Dirty Little Rabbits Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 16th 2010 3:30PM by Kevin Chen
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Bringing together powerfully haunting vocals mixed with precision and passion, Dirty Little Rabbits, from Des Moines, Iowa, hold within them a sound that many desire to create but seldom achieve. Spinner speaks with singer Stella Katsoudas about their music, their influences and how Dirty Little Rabbits drummer Shawn Crahan -- also of Slipknot -- coaxed her from Los Angeles to Iowa.

How did the band come together?

I've been friends with Shawn for 13 years, and then these two guys showed up in L.A. and asked me to sing on a song that they wrote. Unbeknownst to me, I was auditioning for Dirty Little Rabbits. After that, it was a done deal. They asked me to move to Des Moines and leave L.A., where I had been writing and had basically left music and performance. So they kind of pulled me out of retirement.

Where did the band name come from?

It was from a song we wrote called 'Rabbit Hole.' It's about the music industry and how dirty it is. But since we're caught up in that machine, we're dirty rabbits, too. So it really made sense to us.

How would you describe your sound?

That's a great question. When I decided to join this band, it was not because I wanted to be a performer again. The thing that made me leave L.A. was the fact that the sound of the music is like nothing I'd ever heard before. We're a crossover band, crossing over into different genres. People can't pinpoint it, and, honestly, I can't, either. You just gotta listen. It's like the American Indians when they saw the white man for the first time. Seeing something indescribable for the very first time, it was both interesting but terrifying. That is what we are: interesting and terrifying.

Who are some of your musical influences?

Pink Floyd, big time. Zeppelin, the Doors, the Beatles.

What are some of the challenges in being a woman in the music industry?

The entertainment world itself is harder for women. We're still recovering from the Hollywood mentality with the studios and the starlets and the Marilyn Monroe era regarding the lines they had to cross in order to survive. Even though women are strong thanks to the feminist movement, we demand to exist in this industry without having to cross those lines anymore.

Do you have any advice for artists?

Just be yourself. Represent your music in an honest way and don't take yourself so seriously. Have a sense of humor. You gotta laugh at yourself.

What's one of the most memorable experiences you've had on tour?

Every show there's something strange that happens. There's something that goes amazingly wrong. I get hurt a lot onstage, getting a ton of bruises -- it comes with the territory. During one of our London shows, I grab one of [the drummer's] sticks and go bananas on the cymbals during the finale. I hit the cymbal 23 times, and on one of the hits my thumb hits the cymbal instead of the stick, and I literally cut the top of my thumb off and shatter my thumbnail. There was so much blood, and [the] drum kit was just covered in blood.

What's in your festival survival kit?

Here's where being a girl comes in: I've got my five dresses that I worked with a designer to make. They're these sheer dresses with flesh-colored rhinestone outfits underneath. And the rest is pretty much makeup.

Who was your first celeb crush?

Oh, man, I can't answer that because he's still alive and I've actually met him a couple times. I'll plead the Fifth on that one.

If you were to create a meal inspired by your music, what would you be eating?

Probably an incredibly rich banana split. Every flavor of ice cream. Because we are nuts. We are bananas.

Kevin Chen is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.