Teal Cheese got blessed with the opportunity to do press at this year’s 25th Anniversary celebration of Warped Tour in Mountain View, California. Our resident photographer, Belle Castillo, not only got a ton of amazing shots of the bands but also managed to make time for some interviews.
Most surprising to me was Monique Powell of the massively successful ska/pop-punk band Save Ferris. Belle and Monique discuss the band’s long hiatus, changes in the scene and a whole lot more:
BC: You’re a legendary ska/pop punk band. Seem like a logical choice for Warped 2019.
What bands are YOU most excited to watch play this year?
MP: “I am excited to see my friends, Fishbone, Goldfinger, and The Aquabats. Also Atreyu and The Used. I sang on a song for both of their records. (Lies For the Liars) and (Lead Sails Paper Anchors). What was interesting was that I had never met the guys in The Used until a couple months ago when we played together, and I literally sang on that album over 10 years ago. We finally met and he was like “its you, its your voice on my song. I am gonna meet the Atreyu guys today.”
BC: The Checkered Past EP came out in 2017. There was a pretty large gap between releases. Did you always know the band would come back and make more music?
MP: “I did not. For 10 years I basically sang in studios on other peoples records, I didn’t think I would be coming back. It just seemed so far away.”
BC: What happened?
MP: “I had been living with physical pain in my spine for over 10 years. I had been touring with it and didn’t know what it was. But it was progressively getting worse. In 2013 I got married and so I got good health insurance and I decided to get it checked. And I got this diagnosis that basically the bones in my neck were degenerating and that had created irreversible spine damage and my days of being able to walk were numbered.
I was losing mobility on the right side of my body. And for the surgery they would have to go through the front of the neck but the amount of damage would was so great that they would have to move my esophagus aside to get to it. I was told I would never be able to sing again. A couple of doctors asked me “do you wanna walk or do you wanna sing?”
Luckily a team of doctors got together at Cedars and went through the back of my neck and it was really dangerous to do the surgery that way. A lot of doctors didn’t want to assume the liability of my potentially coming out of the surgery paralyzed or me coming out not being able to sing. So these doctors worked a miracle and I said to my dad “if I wake up, if I can still walk and still sing then I will bring the band back.” When I woke up my dad’s face was right there and I was like “shit, I gotta bring the band back.”
BC: That is really strong of you to go through that, I really admire that.
MP: “Well, my dad was always a man of his word and I just couldn’t do that to him. And in the process of learning to literally hold my head up again, I brought the band back. I was sued by the ex members of my band who have a different idea of the story than I do. While I was recovering I spent two years fighting a law suit. And obviously the name is mine now. It’s definitely taken a lot of perseverance to bring the band back.”
BC: In your own words, what advice would you give to women who are struggling to come out on top on their own personal fields?
MP: “That’s a great question, because you know when Save Ferris first started in ’95 it was much more male dominated and there wasn’t like a social acceptance for women to have each others backs. They pitted us against each other all the time. Like if you can’t play with No Doubt, you cant have two women on the same bill. And it would happen a lot. Most of the people calling the shots were men. So when I came back out of my “retirement” I was just amazed. We did Warped Tour in 2017 (7 weeks) I was in awe of how everything has changed, and how women are so much more encouraged to support each other more and there is so much more body confidence and having that on our side.
Lean on your fellow ladies. Make sure you have your group of people that you can trust (doesn’t have to be all women). You can’t do this alone. I mean you can, but it is much harder.
Get your people together, people who you can trust, love you and give it to you straight. When you find those people, you work and cultivate those relationships so you can keep them. You need a good foundation and that’s how you can start. Another thing is, you need to be able to let things roll off your back. I was in my late teens early 20’s and I was, at the time, a size 12/14 and it was unacceptable in those days for a woman like me to be doing what I was doing.
So not only was I fighting this underlying misogyny and judgement but also just trying to do interviews like “can we not talk about my body right now? Can we talk about music?”
A really important part of this is to know yourself and love yourself. Do things that help you feel good about yourself. For me it’s helping people. Helping other women and people in need. You have to be great at self promotion but not be too pushy, there is some finesse to it. Just be a good person and people will come to you. You gotta put yourself out there.”
BC: Checkered Past seems to find you going more back to your ska roots. Was there anything in particular that helped you make that choice?
MP: “Well you know I had no idea what direction to go into after a 10 year hiatus. I didn’t know what was happening in the scene or what people were listening to. So basically I did an EP of 5 songs and each song had its own personality. That is what I tried to do and I felt like each song/personality was a different facet of Save Ferris’ personality throughout the years. Pop song, punk song, reggae song, a slower song, and we had a song called “New Sound” which was more modern, (under 21 fun sounding song) and I wanted to see what the public response would be to show me where to go with the full album.”
BC: And what was the response?
MP: “Whats interesting is that new song has done really well and the cutesy song that I wrote about my husband called “Anything”. That song has done really well too. It seems like people really like a modern kinda sounding Save Ferris but with the musicality of adults.”
BC: I have noticed that these last few years more people aren’t just listening to what is on the radio, people are digging and really learning about different types of music that is out there
MP: “Yeah and I love that. The history of music. I think that we have so much more access to information now. Like you know where this song came from and what inspired this and you know the stories behind the history of the music that I love.”
BC: How does it feel knowing that a younger generation will be seeing you for the first time at Wapred 2019?
MP: “(she laughs) It’s definitely been interesting. When we did Warped 2017 I didn’t know what to expect i thought that i was gonna walk out and there was gonna be a bunch of 20 year olds.
I was in like a time capsule for like 10 years. It was incredible because like the demographic had quadrupled in size. When we used to play we played for 15-25 year olds and now we are playing for 15-45 year olds. Like people are bringing their kids, it feels so wrong and so right, and it’s really special. So I try to do a show that speaks to a whole different, or more broad demographic.”
BC: Any plan for new music in 2019?
MP: “I have to. I am getting a full length album out this year. I had to put it aside for a bit while I got some life stuff together but I am back on track now and I will have it out by the end of the year.”
B: I am holding you to it
MP: “Yes please, I need someone to other than my manager. Thank you so much.”
Listen to Save Ferris’ EP, Checkered Past below:
FOLLOW SAVE FERRIS
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
YOUTUBE
SPOTIFY
APPLE MUSIC