INTERVIEW AND LIVE PICS: ONE-EYED DOLL

Kimberly:  Well, I happened to be reading about a lady named Mary Easty who was one of the people executed for witchcraft in Salem in 1692.  I mean, this was the first non-fictional version of that story that I had come across and I was just really touched by it and inspired to write a song for her called “A Rope For Mary.”  And, as I continued to read about the Salem witchcraft hysteria and all the people involved and stories behind it, about puritanism and all that, I just continued to write more and more songs and then Boom, we had a whole concept album written.  And it wasn’t really, I wasn’t intending to write an album.  It just sorta came out, ya know?  I was just very inspired.

Kimberly:  Yeah, it really did!  It just kinda happened.  Sometimes, it’s like you can’t keep the music from writing itself.

Kimberly:  Yeah, something like that. Very close.  Basically, I would write a song:  ya know, the lyrics and the basic acoustic instrumentation.  We had been sorta jamming acoustic instruments in the redwoods in the months prior to me writing all the lyrics for the album. So, we were living in the bus at the time, and we were renting a practice space in a warehouse. I would be in the bus writing and Jason would be in the practice space doing producer things.  Then we would meet after I had written a song. It takes anywhere from a half-hour to a couple hours for a song (really for lyrics). Then we would meet back and jam it.  He’s like, “how’s this sound?” and we’d just jam on drums and guitar. Then we started laying down scratch tracks for these songs as soon as we figured out there was gonna be. At first we thought like, “Ok well, “A Rope for Mary” is cool.  Maybe we can just record that and make a single.  It’s a nice song.”  Then I had a few more songs and then we decided well maybe we could do an EP,  a digital release only EP – a real short thing.  I just kinda kept writing so, then we decided to just map out the entire album.

Kimberly:  Yeah, we filmed it in a few places out in that area.  We filmed in what is now known as the city of Salem, MA.  We also shot in Danvers which used to be Salem Village.  They changed the name of the town sometime after the hysteria. We also shot in Sleepy Hollow and in New York City.

Kimberly:  Oh man, what didn’t we?

Jason:  (laughing)  Oh well, ya know it was uh…  freezing cold! Our director called us a week before we were supposed to shoot and he said, “Hey guys, we gotta put this off.  There’s this winter storm Juno coming.  It’s like this arctic vortex and they’re shutting down the airports and we gotta put it off a week.”  So we did.  We put it off one week.  We called the whole cast and crew and delayed for one week, and then this storm happened, and there ended up being like three or four more of these massive storms.  We couldn’t push it back anymore so we just went for it.  We went out to Boston and it was like everyone’s roofs were caving in because there was too much snow.  They can usually handle snow in Boston, but it was like really over the top.

Kimberly:  We weren’t in, the “city proper”, we were in the some kinda out there places like Danvers and Sleepy Hollow and Salem. They aren’t big cities, so they didn’t have all the paving going on and they push snow around, salting and stuff.  They did pretty well, but we shot out in the places where there was nothing going on so we were shoveling snow.

Jason:  Thank you, very much! When we look at it, it’s like wow!  It looks really great, but we can still feel the pain.

Jason:  Well, we met him at SXSW back in like 2010.

Kimberly:  1692

Jason: Yeah, in 1692.  And he was just super cool and he invited us to do a video out in New York.  We actually filmed in New Jersey.  That was the “You’re a Vampire” video. That was the first one we did together.  And he said, “hey man, we’ve got a haunted house that is…  uh, they do a really cool production so it’s almost like we have all these sets ready to go if you have kind of a Halloween themed song. We could just like go out and shoot it in October?”  We were like, “Well sure let’s do “You’re a Vampire.”  That’ll be super cool!”  And at the time, most of our videos had like 20-30 thousand views, so when we did that one it was just a really awesome production and we put everything we did behind it and we got it up to like 400,000 views.  So that was pretty awesome.  And we just really loved how it turned out so we just decided to keep on workin’ with Patrick.  He’s a super cool dude and he has great ideas.  He’s very colorful so his style matches, I think, the One–Eyed Doll aesthetic of just being super-colorful and ya know, exploding unicorn stuff.

Jason:  Yeah, we’re playing Des Moines tonight.  And the tour crosses the whole country and comes back.  We started in Portland.  You were at the very first show of the tour.

Jason:  And then we cross over the top of the country and going into Canada for two shows, Toronto and Ottawa next week.  And we’re dripping down back into the United States and doing Clifton Park and New York City.  And then we’re coming back and doing some more midwest… circling around the midwest a bit.  Then heading down to New Orleans, Texas, Colorado, Vegas, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, etc.  So, pretty much across the country and back.

Jason:  Oh yeah, it’s been great.  This is probably my favorite tour so far.  I mean, we can really kinda go all out with the Halloween stuff since it’s the Halloween Tour, right?

Kimberly:  Yeah!

Kimberly:  Good!  I think everybody really is enjoying ’em.  And as you saw, we have our buddies joining us on stage for a couple songs. So they’re all getting a kick out of that.  Ya know, it’s really cool to be able to tour with some of our best friends and jam with them.  Our lineup allows for that and we can sort-of add things here and there.  Yeah, it’s been really good I think.  I think people are really enjoying it.  We’ve gotten a lot of good feeback.  Most of all, I’m really enjoying it.

Kimberly:  Hmmm, mmmmmm.  Best and worst things about playing clubs.  Well, they tend to be more intimate which is great.  They’re not usually barricaded off from everyone.  I think that’s the best thing.  What’s the worst thing?  Sometimes there’s not like a backstage or anything and you gotta wait in line to go to the bathroom but your set is in two minutes, but you like have this thing where you have to go to the bathroom like fifty times right before you play and you have to pay people off with posters to cut in line.  I don’t know that’s probably not the worst thing.  That’s one thing that comes to mind.  Or like, some places seem to be more about alcohol sales than the show which I’m not about at all, so that… sometimes we don’t meet up on those lines.

Jason:  Or they’ll have the football game in the backround

Kimberly:  Yeah, yeah!  Sometimes, we’ll play some, ya know it doesn’t happen as much anymore but it used to a lot.  But we’ll play like a place that I guess is a sports bar and they’ll have the football game on during our show.  And, we actually, there’s one show in particular, I won’t say where it was, but I actually had to wait out the game cuz people were so distracted by the game.

Kimberly: Yeah, it was like seriously cutting into our set, so I literally waited for the game to be finished.  Then we started up our show again.  It was like wow, what?  People can definitely watch the game in the privacy of their own homes and not have this loud rock band interrupting them.  Sometimes, I feel like we’re in the way or something.  I have no idea.  I think at a lot of clubs, like smaller clubs there are a lot of regular patrons who are like a little annoyed that this some band is playing.  And again, that doesn’t happen as much anymore now that we’re playing more venue-like places.  But back in the beginning, it was definitely like whatever bar would have us we played.  And once in awhile, we still walk into a place like that we’re like “Whoa, flashbacks!”  But it reminds us of how good we have it.

Kimberly:  I don’t know.  I, ya know, do my rock squats.

Jason:  Emergen-C after every show

Kimberly:  Yeah, one thing that really helps me out is our merch girl Melinda.  I go straight from the stage to meet-and-greet, to the merch table.  She’ll have a bottle, a water bottle with Emergen-C mixed in it and I down that.  It’s like Gatorade.  It’s got all these electrolytes and vitamin-C and stuff and it helps me to not be dehydrated, so that’s really good.  I try to sleep a lot.  I sleep really hard.  I don’t party.  Ya know, I don’t drink or do any recreational drugs.  I don’t smoke.  I try to take care of myself, eat my veggies, take my vitamins and all that.  I don’t think I could do it if I drank, not the way I do it anyway.

Jason:  Ha!

Kimberly:  (laughing) Um, not really!

Jason:  I’ve think I’ve caught her like 1500 times now.

Kimberly:  He’s pretty good at it.  And it’s not like, every single show.  Sometimes different stuff happens.  It’s just kinda whatever feels good in the moment.  Ya know, I’ve had previous drummers who I’ve pulled stuff like that… ya know, they’ve just kinda watched me fly by.  (laughing)  But Jason is like four times bigger than me… okay twice.  He’s twice my size literally.  And ya know, he’s pretty coordinated.  He’s actually more coordinated than I am.  We were all, Melinda, and Eric, and I were all like dancing last night at this gas station cuz they were…  this gas station in South Dakota, right?  There was nobody out there it was all desolate, but they were just bumpin’ this music (laughing) outside so the three of us went outside and had a little pajama dance party and I filmed it.  I put my camera in the bus window and Jason came out there and started doing this Yo-Yo dance.  It was really good!  He was doing this Yo-Yo thing showing us what Eric used to do with the ladies back in the day.  And, uhm, yeah, so he’s very coordinated, very graceful.  Some people think he’s an oaf cuz he’s this big scary lookin’ dude, but he’s actually quite light on his feet.

Kimberly:  Uhm…

Jason:  Warning, might have too much fun!

Kimberly:  Yeah!  Might be too awesome!!

Kimberly:  Heck yeah, I love Tregan!  Tregan’s like a mom-and-pop, literally… out of Pennsylvania.  And they are just the nicest people, and they’re so cool, and they treat me like a princess really.  I’m totally spoiled.  And they make the meanest guitars ever.  The one I play right now is my signature series… is from my signature series.  I just love it to bits!

Kimberly:  Yeah, we have this fun thing we decided to start doing where we… ya know, we have three options basically. You can buy my guitar… you can get the apprentice version.  It’s the hard-tailed version.  It doesn’t have the Floyd Rose, and all this tour stuff that I put on my tour guitars, but it’s a studio quality guitar.  It’s like what I would have back home for playing at the studio a lot of times, so you can get that.  An then, the next level up is you can get exactly what my guitar is.  As if they had made me a brand new guitar with all my stuff on it.  You can get one just like that.  And then, you can also choose to get the guitar that I have been playing on tour and in the studio and it’s probably going to be pretty beaten up.  It’s going to be exactly as it was the last time I played it.  It might still have some sweat in the strap, but yeah you’ll get the battle-axe.  It’s been what I’ve mainly been using.  So, it’s kinda fun.  A few people have done it.  It’s kind cool.  Boy, it’s really special to sign that guitar and send it off to somebody or hand it off to somebody… I’ve actually done it at a couple shows.  There’s just so much…  I can just see all the memories in that guitar as I hand it away.  I feel like the people who’ve gotten it, they understand that, they get it.  They know what it’s been through and they love all the little chips off of the paint.

Kimberly:  Uhm, well actually, Blackstar…  I had heard quite a bit about.  I had been using another amp for a long time which I really like.  I had heard all about Blackstar.  I kinda started seeing them in stores, but I hadn’t really tried it out yet. But I thought those are really cool looking amp, ya know, I see they’re from the UK.  We went to, uh, and I knew that some of my friends played them, but I hadn’t really gotten around to talking about them yet with my friends.  We went to NAMM, a big music gear convention that happens every year in Anaheim.  So, we go to that and we love checking out the gear and meeting up with our old friends.  It’s kinda like a family reunion.  A lot of our touring buddies end up there so we get to hang out with them.  So the first thing that happens, we walk into NAMM, and we get into the like guitar amp section.  And there’s this HUGE backdrop thing on the wall, it’s like 25 feet tall, of our buddy Alex Kane with his Blackstar amp and he’s totally rockin’.  He looks so cool and we’re like Whaaaaaat??   So we go over there and we start taking like selfies with his billboard.  By the way, check out Alex Kane, he plays for Ritchie Ramone.  He is so awesome.  He’s one of my favorite performers of all time.  He’s a god.   Anyway, we’re checking it out and I’m like, so Alex is playing Blackstar now.  That’s cool, I really look up to Alex.  I love his tone.  I’ve worked with him a lot.  So, okay, I’m gonna come back and check these out.  So, we’re walking around NAMM, and I keep running into my friends and I’m like “What amp are you using?”  Most of ’em are telling me that they’re playing Blackstar and they’re bragging on them and telling me why they’re so awesome.  I’m like, gosh, man, I’m gonna have to go back and play these things.  (laughing)  Luckily we’re at NAMM and they have all their different models of Blackstars out.  So I went over and tried a few out and totally fell in love with their HT Metal 100 which is a newer amp of theirs.  It has this really cool feature, this infinite shape feature, ISS.  Really, really fun to play with.  I ended up liking it a lot more than the amps I had been using for many years.  So, I switched!  And, uhm, I got hooked up with Blackstar, actually, our buddy Alex introduced us to a rep there and we hit it off and they were into the band.  So, we started working together thereafter.  Ya know, the deciding factor is really how it sounds on stage and how easy it is to deal with on stage… if it’s tour worthy.  So, we tried out a full stack on the Witches tour.  And I’m gonna be honest with you, I brought my other amp as a backup just in case.  Cuz there was one time when I did this and I tried out another amp for a tour and I ended up just using my “go-to” amp cuz I didn’t like it that much.  BUT, on this tour, I was using the HT Metal 100’s and I totally, TOTALLY loved ’em.  They were just so good on stage.  They’re so flexible, they’re so… they’re just amazing.  And the cabs that came with them, are just like… perfect. So, it really works for our sound.  And they work really well in the studio too, so it’s just a great all-around amp.  I have two.  I have two amps and two 4×12 full stacks.

Kimberly:  Yeah, they really do!  It’s like, it’s the perfect companion with my Tregan guitar, I think.  I’ve got all my perfect gear right now.  My guitar is modded with Grover tuners which I’ve always used, Seymour Duncan invader pickup, D’addario strings.  So, I’ve got my dream setup right now.  I feel very fortunate, very spoiled.

Kimberly:  Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.  I used to just hack stuff together from the pawn shop, Ya know?  I just… sometimes, I just think about where I’m at now, and I feel so lucky that I have decent gear.  Not even decent, but like top-of-the-line stuff!  And my relationship with these companies… I’ve just been so lucky to work with some amazing people like Lauren, and Bagel, all the people at Blackstar have been so nice, and Tony from Tregan, oh my gosh!

Kimberly:  Depends on the day (laugh).   I’m kinda 1/2 that, and 1/2 a studio rat.  So, it’s kinda both.  Sometimes, I’m on the road, and I’ll be like God, I just want to be in the studio right now, I’ve got a song I want to record… I’ve got a song in my head, I’ve got a song in my head.   Ya know a lot of times, back off tour, it’s like God, I feel like I need to be on stage ya know.  So, it’s both!  So, I think I can be really grateful for where I’m at either time.  And we’ve been touring so hard since that was filmed, but shortly after that, we signed with an agency and they’ve just been putting us on the road non-stop.  So, it’s a different kind of tour than were in that film and a different kind of hard work.  There’s a lot more on the line, so, it is a lot more pressure and a lot more wear and tear psychologically, so I do actually appreciate my down time.  But, then I find myself wishing I was back on the road 1/2 the time.  So, yeah, I think it still rings true.  I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I don’t feel quite 100% when I’m not on tour or performing.  And then, I dunno, I kinda start feeling like a weirdo again.  But the studio kinda does the same thing for me.  So, I appreciate that time a lot.  And actually after this tour, we’ll be in the studio.   I am so excited for that too!!

Kimberly:  We’re amphibious.

Kimberly:  Yeah, I’m a frog.  And Jason is a…

Jason:  Salamander!

Kimberly:  What is Terry?

Kimberly:  Oh, so you’re like a tadpole.  that’s cool!  That’s really neat.  You’re like a symbol of evolution in fast-forward.  You get to see your entire cycle in your life-span.