Maura Brennan’s Local Radar typically features interviews with New York based musicians about their recently released singles and more in hopes of furthering music discovery and connecting New York’s music community. Today, the radar is Not So Local… This conversation is with rising stars from LA-based band Kid Sistr. All photographs are taken by Tori McGraw at Victoria.
Maura: To kick this off, could you each introduce yourself and what position you play in Kid Sistr?
Becca: I’m Becca. Hello. I play the drums.
Sara: I’m Sara and I play the bass.
Sabel: I’m Sabel. I play guitar and I sing.
Maura: I always conduct these interviews in a public space and typically somewhere that serves either food or drinks. Today we are at Victoria Bar in the Lower East Side. Kid Sistr is a cocktail – what’s going in it?
Sarah: Baja Blast.
Becca: Yeah! I was gonna say something with olive juice or, like…
Sabel: A dirty Baja Blast!
Sara: I actually think that’s what it is…
Kid Sistr In Unison: A Dirty Baja Blast.
Becca: And add some, like, coconut cream.
Sabel: I’m the only one that drinks, so we need the fancy martini to balance out the soda.
Becca: I think it’s a Dirty Baja blast freeze, and then like you put the sweet cream in it.
Maura: This is horrifying. We’re not making the cocktail as a bit anymore.
Becca: It’s bound to be disgusting because the three of us each have our different drinks.
Sabel: We do.
Becca: [pointing at Sable] You like your filthy, dirty martini.
Sabel: [laughs] Yeah. I like dirty things.
Becca: And I like my sweet creamy beverages.
Sara: So, it’s a monstrosity.
Becca: Sara likes beer.
Sabel: So, we could also toss some beer in there.
Becca: Oh, and we ALL like Baja Blast.
Sara: In a blender, there goes three cantina chicken tacos, a Baja Blast Freeze, a dirty martini and an NA beer. Delicious.
Maura: Beautiful. How was your Elsewhere show last night? How was the New York crowd for you?
Sara: It was amazing.
Sabel: We sold out.
Maura: Amazing!
Sabel: [asking bandmates] Was that our first sold out show?
Becca: Just about. Yeah, probably!
Tori: Congratulations! That’s so exciting.
All: Yaaaaaaaay!
Sabel: It was our true headline show in New York also.
Becca: It was so fun. The energy was so good. We had a couple friends right in the front, and… one of them took his pants off.
Sara: His shirt and pants off at some point. My friend just, sometimes… Well, if he gets really excited… Yeah… He’s in a great New York local band called Um Jennifer.
Maura: Oh, my God! I love Um Jennifer!
Tori: They’re playing with Thesaurus Rex at Bowery Ballroom.
Sara: Well, he was pantless at our show last night. Pants. And shirt. Off.
Sabel: He also took out a real lighter.
Becca: Yeah, there were a couple real lighters happening during our ballad. That was really cute.
Maura: Should you come back, what is your ultimate dream venue to play here?
Sabel: MSG, babyyyyyyy.
[All laugh]
Just Kidding, just kidding!
Becca: I would love to play Irving Plaza. That is such a fun venue. I saw Green Day there when I was maybe sixteen, and it was the craziest show ever because they’re way too big for that room.
Maura: Billy Joe Armstrong was my sexual awakening.
[Someone slaps the table]
Sara: Honestly…
Becca: Oh my god…
Sara: He’s so womanly. I love him.
[All laugh]
Sabel: I would love to play Gov Ball, also. That was my first ever music festival. I went with my cousin, and it was such an amazing time, and I just feel like, you know, being from New York…
Sara: Yeah, you were a real Gov Ball icon.
Becca: I went pretty much every year, too.
Tori: I feel like you guys could play Gov Ball. How do we do it? How do we connect them? You can totally do it. You’re definitely big enough.
Sara: Thank you.
Sabel: Yeah, especially now that we’re in our album cycle, our release cycle. We played festivals a while ago when we were releasing songs… We’ve been in the ground for the past couple years, so now we’re coming back up. So, hopefully, we can do more festivals.
Becca: We’ve been eating dirt.
Sabel: We’ve been underneath the ground.
Maura: While you’re here in New York, are there any stores or restaurants you have to go to?
Becca: Well, you know… I actually do kind of.
Sara: Trash and Vaudeville.
Becca: I feel like I’ve been in specifically this neighborhood (the Lower East Side) a lot because we’re pretty close to Baby’s All Right and Mercury Lounge.
Sabel: I hit up the same little street of stores, like Orchard (Street). those places. Yes. That’s like Maura: When they filmed Marty Supreme, (production) flipped Orchard to look like the 1950’s. It was so cool walking through that area while filming was going on.
Tori: That strip is cute for stores.
Sabel: There’s just such good vintage stores here. Like… I don’t know the names of any of them though.
[Laughter]
We just love walking around!
Becca: Controversial, but sometimes I enjoy a little Beacon’s Closet…
Tori: I love beacon’s closets. I love it…
Maura: I love making money at Beacon’s… I feel like if I were in LA, I’d go to state sales all the time.
Sabel: I’ve never done that… And I have to.
Maura: [directed at Sara] How’s your knee?
Sara: [laughs] Thanks for asking.
Maura: Of course. Can you explain what happened again? I’m sorry.
Sara: It’s better than it was. What happened was about a month and a half ago, a month ago?
Sabel: Yeah, I think it’s been six weeks. Because I looked it up, and isn’t the healing 6 to 8?
Sara: Yeah, we were playing a show on tour in Atlanta, Georgia. Okay. And during the last, 30 seconds of the last song…
Sabel: It was the most ripping show of the tour.
Sara: [seconding] It was the most ripping show of the tour, yet.
Becca: It was really good…
Sabel: We were flying.
Maura: I love it.
Sara: I had taken my shirt off.
Sabel: Yeah, you did.
[All laugh]
Sara: And then God was like [sternly] “More.”
[All laugh]
Sara: But I, um…
Becca: He was smiting you.
Sara: Yeah, I slipped on a cable. It was a very slippery stage. I had a fabric cable, and I slipped on that cable, and then I felt something pop.
Tori: Oh, no…
Sara: This girl heard it from the audience…
Sabel: I forgot about that part…
Sara: I had dislocated my kneecap. My knee cap was on the side of my leg.
Tori: [gasps] Oh, my God. Ouch.
Becca: Our friend ran over and touched it. [laughs]
Sara: Yeah, Remy touched it.
Becca: It was my friend who was doing media, actually.
Sara: She was like…
Becca: “Uh, 911?”
Sara: I had to go in an ambulance and…
Sabel: She was stuck on stage for 40 minutes!
Sara: I was on stage 40 minutes. I’m panicking. It was an insane pain.
Sabel: She’s panicking, sobbing, obviously, because – did you know this?
Sara: What?
Sabel: Did you know that a knee dislocation is the most painful knee injury you can have.
Sara: Well…
Becca: I’m sure it is!
[Laughter]
Sara: That makes sense.
Sabel: Even though the recovery’s better than a break, it hurts much more.
Becca: It’s just like deeply wrong. It’s just really not…
Sabel: [laughs] It’s wrong. It’s so wrong.
Tori: That’s my biggest fear you can kind of move it around … And I just hate that. I hate that you can.
Sara: Be careful. Look out for… cables. It’s feeling better and, I mean [gesturing to Becca and Sabel] these guys were so sweet.
Sabel: [Sara] was crying the entire… maybe 30 minutes. And that entire 30 minutes, this girl was trying to get our Snapchat… She was holding up her phone right at the barricade trying to get our attention.
Sara: And I’m on stage, the band is surrounding me.I am sobbing.
Becca: She’s just like “You got snap?” Like, girl…
Tori: Here’s the thing: do you have Snapchat?
Kid Sistr In Unison: No!
Tori: Okay, just wanted to make sure.
[All laugh]
Sabel: We have way too many other things. We are capping it there.
Tori: I deleted [Snapchat] 10 years ago.
Maura: I had Snapchat at the beginning of college… [whispers] and I graduated college 10 years ago next year… It was really fun to communicate that way.
Sabel: (Imagine) Sara’s snapping from the hospital, like, “This is for the girl who just followed me!”
[All laugh]
Sara: Actually, I did “drunk text” them.
Sabel: [laughing] She “ketamine texted” us.
Sara: I’m sober, and then to pop my knee back in, they gave me a f*cking mainline of ketamine. I was tripping. I was hallucinating. And I kept being like, “Becca… Sabel…” And the nurse was, like, “Ain’t nobody here…”
Becca: No… In the hole.
Sara: And then I was, like, kind of coming in. I just, I haven’t been drunk in years, and I was, like, “Right now, I am drunk.” And I texted a lot of people.
Maura: Amazing.
Sara: Yeah, thank you for asking. I’m doing better.
Maura: I’m glad you’re okay.
Maura: In LA, or if you know someone in New York, who’s on your Local Radar? What are some new upcoming artists that you think people should lend an ear to?
Becca: I mean, I’m going to have to go with my diva Ggwendolyn. She’s an artist that I’ve played with a bunch of times. She’s putting out new music, and it’s really so good. Her artist’s name is Ggwendolyn with two “G’s”.
Maura: Okay.
Becca: “Guh-gwendolyn.”
Sara: “My good friend, Guh-Gwendolyn.”
Becca: She’s really amazing. (The music) is not experimental, but it’s slightly left of center, pop music. I think it’s so good.
Sarah: Mine, I’ll go New York, which is Uhm Jennifer, the great, great band Um Jennifer.
Maura: Yeah, we love Um, Jennifer.
Sara: Eli and Fig are the best, and I think the next record is just gonna be so good. So that’s on my radar. Go to the show! It’s easily one of the best shows.
Maura: Didn’t they have a video, or maybe it was a story tease of Um Jennifer ending?
Sara: Yes.
Maura: I was like “No, what the f*ck?! Your fan base is crazy…. It can’t be…” I loved their show. I know someone who’s very close friends with Fig who had invited me to their show and… it was one of the best times I’ve ever had. And so, yeah, they can’t end… I was punked or whatever by the video, so it works. I got got.
Sabel: I’ll go New York too… My hometown friend is in a band called Lip Critic. They are hardcore. They’re sick, and the shows that they do are just, like, fucking crazy. They had ashow at a boxing ring.
Tori: So cool.
Sabel: I had so much FOMO.
Maura: They performed at a loudromat!
Sabel: They also don’t use, like, a rig or anything. It’s f*cking insane. It’s crazy. I don’t know how… (Conor’s) brain works.
Maura: Lip Critic is incredible.
It’s your radio station… So a little bit based on your sound, but also your individual tastes, what are 3 tracks you’re each going to play on the radio? WAIT, If you wouldn’t be so embarrassed, would you tell us what your arm repeat top song is on Spotify?
[A moment of confusion attempting to figure it out]
Becca: “The Cure” by Olivia Rodrigo. And the second one is the new Violet Grohl single. And the third one is our song “Boys in Skirts.”
Maura: [laughs] “I’m my own biggest fan!”
Becca: Let’s go.
Sabel: My number one song is “Crank” by Slayyyter.
Maura: Nice.
Sabel: Then I have Wet Leg. I have “Rock Music” by Charli XCX.
Tori: Love that.
Sabel: I also have Die Spitz. I have Throw Yourself to the Sword. I have the new Haley Williams album.
Becca: Oh, me too! Oh, we have almost like identical… Funny, same.
Sabel: Then I have a Lip Critic song, actually!
Sara: My On Repeat is “Bomb’s Over Baghdad” by Outcast.
Tori: [laughs]
Maura: Fun.
Sara: “Red Chevy” by Holly Homerstone. And “My Best Friend’s Girl” by The Cars. And then another band who I won’t name.
[Sabel laughs]
Sara: Who are our friends.
Maura: Is it that bad?
Tori: Do we get to know?
Sara: No, it’s not bad.
Sabel: She just has, like, an obsession, and we just… roast her for it. People can guess what it is. They just don’t get to know the answer.
Maura: How many guesses do we get?
Sabel: No, I’m saying, whoever’s reading (gets to guess). Reading.
Maura: Oh, okay, okay. We’re gonna leave them with a little bit of… mystery… A fill-in-the-blank…
Sabel: Exactly. Exactly.
Maura: And last question for each of you. Dream band to open for tour with?
Becca: Paramore.
Sara: Paramore.
Sabel: Sorry, it’s not a unique answer but it’s true.
Maura: That’s totally fine. Haley Williams is incredible.
Tori: There doesn’t need to be a unique answer. Paramore is an amazing band.
Sabel: Like, on this cycle, I would love to open for Charlie XCX.
Tori: That would be so cool…
Becca: Playing actual rock music.
Sara: “Rah ah ah ah ah ah ck” [Or however you phoneticize “Rock Music” by Charlie XCX]
Becca: She needs a rock band.
Tori: She needs a rock band to open for her.
Sara: [repeats] “Rah ah ah ah ah ah ck”
Sabel: And then also Olivia Rodrigo.
Becca: I would love that.
Sabel: Die Spitz is opening for her… Devon Again…
Becca: It’s like all of our favorite bands are opening for her.
Sabel: It’s crazy. She has the best taste.
Becca: I’m having like the craziest FOMO in the entire world.
Sara: She’s the number one taste maker in the music industry. She’s the number one girl, with the number one band.
Maura: We’re gonna manifest this for you by putting this article out there. Thank you, guys.