Interview with Pretty Boys

The girls from one of New York’s finest up and coming Pop/Rock bands the Pretty Boys talk to Jeni Quirke about their music, their plans and why they were locked in a British Airport for several hours last month.

Guitarist Hopey Rock (left) and singer and lyricist Galadriel Masterson (right) front the Pretty Boys group. The lesbian duo who have been compared to the Scissor Sisters, Blondie and Garbage are taking America and the UK by storm with their recent fun and fearless debut album ‘Ghetto Rock’ and hit track ‘Hello Bonjour’. Formerly known as Candy Ass the sexy, crazy and tattooed pair plan to hit the UK’s music industry big time and a record deal is only a stone’s throw away for the ambitious duo who say they will play at Wembley one day.

I believe that the group was called Candy Ass before, why did you choose to re-invent yourselves in to the Pretty Boys?

Yeah we used to have a band together which was an all-girl punk band called Candy Ass and that was a totally different thing – that was us as kids and what we sang about was where we were at as musicians and our whole image. Then we grew up a lot and experience happened and we wanted to change direction completely.

Where did the gender confusing name of Pretty Boys come from?

It’s because that’s what we are – we are like pretty boys so the name seemed very appropriate. Actually we wanted to be ‘The Boys’ but there’s a band from the seventies from the UK who had tremendous success called The Boys. So obviously they already had the copyright on the name. We wanted to be just The Boys because girl bands don’t have very much success in states so we thought it would be really cute to say ‘Well we’re not a girl band we’re The Boys!’ not looking at our gender.

How did you meet each other?

Hopey and I met when she came and auditioned for Candy Ass actually, because the girl that I started the band with got knocked up. Hopey was recommended to me by a friend and when she came in and auditioned and it was ‘love at first sight!’.

Have you both always been singing and playing?

Hopey has been since she was a teenager but I never was professionally until Candy Ass. I started out as an actress and then I decided that I more enjoyed pretending to be myself rather than somebody else.

How many singles/albums have you now released?

Well, Pretty Boys has put out one called ‘Ghetto Rock’ and we are just now in the midst of recording our next album which is a totally different piece. We just pretty much have the vocals left to put on it and the songs on this album are more like ‘Hello Bonjour’ and ‘I wanna dance’. It’s funny because when we wrote Ghetto Rock we really thought that we would just be like a hard rock band and those were the songs that people would love, but as it turned out the fans dictated to us what they loved and had dictated to us what the next album should sound like. We couldn’t be happier because this music makes us dance and makes us happy. It’s like so feel good that we get into rehearsal and we’re running to the set and we forget all of our bull-shit drama in real life – we forget that we were arrested, detained and deported in the UK when we came over to do our show.

Your album ‘Ghetto Rock’ hasn’t actually been released in the UK, has it?

Well it’s been released only on-line – that’s how we do business. We released a physical CD as well and that’s available on I-tunes, CD baby, Amazon and all that. What we’ve decided to do with our next album is to go totally ‘green’ and to not release a physical album but to only release one song at a time on the internet, because quite frankly that’s what we feel the record industry should be doing. People don’t really buy albums anymore, people buy songs one at a time, as they hear them basically. If a song makes them feel good they’ll buy it and then the next song comes out and makes them feel good they’ll buy it. We’re doing what we think the record industry should be doing – we are pioneering!

Pink directed your ‘Hello Bonjour’ video – how did that come about?

Yes she did! We entered a huge contest that Glamour magazine created and we were up against two other bands who were both signed to major labels so we were like ‘shit’. As it turned out we won by a landslide. I guess we had like 20,000 more votes than they did so the people voted after seeing the ad in the magazine and the online stuff, blah, blah and we won!

So you won Pink to be your director?

Yeah! The whole thing was ‘which ever one of the bands wins this contest, Pink will be directing your video’ so of course we really wanted to win because she totally understood the band, our direction, who we are and our visual – the whole thing and then we won…

So have you developed a friendship with her now?

Yes and she has turned out to be a really, really amazing friend. I was actually just at a party in Los Angeles and she was there looking very skinny.

Are you both from New York?

I grew up in a really small town in Vermont and I moved to New York city when I was a teenager. Hopey was born in Mexico and grew u p right outside of New York, and like me she moved here as soon as she was able to leave the house.

You recently performed at London’s Vibration event for a large lesbian audience – how did that go and do you have any plans to perform again in the UK?

No we didn’t. We got arr ested, fingerprinted and mugshotted, detained and deported. I’m not sure if legally I can say why but what I will say is that is was not 100% anything of our doing. Instead of performing we spent 24 hours flying. It was a really, really horrible experience. You go all that way to play that show and we had lnine interviews lin ed up with a 1000 tickets sold. We had two major labels coming to see us and we were just so fucking excited to perform at that event. I literally walked into the airport like a champion and then very quickly my mugshot was being taken and I was crying hysterically. I would love to have that mugshot some day. There’s nothing to bring a band closer together than being in jail together.

Have you got any plans to come to the UK again or perform here?

Well we figured that after all we went to trying to get to the UK our next show will be at Wembley Arena opening for the Scissor Sisters and I will have all the right paperwork in order to get into your country.

How would you describe your music?

I think we are a combination of Scissor Sisters, Jim Class Heroes, and a little bit of Blondie thrown in. I kind of think that we picked up where Garbage left off. I think that if that band had continued then their sound would probably be a lot like ours. One of the reasons why we are having such tremendous popularity is because our music is just really, really feel good and so when people come to our shows they forget that they are working in shit jobs and can barely pay their rent. They forget all the politics that are happening in our country, they forget that we are at war, they forget that gays can’t be married. Our shows just make people feel good and they make us feel good too. Our show’s are like a party!

The L Word used one of your songs for their season finale, how did that make you feel?

Like a queen and I hope they’ll use another one. They just contacted us one day - we got an email and said ‘Can we use this song?’ and we were like ‘Oh my god, hell yeah!’

Is it true that the group’s without a label or manager?

It’s pretty crazy because we were offered a really big deal last fall and we turned it down because they basically wanted our first form for very little monies so we basically said ‘No let’s hold out and wait for something better and we don’t need a manager, blah, blah’ but we need one bad because our business has gotten so much bigger than us and it’s really crazy that we’ve made all of this stuff happen on our own. Bands don’t make this kind of stuff happen on their own but it’s a lot for just us to handle, as well as booking shows, writing songs and the whole thing – we need somebody else to handle that so we can concentrate ourselves more into the stuff.

I have to ask you this question but are either of you gay?

Yes of course and you should never be ashamed to ask that question and never be ashamed to answer it. We love pussy! We are totally open about it but we are not a gay band and we don’t write gay music but it so happens that the two front people of the band are big dykes.

What artists are you mainly influenced by?

The Scissor Sisters are a tremendous inspiration and ironically at this 40th party that I was just at, whenever a Pretty Boys song came on when the DJ was playing music I would always hear somebody go ‘Oh my god is this the Scissor Sisters?’ and that was such a compliment! What we all take inspiration from is very, very different but when we come together it does sound like Pretty Boys. I love pop culture but when you get in Hopey’s car she’s listening to something from the fifties or you get in Doug’s car and it’s speed-metal or you get in Dee’s car and it’s like classical so we all listen to really different shit but when we come together we create one sound.

What do you want for the future of the group?

We would love to be huge, huge, huge stars in the UK. We are really super inspired by teen American bands like the Scissor Sisters and The Gossip who go to the UK and totally blow up, like last year when I was in the UK I went to see the Scissors Sisters at Wembley Arena and there were 10,000 people with their hands in the air singing every word and it just blew me away – I have chills right now even talking about it because they’re a band from Brooklyn just like we us, they wrote all of those songs in Brooklyn just like us, they recorded their album in Brooklyn just like us and I could see them at Wembley with the most amazing people in the world with their fists in the air. It was just mindblowing!

Hopey – You are heavily tattooed, how many have you got exactly and have you got any plans for more?

Forty of fifty – I lost count actually! Yes I do actually have plans for more – always! I don’t give myself tattoos but you technically can. Galadriel gave herself a tattoo a couple of weeks ago with like a sewing needle and some Indian ink but I don’t normally.

Do you think you are addicted to tattoos?

I know certain things that I am probably addicted to but tattoos aren’t one of them. I describe it more like ‘they live under my skin and find their way out. They already exist.’ I love them! It’s pretty much like if someone has blonde hair – I just have tattoos.

Random Fun Questions

Describe yourself in three words?

Galadriel – Hysterically funny, bossy and fabulous
Hopey – Cartoon character, gorgeous and ummm

What kind of car do you drive?

Galadriel – I drive a Hybrid
Hopey – A mini-van but I want to be driving a 1967 Mustang

Ever had surgery?

Galadriel – Absolutely not!
Hopey – I have never had surgery

What is your favourite drink?

Galadriel – Tequila and Tonic with lime
Hopey – Red Bull

What kind of shoes are you wearing right now?

Galadriel – I’m wearing the most amazing Nike Dunks that are brown with green lace and a pink high top.
Hopey – Some really good Nike High Tops

What would be your dream job?

Galadriel – Rock Star
Hopey – Writing and performing music

What is your favourite TV show?

Galadriel – Does it still have to be on? If not my favourite TV show was Six Feet Under
Hopey – Dexter and The Office

Do you think Britney Spears has lost her mind?

Galadriel – I don’t know but I would like to spend some quality time with her – I know I could help, I’m like a life coach…
Hopey – Yes totally. I don’t think she ever had her mind. In fact I think someone stole her mind when she was eight or nine years old and forgot to return it.

What do you think of George Bush?

Galadriel – I would love to say what I really think but I think having it printed could but my in a precarious position so why don’t we just say that I will celebrate on his last day in office and party like it was 1999.
Hopey – He is on the bottom of my list of every person I’ve ever had to make that statement about. He is the worse.

What was your last dream about?

Galadriel – I had a hideous dream that somebody lost my dog and my dog died and I couldn’t cry about it but I realised that using Freud’s technique it wasn’t about my dog at all and I had lost a part of myself and that part of me is now dead and the reason I can’t cry is because I’m happy that part of me is dead. I grew up analysing dreams because I had a really bizarre childhood and every morning we would have to analyse our dreams around the kitchen table. It was like the eighties and we didn’t want to do that but it was a skill that we all learned whther we wanted to or not so I’m really good at analysing dreams.
Hopey – I don’t know but usually it involves not wearing clothes, being outside of my house, having a panic attack and no make-up on stage. I have a lot of anxiety dreams.

When I say monkey what do you think of?

Galadriel – My dog
Hopey – I think of my dog Ozzy because he’s a pug, he’s my little monkey. But also then it makes me think of George Bush!

Ever been to jail?

Galadriel – Other than last month no. That was my first time in Jail and hopefully my last but I’ve always wanted to go to jail and yes dreams to come true!
Hopey – It depends whether it’s with bars or just a room…

Who is the hottest person you know?

Galadriel – It’s this actress named Deak. She is beyond hot!
Hopey – Besides myself it would have to be Lucky Londo.

 

See and hear more at www.myspace.com/prettyboys