Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with CROSSTOWN

Crosstown - Rotating Cast

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Interview with CROSSTOWN

(º)> What part of LA shows up the most in Rotating Cast?

Probably Hollywood! We have two songs on the LP about the trials and tribulations of aspiring to icon status, Angelyne and Twelve Dollar Hot Dogs (tracks 3 and 4, respectively). “Angelyne” is about a real person who had billboards all over the city with her on them, and more broadly about the optimism of people who move here with big ambitions. “Twelve Dollar Hot Dogs” is about the cynicism after someone wakes up from the Hollywood dream and realizes the dark side of the entertainment industry in this city. They complement each other as a 2 part story.

(º)> How did Colima Road end up being the emotional heartbeat of the album?

Colima Road originally started out as a stripped-back acoustic track and developed into a layered, thoughtful song that incorporates elements of trip hop and bedroom pop. Lily Santos, our old bassist, wrote it, and it was actually originally left off the album for another project, but we thought we’d put it on at the end because it’s the perfect closing track: mellow, but still interesting and moving. It’s the emotional heartbeat of the album because it evokes the familiar feeling of driving home at sunset, thinking a million thoughts as the cars pass by.

(º)> What’s the wildest story behind one of the songs on the record?

So our 7th track, Dance FM, was originally called “Dance MF” but when I was texting the band group chat, it autocorrected to “Dance FM” and I thought it was better because of FM radio. If I had enough money to secure the licensing fees, I would have included the audio of Mr. Moseby’s iconic “would you like AMMMM or FMMMM” line from Suite Life of Zack and Cody somewhere in the song.

(º)> Why did you choose a zine as a way to connect with fans—what does that format give you?

Nowadays, everyone blasts their music all over social media to flood the algorithm and gain new fans with each post. While we do that also, it feels alienating and soulless a lot of the time, because social media videos are very short and shallow; they don’t give us too much space to go into detail about the songs we worked so hard on. A zine gives us much more room to write everything we wanna share, and the best part of it is that we give it to people in-person at our shows or pop-ups. It feels more like a gift than us begging, which social media promotion can often feel like.

(º)> Which track on Rotating Cast surprised you the most once it was finished?

Sloth. Originally, the lyrics were clunky and awkward to sing and I was seriously considering scrapping the song and just repurposing the instrumental as a rap beat, but I deleted all the lyrics and rewrote everything, starting with the lyric “take me out on the weekend”, because the song feels summery and outdoorsy. In addition, I decided it would be cool to make 3 distinct melodies and have a part in the song where I combine two of the melodies at the same time, an idea I got from listening to Talking Heads’ album “Remain in Light”.

(º)> How do you balance silly and serious without losing either one?

Good question! I find that earnestness is the best tool for an artist to express themselves honestly. The catalogue of music created by this album certainly is silly, from a song about wanting to hook up with your ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend to a song lamenting the price of hot dogs in LA, but every song has a serious component behind the silly lyrics that is hinted to at some point if you read between the lines of each lyric. For example, Twelve Dollar Hot Dogs is about loss of faith and disappointment that is hidden behind quips making fun of guys in costumes at tourist traps and Erewhon (a luxury grocery store chain in LA). Dance FM is about temporarily forgetting about the state of social and economic unrest brought about by fascism and runaway capitalism by drinking, partying, and acting like a hooligan.

(º)> What’s one lyric you hope someone tattoos on themselves one day?

“Empath Girl in a world of sociopathy”

(º)> Which artist influence sparked the biggest argument in the studio?

Olivia Rodrigo, because at first I didn’t want to admit being influenced by an artist so (relatively) new to the scene and even objected to it being on a promo poster for our band, but looking back over the past 4 years, she was a big inspiration for me as a young performer. She showed the world that loud, in-your-face, and bold melodies with direct and specific lyrics could reach even the top of commercial popularity. While we’re not aiming for the level of success Olivia has, we respect her honesty and integrity as an artist.

(º)> When you think of CROSSTOWN five years from now, what does it look like?

Five years from now, we want to be a mainstay at music festivals around the US while also helping develop and promote brand new rock acts from young musicians around the US, especially ones from groups that have been seen as not connected to modern mainstream rock, like queer people and black artists (even though rock was created by black people)

(º)> What does success look like for this album beyond the numbers?

An ultimate goal of mine is that when I’m a middle-aged dad meeting my teenage kid’s friends, one of them tells me that Rotating Cast is their favorite album. As a small local band from LA, we do not expect or plan on this album being our biggest commercial success, but as you make fans along the way and you would be surprised by how easy it is for a small album from years ago to accumulate a cult fanbase over time.

If y’all want to read the Lyrics to our album, you can check them out on our EPK site, available here: sites.google.com...d/home

(•)> That's all Folks! Check out CROSSTOWN on the Pigeon Spins Playlist