We Never Wanted It To Be This Way

Chapter 5-

“People are mostly surprised when they see me play because I am so small, and a girl. They don’t really expect me to be bashing away at the drums and giving it my all. I believe the phrase often used at me is ‘Who would think such a small little girl could play like a fucking beast?’ I’m proud of that I guess.” I answered the question ‘What surprises people about you the most?’ to a nice young teenage girl who was conducting the interview.

“When did you all start playing?” The girl with curly strawberry blonde hair and icy blue eyes said sweetly.

I could tell she was really nervous, she had told us this was her first interview and her first job, and to make things worse, she said she was a huge fan of our music. Only just slightly nerve racking.

“Started playing together, or playing separately?” Hannah asked.

“Separately.” The girl said, mentally slapping herself.

“I started when I was twenty I think. Wasn’t that long ago.” Kat laughed.

“Well, I started drumming when I was eleven. But that was the age I was when I started getting proper lessons, I’ve technically been playing since I was about nine or ten. My Dad and used to teach me little basic drum beats and make me tap them out with my hands, that kinda made it easier when I actually started playing seriously.” I answered.

“I’ve always sang, but I’ve never really believed I was good enough to sing in front of people. I have no idea how that came up.” Sommer answered.

“I was eighteen when I started playing. I’d never really had a major thing for music until recently.” Hannah smiled.

Jazz laughed as she answered her part of the question “I’ve been playing guitar for just about as long as Pixie has. She started playing the guitar when she was… What was it, sixteen?”

“Yeah. Sixteen.” I said, with a mouth full of coke.

“So I was about sixteen, seventeen when I started playing my instrument.” Jazz nodded.

“So, by the looks of things, you all know how to play more than one instrument?” The girl asked; whose name I learnt was Katie.

“The only one that knows how to play more than one instrument fully is Pixie.” Hannah said.

“Really?” Katie asked, a little shocked.

“Well yeah. But Sommer knows how to play piano, does that count? That counts right?” I asked.

“Not really.” Sommer shook her head.

“Well fine.” I pouted.

“So what instruments can you play?” Katie asked me, writing things down frantically.

“Well, I can play drums, obviously, and I play guitar, and I play a little bit of bass, but I don’t know much on that, and I can play Mary Had A Little Lamb on piano.” I answered.

“And she can sing. She hates to admit it, but she can sing.” Jazz added.

“When did you started playing them?” The interview asked as I glared at Jazz.

“Umm… Drums was eleven. I decided I wanted to play guitar a few years after I’d mastered the drums, and I’d always wanted to play guitar just as much as drums, so I decided to pick that up. I don’t think I mastered the guitar a while after that, and I picked up a bass and wanted to learn not that long ago actually. Kat’s been showing me a few chords here and there, and Brett from In The Line Of Fire shows me what he knows when he can, so I’m getting there slowly.”

“You’re quite talented.” Katie complemented.

“Thank you.”

“Yeah, she’s like a walking one man band.” Kat laughed, along with everyone else including me.

“Expect it’d be kinda hard to play all them instruments at once.” I frowned.

“Do you think it is easier to pick up and learn another instrument once you already know one?” Katie asked, still continuing to write. Her hand is going to be so sore by the end of this interview.

“I think it is. I dunno. Just depends I guess. I mean, guitar was slightly that much easier cause with drums, you need to be coordinated; you need to have some sort of rhythm and beat in you. That helps with bass as well. Bass is just basically playing along with the drums. You know drums; bass is a breeze. But playing guitar, I didn’t think it was that hard, but my god.”

“So how did you all come together?” Kate asked.

“Is anyone going to answer this or am I going to have to?” I asked, looking around.

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

“Looks like I’ll have to.” I said sarcastically.

“We’ve all known each other since high school. We’ve been friends since we were about twelve.”

“So you’re all like sisters?” Katie guessed.

“Yeah. Pretty much. We’ve all been through a lot of shit together. Like, we’re all here for each other no matter what. And that what kinda makes it even better to be in a band with these people.”

“And one final question. How did the band kinda come together and get started?”

They all looked at me, expecting to answer.

“It’s better when Pixie answers, she has a more depth detail to how and why we started this band.” Jazz defended.

“I played in a lot of bands growing up really. I’ve always had that music influence in me; I have no idea from whom though. Music has always been a big part of my life, and when I started actually playing music, I kind of wanted more. I have no idea what band I was watching, but I was watching some live performance of some band, and I just kinda knew then that I wanted to be in a band. It wasn’t so much the money and the screaming fans, it was just kinda the thrill of going places and getting this amazing rush of doing something you love so much.
My first band I played in was like a hardcore rock band that I can’t remember the name to, but they were all guys expect for this one girl who sang. We played together for about a year and a half and there were a few arguments and the band broke up, but a few months of that happening, three year eleven guys came up to me and told me that they’d heard me play and thought that I’d be perfect to be in their band. That was huge for me, because for starters, I was only in year nine and a group of year eleven’s telling you, you played well and that they wanted you to be in they’re band as a replacement for their previous drummer who’d moved away was overwhelming. Plus they were playing local gigs! That was insane!
So that band lasted for a while, we went pretty well. And the guys got caught up with schoolwork, so we decided to call it off. I played in another band for not so long, and I couldn’t play with the people I was playing with, so I left and soon after I got bored with just played by myself, and I had this urge to play with others again, so I formed a band called Until Eternity and I played guitar. This was my first band that I had formed, and was my first at in a band other than drums. That, went on for a while, that only broke up a year or two ago, we did really well. And I decided that I wasn’t going to fuck around with bands all my life, cause we all know that being in a band isn’t always the safest option in making a living. So I went to Uni and got an actual proper job. And, something happened to me that I’d rather forget, I lost someone very close to me, someone that has been there for me since I was born, literally, and when that happened, I kinda fell apart. I wrote things, they weren’t actually poems or songs or stories or whatever, they were more kinda pieces of writing of my thoughts and feelings. I kept them all in this big sketchbook notebook thing, and somehow, these guys found it. They searched through it, and kinda put things together.” I explained.

“When we first got to them, they were all these bunch of random pieces, but if you really looked at them and put them together like a puzzle, they slowly started to come together as a poem. But as Pixie kinda slipped away from us more and more, we knew we had to do something so we all came together and suggested we all become a band because it was that one thing that Pixie has ever had a true passion about and loves it, when she plays, she’s this completely different person, she’s happy.” Jazz interrupted.

I sat back and let them tell the rest of it, I think I’d talked enough in this interview anyway.

“Pixie jumped at the idea, but freaked when we told her what type of material we’d be playing.” Jazz added.

“Yeah, she wasn’t too keen on the whole fact of us finding her work, and putting them together and playing it.” Hannah agreed.

“Pixies’ a great writer, she really is, she has this talent that draws you in. Her writing style is different to what everyone else writes about. She has some kind of insecurities about all that stuff so I thought it’d be a great thing for her just as much for the band.” Sommer said.

“So, we basically just, started jamming, we fixed a few things up our poems, that soon turned into songs.” I said.

“That’s the thing about our lyrics, if you really look carefully and just listen or read the words, you’ll realize that it’s more of a poem or story more than a song.” Hannah explained.

“Like a poem with background music.” Kat laughed.

“Yeah. And after a while, we had nearly all our songs to the way we wanted them, and we had gotten a few crappy local pub gigs, and that’s were we met an assistant from Eyeball Records, which is the label we are on now, and he pit in a good word for us, and that’s how we got connected with our manager Jack, and it all kinda really took off from there.”

“We never really intended on going that far, but when the chance was offered to you, we kinda took it and ran with it.”

“We didn’t even think we’d go that far. It was incredible.”

“And that is the story of Barbie Doll Suicide.” I concluded professionally.

“Thank you girls, it has been a pleasure interviewing you.” Katie said politely, standing and shaking each of our hands.

“Thank you.” We all said kindly.

“You should really take you’re journalism career seriously, you did a good job.” I complemented.

“Thank you. I will.” Katie blushed.

We all walked away smiling and talking. That was one of the good interviews. And it was the last for this tour. Which I was kinda glad about but kinda not. I like them, but I don’t.

We played a show tonight and a show tomorrow night then a show two days late on Sunday and we’re done. Next tour is then with My Chemical Romance. A tour that was going to leave a huge impact on me and the band, but we just didn’t know it yet…