Infected Brain

Present yourself to the readers

We are Hayley and the Crushers, purveyors of Poolside Glitter Trash from San Luis Obispo, CA.

Who composes ?...How does it work in the band ?

Hayley Cain plays guitar, sings, and composes the songs; Dr. Cain (Reid Cain) plays bass, sings backup vocals and helps out with some song composition as well. Gabriel Olivarria plays drums and does backing vocals. We have a new touring drummer right now, Benjamin Cabreana, who is currently going through “Crusher Training Camp.”

Who writes the texts ?..What are they talking about ?..How does inspiration come ?

Hayley writes most of the songs, and her head is filled with all kinds of strange ideas, demons, dreams, and desires. The songs are inspired by her old high school notebooks, having fun, living for the moment, and daily stories, like the song, “Parking Structure Girl,” which is about a lady who works at the local parking structure here in San Luis Obispo, CA. Her songs are kind of like doodles on the margins of a teenager's notebook paper. There's hearts and love songs but also social commentary, angst, and personal struggles. Hayley writes a lot of songs about girls, and that's probably because she's a girl and is interested in girls' point-of-views!

What are your personal musical tastes and your influences ?

Go Gos, Ramones, Huey Lewis and the News (Hip the be Square!), and also 80s Los Angeles punk (Agent Orange is a big one). Dr. Cain came up in the 90s Bay Area punk scene and is heavily into crust punk, ABBA, and classic country music. He has a lot of “swing” to his bass lines and he loves playing with a really fuzzy, dystopian and heavy tone. Gabriel is really into metal, and it shows in his power and agility behind the kit. He's also into all sorts of pop bands and weird rock n roll. His backing vocals are smooth and angelic, which shows he is more versatile than he appears! Hayley grew up on the oldies station until she found Black Flag and pop punk bands like Screeching Weasel. Her guitar tone is certainly in the surfy camp with a ton of reverb and brightness, but she shows a lot of aggression behind those bubblegum melodies. We are a little wild, a little retro, and super energetic on stage. We appreciate bands that move around and have a bit of camp in their performance! Who wants to just stand around looking cool?

In studio, what was the atmosphere for the album COOL/LAME ?...etc.…

We recorded at House of Faith in Oakland, CA, to tape. We worked with Bart Thurber, who has done a lot of great punk rock stuff in the Bay Area scene from the 80s-90s and today. He works out of an industrial warehouse, which was really cool. We felt like we were high up in a tree house shut away from the world. Working with Bart was cozy and easy. I think it took three full days to get all the tracking done. A lot of the vocal takes are the second or third (or even the first) take. He got our sound just right – the thin, bright guitar and the super fuzzy bass, with Gabriel's drums just a massive bouncy presence. We just felt right at home with Bart. Gabriel forgot his kick pedal for one of the sessions, and we used Bart's kid's kick pedal. His kid is only like seven years old, so the pedal was super small. But...as you can tell by tracks like “Lobotomy,” we made it work! We are a fly-by-the-seat-o-our pants operation in the creative sense. We aren't trying to be perfect, we are trying to have fun. We wanted to capture the quirkiness of our live performance and I think this album does that. One second we're cute, then we're strangling you, then we're purring on your lap.

How does it work for the great design of the CD ? and why this title ?

We went to the dollar store and bought a buch of tin foil. No joke ! Dr. Cain is a mastermind of art stuff, and he really outdid himself. The entire thing with colored lights problably cost like $20 ! « Cool/Lame » is a wink to the title track, « Cool is the New Lame. » The song is about people who go to shows and don't dance and are just annoying as hell. It's a reaction to the ever-changing landscape of what's « cool » and what's not. In the late 90s or early 2000s there was a website called « Hot or Not » where you could upload a picture of yours face and people could vote on if you were « hot » or not. Now, it seems like everything in the world has been reduced to « likes » and « followers. » Not that we don't want likes ! Please, like us ! How's that for some desperation ?

How was the shooting of the clip BLUE AND GREEN ? and why this choice ?

We are always making weird videos on our iPhones! We liked the idea of a punk rock mermaid (a MerCrusher), and we just went with it. Blue and Green is about living near the ocean and the escape of getting away from the city (all of the band members lived in different cities before moving to the Central Coast of California). Hayley has never lived more than 15 miles from the ocean and a lot of our music has a pool or beach vibe. A lot of people have given us a “thumbs down” on Youtube for this video, and that's probably because the mermaid pukes. (We think a puking mermaid is punk as hell!)

With Management and booking, how do you work ? And with whom ?

We book all our own shows and tours, although we do have someone who is helping coordinate some deals as we grow as a band, Ellen Brown. We work with independent label Eccentric Pop Records from Wilmington, North Carolina, who distributes our newest vinyl and CD via Traffic Records. Travis Woods is the owner and he has been a cheerleader since day one. We basically sent him a burned CD in the mail and prayed he would like it, because Eccentric Pop's catalog is ridiculously awesome – too awesome! Travis is a joy to work with and we are honored to be on Eccentric Pop's roster of insanely great well produced pop punk and power pop bands, like Horror Section, Dan Vapid and the Cheats, The Sweethearts, The Putz, The Manges. He's also worked to release albums by literal legends like Nikki and the Corvettes, Groovie Ghoulies, and even Sweet Baby, an old Bay Area band that deserves more love. We are sort of weird and don't fit in as a 100% “punk band,” so having this home is really validating of our weirdness. We know we are the odd man out, and we are cool with it. We wear our influences on our sleeve, and any fan of the GoGos will come away smiling. Thanks to our partnership with Eccentric Pop, our records are popping up in Germany and will hopefully also be available in Japan and UK. You can buy our vinyl and Cds from them!

What are your projects ?

We have tour dates this fall in Seattle (11/3), Portland (11/1 and 11/2), and San Francisco (10/30) and we have a US Mid-West Tour coming up this Spring. Label-mate and friend Dougie Tangent from The Putz is helping book this tour and he will also be drumming for us, which is really cool! We have many “honorary crushers” who come in and out of the band and we are always holding the door open for a new friend to join our party. We are working on a new EP this winter as well that will be a lot more “punk” and a little less “pop.” It's going to be very heavy on Dr. Cain's style, and Hayley is going to take a step back to let the boys get their aggression and wiggles out. We aim to have another full length album out next year, in 2019.

What do you expect from the future ?

We expect to continue to tour, sleep on many more couches, and make many more bad food decisions on the road (like fine wine and hot dogs). We just hope we can continue meet new friend on the road and do our thing. Maybe we'll do another coloring book or even a comic book! That would be fitting, as Dr. cain owns a comic book shop.

What do you expect from the future ?

We expect to continue to tour, sleep on many more couches, and make many more bad food decisions on the road (like fine wine and hot dogs). We just hope we can continue meet new friend on the road and do our thing. Maybe we'll do another coloring book or even a comic book! That would be fitting, as Dr. cain owns a comic book shop.

What's your motto ?

ENTER THE CRUSHERVERSE! We invite people to enter our world, not the other way around. All are welcome. There's always room for one more in the van, and the van is always playing ABBA at top volume! (true story).

Website to remember

www.hayleyandthecrushers.com
Buy our new LP: http://eccentricpoprecords.storenvy.com/

What would you like to say to the readers ?

MerCrushers are real. Fuck Trump. Keep lifting each other up. Also, “It's hip to be square!” Sorry, those are several unrelated mottos, but you get the idea.

What question, I did not ask you and would you like me to ask you :-) ?

Our song “Bad Girls” is a cover written by our good friend Christian Cortez. It's one of our more popular songs, so we want to throw a shout-out to his hit-making powers! If you're reading this and you want to cover one of our songs, let us know! We really want someone to cover “Jaywalking,” or really any of our songs. Also, we relaly want to come to Europe and Japan. If you have connections, hit us up. We mean business! See you Crushers and Crushettes on the road!

Credit to the photographers
Pic 1. Deb Frazin
2. Patrick Patton
3. Scott Free
4. Deb Frazin.