Do you do a lot of vintage shopping on tour?

Yeah, I do. It can get frustrating though ‘cause you have to really dig and it takes a lot of time and the dimensions are off on each dress. It really takes a lot of time but I’ve had some good luck. I can work a rack in 10 minutes. And a good buy can make me smile for weeks.

Especially a good vintage buyРyou feel like it’s so special.

Yeah, especially since I have to be thrifty. I quit my job this past August cause things were getting so busy with the band. I never ever in a million years thought I would be in a position that I could do that, but it happened.

Would you consider yourself more feminine now or still a tomboy?

I guess more feminine but still a tomboy in ways. I’m not too fussy. I don’t really mess with makeup because it takes too much upkeep and when you’re on tour you have to really pack light. There’s only room for a couple pairs of shoes so you have to really pick your pieces carefully. I’ve been gone for like 3 weeks and you’ve got three dresses and four separates and you just have to make it work. So I’m not so much tomboy or super girlieРI just feel like a young woman. Growing up my mom and my sister they weren’t too fussy about looking super feminine; it was just about being natural and showing of your natural skin and just being cool.

Being on the road isn’t exactly the most “hygiene friendly” situation, especially if you’re living in a van. What are some things that you have to bring with you?

I‚Äôve got it down to a science. Like a document‚Äîa pack list that I pull up before every time I go on tour. I buy the little…shampoo that‚Äôs about 5 inches tall. Those are perfect for flying. So I‚Äôve got my conditioner and shampoo, face scrub, body scrub thing, towel. I need my hair dryer. My hair does weird things when it dries especially bangs. When I got bangs a couple years, I got a straightener…but I felt weird, especially pulling it out in front of the guys. You don‚Äôt want others to see the making of you: You just want to sort of appear. So I stopped bringing the flat iron a few years ago.

When we were in China recently we had to really streamline. When we got to Shanghai we had to leave our stuff a someone‚Äôs house ad use knapsacks and there was no room for the hair dryer. So if you look for any pictures from China my hair is not good. But you know what, who cares? I was in China. But touring Europe and America I want to look somewhat presentable because you‚Äôre going to shows and the girls are just coming from their homes and they’re looking all good. I don‚Äôt want to look like a total slob. And it can really do a number on your self esteem. In earlier tours I was a little more punk and didn‚Äôt care‚ÄîI didn‚Äôt shower everyday and I kind of liked the survivor aspect of it and we just got a little dirty and I guess that was kind of common with underground punk. But I remember on our first tour that someone said on a message board we smelled like food rot bombs, and I was like, ‚ÄòOk this is got to be changed.’ But now I shower everyday. There was tours when we wouldn‚Äôt get hotels and we‚Äôd sleep on floors and there was one bathroom between six band members. You couldn‚Äôt get one every day, but now it‚Äôs a little bit different. Now I‚Äôm on it.

And of course I can’t tour without my computer because we self-manage, so we really need access. We need to be able to get our work done and plan our tours and figure out logistics.

Do you get hit on a lot at shows?

I don’t know cause I can’t always tell. But usually no. If I feel like I am [being hit on] I walk away cause its awkward for me. I’m not really flirty or like overly effeminate, so I tend to try and neutralize conversations with guys that could potentially be coming on to me. I just play the friend cardРI’m really good at that.

You’ve had a lot of practice at that?

I’ve had a lot of practice being around guy friends all my life; I’m really comfortable being with guys. If I am interested in return, sure I’ll add a little bit of a wink or whatever but for the most part I keep it straight. When we’re meeting people they’re meeting a bass player in a band and not me. I have to be conscious of that. And that also makes me a little uncomfortable. There have been some instances where they’re maybe a little star-struck and I don’t believe that they could ever really get to know me because of the band. So I’d rather get to know guys outside of the band.

And outside of shows.

Yeah and I think the same goes for all the guys in my band. They all have girlfriends and for the most parts all girls they’ve met outside of the band entity. It seems like a lot of my friends don’t want a partnership that’s sort of in the same thing that they are. I know that that’s true for me. It depends on the person ultimately but I’ve been around hardcore punk guys all my life but again of course it all depends on the person. I might be eating my words in the future.

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TAGS: Fucked Up | Sandy Miranda

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am and is filed under Back Issue, Features, Issue 5, The Cover Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.