The Carrots

The Carrots Interview: SXSW 2010

Channeling the Phil Spector revivalist spirit, the Carrots make music that feels ripped right out of the sixties girl group explosion. Led by lead singer Veronica Ortuno, they sing about boys they fancy, love, and broken hearts. Spinner got the opportunity to talk with Chef and Chris, two of the bands founding members before they headed to SXSW.

Can you describe your sound - what you're trying to do?

We make music to emulate fifties and sixties girl group music. It's our best attempt given our amateur skills.

How did your band form?

It was a Myspace band. Our singer sent out a Myspace message to all her friends and said, "does anyone want to be in a girl group?" A few people signed up, and then it just sort of grew from that. At first we had people who just wanted to be in a band, but didn't really know how to do it. We had to flesh it out from there, adding new members and stuff.

What are your musical influences?

The obvious ones are the Shangri-Las, Ronettes, Crystals. We started off mostly covering songs, but now we play almost all originals. The crowd still goes nuts for the covers, though.

How did you come up with your band name?

A run-off election. We wrote down a hundred names on a piece of paper, and then we just started crossing off names. Everyone got to cross off five names until there were only five left, and there we had an election from those and the Carrots won. In the run-off we had to debate it again. We had some really bad alternate names - Jesus' Daughters was one of them.

What's your biggest vice?

Veronica's biggest vice is that when she's drunk, she'll turn into a raging wild person. She'll get into fights. The cops will come. She had to go to court one time. I kinda feel weird outing people. I don't have any vices at all. Maybe modesty is my vice. Chris's is prudence. Shelby prays too much. Rose is too charitable. Jason molests.

Bands like the Pipettes and the Hot Toddies have done a lot to popularize this Phil Spector revivalism that's going on. Do you see yourselves as a part of that movement?

I like the Pipettes. We're a bit divided on our opinions of them. We definitely didn't set out to be a part of that. We've been a band for an obnoxiously long time considering how little we've done. We didn't really know about any of those other bands when we started. If it helps people to comprehend what we're doing, that's fine.

Where do you think the sudden appeal of that somewhat-bygone era is coming from?

I think prior to this revival, there was such a lack of this sort of harmony singing. Everything was getting harsh there in the early 2000s, and people sort of got turned off to that so they rediscovered this thing that was the antithesis of that. That's kind of where we come from.

What's it like being in a co-ed band?

It's good! It's refreshing compared to being in an all guy band. It takes more maturity. It's not just gross like guys can be when they're all together. It helps a lot with the audience too. Everybody likes girls in a band. Guys like to have girls in a band because it's nice to look at them, and girls like to have girls in a band because they can connect. People are sick of all guy bands. A co-ed band is sort of a novelty, and it helps draw interest.

You've adopted the pseudonyms "Prude, Rude, Tude, Crude, Nude and Lewd". What's that about?

That was just us being silly. I don't even remember why we started that. There's a couple people the names really made sense for, and then we just assigned the rest rhyming names.

Your band has a very unique visual aesthetic. Can you talk a bit about that, and how it compliments the music?

A lot of that has to do with having girls in the band. They really spearhead the outfits. They used to sew them for us. Veronica, our singer, is our best seamstress. They'll just decide what we're wearing – girls like to match, us guys are just down for the ride. So long as there is a theme, we're happy. The girls are always trying to make us look cute. We're always suggesting ludicrous stuff, and they're always like, "I don't want to dress up like homeless people!"

That's about all I have. Any last words of wisdom?

One of my coworkers told me this today: 'In the words of Winston Churchill - when you're going through hell, keep on going!'"

Haha. Thanks much for doing this interview with us.

Thank you!
 

The Carrots [Spinner]
picture: Archivo Elefant



The Carrots [Spinner]
picture: Archivo Elefant



The Carrots [Spinner]
picture: Archivo Elefant

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