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Letters To Cleo

Photo by Chris Sikich

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Letters To Cleo "Cleo-ize" The Holidays On The Limited-Edition 'OK Christmas' EP

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"'Ok Christmas' is this year’s annual holiday gift to our fans," Kay Hanley, lead singer of the Boston alt-rock troupe, tells the Recording Academy
Will Hodge
GRAMMYs
Nov 25, 2019 - 12:29 pm

"Every year we joke about doing a Christmas record," laughs Letters To Cleo lead singer Kay Hanley, "but this year we decided to get serious and finally do it." Since reuniting in 2016, the beloved Boston alt-rockers have been playing a year-end run of shows where they like to have a surprise or two up their sleeves. "For the last couple of years, it’s been a bit of a tradition for us to tour in November," says Hanley. "When you only go on tour once a year, you can’t go out empty-handed. So, Ok Christmas is this year’s annual holiday gift to our fans."

Comprised of three holiday covers and a newly penned original, the Ok Christmas EP finds the band mining the often-overlooked corners of the Christmas canon for some left-of-center chestnuts through which to celebrate their seasonal spirit. Where some bands stumble when it comes to covering other artists' material, Letters To Cleo have been showcasing their unique talent for reinterpretation since their original run in the 1990s. They memorably became soundtrack/compilation phenoms with covers of The Cars' "Dangerous Type” (from cult classic "The Craft"), Fleetwood Mac’s "Dreams" (from the Spirit Of '73: Rock For Choice album) and their double-dipped entry of Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me" and Nick Lowe's "Cruel To Be Kind" from the soundtrack to the high school rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You (a film in which they also make multiple on-screen appearances).

For Ok Christmas, Letters To Cleo bypassed the well-worn holiday fare for a trio of Christmas covers from The Kinks, Elvis Presley and The Dogmatics, a fellow Boston rock band that was active in the early-to-mid 1980s. However, even when they start off with another band’s material, Hanley and her bandmates can always find the right avenue through which to properly "Cleo-ize" their bouncy, buzzy, cranked-to-11 interpolations. There are no kids' choirs, church organs, "Jingle Bells" motifs or any other seasonal saccharine to be found here—not even in the EP's title. "We went through all the schmaltzy titles like Cleo For The Holidays or Cleo Does Christmas, but none of that was working. I suggested Ok Christmas because it’s a play on Radiohead's OK Computer, which is a phrase I’ve been using a lot in the last few years when responding to bots on Twitter," laughs Hanley.

To get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Ok Christmas, the Recording Academy chatted with Hanley about her own connection to holiday music, the band's song selection process and the inspiration behind each of the four tracks.

Kay Hanley: Once we finally decided to record a Christmas EP, everything came together pretty quickly. We did a little deep dive into potential songs and democratically chose which ones we were going to do. However, as with most holiday albums, we had to record it in the least Christmas-like atmosphere you could imagine: 90 degrees in July in Los Angeles in a little studio over in Koreatown. But we had a good time and just went for it. Even the artwork process turned out simple enough. Our graphic designer, Nicole Anguish of Daykamp Creative, came up with the cover on her very first pass. She only showed us one thing and we were immediately blown away!

During the recording sessions for Ok Christmas, the band didn't try to manufacture any fake holiday spirit by stringing lights all over the studio or by putting up a Christmas tree in the corner of the control room. Instead, Hanley felt that she and her bandmates were able to stir up the exact inspiration they needed from their own nostalgic memories and their personal connections to the holiday music of their childhood.

Kay Hanley: I grew up in a very devout Catholic family and my parents listened to a lot of Elvis and a lot of religious music around the holidays. So, I was a big fan of Christmas music, especially the big dramatic church songs like "O Holy Night." In fact, we almost did "O Holy Night," but it was really hard to figure out how to get the right Cleo vibe on it, so we didn't push it. Even though I'm a Catholic atheist, I love the holiday and everything about it. I haven't been to a Christmas mass since moving to Los Angeles. However, there's a church right across the street from us, so maybe I’ll take the kids this year because the place is really beautiful.

One of the potential tracks that all of the band members immediately agreed on was The Kinks' 1977 holiday single "Father Christmas." While the original has long been an anchor of power-pop holiday playlists thanks to its roaring guitars and propulsive drumming, Letters To Cleo managed to further the song's intensity through their amped-up romp that serves as the door-busting opener to Ok Christmas.

Kay Hanley: There was never going to be a Cleo Christmas album without The Kinks on it. "Father Christmas" was just automatically going to be on there. It was the first one we chose and we just all knew it was going to happen. We all love The Kinks and it was such a blast to record. I hope the fun we had really comes through in the recording.

However, hidden away in Ray Davies' satirical lyrics about a department store Santa getting roughed up by an unruly gang of kids was one specific line—"But if you've got one, I'll take a machine gun/So I can scare all the kids on the street"—that didn’t sit quite well with the band in light of America's ongoing gun violence epidemic.

Kay Hanley: We had just finished tracking all of the music for our version of "Father Christmas" when the mass shooting in El Paso happened. Our guitarist, Greg McKenna, texted the band on our group chat and asked if we should change the machine gun lyric. My first instinct was to leave it intact, just because I’m a songwriting purist. To be honest with you, the machine gun line had always just floated over my head because the whole song is just so tongue-in-cheek in the way it’s commenting on class and the haves vs. the have-nots. But it only took a few minutes for me to be like, "Oh no, we can't use that lyric." It just seemed really tone-deaf in the face of the gun violence crisis that our country is going through. I went to Twitter and slid up into The Kinks' mentions, told them that we were recording the song, and explained why we wanted to change the machine gun lyric. We didn't hear back from them, but our fans saw it and offered up some ideas on how to switch it up. One of our fans, Eric Reiberg, made a suggestion that I ended up modifying a little into a new couplet —"Can you meltdown all the machine guns/So the kids are safe on the street." It feels so much better now. Hopefully, Ray Davies won't be mad at us.    

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For their next cover in the Ok Christmas tracklist, Letters To Cleo pulled out another '70s seasonal singalong. "If I Get Home On Christmas Day" was originally recorded by Elvis Presley for his 1971 album Elvis Sings The Wonderful World of Christmas. While the maudlin mid-tempo ballad may have shared a release decade with the spunky "Father Christmas," it certainly didn't share the same level of enthusiasm from the band during the Ok Christmas song selection discussions. At least, not until McKenna reworked the overly sentimental arrangement into the charming, twangy shuffle that eventually won Hanley over.

Kay Hanley: Greg brought this one to the band because he was the only one daring enough to look for the unknown songs that no one really covers. Initially, I wasn't into that approach at all and wanted stuff that people would immediately recognize. So when Greg first showed us this Elvis song, I was like "Hell no, absolutely not!" However, he worked up a different arrangement on guitar and sent me over a demo and I was like "Yes, this is fantastic now!" Our sound lends itself nicely to that sort of soft rockabilly vibe. So, even though it’s kind of twangy, I still feel like it’s very Cleo. It was surprisingly hard to sing though! 

For the final cover of the four-song EP, the band tipped their hat (a Red Sox cap, naturally) to their Boston roots by tackling the surly "X'mas Time (It Sure Doesn't Feel Like It)" by the Boston garage-rock band The Dogmatics. Originally appearing on the hard-to-find 1984 holiday compilation A Midnight Christmas Mess alongside Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Droogs and The Cheepskates, "X’mas Time" paints a dour picture of the snowswept city during the holidays, while shouting out a few of the "less touristy" local landmarks.

Kay Hanley: This song was actually our manager’s idea. I think he’s been trying to pawn this one off on us for years. I have to admit, even as a huge Boston music fan, I wasn't familiar with the song at all. At first, we ignored him, because that's what you do with managers, but we eventually came around to it. Musically, it's kind of long and doesn't go anywhere, but the vibe of it is absolutely perfect. It’s very defeated, very Boston—it doesn’t get more true-to-type than this song. I like that the lyrics are so visual for me. Filene’s Basement was my grandmother’s favorite department store. It was downtown, right at the edge of the Combat Zone, with a lot of seedy characters around there. Pine Street Inn is a homeless shelter in the South End. At the time this song was written in the early 1980s, it was in a very desolate, very bleak area. Now, the South End is one of the most gentrified areas in Boston. Pine Street Inn is currently in the middle of total opulence. The difference from then to now is absolutely nuts.

As nostalgically warm as the thick Boston threads that run through "X'mas Time" may be, the most personal musical moment on Ok Christmas lies within the band’s newly penned original, "Miss You This Christmas." Throughout the holiday heartbreaker, melancholy lyrics like "I'm not used to stringing lights alone" and "There's no cheer if you're not here" contrast smartly against the upbeat Spector-esque production touches of ringing guitars, clanging chimes and a bubbly bassline.

Kay Hanley: We really wanted to write an original for this record, so Michael Eisenstein and I made an appointment to sit down with a guitar and give it a shot. Writing a Christmas song can be really daunting because it feels like no one can bring anything new to the subject; like everything that could be said about Christmas has already been said. So I started trying to think about my boyfriend who tours a lot and is going to be gone through the holidays. I've also got two young family members who are serving overseas and I was thinking about how soldiers' partners must feel during deployment. So it all came together around hoping that your loved one will come home safe and sound for the holidays.

From the charming album artwork to the merry-making covers and the heart-warming original, Letters To Cleo have managed to craft an authentic, grade-A seasonal souvenir with Ok Christmas. They even pressed up the vinyl version of the EP on "holiday candy"-colored vinyl. Free of commercialized schmaltz and full of signature Cleo, Ok Christmas manages to find its own sonic space in the Christmas canon without just adding to all the Noel-hyped noise. However, according to Hanley, putting out a Christmas release isn’t exactly going to become a yearly tradition for the band.  

Kay Hanley: As fun as this was, we are one-and-done on the holiday EPs. A part of our annual gift is that we’re always going to try and do something different each year. However, we are hoping to have another regular, non-holiday, full-length album out sometime next year. We’ve already got like five or six songs ready to go, so that’s our plan.

The limited-edition "holiday candy" vinyl version of Letter’s to Cleo's Ok Christmas EP can be ordered directly from the band here.

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The Cranberries

Photo credit: Andy Earl

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The Cranberries Reflect On Their First GRAMMY Nod: "Dolores Would've Been Delighted And Honored"

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While the beloved Irish band's Best Rock Album GRAMMY nod is no doubt a triumph, it is mostly bittersweet, as it arrives approximately two years after the death of their singer, Dolores O'Riordan
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Jan 9, 2020 - 9:59 am

This year may mark the first time the Cranberries have been nominated for a GRAMMY (Best Rock Album for 2019's swan song In The End), but the Irish alternative rock figureheads have enjoyed mainstream success ever since their career boom in the mid-'90s, with ubiquitous jangly singles like "Dreams" and "Linger."  

While the band's GRAMMY nod is no doubt a triumph, it is mostly bittersweet, as it arrives after the death of beloved Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordan, who passed away in 2018 of accidental drowning due to sedation from alcohol poisoning. After O'Riordan's sudden death, the remaining band members—guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler—teamed up with longtime producer Stephen Street to work on a posthumous album (the aforementioned In The End) comprised of her unfinished demos, which she started working on with Hogan after the band released 2017's orchestral record, Something Else. "It's a tribute to her, the band and our fans for the past 30 years," the Cranberries said in a statement upon receiving the GRAMMY nod. "Being honored with this GRAMMY nomination has made this whole process even more special." 

Special though it may be, the Cranberries' GRAMMY nomination in many ways marks the final lap the band will ever take, with no plans to tour or record any more music without O'Riordan. Drummer Fergal Lawler was kind enough to hop on the phone from his home in Ireland to talk about his feelings around the nomination, how he expects O'Riordan might have felt about it and how he's continuing to deal with the still-ongoing promotional cycle around In The End.  

What was your reaction when you found out The Cranberries had been nominated for Best Rock Album?

Just shocked. It was kind of like, "Oh my God. Yeah. Wow! I can't believe it. We've never been nominated." It was incredible really. It kind of took a while to kind of sink in. But yeah, just, it's an incredible honor really.

Do you remember where you were when you found out? I imagine you were already awake, with the time difference and everything.

Yeah, it was the afternoon. I was in my kitchen just having a coffee and I got a call from our manager when he says, "You heard the news?" And I said, "No, no. Is everything okay?" He said, "Yeah, we just got nominated for the GRAMMYs." "Oh my God! Brilliant."

How did Mike and Noel react when you spoke?

The same. So surprise and delighted, and kind of a little bit of sadness as well. Because Dolores wasn't there to share it with us, so ... But she would have loved that. She would have been delighted with that, so ... We're trying to focus on the positive, and not get too sad about it and just, you know?

I can't even really begin to imagine how complex your feelings must be about this, with the loss of Dolores.

Yeah, we were talking about that kind of saying like, "Oh, she would have loved [being nominated for a GRAMMY]. She would've been so delighted and honored to be nominated even regardless of whether we win or not.

The Cranberries | Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nom

And I know that the actual recording of In The End was not easy.

It's just such a difficult album to do. Initially the first couple of days I was kind of going, "I don't know if we can do this. I don't know if we can possibly get through the whole thing." It was so emotional.

But as we progressed, we kind of said, "Look, we have to do a job. We have a job to do and we have to make these songs as good as possible." We kind of said, "Look, we have to focus on our work and try and push down the emotions little bit, and get the job done. And pay respect to these songs and make them as good as possible." And I think that's what helped get us through it. You know? And then kind of towards the end of the day when Delores would come in to do her vocals, that would hit you again that she wasn't coming in.

And then the last listening back session was hugely emotional. Especially the very last song on In The End was just overpowering. And then we had to go out and do the promotion for it. And that was kind of really hard again because everyone was asking questions about the whole thing, but everyone was really, really nice and sensitive, which was fantastic. So that helped. But it was still very difficult to do.

That’s over a year ago I suppose. So I kind of thought that was the end of it. Let the album kind of live its life. Like you know? And then we went and got nominated for the GRAMMY. It's kind of like, okay, we're going to be doing more interviews and bring it all back up.

I don't know. It's probably healing. It's difficult at the time to do it. It's like therapy or something. It's difficult to sit down and talk to someone about your problems, but then afterwards you feel better. 

I thought about that too… the therapeutic nature of speaking to journalists about the album and now, its GRAMMY nod. But at least in therapy, you don’t have to keep telling the same stories over and over. Has that part been difficult at all?

Yeah, it's been okay. I've only done a small few interviews, so it's not too bad yet. Maybe as I do more it might get a bit more stressful, but I look after myself. I'm 48 years of age. I've been doing this for a while, so I know how to mind myself.

What have you been working on outside of the Cranberries? What is your day-to-day these days?

Day-to-day, I have a small studio beside my house, and I'm doing music for documentaries and short films, things like that. Something I really love, because you don't have to go on tour. You can work from home. And it's something, it's not drums, something different. So it kind of stops me getting bored.

What have Mike and Noel been up to? How often does the group chat these days?

We have like a WhatsApp group, we send messages every few days, just to see how things are doing. There's always something happening regarding the band. Once we finished the promo, we had a break for a while, which is nice. And now with the GRAMMY nomination there's more talks of prolonged doing bits and pieces. But musically I'm not sure what they're doing at the moment. I don't think they're doing much.

Recently you released a 25th anniversary box set of your first album. When In The End celebrates, say, a 10-year anniversary, do you expect that the band will be open to talking about it again?

Probably we'd have to go through older material and do interviews and talk about it. And it's kind of nice to, like, comb through an old photograph album and all the memories just pop in straight away and you're kind of an arm with that time or this time. So it's nice to revisit.

Over the course of the band's history, what are some treasured memories that you regularly revisit?

It's strange, when Dolores passed away, all the memories that came back were the early years when we kind of first started off and were traveling around in a van. And it was just a big adventure because I was 20, I think Mike was only 16 or 17. And we were just basically out of our teens and just having a big adventure traveling around the world, getting to see new countries and just have a ball, really. We had no money. We had like $10 a day I think to survive on. We didn't care. We just seemed to get by and just really enjoy it. Met loads of nice people. They're the kind of ones that last, those kind of memories.

This being your first time at the GRAMMYs, is there anything or anyone you’re most excited to see? Any albums you were fond of that were nominated?

Yeah. I don't know. The albums for me that I love this year were Thom Yorke, Anima, it's incredible. Lana Del Rey. Tool with Fear Inoculum. They're amazing. I saw them for the first time live this year. I couldn't believe it. I was blown away.

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Tune in to the 62nd GRAMMY Awards, which are once again hosted by Alicia Keys, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, and broadcasting live on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

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Beach Slang's James Alex

Photo by Charlie Lowe

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Beach Slang's James Alex On The Albums That Made Him

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An unapologetic music fan with clear sonic ties to the Replacements, the Philly fuzz-punk goes in-depth on the albums that blew his mind and most informed his own work
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Jan 7, 2020 - 9:00 am

"Do you remember NENA?" James Alex, lead singer of Philly anthem-punks Beach Slang, asks over the phone. "She said the only reason she got into rock and roll was to meet Mick Jagger. And I was like, 'That's what I never want to lose touch of.'"

The ultimate fan, Alex has stayed true to his (and NENA's) original intention as a musician, taking unapologetic influence from punk pioneers the Replacements, among other early alternative greats. The Rhode Island native sings in a gravel-voiced pitch, much like his idol Paul Westerberg, and builds melodic, earnest tracks around thick, fuzzed-out guitar chords. Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson even shows up on Beach Slang's forthcoming first album in three years, The Deadbeat Bang Of Heartbreak City, dropping on Jan. 10 via Bridge Nine Records.

And that's hardly the first time Alex has followed in his favorites' footsteps: Earlier last year, Alex paid tribute to Hüsker Dü dignitary Bob Mould and Westerberg on a two-track covers EP, performing a heady rendition of "AAA" and "I Hate Alternative Rock." He even secured help from another hero — Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac — who acted as the EP's producer.  

So, in the lead up to Beach Slang's latest LP, it only made sense to ask Alex to go in-depth about the albums that made him, from Pleased To Meet Me to Ziggy Stardust to recent tourmates Goo Goo Dolls' Superstar Car Wash and beyond. 

AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976) & Back In Black (1980)

When I was a little kid, my birth father used to live at this campground area and they had this cover band come up and play these AC/DC songs. And I go and they're selling some things afterward at a little flea market, and I see this AC/DC pin. I'm like, "This band. These songs." I eventually get my hands on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Back In Black. I think the best way I can describe when I first held Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap… They have the sort of blackouts over the eyes and stuff on the cover. You remember William in the “Almost Famous” scene when his sister leaves home and leaves those records for him? I felt like I had that moment where it was like, "What is this?" It was cool to hear those songs, but to see the art and all that stuff, it really crashed into me in a really great way.

I was such a straight-laced kid because I was raised just by my mom. I always wanted to be good and get good grades and do right by her so she could be proud of how good she was doing as my mom. But I'm still like becoming this little raging human being who's got this energy and all these things. Those records gave me where I could have this outlet of being this rock and roller with still being a goody-two-shoes. I suppose we all want a little bit of edge, but I wanted to do it from the safety of not really being in harm's way.

Angus Young was absolutely my first rock hero. Even as far as my stage outfit now. That getup is not an accident. It's my mushy little nod to him.

Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady (1979)

I have a bunch of family in Rhode Island. I've got a couple of uncles up there that really, they turned me on to punk rock. And I remember it was Buzzcocks’ Singles Going Steady record. I heard that and I was like... I didn't know what I was feeling but I just knew like this is something special. I was too young to understand that I had angst and rebellion and these energies that, whatever it might be, school or little league weren't completely handling. And these records turned up and it was me jumping around with a tennis racket in a room screaming along gave me a thing that I wasn't finding anywhere else.

I always had this affinity for really good hooky melodies. Two-and-a-half minute songs, right? When I heard the Buzzcocks, when I got turned on by my uncles Shaun and Gary with that stuff, it was like, "Oh wow. So you can have all this energy and devil-may-care-ness, but you don't have to check melody." You know what I mean? It was like these things can co-exist.

The Who – Tommy (1969)

I went to go see a high school production of Tommy by The Who and at that point, I'm thinking any band like that, it's otherworldly. Then I saw kids who were maybe my age, maybe a couple of years older playing these songs that Pete Townshend wrote. These like really incredible songs. And I was like, "Wait, I can do this? These kids look like me." And I think that gave me the, "Okay. I have this thing in me that's happening and crunching, but here's the evidence that I can do this."

I go out, I get this knockoff Fender guitar. I don't even remember the brand name. And I got this little one speaker with the Gorilla amp. Just sounded horrible. And I jump around in my room windmilling like Townshend and just thinking, "Man, I'm on to something here." And I was awful. You know when a kid can't even hold a chord but you just hit it and it makes noise and you think you're the thing, you know? It was like that.

David Bowie – The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders from Mars (1973)

I could run off and marry a voice, it'd be Bowie. If somebody came up to me and they'd never heard music before and asked me, what does rock and roll sound like? That's the record I'd play.

I can relate to the smell of that record. The vinyl, opening that up. It places me in such a poignant moment in my life. I don't want get to engineer-y here, but just even the production and the sounds on that thing and the vocal layering Bowie does, or the lack thereof… I still can't completely wrap my head around it.

When I was first getting knocked into that stuff, I was like, "What is this?" I'd never heard records that felt that special and thoughtful and avant-garde yet completely sing along-able. I was just like, "How is he doing this?" All these years later, I suppose, I'm still asking myself those questions, like a lot of musicians are. That record is dangerously important to me.

Pixies – Surfer Rosa (1988)

The Pixies have always been huge for me. When I was learning how to play guitar and learning how to write songs, I was doing the Ramones thing. And then the Pixies came in and you have these weirdo sounds and time signatures and guitar things and you have screaming and whispering… I was like, "Oh, okay. Here's this whole other way to put words to music." I think I needed that crack. I know “Where Is My Mind?” is obviously the mega-hit, but when I heard that “Broken Face” song, I was just like, "This is so weird." I just adored it straight away.

I just have everything they have [released] now. That new record they just put out, I just think it's brilliant. I went to go see Charles Thompson once playing solo. I think he was going by “Frank Black” and I was just at this little brewery and I'm right up on stage because I'm like, "I'm about to see a f**king hero of mine." All of a sudden I feel this tap on my shoulder and I turned around and just be like, "Oh man, I'm so sorry." It's him getting to stage and I'm like, "I'll never wash this shoulder again."

The Replacements – Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash (1981) & Pleased To Meet Me (1987)      

I was playing in a band and the guitarist was the hugest Replacements fan. That's how I got turned on. He was like, "You're going to love this. You have to hear this." He gave me a copy of Sorry Ma.... I listened to that and I was, and I suppose it really couples nicely with what you just said. I was like, "This has all the snot of punk, but it's something more than that." You just saw right away, Paul Westerberg was just this phenomenal writer. I was like, "Where is this band going to go?"

When I'm asked about what my favorite Replacements record is… Look, I love everything of course, but I always cite Pleased To Meet Me. I just think it just clobbers and there's something relatable to me because that was the first one where Paul did all the guitar stuff. I don't know, the ability to be able to do that… Not only are you writing these songs, but you're writing all of these hooks or these shreds or are these little dingers or little mess ups or whatever they might be. But it's just like, "Man, you're not just writing a couple of chords and putting some words over it” kind of thing. It just knocked me out that somebody could do all that. And I think I began to want to chase that idea where your singular vision couldn't get smeared. Could I ever pull something like that off? Look, the short answer to that is probably not, right? But there's some fun in trying to do it.

Goo Goo Dolls – Superstar Car Wash (1993)

I'll tuck Superstar Car Wash into bed with me at night. Paul [Westerberg] wrote a single for that [“We Are The Normal”]. I was like, "How is this Replacements thing that I'm finding out about, there's more greatness that's directly related?" And then I heard Johnny [Rzeznik] and Robby [Takac]'s songs and I was like, "What the f**k is this?" I was really knocked back. And then I went back and I got that Hold Me Up record and I was just shattered by it. That's actually how I got turned onto the Plimsouls because I heard the [Goo Goo Dolls’] cover of “Million Miles Away.”

I always refer to it as the Dolls' Holy Trinity, right? It's Hold Me Up, Superstar Car Wash and Boy Named Goo. Those records absolutely sculpted me. Every time I sit down and I'm trying to write a hooky guitar ding or anything like that, it's like I'm thinking of those records. Even as it calmed down, the stuff on Jed, they're just this raucous f**king Buffalo punk rock band. They sort of cleaned it up in the best way you want to clean something up because then they just became these, quite literally, these perfect rock and roll pop songs.

I fanboy-ed out to Robby when he produced our EP [last year’s MPLS]. It's like, I'm talking to Robby from the Goos. I felt intimidated in a loving way. I was just like, "You've made records that have meant so much to me."

He invited us to come to a show that the Goo Goo Dolls were playing and we went there and we met the crew and the band, everything. And he's like, "Man, I want to find John. Let me find John." And I go up and I meet him and I'm, now I'm extra intimidated, right? Because I'm like, "This is the cat." But then we do it and he's the sweetest guy. We're hugging and I remember and I had a Sorry Ma T-shirt on and he did a little knowing point and smirk and looked at me dead in the eyes. We just connected for a second in a way that I was... It was really cool.

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Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik Talks 'Miracle Pill,' Staying Fearless & Catching Feels Listening To Beach Slang

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Death Angel

Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral

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Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Death Angel's Rob Cavestany Reflects On The Success Of "Humanicide" & "Giving Up My Life To Music"

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Ahead of the 62nd GRAMMY Awards on Jan. 26, the Recording Academy caught up with the Cali-based guitarist, whose thrash-metal outfit is nominated for Best Metal Performance
Katherine Turman
GRAMMYs
Jan 6, 2020 - 11:25 am

Death Angel lead guitarist Rob Cavestany was more excited than a kid on Christmas morning when he heard that his band—who've endured impressive highs and commensurate lows—was nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Metal Performance for "Humanicide," the title track of the quintet's ninth album.

That excitement has only grown for the Northern California-bred metallers as the 62nd GRAMMY Awards show draws closer. We caught up with Cavestany right before the 2019 holidays—Death Angel was on tour, right up until their annual San Francisco hometown Christmas gigs. But the nomination was always in his head: "When you're a kid, this is like what you dream of in the back of your mind. I respect and love all kinds of music and so many of the people I worship in music have earned this achievement." Plus, he notes, "to top it off, Alicia Keys is hosting the GRAMMYs, and my love for Alicia Keys is well known."

Cavestany, who co-founded Death Angel with his cousins as a teenager in 1982, co-produced Humanicide. Lead vocalist Mark Osegueda joined in 1984; rhythm guitarist Ted Aguilar in 2001; while the rhythm section of drummer Will Carroll and bassist Damien Sisson, have been members for 11 years. If Cavestany's cousins are no longer members, Death Angel circa 2020 is very much a strong brotherhood, united by friendship, their fans and a passion for metal that includes cementing both DA's legacy and future. As the ebullient guitarist states: "We're not going to stop. This is what we do. This is what we live for."

2020 GRAMMY Awards: Complete Nominees List

How did you first learn about Death Angel’s GRAMMY nomination for Best Metal Performance?

I was in my bunk on our tour bus. It was literally like 5:30 in the morning and I was just starting to fall asleep because I’m quite the night owl and I also get insomnia. Mark, our singer, got the news from a friend. She texted him and said, "In about 15 minutes, they're going to release the information, but I just want you to know you're nominated." He had woken up to go to the bathroom and he saw his texts blowing up, and was like, "What the hell?!"

He came right over to my bunk and just started shaking me, "Rob, Rob, wake up!" At the very first I thought something terrible had happened. I could just see his face with the glow of his phone. He's like, "Look at this text. We're nominated for a GRAMMY!" Then we shook each other and we’re shaking hands and laughing. Then I just laid there going, "Am I dreaming?"

The song is "Humanicide," which gives the album its title. Can you tell me about the writing process?

The song has this very epic intro, so that's why it's the first song; it’s got this "saying hello" vibe, a very metal start to a song or record. I wrote that part when we were on tour with Slayer—us and Anthrax—for nine and a half weeks for our previous album [2016's The Evil Divide]. Being on tour with Slayer, you're inspired by some pretty heavy stuff. I watched their show night after night, being really, really impressed with their set and just how on top of their game they were. One of the nights on the bus, I wrote the foundation of the intro, the main, underlying rhythm. When we started writing for this new album, I was like, "Where is that thing I wrote on the Slayer tour?" I couldn't find it. I was searching like a surgeon! I found the piece started the writing off that.

And then Mark is the lyricist?

Then Mark got a hold of it and started working on the lyrics; I didn't hear the lyrics for that song until we were actually in the recording studio. The day he showed me the lyrics, right when I saw the title of the song I immediately knew it was going to be the title of the whole record. I was like, "What does that mean? 'Humanicide?' That's a great word, like, how metal does it get?!" I fell in love with the title before I even read the lyrics. I came into the studio and listened to what he sang, and it was one of those times where I just turned around and all I could do was give Mark a huge hug. I was like "Oh my God, YES!" The music and his lyrics and melody were just one of those natural pairings… boom!

One of the definitions of "humanicide" is the extinction of the human race by the human race.

And let it be known that we are a very, very, positive and positive spirit and energy kind of people and band. All the dark topics and brutal things happening in our lyrics or in our concepts are meant as a message or warning; a wake-up call kind of thing. We're not saying it should happen, but it's where we're going if we continue like this, so we need to do something about it, so that kind of thing does not happen.

Have you seen an increase in sales, streams, etc., since the GRAMMY nom?

I haven't looked at those stats yet, but somehow it just explodes in a whole network of promotion in and of itself. Tons of people are congratulating us and tagging us and it's given us this whole amazing push. We're on cloud nine every night. There's a great part in our set where Mark introduces a song off our album called "The Pack." Our fan club is called The Pack, and The Pack means us, our fans, the whole metal community. It's real inclusive; a unity kind of situation. When he's talking to the crowd, everyone's feeling it and all uniting in the spirit of metal. Then, then he drops it and says, "By the way, we got this amazing news that we've been nominated for GRAMMY!" And the way the crowd just explodes cheering for that! It's unlike any other, because they're so proud and they include themselves in it; Mark makes them included.

Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Death Angel

You've done a lot of records since 1982. What do you think coalesced in the world to make this GRAMMY nod happen now?

I guess it's a number of factors. I wouldn't say "Humanicide" is our best song, though it is one of my favorite of ours. But we also have a lot other f**king killer songs and killer records that could have been in this position. It was more of a combination of everything over the last year. This album came out about six months ago, but before that, as we were approaching the album, we ramped up everything; our work ethic, our whole strategy. We kind of had to clean house. We had a different booking agent; we got a new management team—and we're self-managed now, basically. Within the band, we've defined each person's strong points and their forte and what we handle between me and Mark and Ted, and the other secret weapon is Ted's wife [Tricia Aguilar]. She's the person who's not in the band that's helping us, she's an amazing, brilliant woman who is very, very well versed in marketing and promotion. Also, we started to up our [stage] production, we got a new light guy. We invested a lot of money and time into what we're doing here. We have a team that is studying social media and our visibility exploded massively, like by the thousands. We don’t do anything weird or conform into some thing that's not us, but we're trying to use the weapons of choice properly.

A difficult part of the Death Angel story is your 1990 tour bus accident. In Arizona, en route to Vegas, the bus crashed, and drummer Andy Galeon was critically injured, needing more than a year to recover. At the time, DA were slated to be the opening act for the 1991 Clash of the Titans tour featuring Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax, but were replaced by Alice In Chains. From 1991–2001, Death Angel were essentially broken up. I can’t even imagine the depression and anguish that must have caused.

Yeah, absolutely. That was definitely, definitely one of the darkest points of my life. The dark cloud that we were living under… you just kept going, "Why did this happen to us?" We were rising, at the highest peak of what we were doing. We got a real hardcore lesson about how the business is, where if you're not moving forward then you're falling backwards. We were trying to stand still and recover from the shock of the accident happening. Soon as we stood still, our record label [Geffen] dropped us because we didn't immediately replace our drummer and get right back on the road supporting our album.

Read More: Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell Is Just Happy To Be Nominated (For The Ninth Time)

I think ultimately the karma points you earned from doing that is a win, though I know it certainly didn't feel like it.

I agree with you. I've thought of that a million times, trying to process it, going through my mind and my soul. The only thing is how badly Andy, our drummer, got injured. We're all totally recovered, but he's got permanent scars. I could say "Yeah, everything happens for a reason," because who knows what would've happened had we continued on? I think we would've peaked out and faded and we would never have been able to come back together again. But because we were forced to stop too soon and broke up the band right in the middle of everything, it forced us apart from each other. It forced us to do other things in life that we wouldn't have done.

We were just starting to go crazy; looking back at that point, I was like a whole different person. I was definitely drinking a lot and running around and getting really crazy. Everything was becoming surreal. I was getting lost in the non-reality of being, you know, a "rock star." We were being put on a pedestal. We were rolling with two tour buses and hotel rooms every night and I had just turned 21 on that tour. I mean, we were already drinking heavily under 20, underage. But at that point, I was a party monster, and I think I would have gone down a bad road. When that accident happened, it shocked me so hard. I stopped partying; I stopped doing all that crazy shit. I don't know if I would have even survived or what kind of guy I would have been had that not happened.

But now you're here, nominated alongside Tool, Killswitch Engage and your peers!

Out of the five [bands] in there, I honestly have to say—and Mark says on stage every night—we're the ones that are truly representing the metal sound of the metal category. All these guys have a metal thing kind of going on. But when you put those five records together and listen to them, and our album is the f**king metal record in there, that's for sure!

With the GRAMMYs thing going on, this is the highest high and the best push forward we have had since we got signed to Geffen and we had that feeling that something was happening for us. It's hard for me to allow myself to feel happy because Geffen jaded me so bad, it made me have such a wall up to protect myself from being hurt. I'm so cynical; like I don't think something good could happen to us. I'm accepting our grind and like, "Well, this is what we do. It's punk rock forever, but at least I get to play music." I mean, even now, yesterday I just had my first shower in five days. We still live like that. We grind hard, but now everyone's in a really good mood though!

And if you win?

Again, we are so conditioned to learning how to deal with bad news and sh*t happening to us that none of us had even mentioned to each other the possibility that we would win. We're just happy to be nominated. However! When you're alone in your bunk, thinking about it, at some points I'm like, "Sh*t, I better prepare a speech, and what do we do win?!" Of course I've played it out in my mind. Like if our name gets called, I could just see us like f**king totally in shock staring at each other. We are going to be hilarious because we are such the underdogs that it would be amazing. But um, yeah, we'll prepare a speech and hope and pray.

And a room full of big names there!

F**king right. Barbra Streisand over here and Lady Gaga there and I'm just going to go crazy 'cause I love these artists. I'm definitely not a one-dimensional metaller. I just hope I can speak to actually say "hi" and not just sit there like freaked out so hard! To me it's all about catching mojo. Every person's hand I can touch that that has "it." Someone I respect and admire like that,  I just want to get, get the mojo off them and give me some of that for whatever I do. Let me collect a little of the magic dust that's going around in that room.

Suits, tuxes, black jeans?

My wife is shopping for me right now. We've definitely discussed that amongst ourselves. We can't go in there like some damn chumps! This is the f**king night of our f**king lives and we're going to take it for all it's worth because we may never ever—probably ever—experience something like this again. This is a culmination of almost four decades of giving up my whole life to music and Goddamn if we're not going to enjoy the hell out of it! 

Grammys Newsletter

Watch the 62nd GRAMMY Awards, airing live from the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 26 on CBS.

Kacey Musgraves

Kacey Musgraves

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13 New Songs To Add To Your Holiday Playlist From Kacey Musgraves, Jacquees, The Flaming Lips & More

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Based on the sheer amount of new holiday music released this year, apparently we all really need a big dose of festive cheer—Los Lobos, Macklemore, blink-182 and more are also here to help
Ana Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Dec 24, 2019 - 8:30 am

Before we enter into the next decade, we have to get through the holidays. Whether you're one of the many people responsible for streaming Mariah Carey's 1994 classic "All I Want For Christmas Is You" to the top of the charts this month or you've trying your best to avoid the sound of jingle bells at all costs, the holiday season can create a whirlwind of emotions.

But one thing's clear: we can all use a big dose of festive cheer. Thanks to a rich, diverse selection of new holiday songs and albums from Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Swift, Jacquees, The Flaming Lips, Los Lobos, Macklemore and many others, it's the perfect time to get cozy and pump up the sounds of peace and joy.

2018 Holiday Jams: Don't Sleep On These Brand-New Holiday Songs From RuPaul, Lil Jon & More

"Glittery," Kacey Musgraves ft. Troye Sivan

If Mariah Carey is the reigning queen of Christmas music, Kacey Musgraves is definitely the princess. Back in 2016, the GRAMMY-winning alt-country star released A Very Kacey Christmas, featuring both original and classic tracks and toured with it. This year, she added brand-new shimmer to the album with an Amazon Prime special, "The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show."

The show was filled with special guests, including Aussie pop star Troye Sivan, who joined her to sing "Glittery," a new, original holiday song about a lover that makes you feel like a beautiful snow globe. The special also spawned a live album, meaning you can tune into this track and the rest of the fun moments anytime. Musgraves is truly a better-dressed, modern Santa.

"Christmas Tree Farm," Taylor Swift

The Swifties had a great year, as GRAMMY winner Taylor Swift released her currently GRAMMY-nominated seventh studio album, Lover. As if the LP and the singles and videos that led up to it weren't enough, the pop star gave her fans another gift just in time for the holidays, a new song called "Christmas Tree Farm."

Her lyrics are filled with nostalgia for the farm she grew up on and the simpler times of childhood, as they dance over the classic, bright holiday song melodies. The music video even features cute footage from the Swift family's home videos.

"It's Christmas Time," Macklemore Ft. Dan Caplen 

Like Swift, GRAMMY-winning rapper Macklemore is also feeling a similar childhood nostalgia on his new track, "It's Christmas Time," featuring rising U.K. soul singer Dan Caplen. The cheerful song is paired with a cute, festive music video, in which the kids drink eggnog out of one of the Seattle artist's golden gramophones (which he won three of with Ryan Lewis back at the 56th GRAMMY Awards).

"Every year around Christmas time I think to myself 'Just do it Ben. Make the song. You can be the new Mariah Carey.' Well, this year I finally am," Macklemore joked on Twitter.

Watch: Mariah Carey Releases A New Video For "All I Want For Christmas Is You"

"7 O'Clock News / Silent Night," Phoebe Bridgers Ft. Fiona Apple and Matt Berninger

Tuning into the news in 2019 can be surreal and overwhelming. Apparently this was not so different in 1966, when GRAMMY-winning folk heroes Simon And Garfunkel released "7 O'Clock News / Silent Night," featuring a recording of the current news over their singing of the Christmas classic.

While technically not an original song like the rest on this list, Phoebe Bridgers, Fiona Apple and The National's Matt Beringer update the heart-wrenching song for our current reality, offering 100 percent of its proceeds to Planned Parenthood. Berninger plays the newscaster in this version, reading headlines about gun violence and anti-abortion legislation. The important, haunting song is part on the compilation album co-created by Berninger, 7-Inches for Planned Parenthood, which, of course, benefits the nonprofit organization.

"Miss You This Christmas," Letters to Cleo

"The days get short, the nights are really cold. / This year Christmas ain't the same / I'm not used to stringing lights alone, I miss you this Christmas," Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo sings on "Miss You This Christmas," from their new EP, OK Christmas. It is one of the two original songs on the Boston alt-rockers guitar-slicked holiday album, which also features two fun covers.

"Hanukkah in '96," Alex Frankel

In addition to all the new Christmas-themed music that dropped this season, Hanukkah+, a fun, star-studded compilation album, brought—finally!—a whole new batch of Hanukkah-themed bops. Frankel, a "Hebrew school dropout" and half of New York electro duo Holy Ghost!, contributes the synth-y, nostalgic "Hanukkah in '96." He says the fun new song is "the greatest Jewish song ever written (in a major key)."

Read: Holy Ghost! On What "Do This" Is Really About & Why They Feel So Good About 'Work'

"Sing It Now, Sing It Somehow," The Flaming Lips

Also a new track featured on Hanukkah+, The Flaming Lips' "Sing It Now, Sing It Somehow," is gorgeous, haunting and ecstatic, all at once. The producer of the album, GRAMMY-winning music supervisor Randall Poster said, "Seeing the Flaming Lips is like going to temple—if they had unicorns and body glitter as sacraments. So, I thought their spiritual connection would be relevant to celebration, contemplation and the spirit of the holiday." Amen.

"Christmas and You," Los Lobos

Read: Los Lobos' Louie Perez & David Hidalgo Working On A Ritchie Valens Musical

GRAMMY-winning Los Angeles rock greats Los Lobos recently released their first holiday album, Llegó Navidad, four decades into their illustrious musical career. Along with reimaginings of under-sung holiday classics "Feliz Navidad," "Dónde Está Santa Claus," "It's Christmas Time In Texas" and more, the album also offers a heartfelt original song, "Christmas and You."

As NPR's Michael Martin explained, "It is a classic Los Lobos operation—a lovingly curated collection of songs from across North, Central and South America with, of course, an original song that makes you want to cry."  

"Alabaster," Andrew Bird

Like Los Lobos, current GRAMMY nominee Andrew Bird has dropped his first holiday album several decades into his career (his first album came out in 1996). The indie folk-rock violinist's new EP, Hark!, follows his aptly-titled, GRAMMY nominated LP, My Finest Work Yet. The six-track surprise project is very much an Andrew Bird Christmas album, filled with his trademark whistling, melancholic lyrics and a mellow, lo-fi "White Christmas" cover. One of the original tracks, "Alabaster," feels both like a church hymn and a local pub's winter closing song, in the best way possible.

Of the project, the "Olympians" singer said, "A lot of folks have a hard time with the holidays but they serve a purpose to us as a people—to create comfort, warmth and atmosphere within the darkness and the cold that can crush one's spirit. There are a couple originals in here that address this idea of light and warmth in the darkness as well as some classics that have some nostalgic resonance with me. Hark! What sounds come flowing alabaster?"

Watch: Andrew Bird Covers Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" For ReImagined

"Christmas Party," Jacquees

The self-appointed "King Of R&B" Jacquees serves up a sexy dose of holiday spirit with his latest project and sophomore studio album, Christmas In Decatur. The nine-track LP of original holiday music, labeled as "HOTTTTT" by Hot New Hip Hop, arrived just one month after King Of R&B. The new album, whose title is a nod to his Georgia hometown, opens with the bubbling "Christmas Party," and also includes the amazingly NSFW "Like Santa Claus," ending on a celebratory high note with "Happy Holidays."

"Tell your people Happy Holidays (Happy Holidays). / We're so blessed to see these better days. / Oh, what a year it's been / All the up's and down's … / It's a New Year, baby, so glad that we made it out / all drinks on me, uh (all drinks on me)," Jacquees soulfully sings on the last track.

"Jolly Liver," Beach Slang

"I want beer!" James Alex of Philly rock outfit Beach Slang repeatedly growls over the chorus of their new rock 'n roll bah-humbug track, "Jolly Liver." Alex, who penned the song, closes it out with the amazing lines: "A-well-a-well-a, ho, ho, ho / and a-all that junk. / There ain't no halo hangin' 'round this dump. / I meant to be a saint. I ended up a drunk."

The new, rocking holiday-inspired song, released earlier this month, came along with the news that the band's next album, The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City, is due out Jan. 10.

"Not Another Christmas Song," blink-182

Apparently not one to follow their own advice, pop-punk group blink-182 follows 2001's "Won't Be Home For Christmas" with 2019's "Not Another Christmas Song." The new Christmas song has Mark Hoppus singing, "I'm burned out like lights on a tree. / Old songs, can't listen to these. / Fake a smile but all I can see is empty boxes and trees. / Another year not a coffin / Growing up or whatever you call it."

"Christmas Techno Dance," Klaus Blatter

This year, Santa was generous, as there are actually more new holiday songs than we can include on this list. We'll go out with the bizarre, hilarious holiday club track, "Christmas Techno Dance" by German comedic dance outfit act Klaus Blatter. It's paired with an equally wacky music video, for which the YouTube description explains, "The Christmas Techno Dance video is basically a summarized updating of the Bible with all the boring elements of the story removed… If you wish to enter the kingdom of god all you are for needing is this video and single of Klaus Blatter. The story is told!"

From the Recording Academy family to you and yours, please have a safe, joyful, music-filled holiday!

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