money and I would feel so weird not to. It is one of those things where at some point I’m going to have to take a step. But we kind of stay a little prognostic about it and keep that as a five year goal. Hopefully within five years we can start seeing some real money from it. I don’t want any wild success, it’d be cool if it happens, I would just like to be a musician full-time. That would be a really cool thing for me.”

RRX: “Being in a band myself, I often say I’m not nineteen anymore, I can’t just hop in a van and hit the road but if I didn’t have all of these responsibilities I would do it in a heartbeat.”

Jon: “I think that’s where the pressure is off. Like Caitlin said a lot of our friends are getting married, posting on social media that they’re pregnant or buying a house. You look at a picture of them and they look ten years older than me. We graduated the same year, why do you look 40 years old? What happened to you?”

Caitlin: “Yeah, what happened to you?”

Jon: “At that point it’s like, if I wasn’t doing this I don’t know what I’d do anyway. If I didn’t play drums at all I’d be a really boring person.”

Caitlin: “I can’t not do it. People look to those who follow the creative like you’re doing something that they couldn’t do, I just couldn’t imagine not chasing it down. And I feel like everyone is capable of it. There’s no secret, you just need to do it. If you want to be good at guitar, everyone can be good at guitar you just got to learn. Jesse and I have been working really hard at trying to shred like…”

Jesse: “uh, Mr. Big.” (Laughter)

Caitlin: “Paul Gilbert.”

Jesse and Caitlin in unison: “Billy Sheehan.”

RRX: “Can you tell us more about the new Album you are working on?”

Jesse: “We’ve started mixing. Very excited to have a hand in that.”

Jon: “The material we’re about to put out is definitely the closest translation of who we are as a group, so far. I think up until now we’ve just been taking good stabs at what we might want to be, which was close to what we are. I think this next one doesn’t abandon the branding that we did to ourselves or our listeners branded us with. I think it’s just way more truthful, way more grown up and closer to what we’ve been trying to do this entire time. I don’t think you can call it punk or grunge.”

Caitlin: “And we did it with Tommy Stinson as our producer. He’s the bassist for The Replacements. We went to Hudson and recorded with him, you know it was a huge deal. I’ve been a Replacements fan for a long time, I kind of lost my mind. He’s crazy, he’s so fun. It was exactly how you’d picture a rock star, he also played bass for Guns and Roses. He’s a legitimate rock star.”

“By the third or fourth day we were on the floor, wasted at like 4:00 AM. When we did the vocals, I went down by myself. He wanted to know the content and what I was writing about because we did it live. He heard a little bit of the lyrics but didn’t really know what I was going for. Over a bottle of whiskey we had this heart to heart about my past and he has had some similar hardships. We were emotional and just going for it and then we recorded the takes; I don’t really remember it. Then we woke up the next day. He was worried that maybe I died in the room at his house. He was concerned that maybe I choked on my vomit because I wasn’t up very early. He said he was really wrestling with do I just go in there? Like I don’t really know this girl, I don’t want to just barge into the room. He was scared that I had died because that’s how much we drank.”

“So I get up and I’m like oh God we’re going to have to record all of it again so hungover. He’s like dude I know, this is going to suck. So we went and got a drink and a coffee and we go there fully prepared to have to rerecord everything. We snagged every single vocal take blackout drunk. I’m not slurring, they’re great takes. You hear him screaming at me. He’s like, “pull it out! Get it!” There was one song where we did seventeen vocal takes, I can’t even imagine what that scene must’ve looked like. The two of us just wasted but he pushed me so hard and the only one that was good was take seventeen. He said “it’s not right” and he made me sing in a way I’ve never sung before. He said you don’t know your potential, get it out!”

RRX: “Tommy Stinson was right to point out your potential, when I first heard Candy Ambulance, I thought this is a punk band but I can hear soul in your voice.”

Caitlin: “Yeah that was Tommy’s point, he was like you don’t understand you’re a soul singer. He said quit the timid girl stuff you don’t need to be that person. He was really cool and very inspiring. I think I probably considered my vocals the least strong part of the band but now I’m like alright Tommy Stinson thinks I’m cool, I can do this.”

RRX: “So any idea when we can expect the new album?”

Jesse: “We’re thinking early summer.”

For more on Candy Ambulance check out their website at www.candyambulance.com and if you wish to see them live, which is highly recommended the trio will be at Desperate Annie’s in Saratoga Springs for Super Dark Monday, May 13^th at 9:00 PM with Eternal Crimes and Cindy Cane.

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