Iggy T & the Crazymakers

Interview with Iggy T and The Crazymakers – Having “Cake” for Pride Month

I recently was introduced to the music of Iggy T and The Crazymakers, and I fell in love. I was able to get on the phone with both Sarah Todd and David Franz – the primary folks behind the band – and it turns out I love them as people too. I mention it several times below, so it must be true. I think we could have chatted all afternoon had we not had to, you know, do work stuff. But that makes me very excited for the time when Iggy T and The Crazymakers can get back to the business of playing music live and I can go to one of their shows.

Until then, check out what a power duo they are, what great music they make, their passionate beliefs, and which kinds of Oreos they like.


Interview with Iggy T and The Crazymakers


Iggy T & the Crazymakers

Aimee:

Thank you guys so much for taking the time to chat today. First question, I wanted to hear a little bit about you.

Sarah:

Sure. Well, Iggy T and The Crazy Makers started with myself and David. We are the core of the band, we’re the songwriters of the band, and we met at a jam circle. Actually, we heard each other before we saw each other. It was really dark outside and most of the instruments were acoustic, and then David came out and sat way across this jam circle and started playing an electric guitar. I shouted out across after the song was done, “Hey, guy on electric, what’s your name? Thanks for taking us to magical guitar land.” He was just noodling around on some stuff, but evidently I liked it at the time, and he had also taken notice of me on the other side of the circle singing.

So, we connected after that and started talking music. I started sharing a little bit about my love of old soul. That’s what really made me start realizing that I loved to sing and could see myself doing that as a career. I also was raised on folk and classic rock, my dad’s vinyl collection. And David began to share with me a bit about his upbringing on blues. We also overlapped a lot on some of the classic rock stuff. We started ideating about how we could combine all of those influences into a sound that would be something we would never get tired of listening to.

David is also a phenomenal producer, so he tends to have a production style that lends itself to a contemporary pop kind of presentation that’s a little shiny and really just clean and beautiful. So, how could we combine that with a little bit more of the retro gritty sounds that come from live tracking an album, which is super rare these days as I’m sure you know. We moved from Venice Beach, the band migrated to being based out of Ojai, California, and we connected with some incredibly heavy-hitting players. We had a studio sessions there in the same music studio that Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros recorded in, and we met up every Tuesday. I would make everybody food and we would jam out in the studio and press record, or do a couple of quick rehearsals at someone’s house. And that’s how this whole thing was born.

Aimee:

Wow. And also, I wanted to ask, is Iggy your nickname?

Sarah:

It is, yeah. That’s a nickname from childhood, from when my dad told me that my middle name was Ignatius. It’s not, but I’ve just decided to own it.

Aimee:

I love it. That’s great. And then my understanding is that you have a new song called “Cake,” that’s being released to honor Pride Month. Is that true?

Sarah:

It is. So a little bit of a bisexual anthem. Also, it touches on the concept of polyamory. It’s really kind of a sexuality freedom jam.

Aimee:

I love that. What made you decide to do that?

Sarah:

Yeah. A lot of people keep asking me that, like, “Why did you write this?” And I have no better answer than to say that I just write music that feels authentic to me and that inspires me in the moment of conception. Something that I have always faced in my sexuality, which I have been aware of since my early teens, is what it is like to be in relationship with a man or with a woman and be bisexual.

And I have felt the feelings of bi-erasure and feeling a bit invisible in the LGBTQ community because I’ve felt, in hetero relationships either I would be completely perceived as fully straight and I wouldn’t really feel like there was room for me to say, “Well, I’m actually bisexual.” Or whether my potential female partners would think perhaps I am not gay enough, or there’s the stereotypes of bi-curious or “gay till graduation,” or “you’re just going to leave me for a man.” And that’s just not the case; I’ve connected with enough bisexual people over the years. But I’m not saying that my story is true to everyone. I can only speak about my experiences, but the song says, “Do I have to choose? Do I have to prove it to be able to have my cake and eat it too?”

This process has been shared by a lot of bisexual people that I know. That does lead to the conversation of, “So what happens then? Do you open up your relationship? Does it become a polyamorous thing?” And that hasn’t worked for me in the past, but to each their own. I really think that the overwhelming message here for me, as a writer and as an artist and as a member of the LGBTQ community, is to say, “How can we support one another inside this community to welcome all individuals’ versions of sexuality, and to embrace that and to support it, not to judge it or take it personally. What are we saying to the outside community if we’re not supporting one another?” And so I think just being able to talk about the B that sometimes gets forgotten is a really great place to start.

Aimee:

Good for you.

Sarah:

Thanks.

Aimee:

I don’t mean to sound condescending, but I think that’s wonderful.

Sarah:

Thanks. I didn’t take it as condescending. It’s cute. Aimee is on Team Cake.

Aimee:

Ha ha! Yes. It’s hard sometimes when you don’t know somebody, to get what they mean.

Sarah:

I agree with that. When we were talking about releasing this, I was like, “I’m going to get a lot of shit for this song.” And that’s okay. I do believe that if you’re saying something important, some people are going to be a little pissed off. And I do feel like I get to have my cake and eat it too, because I have the ability, I was born with the ability, to fall in love with humans. It doesn’t matter their gender. I just fall in love with people. And, to me, when people get really agro or heavy about it, I can say, “Well, actually, I find this to be a wonderful blessing.” I love talking about it. I want to have fun with it. I want to make an upbeat jam. I just want to present with that energy to the world a lot more than some sort of heated debate about fucking labels like hetero whatever, hetero romantic, etc. I don’t care. I like people. I love people sexually, romantically.

Aimee:

It’s funny. I literally was having a conversation yesterday with one of my college best friends who’s gay, and I made some comment that I can’t keep up with the names. And I meant that in the best possible way in that I just think love is love. I don’t want to offend anybody by saying the wrong thing, but at the same time, I’m like, “Sometimes I don’t even know what the right word is.”

Sarah:

One hundred percent.

Aimee:

And he responded, “O-B-V.” Obviously.

Sarah:

I love that. I agree with you. And I think that when we try to over label things, and we try to over qualify things, that it actually makes things less accessible, not just within the community because I mean, I don’t know what your sexual preferences are, and I still love you just the same. But, inside the community, I find it to actually create a sense of confusion and this sense of looking for where I belong. Yeah, I started with the “bisexual” and I think I’m still in that category. I don’t really know what all these new labels mean, but I’m open to them. If that’s what you’d like to call yourself, then that’s great. I support that one hundred percent.

Iggy T & the Crazymakers

Aimee:

Well … how about we let David actually say something. And I also didn’t mean that condescendingly…

David:

Ha ha. No, no, no.

Aimee:

… but I want to hear about the fact that you also have a studio, and a label, and how did you start that and how does that intertwine with your music and all of that kind of thing?

David:

Yeah, yeah. No, thank you. Underground Sun is the label and it started back in Boston in the early 2000s. It’s been growing and growing and refining itself from a small little studio to a production house to an independent record label, artist development. And right now, we’re relaunching a whole new branding and everything like that, brand new fancy logo and all that stuff. And it’s-

Aimee:

Putting everything together out there at once, huh?

David:

Exactly. Let’s just explode out, supernova. And now we did do some recording and some stuff with our Airstream studio, which is-

Aimee:

Wait. What is that?

David:

Well, it’s a 32-foot, three axle… Pretty much the biggest Airstream that was made back in the late eighties. And we got it specked out with my buddy who runs DHDI Designs, which is an acoustic engineering firm, and they do all kinds of crazy stuff. In fact, some of their products were… I just saw on the behind the scenes of the making of The Mandalorian, the Star Wars show, they’re using that stuff there. And so I’m like, “Yeah, sweet. They copied us now.” Ha. So I hired them to come in and spec out the front end of the Airstream and turn it into a very acoustically sound, or acoustically designed space, which is crazy because it’s just a metal tube. Normally it would sound horrible, but they made it sound magical.

Aimee:

And I guess you’ve been using that to record during quarantine? Or before?

David:

Oh, for sure … all of the above. Yep. And on the road, and before everything closed down, for sure. Yep.

Aimee:

All right. Wow. That’s really cool. And so when you guys record as a band, or play music as a band, what is your process like? And also how has it changed in the past few months?

David:

Well, I mean for our album, as Sarah was talking about, we went into the studios up here in Ojai, and with the full band, which was amazing because most of the time I’ve been recording just either by myself or with one other person at a time. But to feel the energy of everybody contributing, morphing the songs, and putting their energies into it, all at once, is where the real magic happens. But then, of course, now since stuff has closed down and you got to do virtual recording sessions or solo stuff… And I’ve actually been doing some virtual recording sessions using a combination of Skype video, but then also having a producer who’s recording me singing, but he’s controlling my computer remotely.

Aimee:

Wow. That’s cool.

Sarah:

That is cool. I’ve been doing virtual recording sessions with FaceTime, or Zoom… And, actually, not recording, writing sessions rather. I’ve been staying busy with some remote writing sessions as well, just not with Iggy T and The Crazy Makers since that project was so intensive for so long. We started that even before we got the Airstream. I feel like I was in that thing for six months trying to design it and get it up to a place where we could travel and go on the road and have fun and record some stuff. But once we had the product out and it went through mixing and mastering… And oh, actually, you know what we did do? We brought the record to Atlanta with us to finish it. So we went in the Airstream for… Gosh, we went on a three month road trip in the Airstream.

Aimee:

Don’t you feel like time right now and your memory is messed up? You’re like, “I don’t remember what happened yesterday, much less a month ago.”

Sarah:

Yeah! We actually were in there for three months for the purpose of finishing the album. That’s right. So we did. We brought the thing all the way from California to Atlanta. And it was right after we had finished designing it and building it, and it was like a big thing to show off to our friends. The only way we were able to get there to that trip was with the Airstream.

Aimee:

That’s awesome. And so along those lines of the question of trying to remember what you were doing, what was the last concert you saw before quarantine?

Sarah:

I saw the most incredible show in LA at a cemetery … The artist was Emily King, and it was an intimate performance.

David:

One of the last shows that we saw together, Sarah and I, was Black Pumas.

Sarah:

Yeah, that was the other one that I thought of. I just got a sweatshirt from them in the mail. I was trying to support them since their tour got canceled. I got a sweet new sweatshirt.

Aimee:

I was able to photograph them and discover them, I had not heard of them before, at the Grandoozy festival. I was very impressed, because they really owned it. They were great.

So, what bands influenced you, and what is the sound of your band, and how is that all woven together?

Sarah:

Well, some of the inspirations and some of the references that we’ve heard pretty regularly are Alabama Shakes and kind of an Amy Winehouse vocal delivery. Also, some gritty guitar sounds that are potentially reminiscent of the Black Keys. And, like I said, I’m super in love with old soul music, everything from Al Green to Sam Cooke to Etta James. Somebody on an interview recently said something about Joni Mitchell, which she’s a hero of mine, probably my greatest female musical hero. And I was like, “Really?” I think that when you have somebody who is so influential to you that underneath everything that’s always existing, that Joni Mitchell, and, for me, my other one is probably Stevie Wonder.

Same, for David too. We established that the first time we met. Stevie Wonder came on the radio, and we were out and having a bite to eat and a drink. And I was like, “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to know this pretty quickly about me. If Stevie Wonder comes on the radio, I really can’t listen to what you’re saying. So I’m going to just be with this song for a moment.” And he said, “Oh, great. Me too.” Good.

Aimee:

So, what’s been your favorite, or your most comfort food during comfort during quarantine?

Sarah:

Oh, my God. I don’t feel like I’ve been eating hardly anything. Wait. You know what, actually? I’ve been COVID-ing in Tacoma, Washington. So I’m in the Pacific Northwest, and they have such incredible seafood here. And I’m a big oyster fiend, and they deliver them to the door, Aimee. So I taught myself how to shuck, and I’ve been shucking oysters and making fresh, squeezed mimosa.

Aimee:

Nice!

Sarah:

That’s pretty fancy. What about you, David?

David:

I mean of trying all kinds of new IPAs, but I will say that I’ve been trying to justify my obsession with Oreos by getting the back-to-nature plant-based versions.

Aimee:

What? They have that?

David:

Yep. Classic cream cookies and they’re just as good.

Aimee:

My son has an obsession with Oreos, and they accidentally delivered “birthday cake” Oreos recently. I thought we would like them ok, but we all decided they’re an abomination.

Sarah:

I’m just over here [vomit noise] face.

David:

You had high hopes, I can see that.

Sarah:

You don’t fuck with that. You don’t fuck with Oreos.

Aimee:

No. No. I mean I probably could have a quintuple stuff Oreo.

David:

Right.

Sarah:

Yeah, that’s something I could fuck with.

David:

I used to make those as a kid. I’d get six double stuffs and stack them all up.

Sarah:

Would you keep the individual crackers on each side, or would you set some aside?

David:

You can’t really eat that. You just kind of put the whole frosting in your mouth and chaw on it for a while.

Aimee:

I save the extra cookies, that’s what my husband’s for.

Sarah:

That’s so funny. OK, on a serious note. One thing I wanted to mention. There is a song on there that feels really relevant right now, which is called “I Don’t Know Your Pain,” and the concept is that I don’t know your pain, but I wish that I could take it away. And, with what has been going on, it does speak to a lot of different groups that have been marginalized.

It’s the last song on the record because it just, when we were playing it live, it just turned into this epic performance. And we got a whole bunch of collaborators to come on and just belt it out and really go nuts on this song, and I think it really captures the ferocity with which we stand for social justice as a band. It’s not just in regards to equality and LGBTQ. It’s advocacy. It’s so much to do with race relations right now, and with women’s rights.

So … we like to say shit. If I’m given a mic, I want to say something valuable. And if there’s anything that I think that art can do for us is to have an empowering voice to represent communities and people who otherwise may not have access to a platform to speak from. So, that’s really the drive of this whole thing.

Aimee:

That’s awesome. I love that.

Iggy T & the Crazymakers

Photos provided by Iggy T & the Crazymakers

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