Traffic, punk rock, and Butcher Babies interview

People have powerful feelings about the traffic in Los Angeles. It says something that local officials warned motorists about a temporary roadwork closure on the 405 last year by calling it Carmageddon. Angelenos took the hint, and this weekend they're expected to steer clear of the latest 405 closure, named, of course, Carmageddon 2. That's how it is in L.A., a snarl of overstuffed freeways and commuters who keep their cool, except when they don't. KPCC's Steven Cuevas has this profile of a punk rocker whose music expresses the insanity of L.A. traffic while extolling the virtues of public transit. Couple of things you need to know about Eddie Solis. He lives in L.A., loves the band Kiss, and does not own a car. Being someone who's from L.A., born and raised, and, you know, having a few cars in my past, I saw the city much differently through a different perspective through the eyes of a bus rider. Come on, just all the way to the back. Line 18, Wilshire, Western Station. Just steps from the front door of his home, across the street from a tortilla factory in L.A.'s Boyle Heights neighborhood, Solis catches a bus that connects him with the city's subway, and the commuter train he catches to his day job at an indie record label in Hollywood. It just opened me up to, like, little neighborhoods, galleries, clubs, bars, just everything, just seeing what's out there, little pockets of the city. Solis' journeys aboard L.A. buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, Through the Eyes of a Bus Rider, the latest release by the singer-guitarist band It's Casual. The New Los Angeles No one has learned much In Solis' vision of a new Los Angeles, people abandon their cars, climb aboard public transit, and rediscover their communities. One song extols the virtues of the L.A. County Metropolitan Transit Agency's E-ZPass, and the urban underbelly it introduces to the rider. And that's, like, a nod and homage to, you know, the people who know, well, you can even go cheaper and really beat the system and really steer away from spending money on gas and oil profits and all that. The New Los Angeles It's all it takes for me to witness racial tension, for me to witness illegal aliens. It's not to paint a negative picture. It's just my perspective of what is seen. E-ZPass Off the bus and back on the street, we make our way past a jazz saxophonist playing for pocket change. And down a long escalator to catch a train. So, where are we now? We're at the Red Line station, the Pershing Square station in downtown L.A. And what's our destination? We're going to go downstairs another tier, and in about five minutes we're going to get on the Red Line going northbound. Okay, let's go. The Metro Red Line snakes from North Hollywood to downtown Los Angeles. It's the train that inspired It's Casual's signature tune and spawned a viral Internet video. It was partly filmed late at night. It's a moving train as it hurtles from station to station. Solis thrashes away on his guitar and barks the lyrics, which celebrate the Red Line and call out the congested freeways that coil around Los Angeles. This is a metro red line train to North Hollywood. The 210, 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the 210, the freeways are not so nice. The thread that comes out of the record. That ties everyone together. It's just like, be alive. Don't be a victim of having a car. The red line. The 210, 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the 210, the freeways are not so nice. The red line. The red line. An MTA spokesman said he couldn't comment on Eddie Solis' furious pro-metro message. But the red line. The red line video was a hit at the offices of Move LA. Eddie's done a good job. Thank you, Eddie. It's the public transportation advocacy group headed by former Santa Monica Mayor Denny Zane. He liked the juxtaposition of Solis blissfully riding LA public transit in one scene with scenes of the band raging against those notorious freeway jams. Eddie is all frantic when he talks about highways and so mellow when he's like grooving on a skateboard and on the bus and on the red line. There's a metaphor for the transformation, you know, from the oh my god, I just got to get out of the traffic to hey, this is cool. I can mellow out. Or you can blast the tune like too many people as you claw your way across Los Angeles by car, bus or skateboard. Los Angeles. There's too many people. I want them to go away. Too many people could also be a motto for its casual. Over the years, the band whittled itself down to a power duo of Solis and a rotating cast of drummers. So you may think the burly bearded punk rocker just can't get along with freeways with people or his native L.A. Not true. I love it. I love everything about it. I've traveled throughout the U.S. many times and I could never look forward enough to coming back. The weather, the different cultures, the landscape. I was just like, you know what? Now I know why everyone moves to L.A. Solis will bring the love and the volume during a red line mini tour next month. Its casual will play a different venue within walking distance of several red line metro stops from Union Station to West Hollywood. For the California Report, I'm Stephen Cuevas. I was my driver's license. And that's the California Report, a production of KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. Our director this week is Nina Thorson. Sil Muller is our technical producer. We had additional engineering from Danny Bringer and Howard Gelman. Thanks to Hank Hadley at KCBX. Our online team includes... Lisa Pickoff-White, David Marks, and Don Clyde. Our interns are Catherine Borgeson and Rachel Johnson. Taiki Hendrix is our elections editor with production help from Tina Lauerberg. We had editing support from Paul Rogers. Victoria Malione is our associate senior producer. Ingrid Becker is our senior producer. The news director is Bruce Kuhn. I'm Rachel Miro. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. I'm Rachel Miro. because of your race. And also, you know, a lot of us come from broken homes. It's about basically the breakdown of the family in American society and what it's doing to our children. And just about the loss of human connection that all of us are feeling, you know. In ways, we are more connected than ever before. We have Facebook and Instagram and everybody's constantly on their phones. But at the same time, we don't touch each other as much. We don't connect with our hands and face-to-face, eye-to-eye anymore. It's all through the internet. So it deals with all that stuff and it's a pretty great book. I'm pretty proud of it. And as with anything else, art-wise, just finishing something that you start is a huge, huge accomplishment when you create, you know, whether it's a book or a comic book or a piece of art. And I'm just proud that I actually finished it. Yeah, I mean, so you're saying when you come up with creative output and you see it through from beginning to end, that's the big reward, right? To me, that is the reward. I love to create. It's my life. Whether I'm writing a song or drawing a picture or anything, it's like I feel, I don't, you know, before I came here tonight, I was drawing and it just, I don't feel like a complete human being unless I'm doing something with my hands or with my mind, you know. I don't, I never watch TV. I don't do anything like that. Good for you. I just, not saying that it's bad to watch TV. It's just, I would rather be creating, something and that's, that's how I get happiness. Yeah, I mean, you know, by saying good for you, I also mean, you know, TV doesn't really facilitate anything great for many people. No, but I do wish that I could watch, everyone's got their shows nowadays. You know, all of my friends, oh, we're going to, I'll get together and watch The Walking Dead or we're going to get together and watch Game of Thrones. I don't have that. You know what I mean? I wish I did have something that I could just zone out to, but I can't. That's not, that's just not me. Right. Going back to your content, that's cohesive to your book, the American family, do you think that American family is non-existent these days because of technology? I feel like it's definitely hurting, but I don't think it's just because of technology. I think it's because a lot of, you know, both parents are working nowadays. There used to be, I'm not saying families have been, were perfect, you know, in the 50s when the mom stayed at home. There's always been issues, but I do think, I think that there's such a disconnect, you know, between the, you know, you're a mother and a child, but if mom's working all day long, how are you seeing what's going on with your kids at home? You know, and also there's, there's a way higher divorce rate now than there was, or, you know, I mean, my parents are divorced. Everyone I know has divorced parents. People used to at least try to work things out, try to stay together. And I just, I feel like now too, it's easier just to, to leave and not, not go back, not participate in your child's life. I don't know. There's just, there's just so many, so many issues and there's so many broken people going around. And I don't even, I don't know, you know, how to even start to begin to fix that unless you really just, you know, everyone has to start just paying attention to what's going on, you know, and a lot of our album, our new album, my band's new album, Goliath, is kind of based on that as well. You know, all these broken children are walking around and, they have all these issues with gun control, you know, these school shootings and everything that are going on. But it's really not a gun control issue. It's really an issue that starts at home. You know, why aren't these kids being paid attention to? Why don't their parents know there's something going on with them before they go shoot up a school full of, of other kids, you know? Yeah, those, I mean, those are reactions to an action in their life. Yeah. You know, I mean, you know, I feel that just what's being used as entertainment for people, you know, there's, there's this access people have on their phone with video games. And I think having, you know, the ability not to leave your house, to order things online and to have things shipped to your doorstep in one day and finding your movies and your video games online, you know, people, people are shutting down their senses. They are. And even, even as far as, you know, communicating with people on Facebook. Face to face. And Instagram, you know, there's people that really like, you read these, their updates and you're like, are you crazy? Are you, is this funny? They just put, they put everything out there and it's like, go have a conversation with a real friend. These aren't your friends. These are people on Facebook. I mean, it's nice to connect with people, but at the same time, get out in the real world and have a face to face conversation. You know, it's, it's, I think it's really damaging to society. Right. Right. Speaking of writing, what were some of your favorite books growing up reading? I mean, do you have like all time? You know, I love the classics. I love Fitzgerald. I love everything that he ever wrote. I love Bukowski. I consumed everything Bukowski. I also read a lot of books. I read a lot of comic books. I love Robert Miller stuff. I love Robert Crumb stuff. I, and I'm trying to think of what else I read when I was a kid. I just, I love to read. Like I said, most, most of the classic stuff, Bukowski is absolutely my all time favorite. And it's great living in Los Angeles and knowing the spots that he talked about. You know, when I was a kid and I read those books, it seems so far away. I didn't know where those bars were. And it's, you know, and these old sleazy hotels were that he writes about. And it's so awesome to be able to go down, right. Right. And go down to, you know, Echo Park or whatever, and know that this was the spot that he was talking about. Or, you know, he sat in this bar and wrote this. It's, it's really cool. Let me ask you when you had that visual in your head, when you read those books and then actually physically being there to smell the place, touch it and see it. Oh, there's nothing like that. How was that first experience? There's nothing like that. And I even felt that way, you know, being a kid growing up in the Midwest and you watch the, the old music videos for like Guns and Roses and stuff like that, you know, Welcome to the jungle. I wanted to be a part of, of that scene so bad. And you know, as a kid and I wanted, I wanted to be on the Sunset Strip and, you know, seeing those places and those videos and then coming to LA and sitting in those bars. I have a picture of myself at 16. My parents took me to LA to look at a film school I wanted to go to. And I saw the rainbow outside the car window. I'm like, see, we have to stop right now. I got to take a picture with that place. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And then, you know, years later, of course I would go there and hang out every night, but it's so cool. You know, when you're, like I said, when you're a kid from the middle of, you know, the country and you get to come here and see all these, iconic places that people loved enough to write about or put in this video or that video, or it's just, it's a really, really cool thing. That is, that is very cool. Getting onto your band, The Butcher Babies, you guys got a lot going on. I mean, Yeah, it's been a crazy year. Yeah. The new record, Goliath on Century Media. You've been touring nonstop and you just came off a tour with Danzig. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about that really quick. That's already said and done. How many dates did you do with Danzig? We did a month long tour with Danzig. We had some headlining dates too. I think we did about 20 dates with Danzig. And I mean, you know, being a heavy metal kid, that's also into comics, Danzig was like my hero growing up. I love Danzig. I love the Misfits. So for, for, for us to book that tour and mind you, we, this year has been incredible. We, we did a tour with Manson, the beginning of the year. Then we did a tour all summer long, Rob Zombie, the Mayhem Festival. So we've got to tour with a lot of great bands. But for me personally, this was my favorite. Was it? Because he was such an icon to me when I was a kid. I just adored him. So, to be on tour with him every day, it was incredible. And Doyle from the Misfits was there as well. Right, that's the encore, right? That's the encore, right? So it was a 25th anniversary of, of the Danzig album. And, then they had the half Misfits, half, half stuff. So it was incredible. And as far as, the fan in you, the fan of Danzig, what you saw every night, I mean, cause you said you watched him every night. Were you pretty impressed by his output? I was incredibly impressed. You know, we're talking about someone, I can't, I don't know how old he is, but he's in his fifties. And the, the performance that he puts on is incredible. Every night, my partner in crime, Heidi, and I, we stood on, stood on the side of the stage and watched every single night. And his energy level, and just, he never warms up. I hear, this is what I hear. He doesn't warm up, but his voice is so loud. And he, he does the coolest things with a microphone that I've ever seen. He does this kind of thing. And then the microphone will be over here and he'll be singing over here. It's really funny. But, his, like I said, his, he still moves around like crazy. And Doyle is just, he's got awesome stage presence. You know, he, he comes out and he looks like a big old Frankenstein monster. And he walks around just slapping that guitar. So it's, and you know, all the guys in the band, really, this tour was actually incredible because some of the guys from Type O Negative were on the tour as well. You know, Johnny Kelly was the drummer for Danzig, this tour. And Tommy Victor from Prong was also playing. So all my favorite bands from when I was a kid were pretty much on this tour. If you would have told me when I was 13, that I'd be on tour with, you know, basically Type O Negative, Prong, and Danzig and Misfits, I would have, you're lying. No way. So, so tell me about the, the backstory of the Butcher Babies. When did this all come to fruition and how did you get involved? Well, Heidi and I were in a punk rock cover band years ago. I think six years ago now. We've been working together for so long. We're like sisters now. We finished each other's sentences. And, we wanted to write original music when we were both metal kids. So we decided to start a heavy metal band. And we still, in our cover band, we, there was a bunch of different singers and we still wanted the, you know, dual singer formula. We thought it was just kind of cool. And honestly, we just wanted to make music with our best friend and just kind of see what would happen. We didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't know what to expect. We thought maybe we could travel a little bit, have some fun. And, you know, we found, you know, it took us a while to find the right guys because a lot of people didn't believe that we wanted to be, you know, metal, real metal band. And, you know, I think that men have this thing where they just get kind of are intimidated by women who want to do something. They think it's a joke. So we finally found guys that clicked with us, got it. And we stepped in the studio with them and it was magic right away. And then four years later, you know, we've been around the country four times, been to Europe and it's just, it's been incredible. Signed to Century Media. And yet next year is even better. We're gonna have a new album. It's even bigger than this year, so. I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of stuff rolling out next year. And people could go to your website and figure out, you know. Yeah, keep your eyes glued on the Put Your Babies Facebook page. You know, we're very interactive with our fans. We are the ones that run our Facebook, our Instagram, our Twitter, all that stuff. We don't let the label do it or anything like that. So we are always talking to you guys. Tell me about your most special musical experience so far while being in the band. Gosh. I mean, there's different experiences. Like I think in the studio, I think that, you know, we just recorded our album with a really awesome producer named Josh Wilber. He did Gojira, Lamb of God, all kinds of big, big albums. And so it was an honor to be in the studio with him. And he made us feel so comfortable. And each of us had moments with him that we really grew as artists and we really became who we wanted to be as an artist in the studio. Like for me, I think that's what I'm most proud of. I think that's what I'm most proud of. I think that's what I'm most proud of. And for me, I remember just one particular day being in the studio alone with Josh and really coming into my own and finally like finding my voice for the first time. Not that I hadn't been doing what I wanted before we went in the studio, but there was something that I'd wanted to achieve. And sometimes mentally you're held back from, you know, giving it your all or being exactly what you want to be. And I just, I felt like he really just brought me out of my shell and really made me into, you know, the performer that I want to be. And that was, I'll never forget that. I'll never forget being in the studio with him like that. And then I think as far as live performances, we played the Mayhem Festival this summer and all the shows were really, really packed. Thousands of people every day watching us. And in my hometown in Detroit, it was pouring rain when we played. And Heidi and I do this thing where we go out on the guardrails during the last song and we stand next to each other and we sing to the audience from the guardrails. And it was pouring rain. I just stood there with my best friend on the rail and I looked over at her and I was like in my hometown, you know, like thousands and thousands of people watching us. My grandmother was watching from the stage. My grandmother put me in violence since when I was five years old. And I was like, this is a really cool moment. And I was just really, really happy. Very, very cool. We're going to listen to some tracks from the Butcher Babies in a minute here. But before we do that, tell us how they could find you. Everyone could find you online, the URL. Sure. It's butcherbabies.com. It's backslash, wait, I'm sorry, facebook.com backslash Butcher Babies Music. And then just Google Butcher Babies Instagram or Twitter and all that. And Carla Harvey for my stuff. I'm on Carla Harvey Music on Facebook and Carla Harvey on Twitter and Carla Coates on Instagram. All these different names. So let's hear a few tunes and we'll be back and we'll talk about Los Angeles. How does that sound? Perfect. Cool. I'm feeling better now. Pull my hair by the fistful Spinning scissors like a pistol You dare to say that I'm first to lie I say the truth reminds That you've got me in a cage You're such a beast in me As I'm your nape, my skin You're such a beast in me As I'm your nape, my skin Say you think yourself is a straight war You're one of someone You've caused a massacre now Brace for the massacre Run, run and hide the keeping score They're never coming home Here comes the massacre now Brace for the massacre No one's safe now Run for the cut of gold Oh No one They talk in bloody whisper No one Well my fingers on the trigger You guys are lying All the things you come to mind You're proud to lie Yeah because you're out of mind You're such a beast in me As I'm your nape, my skin You're such a beast in me As I'm your nape, my skin Say you think yourself is a straight war You're one of someone You've caused a massacre now Brace for the massacre Run, run and hide the keeping score They're never coming home Here comes the massacre now Brace for the massacre No one's safe now Run for the cut of gold Oh Gold Oh You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me You can't hug me Runnin' hard to keep me score No, no, I'm coming home Here comes the massacre now Race for the massacre No one's safe now Run for cover No one's safe now Run for cover Go home Go home Go home Race like home This city creeps down the alleys of disease When you're hanging by a thread And no one can hear you scream This city creeps down the alleys of disease When you're hanging by a thread And no one can hear you scream This city creeps down the alleys of disease Beneath the cloud of door sleeves Surpassed within your space sequence Time rips apart when you're sick Wanna make it last, take a break Instead of dreaming, smile and remain From the things that you can't regain Last chance to climb up in the sea You just have to watch my subconscious shadow Run away Go home Go home Go home Go home You can't hug me No place like home This city creeps down the alleys of disease When you're hanging by a thread And no one can hear you scream This city creeps down the alleys of disease When you're hanging by a thread And no one can hear you scream Scream This street falls devastated Your path is laid You will stray From the world The legacy is fading Left to the vapors In your Waste Of time And The Night No one can hear you scream No one can hear you scream This city creeps down the alleys of disease When you're Hanging by a thread And no one can hear you scream This city creeps down the alleys of disease When you're hanging by a thread And no one can hear you scream No one can hear you scream You can't hug someone else This is the 72nd episode of Los Angeles Nista. My in-studio guest, Carla Harvey from The Butcher Babies. How you doing? Awesome. So tell us the two tracks we heard just now. The first one was I Smell a Massacre, and the second one was Magnolia Boulevard. Good old Magnolia Boulevard. Yes, and that was written about the Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood. The spine of the valley. The one that runs through Burbank there, yeah. Yeah, the spine of the valley. You know, we just got a pretty good description of how The Butcher Babies came to be and how active you guys are, and we heard some tunes. Let me ask you something about music. Who are some of your favorite all-time bands that really do it for you, that get you in the zone, like, I want to do music, and I get so inspired by these bands? Slayer, old-school Slayer, old-school Metallica, Pantera, X. I love X. You love X? I love old-school California punk rock stuff. Black Flag? I love Black Flag. I had a really cool moment on the Danzig tour where I got to go on the bus and sit there and talk to Glenn about old-school punk rock and comic books, which is really cool. But even stuff like, you know, Guns N' Roses, and, you know, I mentioned before, seeing the old, you know, hair metal music videos and wanting to be, you know, in L.A. so bad because of those things. You know, I'm a big fan of all that stuff, too. So that, like, mid-to-late 80s L.A. rock, like, you know, Guns N' Roses. It depends on what kind of mood I'm in, you know. I love all that stuff, just depending. But, you know, punk rock, old thrash metal is my favorite. Cool. Speaking of L.A., well, let's talk about some of your places that you like to spend your time in L.A. So primarily, let's start with Highland Park. Okay. I know you got some roots there. Yeah. So, like, what are some of the places in Highland Park that, you know, if someone were to ask you, you know, from out of town, like, hey, you know, Carla, like, where do I get coffee or Mexican food? Gosh, I mean, York Street is awesome. You know, and a little history about this area for me, or Highland Park for me, when I first moved to L.A. back in 1998, I joined a band, and we practiced up in Mount Washington. Okay. And I had never been to that area, and it was just totally different, and I absolutely loved it. And I thought to myself, someday I'm going to live here, someday. Cool. And then years later, I finally got a house in Highland Park, and I absolutely love it. I walk down to Cafe de Leche every morning and have coffee there. It's the best coffee I've ever had in Los Angeles. Plus, it's an independent place. It's independent. It's an independent place. I really like to support independent places. I think that we all need to do that. If you love your neighborhood, spend your money there. You know, on the road, I'll go to Walmart because that's what I have to do on tour. But when I'm at home, I really do try to shop locally and go to the little stores. There's great vintage stores in Highland Park. I love the Highland Park Cafe for, you know, breakfast or lunch. There's also a place called Pat and Lorraine's that has incredible, incredible breakfast. And like I said, Cafe de Leche for coffee. There's a place called Crazy Scissors. Cisco's Crazy Scissors where I go get my hair done all the time. Funny, I used to do a Spanish TV show. I was like a game show girl. And the guy who did my hair on that show owns that shop. Okay. So it's quite convenient. I can walk there in five minutes. He's awesome. And then, of course, my husband works at Future Music, which is right there. Great instrument store. Future Instrument, you know, repair. Or if you want to just browse. And it's just a great neighborhood. And you recognize the same people walking around. There's the deli. I can't remember. I can never get the name of the deli right there. Shodorf Deli is amazing. They have great sandwiches. What's cool about Highland Park is, you know, it doesn't feel totally like a suburb because you're so close to L.A. Yeah. But you have that neighborhood feeling. Yeah, I love that feeling. You know, being on tour a lot, you just see all these different kinds of cities. Yeah. And different ways people live. And I love big cities. I love being in New York. I love being in San Francisco. And so I want to live in a place where it kind of feels like that, where you can walk places and you don't feel like you're trapped inside your house. Like you have to get in your car to go somewhere. And a lot of L.A. is like that. You have to get in your car and drive. But in Highland Park, you can walk like five minutes down to York and have everything that you need for a complete day. Right. And I know there's a lot of great Mexican places in Highland Park also. Do you guys ever spend time in any of those restaurants? Yeah, Arco de Iris, I go to. We really love El Compadre, though. The one in Echo Park, right? And then Echo Park, the one there. The one in Sunset is cool, or the one in, you know, Hollywood. West Hollywood. But it's kind of a scene. The one in Echo Park is just... It feels very authentic, right? It feels totally authentic. Versus the West Hollywood one. Yeah, it's really cool. So we go there a lot for dinner. Yeah. But Arco de Iris is really good as well. Yeah. What's... You and your husband? What's your husband's favorite dishes there? We always get the bacon-wrapped filet. Ah. And the shrimp diablo. Yeah. I like the chile rellenos at El Compadre. That's good, too. Yeah. Yeah. I love, like, going to Dodger games and walking down the hill and then jumping on the number two bus to El Compadre. It's, like, so close. You can't... It's, like, you know, especially if it's, like, a Sunday day game, you're there by dinnertime. Yeah. It's really awesome. It's really cool. And, you know, for me, growing up in Detroit, we didn't have, like, a lot of good Mexican food. No. It's awesome. Even taco trucks. Don't. My brother was... Visited me a year ago, and he was fascinated by the little taco places, you know, like Seven Mares and all that kind of stuff. Because we don't have that in Michigan. He's, like, I love this. I love being able to sit out here in the sun and eat a taco. It's, like, it's such a simple thing here. Yeah. It's, like, they're on every corner. Yeah. But it's... There's so many of them. When you're from the Midwest, it's a really cool thing to be able to do that. I mean, to this day in Seattle, there's no good Mexican places. There's nothing happening. As far as Mexican food. Yeah. I say we eat Mexican probably, like, you know, like half the week at least. Even for breakfast. That's what I heard. Makes me chili covered almost. And, you know, I think, you know, I get, you know, I don't know if this is snobbish, but I judge Mexican places by their salsa. Oh, yeah. If they got good salsa, then you're like, okay, this is going to go off. Yeah. If my gringo husband can make better salsa than your restaurant makes, then there's a problem. Yeah. But, you know... El Compadre, they have so much history, and I think they're one of the best places in LA proper as far as the decor, the service. The service is great. I always take visitors there first. And they're so consistent, too, with, like, the service and the quality. Mm-hmm. What about, like, when you go out for, you know, you're talking about, you know, the vintage place. Now, when you say vintage place, you mean clothes. Clothes, yeah. Okay. So, this place you're talking about, it's called... Gosh. What's that place called? Oh, Honeywood is awesome. Okay. So, there's a... And there's also... It's a little vintage store. But the girl that runs it has just... She picks out the coolest stuff. It's like it's me going out and picking out the stuff. Everything she wants. And then the other one is Possession. And the guy who runs that store on Highland Park... On York, sorry. He gets the coolest vintage dresses in. Amazing stuff. Incredible. So, I think that, actually, you know, Heidi and I have been in the hottest chicks of metal, issue for Revolver a few times now. And then they have these big parties and everything. And for every Golden God Award, every hottest chicks in metal award, I've always worn $20 vintage dresses from this guy's store. And everyone thinks they're these really expensive dresses because they look that... He's got a great eye. That's awesome. Have you ever been on the Gold Line in Highland Park? I haven't. You haven't? Well... I'm going to tell you a little bit about me. I grew up in Detroit. You don't take public transportation. You just don't... Motor City, right? You don't do it. I also have a 75 Corvette. And so, I love that. I love driving it. I love driving it. But I really do want to learn how to use public transportation. I think it'd be really cool just to hop on it and go downtown and hang out for a little while and come back. I just don't know the lines enough to do that. Right. I know it's probably not that hard. It's probably just reading. Well, you know what? I mean, you know, with doing this show and having the MTA people come in. I mean, you know, I've been in the MTA for a long time. I've been in the MTA for a long time. And being very up to par on how they, you know, are improving every month. You know, now you don't even need a schedule because the service is so frequent. Yeah. So, you know, if you're from Highland Park, you know, you want to take a trip to Pasadena for pleasure or business. You know, you could just take the Gold Line from Highland Park. You know, you're in Pasadena in 17 minutes. I've been meaning to look into it because it's also too now when you go somewhere in LA because all the parking is like privatized now. Horrific. It's so expensive. Yeah. You know, even going to the gym, it's $1.50. A day for me to park at my gym now, which is unreal that, you know, I mean, that adds a lot of money to my membership every month. And just anywhere you go, you have to at least pay. I'd say probably I spend about $5 a day on parking, which may not seem like a lot, but when you're doing it every day, it is a lot. It adds up to a lot at the end of the month. Right. I mean, you know, I live in the downtown area and it was really funny. It was kind of like a slap in the face because. Here I am advocating public transportation through music and through a talk show. And the other day I had to, uh, I was getting a CD manufactured and they were like, you know what? You got to resend the master because this isn't working. So, you know, I was frazzled and I was on deadline. So instead of taking the bus over the bridge and getting off where the FedEx store is, got in my car and I drove around the block eight times and didn't find parking. So I had to give in. Yeah. And I paid $12. $12 a park at the garage. I walked in and said, here, overnight this. Here's $32. I was in there for like five minutes. So, you know, if you could actually just do things without being binded to an automobile, you're just, you save time. And also now there's so much traffic in LA. It seems like it gets worse and worse and worse every year. It does. And, and also now, um, I've been gone a lot this year, so I'm not too familiar with the new system they have on the freeways where you can't drive. You can't drive in the carpool lanes anymore because those are now fast track lanes. They charge you. You have to pay for those as well. So it's just so it doesn't even matter if you have someone sitting next to you anymore. You still have to, it's just, it's insane. And it's like, how, how much more can, can we take? I, for me personally, I can't. And luckily I don't have a job anymore, so I don't have to drive during, you know, high traffic hours. At a regimen hour. Anymore. But it would drive me crazy. Like people literally spend, you know, three, at least three hours a day. At least three hours of their life every day in traffic in LA. And that's like a total waste of time. Yeah, it is. You know, and I think that if you're, you know, uh, you're able to organize and design a day where you, okay, I'm going to be in downtown all day and you're like, okay, well, I'm just going to take public transportation and you're just better off. You know, uh, there's no parking. You know, you get to connect with the city more. You get to see things through a different perspective, save some money, you know, and you, you know, you just see things differently. Well, I had a, I had a experience. Last year I got, I almost was killed in a car accident. Um, in my, I had a 77 vet and someone hit me, uh, on going onto the freeway. I was at a dead stop. You know how they have the, the, um, the red lights on the freeway. I didn't know I was going to get hit. So luckily I wasn't stiff or anything and I ended up being okay, but you know, I almost got killed. And so now I don't want to be in a car anymore. I don't want to drive. And so I've made my life so that I don't have to go out of the house that much, or if I am going to, you know, drive to the Valley to get my, my nails done or my eyebrows waxed and I do everything the same day so that I don't have to have to go out more than once outside of town. I prefer to be at home, do my drawing and writing at home and walk around my neighborhood and get in my car and be stressed out and worry about what's going to happen to me, you know? Cause I mean, LA is crazy. Yeah. It's just crazy. Even as a pedestrian. People don't pay attention. Everyone you look, everyone's looking at their cell phones. Everybody. It doesn't matter how old they are. It's not just teenagers. It's not kids. It's everybody. As a pedestrian, when it says walk, I count one, 1000, two 1000, three 1000. I let about four cars go by and I'm like, if I don't do that, I would've gotten hit and then hit again and hit again. It's really bad. But you know what? The best thing about it is like, you know, if someone gets hit, a cyclist or something, you know, cars keep going. But if a little dog's in the middle of the street, everyone stops. Yeah, that's true. All right. So, you know, I'm going to go back to the car. I'm going to go back to the car. Let's talk music venues in LA. What's your favorite club to see a band as a fan? As a fan? Favorite venue in general. I like going to the Roxy still. I think that's a great venue. I think it usually sounds great and it's a fun area because you can go to the Rainbow next door and get a drink after. On the rocks. Yeah. And on the rocks is cool. And we've had great nights there. We've done a lot of really cool shows there. I like the Viper Room, but it's so small there. You know that. It's good though, right? It sounds great. No, the Viper Room is awesome. Space Land is cool. A lot of girls in flip flops, but that's okay. No, I'm just teasing. Just kidding, hipsters. I'm just kidding. Just not. I knew where you're going with that. It's funny because that's like an inside joke. That's like the hipster MO. Yeah, it is. And sometimes there's great bands that play there. We just saw Fatso Jets in there. So you know. Oh, you guys went to that? Oh, yeah. So there's some great bands there. Great band. I love, like I keep saying, when I was a little girl, I dreamed about being part of the Sunset Strip and the music that was going on there. So I still gravitate much to the chagrin of my husband. I love that part of town. I want to be at the Rainbow and I want to be at the Roxy. Even the whiskey's okay. I prefer the Roxy over the whiskey, but all those places. Right. And as far as museums go, have you ever go see- I have never seen the art because I know you're involved in art. Yeah. And you have an art show coming up. I do have an art show coming up at the Beauchene Gallery in Hollywood, which is right next to the Burgundy Room on December 7th. So that's going to be a really fun show. Tell us about the art show and the installation and then what your art is about. Sure. My art, I do mostly comic book style art. I draw mostly women and kind of dark, very sexual art. That is my favorite. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. I love that. okay, let's talk about that. What's the first step? Oh, the first step is going to school. The first step, actually, the funniest thing is, you know, you go, and my first embalming lab, I was so excited to get down to business. And then I realized that my first task was to actually clean the bodies. And it's the worst, the worst part of the whole job. Because that's where the smell is, you know, they don't smell anymore after you wash them, but it's literally washing every nook and cranny, every nook and cranny of that body. And you just, you have to have a big heart to do it. You really do, because you have to treat those bodies with such respect, because what you're doing is so invasive. And you have to imagine it's somebody that you love, and that you wouldn't want anyone touching inappropriately. But, you know, there was like little things that bugged the shit out of me. Like you have to take these, you have to clean out their noses and stuff like that. You take forceps with cotton on the end, and you just stick them really far, and you hear this crunch, and it's like, but that bothered me more than opiates. Opening people up, doing like little things like that, like cleaning out your ears. And, you know, unfortunately, there's a lot of, in school, we got all the indigent people that didn't have anyone claim them from the morgue. And they had like, like huge bed sores and stuff like that, and really just gnarly things going on. So you get the worst of the worst when you're in school, so you can, you know, get that out of your system. But cleaning the body, that's the first step. The first step, disinfecting it, cleaning it, and then you go, and you do the arterial and balmy. And then you do something after that. So like how much of the chemical actually goes in? Well, you drain the blood from the corresponding vein, and then you inject through the artery the fluid. So it depends on how much you weigh and how big of a person that you are. And all, it's different formulations for, it's a lot of chemistry involved. Every person is different. Right. So it's a case-by-case basis. So when you were a mortician, so how long did you actually work in that field? Just a couple years. So like total four years between surgery, school, and working. The band started taking off a little bit, and so I didn't have time for it. And it's the kind of job that you have to work nine to five. You have to work holidays. You have to be present. You don't want to leave families hanging. And it just, at this time for me, I don't have time for it. I'd love to go back to it one day. I don't know if I'd embalm anymore, because I don't, it's not very healthy for you. It's, in fact, there's green cemeteries up north near San Francisco where you just wrap the body in a sheet, and you put it in the earth and let it just disintegrate naturally. And I think that's the way to go, because it's just making a body look pretty for a funeral is kind of a waste. And it's, you know, like I said, it's very harmful to the person doing the job and to the environment and everything else. but, anyways, I got off track. No, no, I mean, no, that's all interesting. I mean, as far as you working in that field, was that out here in Los Angeles? Uh-huh. Yeah, I went to school at Cypress. Okay. I used to have to drive, um, From North Hollywood to Orange County. At the time, Behind the Orange Curtain. when I was going to school there, I think I lived in Pasadena. Okay. So I drove from Pasadena to Cypress every morning on that five freeway at like, you know, six o'clock in the morning. And my school, you are not allowed to be late at all. Like, it's a very, very specialized program and you cannot be late. So it was, I'd walk into class like sweating every day with like one minute before I, so, but it was a great experience. And then I worked in Ladera Heights at Holy Cross. Oh, wow. Which is a really, really cool, um, cemetery and funeral home. They have, uh, Bela Lugosi buried there, Sharon Tate, um, uh, Darby Crash, and, uh, John Candy, like tons of, of cool people. And I would take the golf cart around and visit everybody all the time and say, say hi to them, you know, talk to the, talk to their graves. Right. So, so, so being around someone as you, uh, from I Can Tell, you're just full of life and it's always inspired to create, but being around all that death, it doesn't hinder you at all? No, actually, I, I feel like, um, before I went to mortuary school, I, I felt like I was kind of dying inside regardless. I felt like I needed to learn how to live again and dealing with death helped me do that. It helped me be really, um, strong in making the decisions of what I wanted to do with my life and not being afraid to live life on my own accord. So. Very well done. Um, tell me where you want to go with your writing as far as the book that you're going to, you're shopping right now. Uh, this is your first book that you're actually shopping. It's my first book. I've written a lot of short stories, comic books, but this is my first full-length novel and, um, I, I, I love writing and I, it's something that I can do from anywhere, anytime and I really hope to, to be a novelist one day. I hope that it does, I hope my first book does well and I can do a few more. Do you have a lot of, uh, like outlines for other books already? I have another one, um, that I've already outlined about growing up being, being mixed because I think that a lot of, um, and that I'm actually steering that more towards, um, usually everything I do is very dark and, and, and very adult and this one I'm going to steer more towards preteens because I really feel like they need a voice as well. I've, I'm noticing that, you know, playing, um, with my band, we've gotten so many fans that are young girls who really need guidance and I never, I never expected, I don't know, I never expected to have that many young girls that looked up to me so I'd like to kind of give back by writing something specifically for them. So you're being, you're currently aware that you're, uh, being looked up to and you want to provide some interesting insight and maybe inspire them. Yeah. I mean, you know, I feel like musicians have a responsibility, you know, people don't trust politicians anymore or children, kids, you know, teenagers, they don't trust politicians, they don't trust anybody but they'll trust a musician so, you know, you have to be someone that they can look up to as far as I'm concerned. Right. And what about, um, more acting? Like, you know, Yeah, I mean, acting is fun but you know what? Acting is, you know, with music, when you're on stage, you get, you get to kind of do everything. You get to be a superhero, an athlete, an actress and everything rolled into one and, you know, I think going and reading someone else's lines in front of a camera just, probably won't be as fun anymore after, Not as self-fulfilling, right? after being on stage and singing, you know, lyrics that I wrote with Heidi, you know, it's just, it's just such a different thing. As far as, uh, the band goes, do you think, uh, you guys will be playing LA anytime soon? Um, you know, we've been doing so much out of town stuff. I know. Hopefully we'll, hopefully we'll do something but definitely not for a few months. Maybe January. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Uh, well, Carla, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Yeah, thanks for having me. We really appreciate it. Thanks for being a part of this 72nd episode and let's give the, uh, main website for, uh, Butcher Babies. Sure. Uh, our Butcher Babies website, just find us on Facebook. It's facebook.com backslash Butcher Babies Music and mine is, um, facebook.com backslash Carla Harvey Music. Very cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so out of control Critic of these eyes I go for gold I'm not a bully