This show was special. It was special to many people because they got see a reunion of a past favorite. It was special to me because I got to see one of my favorite bands that I had never seen before. I got to Boston at the same time Fat Creeps started to take a break, and got introduced to their music by being a fan of Mariam's band, Bong Wish, and Gracie's band, Gracie. This show was packed by 10:15, which is good, because it meant that Alaina Stamatis had a full house for her insane opening comedy ritual. The Lilypad was decorated almost like a prom, with nice lights, projections, a shiny fringe curtain behind them, and big hand-made Fat Creeps lettering out of tin foil and cardboard, made my Mariam, framing the stage. They played familiar hit after hit, with an even mix of songs from their 2012 EP and 2014 LP, and the two new songs they put up on their bandcamp in the wake of the shows announcement. To me, there is nothing more comforting than seeing a band you really like playing a set of songs you already know and love. It was one of those shows that reminds you why you love bands and why you love music and why you would want to go see bands play music. Mariam and Gracie were joined by Tommy Allen on drums for a majority of the show, but then pulled former drummer, Travis Hagan, out of the audience to see what he remembered in a very improvised encore.
Before the show, I got to interview Gracie Jackson and Mariam Saleh. They talked about their relationship, their roots, what it’s been like revisiting the Fat Creeps music, the future, and a Chinese food restaurant in Saugus. Read below.
Keeley: How did you guys meet?
Gracie: We meet at a Chinese restaurant.
Mariam: No!
G: Yeah we did! At Kowloon, in Saugus. It’s good. And then the rest is history.
M: That’s it, we met at a food place.
G: We officially were introduced at the Chinese restaurant.
M: That’s when we got to be friends, I would say.
G: Yeah, we didn’t officially hang out for like another year.
M: She danced at this Chinese food restaurant and I watched because I was really stoned, I remember that. She was boogieing on the dance floor, and I was like “cool.”
G: They have this boat.
M: If you look online you’ll see what it looks like, it’s crazy.
G: It’s a really nice restaurant.
K: Was you relationship initially musical?
M: Yeah. Definitely.
G: Yeah, I guess so.
M: I heard she wrote songs and played guitar, and I thought that was cool so we became friends. She has cool taste in music and she thought I had cool taste in music. We were exchanging mix CDs.
G: Oh yeah.
M: It was pretty much music like right away.
K: How have you changed as artist since Fat Creeps began?
G: I’ve gotten more into yacht rock and smooth music.
M: Smooth jams.
G: Yeah.
M: I feel like we’ve just progressed as musicians, our instruments and our songwriting, our taste. We’ve expanded our minds for music and everything. We’re introduced to new genres and whatever, and have explored those sort of things.
G: That’s a better answer than I had.
K: How do you approach working of Fat Creeps differently than working on Bong Wish or Gracie?
G: it’s better collaborating with someone.
M: That’s better much it.
G: It’s cool. Being on your own sucks. I mean, it’s cool, but it’s just so hard.
M: So basically, the different is we’re doing it alone rather than together. It can definitely be more difficult and lonely at times I feel like.
K: What do you like about collaborating with each other?
M: Everything!
G: Basically, we make a good team. We may not always seem eye to eye on things, but we work well together.
M: We always laugh at the end of the day.
K: What about the relationship works? What’s the dynamic?
M: Well, here we go.
G: You should ask out marriage counselor about that.
M: Basically, we’re just kind of complementing ourselves right now and it’s kind of hard.
G: So like, sometime you write a song, and your like ‘These lyrics are kinda lame. I like this line, but this one sucks.’ Or you write a song where it’s all words but you don’t like the guitar part that you write. And then when we get together we kinda say like ‘Oh yo, fuck that. I got a line for this.’ You know what I mean?
K: Yeah.
M: We help each other bring it home. Like say I’m not feeling great about a song, but I like the idea of it, she’ll help me smooth it out, as I will do the same with her.
K: Why did Fat Creeps go on hiatus?
M: Pretty much do our own projects for a little while.
K: Why did you decide to play again?
G: Because it’s sick.
M: It is so fun and we missed it.
K: What has it been like to revisit the old songs?
G: I missed the shit out of playing those songs.
M: It’s been super fun. I kinda forgot how much fun it was.
G: They are harder than I thought.
M: I know! Same here. I was like ‘Oh yeah, they’re gonna be so easy.’ But then when we played then, I was ‘Damn man, we rocked these out, like a lot.’ It’s been interesting, it’s been a learning experience after not doing it for two years.
K: How do you find the courage to share personal stuff in your music?
G: I wouldn’t say I’m courageous at like, I just couldn’t write a song that I make up. You know what I mean? It’s self-expression. You express yourself through your music, so whatever’s going on comes out.
M: True that.
K: What are some of your biggest inspirations and influences?
M: That’s all over the place. I feel like I’m constantly inspired by things. It’s not like one thing certain thing in general. It can be a mood, it can be a smell. It could be a song or a harmony. It’s all over the place for me. I get pretty inspired pretty easily. Especially living in New England, there’s so many different seasons and smells.
G: Yeah, me too.
K: Do you have any future plans for Fat Creeps?
M: Yeah, I feel like we always do.
G: You know, like toss ideas around.
M: There is always something in the works, but sometimes it takes a little bit longer.
K: Is there anything new or anything you want to do differently when doing Fat Creeps this time?
G: It’s so much more fun when you don’t have to be so serious about it.
M: That’s how I feel too.
G: We’ve both chilled out. We’ve gotten old. I’m like 26, I’m gonna die soon.
M: I think that. Before, we took it a little too seriously. Maybe got a little too ego driven. I feel like we’ve both mellowed out and centered ourselves a little bit more in the past two years, so now it’s just like easy to communicate.
K: What are the plans for Bong Wish and Gracie?
G: I’m moving to Wyoming.
M: What are you doing there Gracie?
G: I’m working. I’m a travel nurse. I moved out to California to do some music, and now I’m ready to go back to work for a little while. So maybe we’ll come out with a country album or something.
M: You got something going on right now. You’re in the works. You’re recording.
G: Yeah, yeah. I’ve been working on an album. Maybe it will come out later this year. It’s like yacht rock. It’ smooth.
K: What is yacht rock?
M: Like The Doobie Brothers. Do you know them?
K: I’ve heard the name.
G: You know, it’s like California makes you write smooth music, so I wrote some smooth music. So I’m gonna release an album of smooth music. And we’ll see.
K: What about Bong Wish?
M: I’m recording my album right now.
