We have an interview with “little hurricane” here earlier last year on October 21st 2011. The bands album “Homewrecker,” was played nearly at every festival since the band joined the circuit. Tone does the vocals and guitar and CC does the drums as well as some vocals. This San Diego dirty blues band has a lot to offer and here is what they had to say:
Me: Hey guys, so we are here with little hurricane. Hello.
CC: Hi.
Tone: Hey Chris.
Me: So you guys are (right now) touring with Manchester Orchestra?
Tone: Yes, starting tonight.
Me: How long are you guys going to be touring with them?
CC: We do the first nine dates of their tour, Houston to Seattle.
Me: I see you guys opened up for so many different bands like Phosphorescent and The Joy Formidable. What band would you like to open up for?
CC: I would love to play with Delta Spirit. They are kind of my favorite band right now. I think it would be cool when we have a similar sound.
Me: How did you guys feel hearing your own song on the TV? (Referring to ABC’s “Revenge”)
Tone: We just watched it like about a half hour ago on their website and it was cool. It was a lot louder than I thought it would be but also a little shorter than I thought it would be.
CC: Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool because so many people watch TV. We don’t really watch TV but we know a lot of other people do so it’s great exposure.
Me: So do you guys have any other plans to do TV related things?
Tone: Yeah we have some stuff lined-up. I don’t think we can mention it until it airs though. We will definitely have another song.
CC: We also have our song in a couple of movies coming out. The Brooklyn Brothers “Beat the Best,” has “Haunted Heart.” Then there is another movie called, “2000 30,” which is about to be released too and the song “Crocodile Tears,” we actually wrote for the end scene of that movie.
Tone: Yeah Coolio is going to be an actor in it. (Chuckles)
Me: (Chuckles) Seeing the songs, now that you guys mentioned it. None of them really sound the same. What were your influences for your album?
Tone: I don’t know, it kind of ended up varying from more bluesy jams and then there is rock type songs but I think each song is its own creation as it should be. It’s not like we try to follow a format but still sounding like little hurricane because it’s still us. Some people seem to like it; some people seem to like the variety. We will see how the next one turns out as much of a roller coaster.
Me: So are you guys planning a new album soon then or working on one? Or still enjoying what you are doing now and just touring.
Tone: Right now we are focusing on touring but yeah I mean it’s always in the back of our minds, “What’s the next album going to be? What songs are going to be on it.” Maybe start doing it this spring.
CC: Well we recorded this winter and are hoping to release either an EP or an LP next SXSW in March of 2012.
Me: So you did Lollapalooza and ACL, so what were bands that you wanted to see at those festivals?
CC: I missed The Head and the Heart which I really wanted to see cause I’ve never seen them live. The Belle Brigade, we didn’t really get to see that many bands. The Head and the Heart, The Belle Brigade, Delta Spirit, all were amazing bands that played at festivals who I would have loved to have seen.
Tone: We did get to see Elbow which was cool. We have never seen them play live so it was a pretty awesome coincidence that we were at the same place and could meet them and see their music.
Me: I felt bad because I wanted to stay to get an autograph from you guys but I was like, “The Head and the Heart!” I was so torn. You have to forgive me!
Tone: (Laugh)
CC: (Laugh) I am surprised anyone was at the autograph tent.
Me: You guys were the first band to give me music for my show that this interview is going to be on so I just want to thank you for that personally.
Tone: Sure no problem
CC: Thank you for liking it enough to want to play it.
Me: I heard you guys met on craigslist. Could you elaborate on that?
Tone: Yeah. CC had an ad on the musician section of her web link of this electronic drum kit and I was browsing looking for drummers specifically because I was working on songs and wanted to really find a good drummer to pair up with to continue writing. Her video was pretty cool so I emailed her. She didn’t write back. So I emailed her a couple of weeks later and she emailed me back and we jammed and it was fun. We both like old stuff and we were both in jazz bands so it worked out.
Me: What about the name of the band? Did that just come out of nowhere?
Tone: It comes from a few different things. I mean we were throwing around ideas for a while just for names which seem to best capture our sound I think. The weather and dark and moody and stormy and loud and destructive.
CC: little
Tone: Yeah a little.
Me: So tell me more about Crocodile Tears.
Tone: Like CC said it was for a movie. We watched the movie and kind of tried to capture the fell and vibe of the movie in the song. Literally and not so literally so it’s loosely based on this movie “2000 30.”
Me: When do you come up with your idea of playing the guitar down and just playing it like crazy and making it sound so awesome.
CC: (Laugh)
Tone: (Laugh) Oh, you mean the slide guitar. Well I was playing the slide on my lap at first like a lap slide but then I would have to sit down and it’s not very rock and roll to sit down I think on stage except for a drummer. So then I had that keyboard so I decided to combine the slide on that. SO that’s how that came about. And I just like it to sound loud and nasty.
Me: Yeah, some people like it loud and nasty.
CC: (Laugh)
Tone: (Laugh)
Me: And it looks bitching too. Okay, well thanks guys for giving five minutes of your time, if you guys ever come back to Houston let us know.
CC: Yeah sure.
Tone: Yeah definitely.
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