Page 31 - ION Indie Magazine MarchApril 2024

JC: I think if you haven’t grown as a musician after seven albums, you should never be
making albums. It’s that way with anything you decide to put your heart and soul in to. I
knew that this business wasn’t one that was going to leave me with anything other than
a full heart and a catalog of songs and art that I could be proud of for the rest of my life.
With that in mind, I wrote everything with intensity. I stew over certain words because I
want to make sure that is exactly what I wanted to say and mean it forever. I remember
writing my first song one night in my sleep. I kept a notebook and a handheld recorder
next to my bed. I woke up the next morning with an entire song that I wrote the lyrics to
and even played guitar and sang on this recording and I remembered NONE OF IT. I
thought it was a gift from some unconscious parallel universe (and maybe it was) and I
was convinced that I would never be able to write a song in a conscious state of mind.
Imagine how well that would’ve went after this amount of time? I would be sleep deprived
and stressing out about how I’m going to write my next song and knowing I can’t write it
until I go to sleep…a horrible endless cycle. LOL! I’m glad I got past that!

TB: You stated that you stew over certain words because you want to make sure
that is exactly what you wanted to say and mean it forever. How do you know when
a song is done, when you need to step away from writing it and start recording it?

JC: I guess I don't know if a song is ever ‘done,’ but I do know if the words I say in there
are something that I can stand by over time. I try to write from a place of deeper meaning
so that I can stay proud of it. I don't know if I'm ever ready to ‘step away’ from it, and even
after we write it, it morphs in the studio when we record and then morphs again when
you start playing it live. In fact, it never stops morphing live. We change it constantly and
add to it over the years. I guess that's the only thing that makes you wish you would've
done something differently in the studio is after several years of performing it live, we find
some magic piece that we wish we would've recorded. But also, I will say that when we
go back and listen to those original recordings, there's a certain ‘honesty’ and ‘innocence’
in the recording that we still love. It's real. It was always real, and you feel it...even all
those years later.

TB: Your latest single is ‘Evil Disco,’ released in February of 2024. What is the story
behind the song?

JC: It’s kind of an inside joke between myself and my husband, who will be the first to
admit he is the biggest disco fan. He told me a long time ago, 'If you don’t have disco in
your life, you have no sexual future.’ I laughed so hard about that, but ultimately, had to
agree. One night, while we were listening to bands like Static X, Rob Zombie, and Nine
Inch Nails, we started discussing about how it’s really just disco, just a bit more evil. So,
we decided on this album we needed to write our ‘Evil Disco’ and it’s very much a Rob
Zombie-meets-Blondie moment. The song is all about excess and allowing yourself to
get rid of all inhibitions to become whatever it is you feel in that moment. It’s that feeling
of complete ecstasy, with no consequences.

TB: You tour very extensively each year. How do you keep the energy level up for
each show?

JC: I’m always more charged when I’m on the road. I think the more we perform, the
stronger I get. But also, I tend to throw myself into whatever I’m doing at the time. During
the covid shutdown, I started a garden and was like, 'You know what? Maybe I’m a full-
time gardener now.’ I need to stay on the road in order to stay focused on who I am and
what I’m here to do. It’s way too easy for me to get distracted when I have too much time
off. Plus, I usually get in trouble.

TB: How do you keep your sanity during a long tour?