Words & Photos by Liam Walker
It was still cloudy when I finally got to the house at 5 o’clock. I had just made the walk across the UofM’s “Smartpark” to get there, Strawberry Punch Band’s jam space. The memory of seeing two girls there holding hands together on a boulder overlooking the park’s pond stands out to me for whatever reason.
I didn’t think I was going to make it on time, but despite the idea of being fashionably late growing on me, I made it to the interview at five on the dot, where Danielle greeted me at the door.
But where even am I? To do what? I think people would be surprised how often they lose track of where they are and for what reason — outside of a few arbitrary labels. Me personally, I’m here doing an interview with Strawberry Punch Band, a local band, at the house rented by bandmember Danielle, the band’s practice space has been set-up in the basement. What better place for a Space Jam?
Neither writing an article nor hosting an interview are things I’ve ever done before now, and even considering I was going into it generally unprepared. I took the assignment for the photography mainly, though, of course, it was also fun to interview a band.
Actually, come to think of it, outside of some phone pics, I’ve never really done photography before this either.
Daniell McDonald, Tuva Bergstrom, Freja Haight, and Brandy Lafond together all make up Strawberry Punch Band, a local up-and-coming twee-pop girlband. But again, these are just arbitrary labels, and I’m not even sure the right ones at that. “Up-and-coming” doesn’t do justice to how much the band has found themselves by this point despite only been formed for a year, and although twee pop is Strawberry Punch’s jam first and foremost, as on its own as a label hardly indicates how unique the band really is.
Danielle, official/unofficial bandleader, would go on to describe Strawberry Punch Band as “like frolicking through a field of strawberries on a summer day, surrounded by the cutest girls you’ve ever seen wearing frilly dresses.”
“BUT,” interjects Freja, “there’s angst.”
Right here is the core duality of the band: pink and frilly with overtones of darker moodiness. And they’re not so much flipping back and forth between the two as they are just both. I’d liken their vibe to a raven with lipstick in a red-violet bow, or Strawberry Shortcake with all the whites of its colour palette swapped for blacks.
“When the sun goes down,” adds Tuva, “it’s like the teenage lesbian angst of not being able to talk to women, which is so real.”
Strawberry Punch Band has found themselves a consistent, unique aesthetic, where they’re able to capture the full range girlhood while without being put into a box. It’s also an aesthetic their name represents well. Danielle couldn’t have put it any better, “You gotta take the strawberry with the punch.” Who said that originally, Confucian?
When talking with a four-member band for long enough you inevitably must ask the big question: “Which Beatle are each of you?,” which of course has already been discussed at length between them in the past.
Brandy, the *primary* drummer, defaults to being the Ringo.
It should be noted that I say “primary” because no member ever sticks to just one instrument in the band. They’re all multi-instrumentalists, and although they have instruments they default to, they often switch them around for certain songs. This is seen in, where it’s Danielle, the usual lead guitarist, on the drum set while Brandy takes centre stage.
Where was I? Yeah — Beatles, Brandy. Anyone being “the Ringo” gives the implication of just being the fourth one, but that’s not the case with Brandy, having the most diverse music taste of the band and would be the stand-out member of most other bands. The George Harrison of the group is easily Freja, the mystic “quiet one” who you can tell has more to say than what they choose to speak. Then finally the Lennon-McCartney of the band falls onto Danielle and Tuva. Which of the two is who could be argued, but they both are definitely the two most prominent presences of the band, at least in conversation.
But of course, what good is knowing where we are now if we don’t know where we’re heading? So where exactly *are* Strawberry Punch Band heading? On the band’s future, Tulva just had this to say: “Top of the Pops.” Brilliantly to the point. If you’re interested in the more immediate future (as of me writing this), you can catch the band performing at the Rainbow Trout Music Festival on August 18th. Also, although currently without a release date, their debut album is impending and is being expected on the horizon.
In the end, I’m brought back to this: where am I, and what am I doing? It may seem redundant; I’ve already asked and answered these questions earlier, but they’re both ones you have to ask/answer repeatedly and frequently—otherwise, you trail off. In fact, between the first and second times I’ve asked these two questions in this article, well over a month has passed in writing. I’m very late getting this into Stylus; I’m currently slapping on a couple of concluding paragraphs onto this old article draft for the sake of my own sanity. In fact, two months have passed now since I’ve done the interview with Strawberry Punch Band, and I think three-to-four since accepting the assignment. I have no idea how much longer until this is being read in an issue. The Neil Young lyric comes to mind, as it does often, “You know how time fades away.”
I like the photos when they’re out of focus anyway. You gotta take the strawberry with the punch.
