Dead Raccoon Party

Dead Raccoon Party began as a cover band in 2015 and has grown since then into a symbol of authenticity and aspiration for both of its founders. They play at Madcap in Providence, Rhode Island and are terribly hard to get a hold of for interviews because of their constant playing and practicing schedules. I persevered, however, and I finally sat down for an interview to discuss music, family, and inspiration with the band's lovely duo Kimberly and Cassandra earlier last month.

They came in wearing sundresses and jewelry made from human teeth and raccoon jaws. Both young women had let their hair fall loose, dyed blue and pink between the two. I got my notebook and took my seat.

KATHRYN: Let's start with the obvious. Tell me about the name of the band.

KIMBERLY: (laughing) It's exactly what it is.

CASSANDRA: I don't know, there could have been some deep emotional, psychological meaning --

KIMBERLY: Not with this band.

CASSANDRA: You never know.

KIMBERLY: Let's see, the raccoon is ... my childhood.

Our laughter spooks one of my guinea pigs, who squeaks loudly enough to be caught on the recording I was making of the interview.

CASSANDRA: So I was driving with my mother, and we came across several dead raccoons. My mother said to me, "It's like a party." So I sent a text to Kim about it, and she said that it was a good name for a band.

KIMBERLY: And here we are!

KATHRYN: So, what part has music played in your personal life? What does it mean to you?

KIMBERLY: My father is a musician, and he taught himself pretty much every instrument under the sun. He actually just made an electric/acoustic ukulele, which is really cool. He's made banjos and autoharps, and he taught himself saxophone and banjo and guitar and ukulele and just everything. So my father is extremely musical and my grandfather was also extremely musical, he sang. Growing up with my father, every night when I went to bed I would hear him and my mom play music, it was what they did after they put me to bed. It was really cool. I'd go sit on my staircase right where they couldn't see me and just listen for a while. They introduced me to a lot of folk music, which is why I tend to lean towards a lot of folk and indie music. It's also brought me a lot of friends that I never knew I would have. Like, if I had not been interested in music I would not know and have the great friendships I have today, or the courage to even get up on stage. So it's pretty much played the biggest role of anything in my life. My first concert, I think, was Peter, Paul and Mary, and then I saw Bob Dylan.

CASSANDRA: My first concert, I was a baby when I went to it, so I have no memory of it.

KIMBERLY: Oh, yeah! Well, my first concert, if you want to get technical here, was the Northern Lights. My mom went into labor there. They sent her a card in the hospital. They were like, sorry! Sorry you had a baby because of us. So I almost popped out at a bluegrass concert.

CASSANDRA: I was almost born at a gay pride parade.

KIMBERLY: You were!

CASSANDRA: Music's important to me. I got kicked out of an opera program, and I grew up doing violin and chorus.

KIMBERLY: We were in show choir for a year. That was our first band.

CASSANDRA: When I was little I was a wannabe theater kid, sang a lot, and then realized I sucked at it --

KIMBERLY: -- Which isn't true.

CASSANDRA: But then I realized that I didn't care. But while I was playing violin, I hated every minute of it. It never occurred to me that I could play songs that I actually liked. And I picked up the ukulele one time and was like, "I could play every song that I've ever loved on this instrument!" And that was when I finally realized that I could make music that I actually like.

KATHRYN: You began as a cover band. Can you talk more about that? What's the process of reinterpreting a song for you?

KIMBERLY: When we find a song that we want to cover, we just go for it. It's not really a big process. It's "I'm going to learn this song, and if it songs a little different, that's okay." We're actually planning a cover of Amanda's Palmer's song "Want It Back." Amanda Palmer was a huge inspiration for both of us -- my first song that I learned on the ukulele was "Ukulele Anthem." It'll be nice to pay tribute to her.

KATHRYN: What are your current projects?

KIMBERLY: Our project right now is our band.

CASSANDRA: We're working on some original songs. We've got some cooking.

KIMBERLY: Secrets and breakups.

CASSANDRA: We're getting more instruments in, because the whole ukulele-ukulele singing-singing thing is grand in theory, but we feel that it needs a little more. We're going to get tambourines and the melodica in there.

KIMBERLY: I'm looking into learning the tambourine and the guitar. We're trying to get more legitimate. See, when we began, it was just Cassandra and me, and we thought, we're going to cover songs and call ourselves something. And then we started having people believe in us! We had a friend, Nate Cozzolini, who told us, yeah, you should do a show, and he gave us the opportunity and support for our first performance. He deserves a huge thank you for that. Everyone's encouraging us to really do our own things. I've always wanted to write songs, and it's great to now have someone to bounce ideas off of. We're moving in together, so it'll be fun.

Cassandra: We keep running into situations where we can say, "That's a song!"

KIMBERLY: We also have varying guest stars in the band. Cassandra's goddaughter is in the band -- she's five -- and our future roommate Abby is also around. It's going to be Cassandra and myself at the heart, though. We made an agreement: Dead Raccoon Party cannot be a band without the both of us. It's always going to be me and Cassandra.

KATHRYN: What do you do outside of your music that contributes to your music?

CASSANDRA: I sit in my house and cry a lot.

KIMBERLY: Yeah, I get really sad. We're a bunch of crybabies. You should write that down, "Dead Raccoon Party: Crybabies." And I think, I should write a song about it! I know that when I hear music that relates to me, I feel better, and I know that there are people out there who feel the same way I do, and I want to make music that those people will relate to and feel inspired by.

CASSANDRA: At first I was kind of joking, but there's some truth to it. I've been using music to cope with things a lot lately. What a cheerful answer.

KIMBERLY: Sad girls for ever.

CASSANDRA: Some day we should write a happy song.

KIMBERLY: Yeah.

KATHRYN: What are your favorite bands?

KIMBERLY: David Bowie has always been a constant in my life. PWR BTTM inspires me. I'm also going to say the Front Bottoms, because wow, they're amazing.

CASSANDRA: Definitely Amanda Palmer. Amanda Palmer is a huge influence for me in music and outside of music. I really like Tool. Currently, my obsession is Andrew Jackson Jihad.

KIMBERLY: Twenty-One Pilots also deserves to make the list.

KATHRYN: Is there an aesthetic that you try to craft your music towards?

KIMBERLY: Trash.

CASSANDRA: Trash!

KIMBERLY: Trash, with some cute girl post-neo hardcore in there --

CASSANDRA: What? What are you saying?

KIMBERLY: Okay, softcore --

CASSANDRA: Really, we just try to have fun. We don't take ourselves too seriously.

KIMBERLY: I think something that PWR BTTM taught me is that, as long as you mean it, you sound good. They're literally shrieking in some of their stuff, they do some really different stuff --

CASSANDRA: What if they read this?

KIMBERLY: Good! I love you, PWR BTTM! They do some very loud yelling, but it sounds great. It kind of made me realize that as long as you mean what you're saying, it's good, because people who like you like it.

CASSANDRA: Playful trash. That's our genre.

KIMBERLY: We were looking into being a part of the folk punk genre. I would like to throw some folk in our music.

KATHRYN: What would you say to anyone who would like to learn music?

CASSANDRA: Do it.

KIMBERLY: Just pick up an instrument.

CASSANDRA: And if you suck, you suck.

KIMBERLY: Suck on your own terms. I would have never gone for it, like, ever, if I hadn't seen Cassandra doing it.

CASSANDRA: As long as it makes you happy, don't worry about what other people think.

KATHRYN: So between the two of you, which one is Adventure Time's Princess Bubblegum and which one is Marceline the Vampire Queen?

KIMBERLY: I know Cassandra wants to be Marceline.

CASSANDRA: I like to think I'm a fair mix of the two.

KIMBERLY: Can we be both? Can both of us be both? Because if you cut those ladies in half and then stick those different halves together, one's Kim and one's Cassandra.

CASSANDRA: You are a princess, though.

KIMBERLY: I am a princess of trash. Oh, We also screech before we get on stage. Like raccoons. That's our ritual. I don't even know if raccoons make that sound, but we do.

CASSANDRA: I can tell you about this one rockstar moment that I had. It was the best moment of my artistic career. I was leaving The Spot after my first Madcap and getting into the car, and this guy goes "Hey! You were in Dead Raccoon Party, right? You were great!" And I was like, "Yes! Dead Raccoon Party!"

Catch Dead Raccoon Party at Madcap in Providence, Rhode Island or find them here on Facebook.

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