Interview: Hank and Cupcakes

Hank & Cupcakes @ The Studio at Webster Hall

Interview & Photos by Star Child

Hank and Cupcakes is a drum and bass dance pop duo from Brooklyn, NY, originally from Tel Aviv, Israel.  They have a new EP they're showcasing at a CD release show this Wednesday night at NYC's Le Poisson Rouge. The EP features four songs including the wildly catchy "Pleasure Town" and "Aint' No Love," the Joy Division cover "She's Lost Control," ballad "Roses" plus a music video. This duo has its own sound that is undeniably poppy, with a live performance that is mesmerizing. Sagit ,better know as Cupcakes, serves as both drummer and singer, where she plays standing up, even dancing around during her performance; while bassist Ariel or Hank plucks those sweet, jammy bass lines that make you dance. Though just a two-piece, Hank and Cupcakes sound is full. Read about how the band formed, their folk influences, recent tour, upcoming show, and much more.

SBM: Tell me about how the band started.

Cupcakes: We started around two years ago as a band. We were doing other musical projects together for quite a long time, 8 years but we just felt like we wanted to start something new and Ariel/ Hank suggested one day to go into the studio to see what comes out and we did that. So we started rehearsing pretty intensively and that's pretty much how it started.

SBM: Where did you start?

Hank: We started in Tel Aviv. When we started working on this band we already had iit n mind to come to New York. We had plans and it just a matter of time before we come here.

SBM: What kind of music did you play before Hank and Cupcakes?

H: We had a trio together which was kind of acoustic and folkish oriented. But we also did projects of our own apart from each. I played bass for singers and bands in Israel and wrote songs for an artist. Played drums and all of those things.

SBM: So, you have different types of influences?

C: Our influences are very very different than the style that we're playing now because we're both big fans of Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Beatles you know that sort of folky old school stuff.

H: Also I'd say a lot of rock n roll. Zepplein, Hendrix.

C: I listened to Plastic Beach by The Gorillaz yesterday and I loved it but that's not what we usually listen to.

That's cool that your influences don't directly sound like what you guys are playing.

C: We're creating out of a big blank space in our brains. 

SBM: What is the music scene like in Tel Aviv?

C: It's quite local. We find that it's quite confined especially for music like ours. It's a little less open to new things and experimental things so that's why we had the urge to leave and come to New York. Which is one of the most throbbing heartbeats of the world in music and that's why we did it basically because it was kind of hard to get people to open themselves up and listen to what we were doing.

H: I have to say that during our last visit there we did have a feeling that things are opening up and a lot of the new young bands are singing in English and it sounds cool and they're playing really cool music.

C: Some things are evolving in a good way in the music scene in Israel at the moment.

SBM: I personally think the EP is really great and it's cool it comes with a video for “Pleasure Town.” I haven't seen the whole EP / music video combo in a while, so that was nice. Tell me a little bit about the song in general.

C: It's actually interesting because "Pleasure Town" is actually a song I wrote in Tel Aviv dropping Ariel off to a studio recording session and I just don't know why, but I pulled out my notebook and just started writing the words down. You can say I was inspired by Tel Aviv for this song. It's interesting because "Aint No Love" is the first song we wrote in New York. So this EP has both worlds combined in it.

SBM: Was that the idea of the video being shot at Coney Island? Was that the band's idea or the directors idea?

H: That was the director [Matt Bockelman's] idea.
C: He's amazing.
H: He's brilliant. He usually does documentary films.

SBM: I thought it was cool video. Fun and nice. Fairly simple, but it definitely showed off the band.

C: And also the whole thing of Coney Island. It was a twist on pleasure town because Coney Island, with all the freaks and everything. It was kind of like taking the idea of Pleasure Town and giving it a little twist.

SBM: The Joy Division cover sounds more dancey and Hank and Cupcakes styled than the original. How did you decide to cover that?

H: I just had that song in mind. I really, really like Joy Division. I was really blown away when I saw videos of them and heard their music. It had a very big impact. I was pushing to do that song.

C: I saw a feature film about Ian Curtis and that turned me on and the next day we started working on it.

SBM: I noticed the sort of video back drop at your Webster Hall show. Do you do that all your shows?

C: It's something new we started doing. It was like the second or third show like that in New York. We were on tour in London and Israel. The day before we left the guy Alex...who did the video stuff for it gave us a cd and we finally had it in the last month.

SBM: Cupcakes, how is it standing up to play drums because I haven't seen someone play drums like that. Obviously, pretty much drummers sit down. Did it come natural that you would be standing while you play drums? Tell me about that.

C: Well actually I was sitting down like all normal drummers in the beginning. When we were rehearsing I just found it difficult to project my voice properly because I was kind of bent over and sitting down. One day in rehearsal I just tried standing up and it came to me really really naturally and it was much much easier for me to sing that way, so we just kept it like that. It started off as a practical thing but it's pretty cool to drum standing up. Something more open about it, feels more tribal, and more free.

SBM: What are you favorite venues you like to play at?

C: I think in Manhattan, Piano's would be our favorite.

H: Yeah. In Brooklyn we usually play either at The Cameo or Brooklyn Bowl. Brooklyn Bowl is much bigger but those are the places we play the most and we also enjoy playing.

SBM: How was your recent London and Israel tour?

C: It was really really excited. London was our first time we were there, so it was just a big adventure for us you know. Starting in a new place and performing to a new crowd. They really loved it so it was a lot of fun. Israel was a very big surprised for us because we got a lot of attention and a lot of people saw our shows, and the band's and that was really amazed. We're going back in June to play with Gorillaz Soundsystem, and Placebo [at PIC-NIC Festival], so that's something we're very excited about. 

How did that come festival about?

H: A friend of mine in Israel showed the videos of us from youtube to the guy who's producing this festival. The guy just really liked it. The same guy showed the videos to another guy from their production company. They did the booking and PR and everything. Turned out they wanted us to do this. We're very very excited about this.

SBM: How big is the festival?

C: There's going to be 15,000 people at the show.

SBM: I've noticed there's been a lot of duo groups particularly with that male/ female dynamic. You have The White Stripes, Mates of State, Handsome Furs, Matt and Kim. Do you feel like you get lumped in to these duo groups a lot?

C: Sometimes people off the top of their heads think 'oh, you're a duo-White Stripes,' but when they see the show we never get compared to any other duos because it's different. The fact that two people are playing in a band doesn't necessarily mean there's a common denominator.

SBM: I agree. People tend to make comparisons of bands on things that don't really matter or relate to each other.

C: Even your hair looks like the singer from Yeah Yeah Yeahs (laughs). We're really trying not to think about things that way.

H: You gotta remember two-piece is comfortable congo. You can rehearse. There are a lot of advantages in this kind of band. I think musically we don't have anything to do with The White Stripes or any of those bands.

SBM: Again, I agree. I think you have your own sound. That sort of dancey, poppy, '80s sound just only drum and bass.

C: We like all those definitions you just said.

SBM: How would you describe your sound?

C: Obviously we don't like describing it but on the other hand we don't have any choice because we're always asked to describe it. First of all it's minimalist because it's really just the two of us. Alot of times there are duos on stage but they have computers going and all kind of pre-recorded tracks going. It's some kind of minimalist music. Second, it's really pop music just in a really different constellation but it's still pop.

We put a lot of effort into that. Each song takes us quite a while to work on until its complete because it's so challenging to create that full sound. It doesn't come easily it's something that we really have to put thought into. Basically it's just the bass other than me playing the drums. The only actual instrument is the bass guitar, so there's a lot of thought into how do we make this sound really full and not like where's the guitar and the keyboard player?

SBM: At your Webster Hall show you played a song that you said was really heavy. That was really different from your main set. What was that?

C: I always feel like that song is my therapy session. Getting all this darkness out of my soul. Poor audience has to deal with it. People can actually really connect to this song for some reason.

H: and we usually don't finish with it. We definitely have a dark side in us musically. Maybe special to me. I don't know. It's like a dialogue between that and all the poppy and funky and groovy things which we also really really like. I really like that song.

SBM: Finally, tell me about your EP release show at Le Poisson Rouge this Wednesday. I saw it's only 6 dollars and The Aviation Orange is playing. 

C: Yeah we asked for them to keep the price as low as possible because we really want everyone to have an opportunity to come to the show. It's a really nice venue. It's going to be a really exciting night for us. We're showcasing our music. Hopefully there will be a lot of people in the audience who might influence our lives afterwards. We're very excited to play Le Poisson Rouge. We've seen a lot of shows there and we love that venue. It's a really cool and sexy place. We're looking forward to the show. It's gonna be big.

SBM: Cool and sexy venue for a cool and sexy band.

C & H: (laughs)

Aviation Orange is on at 7:30pm. We're on at 8pm. 

Le Poisson Rouge is located at 158 Bleeker Street, New York, NY. 7pm Doors.