by Kris Handel (@khandel84)
Shortly after the release of Emphatically No., the ear catching power-pop filled and extremely quotable second full length from Cheekface, Greg Katz, Amanda Tannen, and a quite tardy Mark “Echo” Edwards sat down for a chat via Zoom. In between interruptions by a cute but loud barking dog on the interviewer’s end we discuss life, methods of distraction/survival during a national pandemic, achievements and joy in music, and what venues might look like if live concerts ever become a thing again. Katz, Tannen, and Edwards are all equally as gracious and charming as their playful music and beguiling wit would suggest.
Post-Trash: How’d the band name come about?
Greg Katz: Do you want the short story or the long story?
P-T: Whichever one you want to give is fine.
GK: Short story is we had a band shootout and Cheekface won out. Long story is before we even started writing together I really wanted to call the next band I started ‘Plumping.” I was just like that’s such a good name and it just describes me and it’s kind of funny. Mandy and Echo were like ‘that’s just a fucking terrible name, dawg’ (interrupted for failed attempt to let Mark in Zoom). While we were recording the first album the band did not have a name, we put up the studio dry erase board and started covering it in whatever names we came up with. Everyone had a veto and we were like write a star next to what band name you’d be cool with and the one we all starred was Ryan Gosling’s Freaking Delts, and we were like OK let’s try that, but it turned out it was hard to pronounce and spell. We looked back at the literal drawing board and the others were Cheeks named after Operator Music Band’s cat, and Snackface. Cheeks was taken by another band and Snackface is a small food brand, but then I was just like let’s just try to smash them together and see if it sticks and now 3 years on or whatever it’s still sticking.
P-T: How have things been in terms of making music during the pandemic?
Amanda Tannen: I think the hardest thing is not playing in a room with each other. Like not being able to be in a room with Greg and Echo has been hard. To not have a sense of community. When you write music together there’s something special that happens to be in a room together.
GK: Yeah, it sucks shit. I mean we have some new recordings by trading files around and that we’ve written over Zoom and I’m not gonna lie they are pretty good. Definitely it’s less fun and less creative on some level but it’s not like we’re getting nothing done so I feel like against all odds we’re doing ok.
P-T: You’ve possibly mentioned before some of the songs on the new record were done via Zoom or am I wrong about that?
GK: No, everything on the new LP was recorded prior to the global mishegaas.
AT: We just did some of the videos via Zoom.
GK: Yeah, we did those little live isolation videos for some stuff. I guess some stuff was completed during lockdown like some of the mixes and stuff came in over the spring and summer so finishing the record did happen over lockdown, but no recording lyrics or instruments.
P-T: In terms of daily activities what have you all been doing to cope with everything.
AT: I got a dog. Well, my friend found a dog on the street and asked if I wanted to take him [laughter]. So that’s me getting a dog. He definitely helps me. I have to walk him twice a day and that gets me out of the house and I give him pets which helps me calm down a lot of the time to have him around.
[Echo enters Zoom fashionably late]
Mark “Echo” Edwards: What did I miss?
GK: What are you doing during lockdown to keep yourself attached to reality?
ME: Moving my body. That’s the only way I’ve been able to find happiness chemicals to replace shows and stuff.
GK: Are you buff now?
ME: I’m getting there
GK: I learned how to play Yahtzee and Gin rummy and barely learned how to play backgammon. I’ve also been cooking a lot and accumulating various pots and pans so I can make some things I couldn’t make before.
P-T: What would you say is the highest achievement you’ve reached as a band so far?
ME: Some of it may be that it’s tinted with nostalgia a little bit currently, but those 3 shows we did last February and the last recording session for this record felt really incredible and a high point for me personally. That could be [because] I haven’t played a show in 9 months and I miss that.
GK: Definitely selling a lot of tickets to show was something I didn’t aspire to when we started writing and recording songs. I was like “oh maybe some people will stream them. I hope they get more than 1K streams so they don’t just show the under 1K stream thing on Spotify’ that was kind of my aspiration. To show up in Chicago to like 250 people that knew the words and Philly and New York was pretty surprising. That started to happen like mid 2019 we’d get to a show where people we didn’t know knew the music so that was kind of like this has gone way further than I ever expected or hoped for so that is pretty cool.
AT: Yeah, I would say the same. When Greg and I started the band the point was really to have no expectations and do it for the sake of doing it and have fun. The last couple of shows were a surprise, to have that many people come to the show and knowing all the words was very touching for me.
P-T: What are some of the favorite songs you’ve written?
GK: You go first Echo!
ME: Goddamn it, this is what I get for being late. I’m really really liking, I mean it’s always in flux but I’m really loving “Don’t Get Hit by a Car” right now, that was a personal favorite when we tracked it. I’m super glad it’s out in the world, I think it’s a great song and it’s a little bit different than what we normally do.
GK: I’m gonna go with “Emotional Rent Control,” that one we hit a lot of things we like to talk about with the lyrics. It has a good feeling to it and the bass line and drum groove are really nasty and has a big stupid hit you over the head chorus. That one is definitely a proud achievement.
AT: I second “Emotional Rent Control”. As far as like my favorite song we’ve written that’s it. Then there are one’s I love to listen to. “Call Your Mom” is one I love to listen to cuz of the kind of angstiness in it. Sometime’s that how I use music to help me work through some anger like headbang or walk quickly to.
GK: Yeah, “Call Your Mom” is cool. How it works on the album is really cool when we were trying to sequence the album. We were like ‘we are gonna put these two pop songs at the front, what are we gonna do after that’ then having Devin McKnight’s laser gun guitar interrupting the head nodding pop songs and shoot forward at 190 BPM I was like that’s pretty tight.
P-T: In terms of working out anger in songwriting, given the past year am I expecting a hardcore Cheekface album next?
GK: [laughter] Nah, more of the same but worse just like every band you’ve ever loved.
P-T: Back to “Emotional Rent Control,” Greg do you ever see that petition guy at the farmer’s market and ever tell him he’s in the song yet?
GK: You know, I moved to a different part of town a little before we wrote that song, I haven’t been going to that farmer’s market much. I guess I have seen that guy walking down the street but no I’ve never gonna up to him and been like ‘hey you’re in a song now’.
P-T: Y’all did a Talking Heads cover set. If there was ever to be another one of those (either a record cover or a live show) what would be next?
GK: We had planned to do that Talking Heads show several times last year. I think part of me is like the next thing we do is an encore of the Talking Head show. We had started to kind of book this Cheekfacestival for 7-11 Cheekface day last year. We got back from tour and started asking venues and other bands. All the bands we liked were in and I tweeted about it and a bunch of people were like “I’ll fly out to this.” I was like we’ll do a regular set and a Talking Heads encore set. I’d still like to do the Cheekfacestival, that would probably be next. I don’t know. I was watching the Tom Waits ACL performance and I was like “damn that would be fun to do”. I don’t know, maybe only Tom Waits can do that but we’ll just put a gas pump on stage for our next show and see what happens.
P-T: Any hints on what the next Cheekface record might be outside of “the same old thing but worse”?
GK: I can read some song titles if you want
P-T: That works
GK: “We Need a Bigger Dumpster” “I Liked it Better When You’re Standing Next to Me (Yo Guy version)” “I’m the Featured Singer on a EDM Record” “Vegan Water” “A Big Cup of Noodles” “I Feel so Weird” yeah those are some of the titles
P-T: Honestly the tease has me excited. Working in the music industry and dealing with management and artist representation, how have those skills transferred to marketing the band or expectations?
GK: Nothing at all really. This project is just totally free range. It’s like write the songs, record the songs, see if anyone likes them that’s really it. The more you learn about the way of the machinery in the industry works its just people like the songs or they don’t.
ME: I will say I think there’s been an element of knowing what not to do or what things we don’t want to do, I think that’s more of a motivating force. Avoid the shitty things and just do what’s fun.
AT: I think with the accumulated years of being in music we’ve figured out what’s worth it and what’s not. When to spin your wheels and when not to, and just have fun with it.
P-T: In terms of projections for the new year what would you most like to see happen. Band wise/personal wise/resolutions?
GK: I’d like to see Echo get ripped.
ME: Yeah, personally getting buff. [laughter]
AT: I think trying to live the same way through all of this, keep expectations out of it and do what’s best for you in the day and that’s what’s helped me get through what’s happening and still be productive cuz it can still be overwhelming. When someone asks about expectations I try to reel it in like “WAIT!!” If anything from this year I’ve learned there’s no predictability and to just expect more change.
GK: I was watching the Rick Rubin documentary on Showtime and there was like some guru/spiritual advisers to him and that guy was like ‘people try to cling onto something stable for there comfort but there is no stability and there is no comfort’. Which was supposed to be like a creatively freeing kind of thing like why try to do the same thing again? You do it because you want stability, but that doesn’t provide you with stability. You think the stability will comfort you but there’s not stability or comfort. So yeah, that.
P-T: In terms of touring if that day ever comes again, if venues are still around, is there anyplace you’d be looking forward to play?
GK: I’m really excited to play VFW’s, community centers, cultural/union halls. A lot of shitty bars where you hear the buzzing Coors sign or ice machine clattering through the set are gone now and you know, those were places where you’d play for 10% of tickets after a $300 overhead. It’s like ‘Ok, Yeah I’m not gonna miss some of those places, not that I cheer for any business to fail just it was never that fun to play in places like that and now a lot of those places are gone. Community centers, VFWs and union halls are going to be here. Some kid’s gonna show with a huge ass sound system and take $10 dollars and the door and it’s gonna be fucking awesome.
P-T: Is there ever going to be an Amanda turn leading Cheekface?
AT: It’s not not possible, there’s no set rules here I think. I mean Echo can do a lead on a song too…
GK: Let’s be real here no one wants to hear Echo singing. [laughter]
ME: WOOOOWWWW, ask my parents before making such a sweeping declaration.
GK: I fully support Mandy singing as many or as few songs as she’d like to sing.
AT: I’m a reluctant lead vocalist, so yeah.