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The following interview is with the great new power-pop band Kara's Flowers. It was conducted in a SUBWAY Sandwich restaurant just down the street from the world famous Whiskey in Hollywood, Ca. As soon as you finish reading this, you should definately run out and buy their debut album The Fourth World.


SKAb: Alright, let's get the basics out of the way. Please state your name, age, and position in the band.

Jesse: Hi, I'm Jesse Carmichael, I'm 18, I play the guitar and sing the background stuff.

Adam: Hi, I'm Adam. I play the guitar and do the lead singing, and I always enjoy a nice juicy Subway sandwich.

Mickey: I'm Mickey, I'm 18, I play the bass. How ya' doin'?

SKAb: You guys are quite young, how long have you been playing together?

Adam: Since 9th grade

Mickey: Three and a half years, since the ninth grade. Our drummer (Ryan) whose not here at the moment, is two years older so he was a junior.

SKAb: So, how did you guys land a major label deal at such a young age?

Jesse: Slept our way to the top

Mickey: Yeah seriously. Slept with the president of Reprise.

Jesse: We were very fortunate to have friends who gave our tape to people, that we made with these two producers who ran an independent label. We made an album, took some pictures, and instead of putting it out on Caroline records, we decided to shop it around, and we got some major label interest from labels like Atlantic and a couple of other labels. And then when we signed with our management company even more labels became interested. And then it got down to either Rob with Reprise or Epic and Atlantic. And then we narrowed it down to Rob and Reprise.

SKAb: So, the Management Company, are they the ones who got you on Beverly Hills 90210?

Mickey: Yeah, that's all their department. Actually theirs, and the label too.

SKAb: Can we look for you on any upcoming TV shows?

Mickey: Hopefully we'll be on something soon. Like a late night variety type show. Type thing.

Jesse: Conan! We want to be on Conan so bad!

SKAb: But you'd settle for Vibe?

Mickey: Yeah

SKAb: We are now going to take a question from Metal Edge. Here's the question they always ask about an album: Tell us about the songs.

(All laugh)

Mickey: Well, there's eleven of them. Most of them are in the 2 ½ minute to 5 minute range. They're good songs, that feature guitars, bass, and drums. These are 11 songs that we've written over the past two years or so. We had about 17 songs we originally wanted to put on the album, but we narrowed it down to these 11. We tried to get a good variety dynamically, and we hope you like them.

SKAb: Who picked "Soap Disco" as the first single and video?

Adam: It was pretty much unanimous.

SKAb: What does "Soap Disco" mean to you?

Mickey: To me? Well, Adam wrote the song, it's like part of this big story, this big trilogy, "future kid" an "never saga kid" but anyway, I sort of think of it as, in with the new, out with old. Like creating a new sound type vibe. A lot of people have different interpretations of it. A lot of people think it's about, you know those discos in New York and Europe where they fill up the floor with soap bubbles? A lot of people think it's about that.

SKAb: Now the song "Oliver," is that about the Brady Bunch's cousin, or...

Mickey: No

Jesse: It's about the sexually transmitted disease, right?

Adam: No, it's not. It's about. (Pauses to belch) It's about...

Mickey: The musical

Adam: The musical

Jesse: It's a sequel to the musical, with less acting.

SKAb: Is "The Fourth World" a concept album? Is there a whole story we should be following?

Mickey: Oh yeah. It's the "Tommy" of the nineties. No, actually it's not at all.

SKAb: You're thoughts on legendary glam rock group Poison? You know you're on their old stomping grounds, here at The Whiskey.

Adam: I am honored to be playing on the same stage that Bret Michaels strutted his butt on. Along with Rikki Rocket, CC DeVille and the bass player.

Mickey: Poison had some good songs. They were pretty good. It was cool because they were early on, and they were kind of like The New York Dolls, and Mott The Hoople, but they kind of took it a little too far, to the extreme of rock.

Adam: Motley Crue is the one band I like.

SKAb: How would you catagorize your sound? What do we call your style of music?

Mickey: Usually we just say "Power Pop" because it encompasses the melodic, funky kind of pop. Energetic. We have so many influences, and listen to so much music, it all just kind of comes out in our music, so it's hard to generalize. But "power pop" usually works.

SKAb: On your album, you got to work with Roger Manning Jr., the keyboard player from Jellyfish. How were able to hook up with him?

Mickey: Our engineer and mixer, Jerry Finn, hooked us up with him actually. He was great. He was totally cool. Really great guy. He had some great ideas too. And I love Jellyfish and I like Imperial Drag a lot too. I was so happy work with him, to meet him, and talk to him.

SKAb: So, is tonight's performance the end of a tour, the beginning of a tour, or just a special event?

Jesse: It's the end of the Reel Big Fish/Aquabats tour. It's the preview of the Goldfinger/Save Ferris Tour.

Adam: For some reason, ska bands really like us. Even thought we're not really a ska band.

Mickey: Not even at all

Jesse: Not really. Almost a ska band, but we just can't hack it.

SKAb: How are you received at these ska shows, when you're the only non ska band on the bill?

Adam: Actually, really well.

Mickey: There are always the few purists who are very closed minded, who tell us we'd be better if we had horns. Silly stuff like that. But it's fine. I mean, I really like traditional ska. The point is the kids come to dance, and have fun, and jump up and down and like happy music, so it's compatible.

Jesse: Let's not forget the Aquabats. They just became really good friends of ours, because they are so nice and so funny, so we got along really well. I think they're going to be touring with Goldfinger and us when Save Ferris takes off, because they're selling more records than Goldfinger.

SKAb: Here you are giving SKAb Pickers an interview, now tell us some of the bigger interviews you've given the media.

Mickey: Some pretty big media in Indonesia and Japan. Mostly zines. Music Connection. Those types of magazines. Newspapers.

Jesse: Billboard, CMJ.

SKAb Pickers. Yeah, but tell us about being in Teen Beat!

Adam: And Bop!

Jesse: How could we forget?! We are going to be in every little girls' magazine.

Adam: When we get to New York, we have a meeting with Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, Superteen

SKAb: And this cool with you guys?

Mickey: It's fine. It's definitely good.

Adam: All of our fans are fourteen

Jesse: Better girl fans than guys, right? I'm just kidding.

Mickey: We love girls and guys.

SKAb: In your posters and in the pictures in your album, you're all wearing suits. Originally is that how you were all to be dressed for performances and everything?

Mickey: We like to give off a professional presence. It's classy and we sort of want to raise the standard in that respect. We just like to pull ourselves together. Jesse and I are usually the ones in suits, most of the time.

Jesse: I'm the casual one.

SKAb: So it was never as though you were all supposed to be uniform?

Mickey: Not necessarily. We never made a conscious decision. The photographers also kind of wanted it that way for the unity. And we also like the idea of a neat looking, real sharp image. And we want to keep that image. You know, we're always conscious of the way we look even when we're not in suits.

SKAb: Is it difficult to get your songs played on the radio? Because out here we have crappy stations, so like what stations will play your style of music?

Adam: The hardest station would obviously be KROQ, because they're number one in the country and they set the standards for all of the other stations. We've been relatively successful with air play in other parts of the country.

Mickey: Also KROQ is very afraid to play anything out of its format and right now they're stuck in their ways. Things seem to be getting more poppy, and more happy which is good. But at this point if it's not electronic or if it's not ska it's like it's kind of hard to get on there. Also, this is the time of year when a lot of big bands release albums, near the end of the year, around Christmas time. So it's hard for a baby band to get air play.

SKAb: Who are some of your influences? Who or what made you want to pick up the guitar, or bass?

Mickey: The Kinks, The Beach boys, The Jam, Stone Roses, Pavement, Blur, Radiohead. Radiohead is our favorite.

Jesse: The Who, Elvis Costello, Weezer.

Mickey: The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder.

Jesse: Did we say The Beatles?

Adam: Yeah, The Beatles.

Mickey: Early glam. T-Rex, The New York Dolls.

Adam: Motley Crue definitely influenced me. I've got to say that. Motley Crue baby!

SKAb: How was working with Green Day producer Rob Cavallo?

Adam: He's our A&R guy too. He discovered us! No, just kidding. He went to one of our shows and flipped out. He loved us and immediately asks us to sign.

YES! There is more to this interview, and I'm sure you want to read it! It will be in SKAb Pickers issue #3 coming out soon! ORDER your copy here!

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