In all fairness, pop and hip hop are ruling the roost these days but rock and roll still does exist according to Potty Mouth’s lead guitarist and vocalist Abby Weems at some level. You just have to find it. The rock darlings of Potty Mouth are bringing back a wave of feel good organic rock and roll with a glam vintage feel to it. Think Hole, but grittier.
I recently sat down with Abby Weems from the all girl group Potty Mouth and discussed a possible new rock revolution, their debut CD Hellbent, and Bill Cosby, yes Bill Cosby.
How did Potty Mouth initially meet and get together?
Ally, Phoebe, and Victoria all went to Smith College in Northampton, and I grew up in Amherst which is a neighboring town. Ally and Phoebe were on a writing retreat for school when they came up with the idea to try starting a band, and decided to message Victoria and me about meeting up.
Do you think your sound will soar to mainstream in the age of pop and hip-hop?
Definitely not hip hop, haha! Because we are very much a DIY band it’s hard to know if our music will catch on, but I guess it could go either way. Our sound is sort of a fusion of punk and pop that seems hard to categorize beyond those broad terms, so some people might like it for the punk aspects and others might like it for the poppier parts.
Are you finding it difficult to get the label support and support the band needs in general to break the mold of music today?
It’s ironic because it took us so long to find a label to put our record out, and now we couldn’t be any happier with the people that we’re working with. This is our first big release so everything is new to us, and our labels have been helping us every step of the way.
It seems like punk music wants to make the comeback but never does.
Do you think the kids are scared of a new rock revolution to take place?
I’ve experienced so many small scenes of young people who are totally submerged in punk/rock music and ethics, so I don’t know if I can make that generalization. These days, with the internet and everything, there are so many levels of “mainstream” that it feels like each scene has it’s own rating system. People can congregate online to support this or that, so artists are able to be “successful” without having to be a very public figure. If you mean a “comeback” as in commercial success then I might actually be less inclined to say yes. Not only is it nearly impossible to make a living from being a musician, but punk/rock are based so much in a an anti-commercial, DIY foundation, that I feel like it’s really hard to pull off such a conflicting image.
What have you been listening to while on the road?
We found this Spotify playlist by Mom and Pop records that is actually like a counterpart to all of our tour playlists and when we saw it Ally was like “how did we not make this?” https://play.spotify.com/user/momandpopmusic/playlist/4hz3euVtcZrywwfLJtWeNw
I saw on your facebook page that Bill Cosby was an influence? Can you explain?
Oh man, that’s an inside joke from a video that we think is really funny, but he lives in Western MA so I hope he doesn’t come after us for making fun of this:
What kind of mood or headspace was the band in to record the LP Hellbent?
We actually put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we decided in the spring of 2012 that we waned to record 10 songs by December. We spent a lot of time writing new stuff all the way up until a few days before recording, and even then we improvised a few things to make it come together.
Are you excited for your LP to debut and for the public to finally hear it?
We’re so excited!! I find it hard to believe that we’ve gotten this far with only a six song EP, and we don’t even play most of those songs anymore! Our sound has changed so much since then that I think once our record comes out people will have a better idea of what kind of band we are.
Potty Mouth’s new CD Hellbent is set to be released on September 17 via Old Flame Records.
