Interview: Street Eaters on New Single, Music Video, and Tour

Post-punk/true wave East Bay trio, Street Eaters, have just released their new single, “Tempers”, on July 22nd. The lineup includes drummer/vocalist Megan March, bassist/vocalist John No, and guitarist Joan Toledo. The trio have just begun a series of shows for a tour down California. I caught them right before their set at Bottom of the Hill this past Thursday to pick their brain about the new single, music video, and tour.

Zero: So you just dropped a new single! How’d that come together?

Megan: “Tempers” came up while we were looking around after being trauma bonded from COVID. We, as a band, played together throughout that entire period in various forms of protection, because we are responsible like that. And that’s how it came about.

Zero: What are some musical influences people might not pick up from that song alone?

Megan: Oh that’s a great question! I’m gonna let these two answer that.

John: What were you feeling with the guitar parts in that song?

Joan: Here’s the thing, you two (John and Megan) had written the bulk of the song before I started playing guitar on it, right?

John: Barely.

Megan: But that guitar solo, Joan’s guitar solo. Every single time you play it, I make little dreamy eyes at you (looks at Joan).

Joan: The thing is that I really try hard to let my subconscious determine what I’m doing. I really don’t try to think too much outside of that when it comes to new ideas. So your guess of where it came, where my ideas came from is maybe better than whatever I may tell you. Because, ultimately, at the end of the day, it came from nowhere. It came from inside of me, from somewhere I didn’t know.

Megan: I will say this lady here is a big fan of Judas Priest and Sonic Youth.

Joan: But also, I listen to music from all over the world and it doesn’t always come through. And whatever I’m playing has gotta be appropriate for what the song is. Because when I first started playing with Street Eaters, I was coming into the band who already had a whole lot of songs written. And also had a general style, you know, I had to figure out how to conform.

John: You lifted, you lifted!

Megan: Perfectly fit.

John: Yeah, more of a marriage than anything else. It’s fantastic right? You know in terms of just thinking about writing that song when we were writing it, beyond the lyrics, which have to do with isolation, alienation…

Megan: And also a disaffection of the world.

John: And also, you know, just like some of the specific experiences and circumstances that we were dealing with during that period of time, personal traumas and stuff. But musically, I think there’s a certain stomp to it. I think that’s maybe, you know, coming out of something like the 90’s queer core kind of stuff that we all love. And also we just kind of have always had an element to what we do which roots itself in some of the more, for lack of a better term, abrasive indie rock stuff of the 90’s. We just can’t resist getting in those little Pavement “woo”s sometimes you know. It’s just kind of like, in our DNA. So yeah, it’s a little bit of a mash up of all that stuff. And obviously, a lot of the guitar driven post punk world that we listen to a lot of, our contemporaries as well.

Joan: There’s one left field influence that is not obvious but that you can hear from time to time, on my end at least. We were all listening to a whole lot of the Niger guitar player, Mdou Moctar, during that time period when we were writing that song. I don’t know if it really comes through in whatever we’re playing.

John: I think it does.

Megan: It does in that other song.

John: I hear that in “I See You Now”, but also I hear that in “Tempers”, especially in the rising part.

Zero: You have some tracks influenced by the Bay Area, named after the Bay Area. What is it about the Bay that inspires you?

Megan: Well, I was born here.

John: Me too.

Megan: I also think that growing up, I wasn’t able to really have a lot of attachments to people, because a lot of people were coming and going in my life all the time. But the one thing that did remain constant was the Bay Area, even if I was moving around a lot. So I feel like I have a very tight bond to many corners within… like every crevice that is here. So I find the Bay to be very inspiring. I will say though, that if I wasn’t able to tour and get out of the Bay Area, it would drive me crazy, but I’m always happy to return. Coming home always feels like home, but I’m also happy to leave.

Joan: For me, I’m from very far away, from Florida, and from a small town in Florida too. So living in the Bay Area is the first time I really lived in a place with a whole lot of people, and it’s also a place with a much larger income disparity than where I was living at in Florida. And, so you know, being a working class person, and a trans person, wandering around basically the playground of Silicon Valley is a very strange experience. And some part of it is with me wherever I go.

Zero: Also, how did the music video for “Tempers” come together?

Megan: Well, I am a student at California College of the Arts working on my MFA. So I asked my friend, Krista Wright, to work on a video with us. And she’s awesome! I also pulled in a friend of hers, Theo, who was also a student there, and the two of them just really brought it and let us rip the waiting room to shreds. Yeah, it was fun! Also, to be embraced and encouraged to be the weirdos that we are was really beautiful and amazing, it felt good. It was a good time.

Zero: Any fun facts from filming that music video?

Megan: Joan is really fucking funny!

Joan: There are maybe five times as many props there, as you ever see in the video. Yeah, like the sheer amount of things that we brought is kind of staggering. I think maybe like a third of the back of our van was just random stuff.

Zero: Where did you guys find the stuff?

The entire band: Everything, anywhere, everywhere.

Zero: What was your favorite thing that you brought that you didn’t use or that you really wished made it in?

John: Probably my Selena shirt that has like the Black Flag bars and says “La Reina del Texas.”

Megan: I think that takes the cake. Yeah, I think I worked some sculptures of mine there. There’s some sculptures and yeah lots of things, I think, like newspapers, got ripped.

John: Bad magazines.

Megan: I guess I didn’t bring my drums…

John: We kept making popcorn! We got popcorn. We got an Orville Redenbacher popcorn maker that we scored at a thrift store. It was from the 80’s and it just can keep air popping popcorn. It just keeps popping. You don’t stop. Because once you start, you realize you got a giant bag of popcorn. It’s just like one little bag of kernels, so much popcorn. So you could just pop forever.

Megan: Yeah and we did, and yeah we are still popping.

Zero: Very cool! Alright, what’s something that you’re extremely excited about on this little tour? Anything exciting planned? Any deep cuts planned?

Megan: I don’t like picking favorites. I would say every show has a very exciting element to it. I think that something that is very exciting is that we’re gonna see our records for the first time.

John: Yeah, Friday afternoon!

Megan: So that’s very exciting. And also, just to get down to LA, you know. We haven’t gotten a tour down there yet with Joan so I’m excited for a lot of our friends and to introduce Joan.

Joan: I haven’t even been to LA before. This is only the second time I’ve ever been on any tour.

John: Last time we were in LA, I think we played with Screaming Females. So yeah, it’s been a minute, so it’s gonna be really exciting.

Megan: We’re playing The Smell, which, classic. So I’m very excited about that.

John: And the Sardine, for a Recess Records festival thing, which would be awesome and another kind of secret Sunday afternoon show in San Pedro too. It’s gonna be really fun. Should be a good time.

Zero: Is there anything I’m missing that you would want everyone to know at this time?

John: BFF.FM.RULES.COM, BFF.FM RULES!! We love you guys.

Photo Credits to Heather Frienkel.