Scream Club
Written by Hank Stram
When the worlds of Punk meet Hip Hop meet Lesbian you get Scream Club. You get a world of punk attitude with hip hop beats. Sarah Adorable and Cindy Wonderful take the world on with dance routines, hand made outfits with gold stretch pants and more energy than a hydrogen fuel cell. From Olympia they have been producing videos, artwork, planning tours and of course, making music for five years. Electrosexual heartbreakers who’s live show is a performance filled with the humor and fun you’ve been too lazy to do. Here’s an insight into the phenomena that is Scream Club.
Did you both grow up in the area? Were their scenes and mischief that led you to this?
C: I moved to Olympia from Denver and Sarah moved to Olympia from Chicago about 5 years ago. We met at the local porn store where Sarah was assistant manager. I heard they had a position open and since jobs are about as easy to find in Olympia, as say a needle in a haystack, I rode my bmx over there with lightning speed. I saw Sarah behind the counter. I told her I wanted an application, she notified me that I needed to turn in a Resume (apparantly in Olympia you need a resume to wash dishes) . My other option , Sarah told me, was “to be friends with someone” who worked there. Thats when I was like “well hey, my names cindy, whats yours…that began it all, moments later we were trading buttons (ones of my face for ones that she had that had pictures of boy underware that said queer, or Mullets - from her movie she was writing MALAQUEERCHE) We talked for about an hour. It was my second day in town. I didnt get the job, but by day 4 me and Sarah were pretty much girlfriends, and 6 months later Scream Club began.
What were the conditions that have put you two together making music?
C: Before Scream Club I was in lots of bands as a drummer, bassist, and most notably the rapper in the all girl live band Rainbow Sugar. Sarah played Violin growing up and took piano lessons, and bass lessons. This is her first band. I was doing solo stuff before I met her, and after being in a band, I didnt like doing it alone as much I missed the dynamic of working with other people, so I asked sarah to do it with me, She agreed to try it for one show (which she lipsynced) take it from there and we’ve been doing it together ever sense.
S: Yeah I had been playing music all my life but had never written any. So when Cindy asked me to be in a band with her, I was totally down. Im always up for creative challenges. Our first show was at a roller rink, and yeah, I lip synched! We performed synchronized dance moves that had practiced in my living room. It was awesome. There is footage from it in the “And You Belong” video. After that, of course, I never lipsynched again and we started writing music together.
You both are definitely committed to your music expending tremendous energy planning and working to achieve it all. What keeps you making music? Is there a motivation that drives you or compels you to create?
C: I cant imagine doing anything else. I love making music, I love making a living doing it, I love the people I meet doing it. I love the travel, the
business, all of it.
S: Music allows me to connect with artists through collaborations, to meet audiences across the globe and enables me to send a message to people i’ve never even met before. The process of creating is also fun and getting more fun all the time. I like having musical projects, tours, albums, all that to keep me focused. Its a great feeling to make something that people respond to.
What are the most rewarding aspects of making your music?
C: hmm, thats always changing, sometimes certian things are more fullfilling the others. It is great to be creative and see an idea come to fruition.
S: It does always change, i love being able to travel and meet people. It’s also great when a person tells you that a song or lyrics helped them through a certain time in their lives or inspired them to do something creative.
You strongly identify with lesbian and gay issues. Have you found support in places you didn’t think would be as receptive?
C: Yes, for a while the LA rap scene was all about it. We’ve worked with Busdriver,Subtittle Awol One, Existereo, LifeRexall, we have a record out on the LA Rap Label Alphapup Records, not only are we the only queers on the label, we are the only girls.
S: Yeah it constantly trips me out . Its awesome.
You briefly explained the idea of live instrumentation for your shows, could you elaborate on who and how they are be involved?
C: So far we recently added GrooveBox and Keyboard to our live shows. We play them along to our prerecorded tracks. When we can, we also play with Joey Casio on electronic drums and keyboard, April Schief on bass and dance moves and Marty Nasty on Guitar and dance moves. Its been super fun. I think it gives it a bigger sound and there is more energy on stage cuz theres more people and everyone has such a strong personality. Its really fun when we can all get together. New Happenings or future events you have planned?
C: We have a 3 month long tour of the US coming up in March continuing through June, partially with Nicky CLick. We have a remix album and a DVD of all ourvideos coming out.. We are working on new material all the time and we have a cover on the upcoming Old Time Relijun tribute cd. I am personally gathering songs for an R KELLY Trapped in the Closet tribute. And as always we are staying busy with running Crunks Not Dead Records.
S: We were recently featured on XLR8R’s January issue music compilation, alongside artists like Del the Funky HomoSapien and Hot Chip. We are also planning on returning to Europe this summer for our 5th European tour. Stay up to date with what we got going on at www.screamclub.com
