Baby Shakes
Interview conducted on Sept.05, 2020
by Dan Locke
Baby Shakes are a rock n’ roll-punk band from New York City. Mary on lead vocals and guitar, Judy on lead guitar and vocals, Claudia on bass and vocals, and Ryan on drums. With catchy melodic vocals over dirty guitars and a killer rhythm section, their influences range from The Ramones and Slade to Chuck Berry and 60’s Motown girl groups. Formed in 2005, they’ve released 6 singles, a 10” heart-shaped EP, a singles collection, and 3 full length albums. They have toured the US, Japan, China, Ireland, UK and Europe. Baby Shakes have shared the stage with The Romantics, The Boys, Shadows of Knight, The Undertones, Buzzcocks, Barracudas, Protex, Black Lips, Rubinoos, Flamin’ Groovies, Paul Collin’s Beat, Derv Gordon (The Equals), Iggy Pop, among others.
Baby Shakes will release their fourth full-length album, titled Cause a Scene, in Fall 2019 to be followed by a national & international tour.
Mary – lead vocals/guitar
Judy – lead guitar/vocals
Claudia – bass/vocals
Ryan – drums
How did you discover music?
College radio, sleepover parties, going to local punk shows, hanging out at record shops, digging through bins and listening to records for hours. We also got put on to a lot of cool bands by trading mixtapes and CDs. Mixtapes were a big thing in the day.
How did you start to write music?
At first just by being silly and banging on instruments with friends and bandmates. There was always a tape recorder around. Most of it was garbage but some good stuff eventually came out of it. It was always fun.
Mary- How did you get your first guitar, and do you still have it?
My big brother gave me my first guitar when I was 11 years old. It was a red des lauriers guitar he bought himself when he was in high school. I don’t play it anymore but yes; I still have it!
Judy- How did you get your first guitar, and do you still have it?
My first guitar was a white Gibson SG special (born in the 90s). I wanted a standard but couldn’t afford it. This was my very first guitar in Baby Shakes (the super early days before I discovered Rickenbacker’s!). It has since aged from off-white to a bright mustard yellow over the past 15+ years so it looks like a completely different guitar. I still own it, it’s so sentimental and there’s too many great memories that I could never part with it!
Claudia – How did you get your first bass, and do you still have it?
I think my mom got it for me when I was in Junior High as an X-mas gift. It was a plain black P-Bass cheap knock off from Sam Ash, I think. I put star stickers all over it. I don’t still have it, no idea what happened to it. I never really played until I was actually in a band after high school and by then I bought myself a much nicer bass (a short scale black and silver Gretsch) which I kind of consider my first since I actually played it more.
Ryan- What was your first band you played drums for?
Technically my first band was called Zombie Vandals. I think I was around 15 or 16 years old at the time. They had been around for a while and were a bit older than me. I joined later on. Really fast. Good stuff.
What was your first performance at like?
Our first show was at this place called Mars Bar. We played like 4 songs. We didn’t have a complete drum set so our drummer at the time used an ice bucket as a floor tom. The neighbors called the cops about the noise and it was shut down right away.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
It was called “Cobra has one ear” We recorded it on a cassette player during one of our first rehearsals. We never recorded it and released it officially.
How did you start the band?
Judy and Claudia met at a punk show at CBGB’s when they were teenagers. They both had studded jackets, pink/blue hair, and collected UK ‘82 and ‘77 punk singles so it made sense that they’d become good friends. They used to jam out to Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers songs together in their living rooms. A friend of ours (the artist Avi Spivak) knew that we were looking for bandmates so when Mary moved to NY from Seattle, he introduced us to her at his DJ night. We all got along so well and when we heard Mary sing, we knew it was the perfect style for the kind of music we all wanted to play and she played guitar too. As for Ryan… we’ve had many drummers in the past but he was definitely the missing puzzle piece. We met him through friends when we needed a drummer for a show.
How the band did get its name?
It’s from Little Richard’s version of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”, the part that goes, “Shake! Baby Shake”. We love that song.
You have toured the US, Japan, China, Ireland, UK and Europe. Which was the best place to tour.
It’s so hard to choose. We love being on tour and we love traveling. Some of our favorite places to visit are Japan, England, and Sweden because a lot of our closest friends live there. But we love playing shows everywhere!!!
And can you tell me the worst night you ever had while touring?
Mary losing her voice in Japan was one of the hardest things we ever had to deal with on tour. We had to play 3 shows with Claudia and Judy singing leads and we didn’t know when she’d be able to sing again.
How do you stay healthy while touring?
Chugging lots of water before, during, and after shows and taking it easy at home in between each tour. It’s all about balance.
You have shared the stage with the likes of The Romantics, Shadows of Knight, Black Lips, Paul Collins Beat and Iggy Pop. Can you tell our readers about what tips they told you about making it in the music world?
Hmmm…. We never really asked anyone for tips to tell you the truth. We’re a DIY band and we’ve always relied on ourselves to get what we want. That meant putting in a lot of work, releasing our own records, and promoting ourselves but we take pride in the things we’ve achieved because of it and never tried to model ourselves off of how others do things.
Should Iggy Pop be doing reading bedtime stories?
Hahaha YES!!!! We love his bird.
How was it to be introduced by John Waters in 2017?
Like a dream come true! It was an honor to have him introduce us and we love everything he said about our band. He’s just as funny, charming and elegant in real life as you can imagine.
What is your favorite track on the album?
The title track “Cause a Scene” because it sums us up basically and we had fun filming the music video for it.
What are you’re feeling about streaming music? Digital vs. vinyl?
We’re all record collectors so we personally prefer Vinyl. But Streaming is great for bands because it gives more people around the world access to your music and people have a better chance to discover you on a playlist. Streaming is better for promotion and vinyl is better for collectors.
What are your feelings about the social uprising going on in the United States?
It’s about time that people started becoming aware of what’s on and being more vocal about it. People are fed up and they’re exercising their right to express themselves about it, which is a good thing. We hope it can spark a change for the better!!!
Tell me about the making of “Battle of the bands Baby Shakes vs. Corona Punks”?
Our friend Avi Spivak makes really great comics and wanted to illustrate something for Baby Shakes. Since it was around the beginning of Covid 19 and we were all in quarantine we decided to create an animation using his illustrations. It was something fun to do while being stuck inside.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
I wanna be Sedated- Ramones. The lyrics are relevant to how we’ve felt sometimes this year with everything going on. It gets to be too much, especially not having your regular routine and not being able to get away, it just makes you want to shut off and become numb “Nothing to do, nowhere to go, I wanna be sedated”. But that’s life and it’ll pass. Thank goodness there are The Ramones and their catchy upbeat music to cheer us up.
How do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
We’ve already had 4 tours and a couple of local shows cancelled since March. Right now, it’s been hugely affected and we don’t see things going back to normal for a while. Hopefully some of our favorite bars and venues can pull through in the end. We miss touring, going to shows and playing live music and we think once things can start to open up safely everyone is going to be so hungry for music and live entertainment that it’ll have a huge comeback!!!
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Two of us had to continue working and 2 of us were laid off. We’ve been trying to keep busy with our hobbies; cooking, sewing, reading, bike riding, yoga and writing music. We also recorded 2 music videos. One from home and the other was safely recorded and socially distant with a 2-person crew.
What is your comfort food during the lockdown?
Pizza, cookies, ice cream and TEQUILA!!!
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Sewing, drawing, DJing,writing music, reading book, and watching movies.
Tell me about the first episode of Turn it up?
Our friend Pedro asked us to do a monthly radio show at an internet station based out of Puerto Rico. It’s been fun, we’ve been ripping songs from our record collections, stuff that we’re listening to now that maybe we normally wouldn’t DJ but a mix of rock’n’roll songs from the 60,70’s early 80’s as well as current bands that we like. You can tune into AZrockradio.com the first Friday of every month at 9pm EST. Pedro also has a rad show called Rock’n’Roll Crazee that airs every Monday at 7 pm EST. Definitely check that one out too, you won’t regret it!
Live Nations just started Live Nation from Home. Which are concerts from artist homes. An all-new virtual music hub keeping fans connected to their favorite artists featuring daily live streams, performances, new music and more. Do you think it will be possible to make a living doing concerts this way?
Probably not, most bands don’t make and never made living playing music. Not ones that we know anyway. We certainly don’t, it’s just our passion and we have to have several jobs to pay the bills.
For smaller bands who do not play large crowds, this is not really an issue. How do you see bands going back to smaller venues and doing things like play for the door, with no guarantees?
It will be an issue if a lot of small venues have to shut their doors before things start to get back to normal. Then small bands won’t have many venues to play. There should definitely be guarantees and bands should get paid for their shows. If there are tickets being sold there should be money to pay for the entertainment.
Your next shot is in France. IF the US still have a high case of the virus, France may not let you in. How many days before the show will you head for France?
We won’t be doing any touring in 2020. It just makes more sense to hold off until next year when we have more info and when things are safer for everyone.
With Social Distance being the norm. Do you feel that it maybe the end of music fest for the next couple of years?
We certainly hope it won’t take that long. Many music festivals that we play are held outdoors so hopefully, things can start back up next summer. Perhaps at a smaller capacity. It’s just so hard to tell.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
Sounds super futuristic and funny! Can’t wait to see one of those but it would probably get boring quickly. Isn’t that just what a TV does though?
How do you see yourself in the next five years?
Hopefully touring again, we’d love to finally get to play Australia one day!!!!
Anything you would like to say in closing?
Right before the quarantine we flew out to Northern Ireland and recorded an EP with a few members of one of our favorite bands the Undertones which will be released this fall. We’ll have a new single AND a music video coming out very soon. Stay tuned!
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