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A few of my favorite things: How Tragic

Meet Paige Campbell. Paige Campbell can sing.

 

Front woman of post-riot grrrl quartet, How Tragic, Paige’s resonant belt and pop hooks bring a certain 2000s-nostalgia to the band’s otherwise punk leaning songs. Set in a film noir meets pin-up meets horror world, the band’s music video for “Deathwish” let’s you know right out the gate that they don’t shy away from dramatics. Check out the music video below and get to know Paige better with a few of her favorite things.

WENDY O WILLIAMS

One of my biggest inspirations is Wendy O Williams from the Plasmatics- and if you don’t know her, she bled authenticity. Her voice is insane. She sang like a fucking banshee from hell…I could purposely shred my vocal cords for years and I’d still never get close. She was vegan and an animal rights activist, and an “unconventional” woman in the 70s and 80s where you’d be ostracized for being just one of those things, never mind all. She wrote songs about greenhouse gas emissions, anti-consumerism and anti-establishment instead of things that would sell. She was super into self improvement, working out for hours everyday, eating insanely healthy, no drinking/drugs/smoking. She spoke out on white sugar in the American diet, obesity in school kids, and describing the need for urbanites to observe the importance of the natural world. Popular for sawing guitars, blowing up cars and sledgehammering tv’s on stage, these actions were symbolic performance art against consumerist icons, showing that “These are just things and people shouldn’t worship them.” Her style and stage presence have influenced “fashion”, Troma films, GWAR, and blended punk and metal at a time when the scenes hated each other. Wendy is most famous for doing her own stunts; walking on the wing of a plane, skydiving naked, and the epic bus scene in “The Damned” video. If you are so inclined, look up the “death” section in her wikipedia. She was brutal, poignant, and caring until her last moments.

DEBBIE JELINSKY

From the Addams Family sequel. I love Joan Cusack anyway, but Debbie is the most fabulous psycho bitch ever. Her line delivery, the lewks she serves…we’re kindred spirits.

HICKSVILLE ARTIST’S RETREATS

The desert is a zen place for me, I love the great expanse.  I first visited almost 10 years ago with a best friend that is an avid road trip thrifter, we drove up through Arizona, and hung a left on Route 66 until we hit Joshua Tree, specifically to visit Hicksville Trailer park. It’s my plastic grass, kidney bean pool, themed trailer park in the middle of the desert 50s timewarp dream. In the main house, they have a full live recording studio. They used to not let you geotag your location so that it kept the instagrammers away. The Idyllwyld location in the mountains is the Twin Peaks themed version with other themed chalets.. just the most magical places. I want to go right now.

OLD NYC ROCK N ROLL HISTORY

I’ve been visiting NYC since I was a wee one in the early 90s, and I’ve always felt this weird pull towards the rock n’ roll scene there. I love anything to do with the lower east side and the Bowery, The Chelsea Hotel, St. Marks place, all of it. Of course it’s nothing like it used to be, but I was lucky enough to see some glimpses of the original charm. I know so much of the history and the landmarks, that it can’t ever really die for me.
When I was 20 and I would come up from Richmond to visit, my favorite store was the original Trash and Vaudeville on St Marks, I still have one of their huge hot pink plastic bags. When I moved here 9 years ago I purposely didn’t pack a jacket so I would “have to” buy one from T&V, and learn how to get there on the subway by myself while I was at it. It should have been a 24 minute trip that took over 2 hours, but I walked in and out of there in under 2 minutes… because Jimmy took one look at me eyeing the Straight To Hell leather jackets and said, “You’re an XS, you’re going to break it in.” RIP to one of the most special people I’ve ever encountered, never jaded by the changing city, just keeping the magic alive.
I got an unpaid job a few years ago for a photoshoot, showed up to the address and saw it was the fuckin Hotel Chelsea. It was right when they had started to demo it, but they hadn’t built anything new. I told the photographer that I’m a huge fan and asked if I could walk around, he said, “Sure, but I don’t know you if you get in trouble.” I walked through about 10 apartments, with all of the original wall treatments left from the last long term tenants, every room was completely different. I’ve been back about 5 or 6 times – sometimes to work, sometimes for some of the most amazing parties I will ever experience in my life. I could go on for hours. I had a tarot reading in Dee Dee Ramone’s bathtub. I peed in Janis Joplin’s toilet. (Lotta bathroom stuff, wow.) I swear that place is a portal to another dimension where time is an illusion. The energy is unlike anywhere I’ve ever been.
 

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE

”We’re all born naked and the rest is drag”. Drag Race is my church. Being in my band and performing is my drag, and thinking about it that way is the only way I can get through it. I really don’t need attention, but I do have an unwavering drive to do what I do.  I can be anywhere and put Drag Race on my iPad and be in a state of zen. Since I’ve been doing makeup and hair for years I’m super inspired by the looks, and I believe the unapologetic self love and confidence that Ru teaches could save the world. It gives me life!

Check out How Tragic’s new EP ‘Past Lives’ below


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