Los Angeles-based trio Cherry Glazerr, led by 21-year-old frontwoman Clementine Creevy, are on the verge of dropping their fourth album, ‘Stuffed & Ready’.
Hey Clem, how’s it going? How’ve you guys been since ‘Apocalipstick’, any major life events since then?
It’s going great! Hm, well I recently discovered that my photo is in the display case at The Gaylord on Wilshire Blvd, this old apartment building I used to live in when I was a kid. I feel like it’s one of my greatest accomplishments.
Your line-up’s constantly evolving, how does that affect the vibe of the band? Is this line-up a keeper?
I feel like I am the driver of a musical float where new people can jump on and throw some magic into the mix. I write all the lyrics, guitar parts, vocal melodies, and other main melodies that the sound is kind of based around, so I feel like the changes in the band are just natural shifts.
Are there any musicians you’d really like to bring into the fold that you haven’t nailed down yet?
This year I got to collaborate with one of my favourite artists, Delicate Steve. That was truly inspiring and cool as hell. There are so many cool musicians and art makers I plan on collaborating with in the near future. Very exciting shit.
How were you feeling when you first started working on ‘Stuffed & Ready’, and what were you looking to achieve?
I was feeling excited to record, having had loads of inspiring studio experience over the past few years. But I was also feeling isolated and searching, pretty angry with the state of the world and with myself for not being better. I beat myself up a lot. I was hoping to create something honest. As honest as I could get myself to be.
How does the shifting socio-political climate impact your music?
I think it affects us more subconsciously than we realise. When Trump was elected, I had a physiological reaction because I imagined my right to abortion being taken from me. That has affected me deeply since then.
Do you feel as though musicians have a duty to talk about the world’s injustices?
I don’t know. I don’t think we should put duties on musicians. I think music should be whatever it wants to be. That being said, I think it’s justifiable to not identify with music that isn’t explicitly political right now.
Do you feel to have made a difference?
Haha um. No. Maybe. I don’t know! That’s an insane question!
You’ve said ‘Stuffed and Ready’ focuses on exploring your own thoughts and feelings, what was the most notable thing you learnt about yourself during the creation process?
That I am afraid of growing up.
Are there any lyrics you’ve penned during your time in Cherry Glazerr that resonate more with you now than they did at the time?
‘Stupid Fish’ is a song where I really experimented lyrically, with this idea of singing about a philosophy – the philosophy that I know nothing and neither do you, and we’re all just a bunch of talking monkeys hurling through space and we’re all just blubbering idiots pretending to have the answers to difficulties in our lives. So it would be, “hairy people trying not to die.” That’s us!
Do you have a favourite song on ‘Stuffed & Ready’?
‘Distressor’. Because of the emotion wrapped up in those two main guitar melodies.
How did you whittle down your initial batch of songs to the final ten? How likely are we to hear the ones that didn’t make the cut?
We essentially recorded two albums. ‘Stuffed and Ready’ only has a few from the first session and the rest I was writing in between them and even during recording ‘Stuffed and Ready’. I wrote most of ‘Wasted Nun’ the day before recording. It was hard to whittle all the material down; we had so much fun doing it though. I write like a madman. Most of it bad. I’d like to think we keep the good stuff. How likely is it that we’ll share the stuff that didn’t make it? Hm, fairly likely. Fairly likely.
Where would you like life to take you over the next few years?
Everywhere and anywhere. I’m down for all of it, I think everywhere is worth going.
Taken from the February issue of Dork. Cherry Glazerr’s album ‘Stuffed & Ready’ is out now.
Words: Sam Taylor
