Interview with Paul Haley and John Ramsburg of Thrill Ride

By Sonia Schnee | Posted Saturday, March 12, 2022

Punk n’ roll band, Thrill Ride, brought some much-needed joy to passersby in South Orange-Maplewood (SOMA, for short) when they decided to move their practice sessions outdoors during the pandemic. I spoke with Paul Haley (guitar/vocals) and John Ramsburg (bass/vocals) of Thrill Ride at the end of March 2021, and now, almost a full year later, it’s interesting to see what things have changed and what has stayed the same. Paul and John are both cool guys, so it was a blast to learn about the inspiration behind their sound, their songs, and how their music has been received locally as well as internationally.

Joined by their drummer, Will Kramer — plus the band Forget the Whale — Thrill Ride will be performing live at Picket’s Village Bar in Maplewood on Saturday, March 19th, 7-10pm. Be sure to check it out! Also, be sure to follow Thrill Ride on social media for up-to-date announcements about new recordings and shows.

Thrill Ride is on Portland, OR via NYC via Buffalo, NY's Honey Puller Records.

Watch our interview above, or read the transcript below.

(Video and transcript have been edited for time and clarity.)

What are your names, where are you from, and what do you do? What do you play?  

JOHN RAMSBURG: I'm John Ramsburg. I play the bass, I sing, and I write some of the songs in Thrill Ride.

PAUL HALEY: My name is Paul Haley. I'm the guitarist. John and I, we share songwriting responsibilities. We live in SOMA, NJ. I don't know what the outsiders think of that term, but we in South Orange or Maplewood call it "SOMA" for short. Will Kramer, our drummer, also lives in Maplewood.

Thrill Ride is actually the remaining members of our previous band, Dollar Store Riot. Thea Kearney, our singer at the time, needed to take a break. Dollar Store Riot went on hiatus, and John, Will, and I looked at each other and said, "Well, do we want to keep going or what?" We decided to keep going, so we came up with a new name, Thrill Ride, and we've been going ever since.

John came into the band shortly after Dollar Store Riot played Maplewoodstock back in 2016. It's probably the biggest musical event in Maplewood every year, every summer. Of course, last summer they canceled it because of the pandemic and, hopefully, we'll get back to that, but it's a very fun event. Dollar Store Riot had the opportunity to play. That was our original bass player's last show. I think John saw us playing and we offered him the job, which he happily took. Do I have the history right, John?

JOHN RAMSBURG: Yeah. So I've been friends with the drummer, Will, for quite some time. Our boys are the same age, went to school together. So when their bass player left, he knew that I played bass and asked me to audition. I got the part, learned all their songs, and we played for a while.

PAUL HALEY: It's kind of funny, John. You were in the band for, like, 17 minutes and then we put him in a Dollar Store Riot video.

JOHN RAMSBURG: Yeah, I'm in a video. It's not even my bass!  

For first-time listeners, how would you describe your sound, and who are your musical influences?

PAUL HALEY: Oh, God. It'll take me three days to list mine. You go first, John.  

JOHN RAMSBURG: Basically, your standard alternative garage. "Dad bands" is what they call us around town now. Our influences are The Police, The Clash, Buffalo Tom. All three of us come from very similar yet varied enough backgrounds where we each bring something interesting when we're working on new songs. If you liked to listen to 120 Minutes back in the day on MTV, you'd probably enjoy watching one of our shows.

PAUL HALEY: John and I share a bunch of favorite bands. When I hear our music, especially that last song that you added to the NJ Artists You Should Know (2021) playlist, "Shelf", it kind of reminds me of a The-Police-meets-The-Clash kind of thing.

I also hear a lot of what I like to call "punk n' roll." I hear Social Distortion. I hear many different influences coming in. Definitely, I wouldn't be playing guitar if it wasn't for bands like Buffalo Tom and The Lemonheads —that pop-influenced fuzz rock, overdriven rock, and things like that.

Will [Kramer] went to college out in the Seattle area — I think Evergreen State — and he grew up in the Boston area, so he definitely brings a lot of influences from there. It's kind of interesting how it all comes together. Will, John, and I definitely click. We could start playing something and it'll all start falling together.

Thrill Ride performs "Last Night" while in social isolation for a "Live" remote gig!

I saw that you did a quarantine series on social media and YouTube. Whose idea was that?

PAUL HALEY: Well, we just can't sit around. I mean, the funny thing is — and I kind of said this to the band — even though the pandemic hit last year, Thrill Ride was very productive, and I don't know if it was just a timing thing, but John, didn't we release like five or six songs?

JOHN RAMSBURG: Well, we got lucky in that we had gotten in the studio and recorded a bunch of scratch tracks right before they shut everything down. So then I was able to record from home and sent tracks in to our buddy, Tom. He does all of our mixing and recording. Will and Paul would pop in when it was safe. Paul gets tested every week, so it was safer for him to go in than for me. I was more comfortable staying home. But yeah, it was frustrating because we had planned a five-song EP. We recorded a bunch of the scratch tracks, and then we had to stop everything. So we used part of that to put out the videos. So, we all recorded separately, listening to the same song. I edited a bunch of it together and posted it up. Then when we had time, we'd work through one of the songs, get it mixed, and put it out. So then our five-song EP became this slow drip of singles that kept coming out. It kept us moving, which is good.

Congrats on your most recent release, "Catching a Reset." I like the lyrics!

PAUL HALEY: Oh yeah. Ha!

What's the story behind that? Is that about someone specific?

PAUL HALEY: I was trying to remember who wrote the lyrics, and I said, "Oh, wait, I wrote those!" I'll plead the fifth on a lot of that. Especially the chorus.

John handled that song very well. When he was learning to sing this song, I sent him the lyrics. Then when we went to record, he had the original lyrics that I had since revised. When I heard him do it, I was like, "I thought I gave you revised lyrics" and he was like, "No, these are it", and I'm like, "Well, those are the original lyrics." You remember that, John? I said, "OK, we'll leave that. I like that." I guess I had to hear the original ones again. I'm kind of glad that he got the original lyrics as opposed to the revised ones.

JOHN RAMSBURG: He had so many words per minute, it was off the charts, especially for one of our songs. We're very short, succinct. Tom Lucas, our engineer, said it's our “prog” song.

I like it! What's the name of Tom's studio?

JOHN RAMSBURG: Laughing Boys Recording.

PAUL HALEY: Laughing Boys is out of South Orange. I'll probably get this wrong a little bit, but Tom was a producer in New York for many years and then he built a home studio. It's a home away from home. He's a great guy, I mean, all-around good guy. He plays in every band in South Orange and Maplewood. I can't think of one band he never stepped into, except maybe ours. He added tracks to some of our songs, and even Dollar Store Riot songs. Some, we didn't even know he was going to do. I was listening to, I think it was the last Dollar Store Riot song we recorded. I heard organs in the chorus and I'm like, "Did we record that?" So I went to Tom. Tom, he is a sweetheart. I always say he's "the glue of SOMA", the music. He's just so involved. I said, "Tom, did you record organ?" He goes, "Yeah, I felt like doing that. What do you think?" I said, "Yeah, it sounds great!" I recommend everybody to go to his studio to record, for sure. One block off of South Orange Avenue.

That's nice that you have a short commute from your homes to the recording studio.

PAUL HALEY: John can basically hit Tom's house with a rock. I'm a little bit farther, but it's still very close. Tom's great to work with. He'll give you feedback. You know, a lot of studios, they're demanding money. With Tom, you've got to remind him, "Hey, we owe you some money." He'll be like, "Oh, yeah." You know what I mean? He does it for the love of the music. That's a great person to work with, for sure. So we're very lucky in that respect.

The song that was added to the playlist, "Shelf", has some French in it. I speak zero French, so I went into Google Translate.

PAUL HALEY: That was John's brilliant idea. Those organs that you have, it’s all John. That's a John song from start to finish. I mean that in the highest regard. It's a fantastic song. John, I don't think I ever told you, but I love the fact that you put French in it. I think it's great.

JOHN RAMSBURG: I woke up one morning and I had the whole song, the verse-chorus. I ran downstairs. It's one of those moments where I was like, "I gotta write this down." I got my phone, a recorder, and I just played it straight out and it was done, the song was over. I showed it to the guys and we came up with the bridge, so it wasn't a minute long. The French is the first verse just repeated. I don't know where I got the idea for the French, but I just started singing it in French, my broken high school French, and it stuck. In just, like, five minutes I had the song done. That's the only time that's ever happened to me in my life.

PAUL HALEY: I have to say, that's definitely one of my favorite songs in our catalog. It's a fun, catchy song. John really put a great song together for us.

Thrill Ride. Top: Paul Haley (Bass/Vocals). Left: Will Kramer (Drums). Right: John Ramsburg (Bass/Vocals).

Do you have any special collaborations, any tidbits that you can drop about what we can expect for this new selection?

JOHN RAMSBURG: Well, the one song we were working on at this last rehearsal, it's called "Started to Stop." I actually wrote it with my daughter. She's 11 now, but she was 10 when we wrote it.

PAUL HALEY: The next song we're working on is a song called "Ride" that John also wrote. Again, a fun song to play.

JOHN RAMSBURG: I like working with Will and Paul because a lot of the times when I write songs at home, it's more like alt-country for the sound because I just sit with my acoustic guitar and play something either sad or trying to tell a bit of a story. Then I bring it to them, and they're like, "OK, so we're going to play it faster than this, right?" and then it progresses and becomes our grungy, punky feel that we have. So "Ride" started like that. When I play it on the piano, it sounds more like a Springsteen song than when we play it together as a band. It's like a straight Social Distortion-esque rockabilly style. So it comes at you really fast and just keeps on going right to the end. Very danceable. I want to see people dancing at our gigs.  

So you both have a hand in the songwriting. So do you start with the lyrics first? What's that process like, and do you draw largely upon personal experiences?

JOHN RAMSBURG: For me, it all happens at the same time. I'll be messed around with some chords or have an idea and the words will just come out. They might be nonsensical, but I might get a core of something I want to talk about, and then I'll expand off of that on the lyrics. Sometimes I'm inspired by sitting on the train, New Jersey Transit. I heard a couple talking. They were basically saying, "We've gotta slow this relationship down." That's where "Chill Out" came from.

"Half as Much" is more about the social media obsession I was going through at the time, where I was just never present, I was always looking at my phone, and there was no reciprocation because it's social media — it doesn't care. Things like that. So I've pulled from all over. Sometimes I hear a song and I'll say, "I really like the way that song sounds" and I try to figure out that chord structure and see what I can change to make it mine and then build on that. So just a little bit of everything. It's a potpourri of songwriting.

PAUL HALEY: I would say usually it's the guitar riff that comes together. I'll dig through a bunch of lyrics and not like any of them. I tend to be more of a stickler with the lyrics. I can tell you that every line that I write means something. The meaning may be a subtle joke or somebody in mind. I would argue that all the lyrics that I write are usually about somebody.

When I think of songs like "Over His Emo", it's about one specific person.

"Beat a Skip" is, again, about a specific person. We wrote a really, really heroin chic version of it, and then one day we just decided to speed it up, and so we got two versions of it. We tend to play to the methamphetamine version of it now. I like playing it both ways, but I have to say the faster way is the fun way to play it.  

I got this little acoustic guitar that I bought my son a long time ago. It's one of those three-quarter travel ones. I have it right next to the couch. I'll be watching March Madness and working on a riff and be like "Oh, this works!" But it's usually the riff first and then the lyrics, for sure.

You have a pretty international following.  

PAUL HALEY: That's all John. He's got the connections. 

What was it like, the first time you had someone outside of the US contact you and say, "Hey, I discovered you"?

JOHN RAMSBURG: I was checking either CD Baby or Spotify for Artists, and I saw someone in Vietnam had listened to our whole album, which I thought was great. So that was cool because Paul's right, I have friends who live in Europe and Canada. Their friends are nice, they take a listen to it. But now it's starting to pop up in different playlists, which is pretty cool because I'm not doing this to be famous. I really enjoy writing and playing music, and I have a fun time doing it, and if other people like what I put down, that's great.

PAUL HALEY: There were some interesting ones that popped up. It makes you wonder. Actually, while we're talking, I think I'll look!

JOHN RAMSBURG: To hear or see that there are other people who like the music enough to listen to it again on Spotify, or they're discovering it on their own separate from me somehow, I just think it's cool. I'm very grateful. It's very humbling.

You both have kids that are in their teen years. Do all their friends know about the band? Do they come to shows? Have they given you feedback? What's that like?

PAUL HALEY: My kids are a little bit older than John's. I've got a junior and a freshman. I don't know if they ever listen to it, but every once in a while my oldest son, Aiden, will come and say, "Oh, I saw somebody in town wearing your band shirt." He'll say it just like that. My youngest, Liam, none of his friends say anything, but some of Aiden's friends have said things to me, like "Oh, I heard your new song. It sounds great."

JOHN RAMSBURG: My boy's older. He's in seventh grade, and one of his friends really, really likes us. He has our stickers on his wall, on his desk. He has both versions of our T-shirt. His parents come and see our shows a lot. You know, we're a neighborhood band. A lot of our friends come see us when we do gigs around town.

My daughter, she does backing vocals on "Bleed For Three", but that's about it. Her friends are like, they don't care. My kids don't care when we're playing. It's like, "Oh, are you going to come to the gig?" They're like, "Well, who's going to be there?" and then they go play with their friends while we're doing the show, you know? That's about it.

PAUL HALEY: I think the funniest thing is when you walk around SOMA or you're driving somewhere and you see somebody with the shirt. I saw someone a couple of months ago, and I just started laughing because you just don't expect to see it. I'm like, "Oh, wow, somebody actually owns one of our shirts!" It's cool. It's fun.

Do your coworkers know what you do? Have they come to shows?

JOHN RAMSBURG: When we play in the city, a couple of people I work with will come out, which is nice. It's good, too, because we're normally one of the first sets. At 7 or 8 o'clock, no one's in the bar anyway, so actually having people show up makes it more than just a glorified practice. Some of my coworkers and ex-coworkers from previous jobs still keep tabs on the band. I let them know when we have a new release out and they'll listen. Some of them ask for the new shirts, so Paul's kind enough to ship them out.  

PAUL HALEY: With my new job here, our office is officially open but we only have about four or five people, and I don't really know everybody yet. It was kind of weird, like this week there was somebody actually sitting a safe distance away from me. After months of nobody, it was like a Cast Away kind of moment. I was like, "Whoa! Are you going to be here tomorrow?" because it kind of freaked me out! I'm just not used to so many people here, you know? But my bigger point is I really am just starting to get to know people, and it's kind of difficult when no one's in the office and you're just depending on Teams or Zoom and stuff like that. No one even knows that I play music yet, and that's OK.

JOHN RAMSBURG: In my office, our global office newsletter actually included either the video for "Last Night" or "Chill Out." It was in the beginning of the pandemic when they were saying, "This is what people are doing while they're at home." So a whole bunch of people in my company found out that way, and I got positive feedback from that. So that was nice, to get exposure any way you can.

What would you say are some of the highlights that you've experienced so far, either as individual musicians/songwriters or collectively as a band? 

PAUL HALEY: I think 2020 is a highlight for me. I think we played two shows before the pandemic hit, and then we were able to play an outdoor show on November 20th or something like that, right, John? You would think would be cold and nasty, but it turned out to be, like, 68 degrees and we were playing outdoors on Springfield Ave at this open market kind of thing. So many people showed up.

 There are so many bands in SOMA, NJ and beyond that we're friends with, that we get to play with. Recording and getting those singles out in 2020, I think those are the highlights for me — just continuing to play despite the pandemic and everything else and playing with our friends and having friends come and see us. People were aching so much [to see live music] in November. I got so many texts like, "Hey, I drove by and saw your band!" I would consider that a highlight, and just getting those songs out. That momentum.

JOHN RAMSBURG: This band is actually the first one where I actually got to step up front and do the writing and singing and have a lot of support. The other bands I've been with have been supportive, I really liked working with them. One of my really good friends from college and I've been in a band forever and he is an amazing musician and singer, and I was always happy to be playing bass and working with him on his songs, but being able to finally come out in Thrill Ride and say, "Here are my songs. Do you want to play them?" and Paul and Will are like, "Yes, let's do this" and the affirmation that comes along with that, it's like, "I can do this!" Also, accepting the fact that a song's never really going to be finished, but I'm going to say it's good enough for me to play it out loud for people to hear. I think those are good personal highlights for me, just accepting that I can do this, and I'm really enjoying it. It's fun.

I was a theater major in school, so acting and stuff and being in front of people was fine for me, but I always felt that songwriting and singing was never something I was very strong at. So being able to overcome that with this group is the biggest highlight.

Also, some of the places we've gotten to play, like Asbury Park, Pianos in the city, just a lot of venues that I'd walk by or see other friends' bands play, and just popping in and getting to meet all these other great bands. This community here in South Orange-Maplewood, getting to play with our friends Tri-State, there's Maplewolf. They're a country cover band and they're great and it's fun to do a set with them because it just flips everything on its head when you're doing sets together. I love playing in this town. Everyone's so supportive. I can't wait to play gigs with some of the new bands that are coming up, like Thea [Kearney]'s band, Megasparkle. I think it'd be fun to go play with them, too.

Paulie’s Boutique. SOMA NJ rocker Paul J. Haley (Thrill Ride, Die-Cast Cars, Dollar Store Riot, Drunken Bird) plays 60 minutes of an eclectic musical mix (hardcore/punk to indie rock to hip-hop and more), including Local SOMA/NJ band spotlights and theme-based episodes for your auditory and spiritual healing.    

LISTEN LIVE! Tuesdays at 10 p.m. & Wednesday at 11 p.m.

Listen at bonepoolradio.com.

PAUL HALEY: John and I also have radio shows on Bone Pool Radio. I tend to do a lot of mixed shows. I'm 30 shows in — Paulie’s Boutique, it's called. Whenever I do a mixed show, it's an eclectic mix. I always made sure to put a local band in the show. Then, I increased it from one local band — and this basically means SOMA, NJ and beyond, but in New Jersey — and then I decided, well, I can't keep up with this, I have to add two. Then eventually it turned into where I just put together two exclusive shows about all the great bands in New Jersey, and I'm not even done yet! You can probably relate to that. Then I realize that every time I put one of those exclusive shows together, I forgot about all these bands over here.

SOMA, NJ has so many great bands within close vicinity, a lot of fantastic bands. I don't want to speak on behalf of John, but I feel very lucky to be part of that whole musical scene, being friends with all these bands. Everybody gets along playing along, and it's just a great thing. I hope to see it continue. It's definitely a fun scene. It took a little bit of time to come to fruition, but it definitely did. There are all these great bands, from the doom metal Green Dragon, to what I call the "Indigo Girls-sound" of Marry the Sea, to Tom Lucas of Laughing Boys Recording. He's got that great band, Sad About Girls. It's just crazy.

Two last questions. Are there any dream collaborations you would love to do with artists or bands — alive or dead? Also, where can people find you and connect with you online?  

JOHN RAMSBURG: We are on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @thrillridebandnj. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Music, and iTunes. Google "Thrill Ride." You can also hear us played on Bone Pool Radio. That's an iHeartRadio station, so you can check them out there. That's the New Jersey local station where Paul and I have shows.

You can reach out to me on Instagram and Facebook if you want to talk about band stuff. I'm always happy to chat. Same with Paul Haley. You can look us up any time.

So Paul, who would you want to play with?

PAUL HALEY: You said "alive or dead." I would love a chance to play with The Clash, or maybe when hell freezes over and The Smiths get back together. Another one of my favorite bands, Buffalo Tom. If I had to collaborate, I'd probably do it with members of local bands. Members of Tri-State, I would love to have a chance to play with. Allied Chemical is no more, but I would love to have a chance to play with some of those guys. Tom Lucas of Laughing Boys Recording and Sad About Girls, for sure. So, definitely a lot of local bands.

JOHN RAMSBURG: I like a lot of different styles. I'm obsessed with Toad the Wet Sprocket ever since I was in high school, so I would love to get a chance just to play, let alone hang out with Glen Phillips and just see how he does his songwriting or just playing, jamming some songs, just having a good time with them. Lucero, an alt-country band. Not everybody's heard of them, but they write some really beautiful, heartfelt music. I really enjoy the way they write a song. If I had a chance to go back and sit with Black Sabbath and play bass along. I love blues metal. It's just fantastic. I was just listening to an earlier Wolfmother record. That guy changes his band every three weeks, so if I can get a cycle in there for one tour, that'd be awesome.

To what Paul was saying about collaborating locally, I've had this idea knocking around my head for a while where we do a charity record, but we all do a cover of somebody else's song in town. I think that would be a lot of fun.

Is there anything else that you'd like to add that I haven't asked you about or that we haven't discussed yet? 

PAUL HALEY: I want to give a plug for Bone Pool Radio. Everybody should give Bone Pool Radio a listen, not necessarily for John or my show, but just overall listen to it, www.BonePoolRadio.com. They've got the app, iHeartRadio. They have their own app. It's just a great radio station. John and I are friends with the owner [Michelle S. Lomuscio]. She always wanted to have a radio station, so she made one. It's a lot of fun to do, and it's just great to have a radio station again. So whoever wants to listen, definitely give it a listen. It's a great station.

Interview with Megasparkle

By Sonia Schnee | Posted Saturday, December 18, 2021

Megasparkle, the kickass all-female band from Maplewood, NJ, hasn’t let the pandemic slow them down. Delivering a mix of indie, post-punk, pop-rock deliciousness, Thea Kearney (lead guitar, vocals), Nancy Cook (guitar, vocals), Kristy Ranieri (bass), and CJ Jeiven (Drums) released their first 5-song E.P, “Swirling Glitter”, back in February 2021. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with Thea and Nancy about their pandemic-related musical adventures in our interview below.

What are your names, where are you from, and what do you do?

NANCY COOK: I’m Nancy Cook and I live in Maplewood, N.J. I grew up in Glen Ridge next to Montclair about 20 minutes away from here.

I’ve always been creative. Right now, I am mainly making art, music and selling vintage clothing. I started my business, Crash Doll Vintage, in 2020. I make textile art, installation art and sew & knit. I sometimes paint and use pastels.

Before the pandemic, I was working for Parcel in Montclair and a co-op in town called Maplewood Mercantile. I was also their event planner and planned pop ups, music shows, art shows, tastings etc. I still continue to put on music shows.

THEA KEARNEY: Well, she's a really amazing seamstress. Amazing. Really, like a ninja on the sewing machine. I always see her posting pictures like, "Oh, I just whipped up this dress last night." I'm like, "Oh my God! I can sew a pillow, that's about it.”

NANCY COOK: Yes! I sew dresses and clothes! I had a children’s clothing line for several years called Wool and Violets. Nowadays, I mostly make knitwear under that name and recently created a capsule collection for Hearth Co. in Australia

I’m very much into tactile things. Guitar fits right in. I play guitar and sing as well. I also play bass guitar which I just picked up last year. As a child I played piano and flute. I picked up the guitar in 2018 at the same time as joining a band with Thea. She was like…‘Let’s start a band’ and I said ‘OK’ and so I started taking lessons. I had always wanted to play guitar!

THEA KEARNEY: Yeah! I mean, you're a multi-tasker.

Left to right: Thea Kearney, Nancy Cook, and Kristy Ranieri of Megasparkle. Photo by Sophie White.

Are you originally from New Jersey or the surrounding area?

THEA KEARNEY: I'm not originally from New Jersey. I'm actually from Brooklyn, although I was born in Washington, D.C. I moved to Brooklyn when I was six months old. I identify with New York City. I'm pretty much a New York City person. Although, it's funny. My mother is from New Jersey and kind of a funny story because she always tried so hard to get out of New Jersey. She's a writer and went to college and all that. She spent so much time getting away from the suburban provincial... She always kind of was like (scoffs) "Oh, New Jersey." We would only go back to visit the relatives, and so I was such a city person, I was like, "I am never moving to New Jersey, over my dead body."

NANCY COOK: I said I was never moving back to the suburbs either!

THEA KEARNEY: It's so funny because all my relatives moved to other parts of the country,  then I discovered New Jersey again. I looked at places in Rockland County, in upstate New York, and they were really expensive and not that nice, and there was a big highway that was always in everyone's backyard. Then I found out about Maplewood. I went and I fell instantly in love with it. I was like, "These beautiful houses and nature! This is New Jersey?!" and one thing led to another, and I moved here with my husband. I've been living in New Jersey for about 12 years now with my family. 

Left to right: Kristy Ranieri, Thea Kearney, and Nancy Cook of Megasparkle. Photo by Sophie White.

Tell me about your creative background.

THEA KEARNEY: I'm like Nancy. I do way too many things. Not so much with the sewing, but I have a background in graphic design. I have two college degrees in art, visual arts, a Bachelor's of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts. I went to the School of Visual Arts and was one of the first people to ever learn about computer graphics. I would say it was like the Stone Ages just because it was a lot harder to do stuff than it is now. Now you just press two buttons and it's done, whereas you had to follow like a logbook of steps to get anything accomplished with the graphics back in the day. I had done that for a long time. Website design. I used to design CDs, logos, and then I got kind of tired of that, so I started a face painting business called Fifi’s Face Painting, but the pandemic kind of put an end to that and I just sold the business this year.

I've been doing music my whole life, since I was really young, playing various instruments -- violin, piano, drums, guitar -- but I decided when I was a teenager that I would just basically stick with the guitar, so that's my main instrument. Then I started singing as well as songwriting, and that's what we've been doing in Megasparkle. 

Left to right: Thea Kearney, Kristy Ranieri, and Nancy Cook of Megasparkle. Photo by Sophie White.

Do you come from musical families?

NANCY COOK: As far as music, there’s not really anyone in my immediate family that’s musically inclined though one of my Uncles played guitar.

My Dad instilled a love of classical music in me. He used to take me to classical concerts as a child. That and learning to play the piano. My Aunt Lillian used to take me to NYC to see Mostly Mozart. She sang in a trio in the 1940’s on the radio. I guess you could say I’m a trailblazer in my family. At 12 I declared, I wanted to be a singer and my Dad said ‘No, absolutely not, you’re not good enough’ so ha, I am got to do that and I have songs now. He also told me I couldn’t do art and fashion and I’m doing that as well. So, I guess I burst his bubble! Ha!

THEA KEARNEY: So have you played Megasparkle for him?

NANCY COOK: I did play one or two songs for him, but he hasn't heard all of them yet. I should have my family sit down and listen to Megasparkle. Maybe next time we have a holiday gathering and we can all be together, I can play Megasparkle for everybody.

THEA KEARNEY: That would be cool. I'd like to hear what they have to say.

My mother was a jazz singer. She's more of a poet and an award-winning published author of more than 18 books, but she's also written a few songs. My father played the flute for a while and the recorder, but he's one of those people who has the radio on 24/7, so since I was a little kid, he would have the classical music station on all the time, so I was listening to that since I came out of the womb, basically. Even though I'm a rocker, I still kind of love classical music, too.

NANCY COOK: Wow. We never actually knew that about each other!

THEA KEARNEY: Yeah! We don't talk about all these things. My mom sings, and she also had a harp that she used to play. She's also a very creative person. She's done all kinds of stuff, too. I have some cousins who play music, but nobody famous or professional, as far as I know. 

It's funny, actually, when Nancy said that about her dad, I was like, "My mom does not like the kind of music that I like," and I feel like there's a little rebelliousness going on here with, "Well, this is what WE like." You know?

NANCY COOK: My parents never liked the music I listened to. My Dad hated certain bands and songs and if he didn’t like it, I would sometimes play it louder like The Smiths, The Cure, Sex Pistols, The Clash etc. He hated hardcore the most. I would play it so loud the chandelier would be shaking downstairs. I still like it really loud. I get into trouble now for playing the music too loud in the car when I pull in and out of the driveway.

THEA KEARNEY: It's funny because we have kids now, and I don't know if this is what happens with you, Nancy, but our kids are like, "We don't want to listen to that loud rock music, turn it down!" They want to hear this weird electronic stuff. Some of it I actually like, but some of it is like, well, there's no melody. There's no real instruments. I'm just so used to... I think Nancy would probably say the same thing. We just grew up listening to live musicians playing live instruments, so that's what we tend to gravitate towards. 

For first-time listeners, how would you describe the sound of your album, and who are your personal musical influences? Who did you draw inspiration from?

NANCY COOK: That’s a really hard question because I have so many musical heroes and people I look up to, but I think with this project, in particular, I think we were kind of going for... Sonia mentioned earlier about the 70s, that we kind of have a 70s influence. I kind of think that we were kind of thinking, or at least maybe I was thinking, about The Runaways and Blondie and just kind of like that old school beginning, powerful female sound and rock and roll, but with kind of a punk and indie aspect to it. A little bit less pop-y than Blondie and Joan.

I also really love punk and a lot of the ‘90s bands, so I was probably thinking about that. A lot of the music that came out of Washington D.C. like Slant 6 and bands from Olympia and NY…

THEA KEARNEY: Yeah, we're both like punk rockers, right?

NANCY COOK: Yeah! I mean, I love all the punk rock. I love Agnostic Front. Thea and I were like, "We should write a song that kind of sounds a little like an Agnostic Front song” and we could totally do that, but I wasn’t looking to make a sound that came from men. I was thinking more about women in this project.

THEA KEARNEY: I'm actually glad you went first because I completely forgot where my inspiration was in the beginning for this whole idea of starting a band that would be an all-female band.

I guess part of it was the desire to... because I've been in other bands before, and I was in a local Maplewood band called Dollar Store Riot with all guys that I played in for about six years, and then I decided that it was just time for me to close that chapter of my life, and so I'd always wanted to have an all-female band.

I'd had a couple of false starts in the past when I was still living in the city, and I have a friend that I went to high school with, actually, which you may have heard of, Sindi B.. She was in this band called The Lunachicks. We hung out in the NYHC, the New York hardcore scene when it first started in about ‘81-84. Our misspent youth was spent doing that and we both bought our first electric guitars at the same time. I was the goody-two-shoes. I went off to college and just did what was expected of me and she didn't. She quit, dropped out of college, and formed this band. I always wanted to do the same thing, and so I was just like,"Well, Nancy, why don't we just try starting an all-female band? I've always wanted to have an all-female band. Let's just have a go for fun." 

At the beginning, it was just the two of us, and then we started writing together, and then eventually we found the drummer, CJ, and then we found Kristy.

Listen to the Megasparkle Mixtape on Spotify

It was just all those influences from The Donnas, The Ramones, all the punk rock I listened to, DISCHORD, all of that stuff. The Flex Your Head album, I still have. That was on permanent rotation when I was a teenager. All of that. Then all the newer stuff, too, became an influence. One of the songs has kind of a My Bloody Valentine influence.

I feel like every song on this album is a little different. We didn't really set out to have a particular sound on every one. It was just like, "Let's write a song." One song was a Ramones kind of idea that I had that we put lyrics to, and then another one was like, "Let's just write a shoegaze song." So we kind of just went in that direction.

NANCY COOK: One has kind of like a Juliana Hatfield feel. It's got a totally different vibe, too. They all have a different vibe.

We still haven't covered all our bases. We could just keep going, with all the different sounds that we like. We actually have on our Spotify a mixtape of bands that we like and the influences.

We also worked on some covers and things that we liked, like the White Stripes was one of them that we liked, and we were working on a cover of that song, and who else were we covering?

THEA KEARNEY: Social Distortion and Ex Hex. 

NANCY COOK: Oh yeah, I love Mary Timony. I just watched her live performance at St. Marks. It was amazing. She's so talented. She's definitely an influence for me, for sure.

You mentioned a little bit about your creative process. For the songs on your album, did you start with the music, the melody, the lyrics?

 NANCY COOK: For "Pretty Dresses," I had a lot of the melody written, and then I wrote the lyrics, Thea added more lyrics and arrangements, and then we put it together. All the songs have their own story.

"Everybody Wants to Be a Rock Star" started with the answering machine message that starts the song. It comes from a Village Voice ad that someone answered when Thea was looking for musicians, and so that was the starting point for that song.

"Iridescent Sparks" is about text messaging. That's such a big part of our culture now and just how people communicate mostly.

The other one, the shoegaze one, "Swirling Rose Hips Tea," My Bloody Valentine was the influence for that. 

The last one, "Piece of Cake," is sort of, everyone wants to get a piece of cake and eat it, too. It's like, “I want to have it all. Why can't I have it all? Let's try to have it all!” You know? So, the surprise inside is like the Mardi Gras cake that you break up and there's supposed to be a little toy in the cake. It's like, "Ooh, a little surprise!"

THEA KEARNEY: You know, it's funny, it wasn't supposed to be about cake. That became the metaphor because we were writing it right around Mardi Gras time, and we were talking about how we should really write a song, like a hardcore song, like Agnostic Front or something, and it didn't really come out like that in the end, but it came out to be something different, but it started from this discussion. We would just sit down and brainstorm this idea and write all these ideas down and then condense it into a song, because, as you know, you can't put everything in one song. 

NANCY COOK: Yeah. Some of our notes for our songs are really amusing. We should dig those up! They were really funny.

Listen to Megasparkle’s debut EP “Swirling Glitter” on Bandcamp, Spotify, and other streaming services. Released on Sea Dragon Records.

Where did you record your album? Who did you record with? What was that process like?

THEA KEARNEY: Originally, we were getting ready to play a show in June (2020), a live show. We had been practicing. We had a bunch of covers and originals. At that point, we had enough to do a show, and so we were like, “Yeah, let's just play a little local show” because Nancy likes to book a lot of local bands, and so we were getting ready for that, and it's supposed to be in June, and this was like February of 2020 and then, obviously, the pandemic put a lid on that, and then we were like, "Oh, what are we going to do?" and so I suggested, "Instead of doing a show, why don't we make an EP?"

I thought, "We'll just find a studio, we'll go and get somebody to do that." I called a few places and they're like, "Well, I don't know if we can help you, but maybe, but we’re not sure what's going to happen" because it was literally a couple of weeks before they declared it a global pandemic and everything just was like dominoes falling. It's like, everything is closing and then that's it, and so then I was like, "Oh, OK, what are we going to do?"

In all my years of doing music, I had dabbled in mixing before. I had done Pro Tools and recording. I was a little rusty, but I was like, "Well, you know, I think I can figure it out." We didn't have anybody to help us. We didn't really have a lot of money to be forking out either, and everything was closed, so what are we going to do? So, I was like, "We'll just record from home, and we can figure out what equipment we need." 

I spoke to Kristy (Ranieri), and we originally thought we were going to use electronic drums because CJ had some electronic drums at home. So, we tried with that. We were recording the guitars and the vocals, and it was going pretty well, but then we got to the point where we figured out how to do the electronic drums and she sent us the recording and we were like, "No, the symbols just sound... It just didn't sound good." It was like, "No, this isn't going to work."

So, we have a local person that we work with, Laughing Boys Recording's Tom Lucas. He's really great. A lot of people record with him. We didn't think he was open, but then we said, "Well, what if it was just CJ?" CJ went in with a mask and they sanitized everything, and she just went in by herself to do the drums. At first, she was kind of nervous about the whole idea, but then she said she would do it, and so she went in and recorded. I prepared all the tracks for her and sent them to Tom, and then she went in.

We thought it was going to take, like, two days or something. She was just so amazing, she did all five songs in one day. I was like, "Wow!" Then Tom Lucas sent me the tracks and then we just continued on from there. We did a back and forth with GarageBand and Logic. Kristy and Nancy bought an interface so that they could literally record on their iPhones, so they actually recorded the songs on their iPhones. 

NANCY COOK: Yeah, Kristy and I recorded on our iPhones. It’s remarkable and we should be really proud of it!

THEA KEARNEY: It was pretty amazing. I would send them the tracks through iCloud, put the tracks in GarageBand, give them a track to record to, and then they would record to that, send it back to me, and then I would combine everything in Logic and record my parts in there, line it all up, and then mix it. It was pretty daunting. I actually got somebody else to help us a little bit -- a guy out in California, Mike from MooseCat Recording. They have a virtual studio, and they were just getting started with that because of the pandemic. I guess they used to do everything in-person but because they're out in Los Angeles and they needed to keep things running, they started offering virtual services. So I was like, "Oh, great!" So they helped with some of the mixing on a couple of the songs, but most of them I did all the mixing on, so I learned a lot this year -- a whole lot. I think we all learned a lot.

NANCY COOK: She worked very hard!

THEA KEARNEY: I mean, it was pretty daunting, but, oh my God, we did it! We all figured it out. Nancy and Kristy were like, "I don't know how to record on my phone," but with my help, they figured it out and they did it. 

“A year ago today we sent our first single ‘Pretty Dresses’ off to CD baby. Here Nancy and Thea are after practice in the garage hugging their guitars to stay warm after a bitterly cold band practice in the garage in November 2019.” — Megasparkle Facebook page

NANCY COOK: Yeah, and Thea went in her closet to sing vocals, and I went in my garage. I actually have a vocal booth in my garage. So I went into my garage, and it was kind of fun. I got a little kid lawn chair, my microphone, and sang away, too.

THEA KEARNEY: Whatever it takes, right? I mean, we had to really be creative.

NANCY COOK: I've always liked the DIY approach. I'm always DIY.

THEA KEARNEY: Yeah, me too. It's to a fault, though, because sometimes it's exhausting doing everything yourself.

NANCY COOK: Well, Thea just cut her hair very well. DIY haircut.

THEA KEARNEY: Yeah, that's another story. Ha!

There's a lot to be said for doing things yourself. You learn so much from doing things yourself. Like I learned a lot about haircutting, cutting my own hair. So yeah, it's amazing.

Is there anyone who you'd like to give a shout out to, whether it's other artists or bands, venues, favorite restaurants that are closed, businesses, or anyone who you think deserves some attention during this unusual time?

https://bonepoolradio.com

NANCY COOK: I think we should give a shout-out to Michelle from Bone Pool Radio, who is one of our friends. She has a radio station in town. She would be an amazing person for you to interview. She's awesome. She always wanted a radio station, and I don't know exactly what year it started, I want to say it was 2018, and she and a few other partners started it. A lot of the people in town including Thea's husband DJ for it, and they pre-record their shows and she broadcasts them. There's a bunch of DJs in town and it was bought by iHeartRadio, and yeah, it's been a really amazing ride for her. So that's my shout-out.

THEA KEARNEY: That’s good that you did that because I was going to shout-out one of the DJs, Donny Levit, because he was the first one to premiere a Megasparkle song on the radio. So I want to shout out to him and, obviously, all the other DJs on Bone Pool Radio. I don't know if they've played our music, but I'll give a shout-out to them as well!

NANCY COOK: Paul played "Pretty Dresses." Donny played a couple of them.

THEA KEARNEY: Also, Tom Lucas from Laughing Boys Recording. He really gave us a lot of helpful feedback and guidance, especially with recording the drum parts and how to get that done, so shout-out to him. 

And then shout-out to MooseCat Recording.  

NANCY COOK: And our bandmates who aren't here!

THEA KEARNEY: Of course our bandmates, for being willing to do all this from home, being willing to try that out and do that.

NANCY COOK: We have a lot of great local businesses to shout-out.

THEA KEARNEY: All the local businesses. There's been so many great supportive local places, like Rent Party. We never got to play Rent Party, but they've always been really supportive of local musicians. They do a lot of help for the community. They used to put on live shows with local bands and also international traveling acts and raise money for food-insecure families. So they're a really great organization here. And then The Woodland, they have a lot of shows.

NANCY COOK: The Woodland and Wyoming Club.

I used to do a lot of shows at Maplewood Mercantile when I worked there and was the Event Planner, so we can shout-out them because they're really very supportive of the music community.

THEA KEARNEY: All the teachers that ever taught me how to play, helped me play guitar, and my vocal teacher, Tim Welch. I'll give a shout-out to him. He's an excellent vocal teacher. He's got a local studio here in Maplewood. I think he's got franchises now. He's a really, really excellent teacher. Who else can we shout-out?

NANCY COOK: We could shout-out you, Thea, for doing all that hard work mixing! Let's give credit where credit's due, right?

THEA KEARNEY: Thank you to everybody.

NANCY COOK: Thank you to all of our supporters and our friends.

THEA KEARNEY: Thank you to everyone I've ever met or ever known in my entire life.

NANCY COOK: Ha!

THEA KEARNEY: And Mom and Dad, of course.

Finally, where/how can people connect with you?

THEA KEARNEY: We're available on all streaming platforms -- Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora. We have a Spotify playlist. Plus, we have a website. It's megasparkleband.com. Bandcamp, Instagram, Facebook. We also have some T-shirts for sale on Bandcamp.

NANCY COOK: We also had a poster that showcases our band at i19gallery.com.

It was an online gallery. They started doing art shows when the pandemic hit, and we decided that we would pass around this old red phone of mine that I've had for years. It was a promo for "Everybody Wants to Be a Rock Star" because that's the starting point, with the answering machine message. We all took pictures of us with the phone -- they look like they're in slides -- and then the red telephone cord just slashes through the whole collage, which is kind of like the pandemic interfering with our lives. Actually, I really love it. I think it came out really good.

THEA KEARNEY: It was cool because we kind of combined... It was like a multipurpose thing because Nancy and I, we originally met because we both have backgrounds in multiple artistic areas, like visual arts and music. There was a call for art made during COVID, by the organization Good Crowd Events. I was like, hey, we were already doing the phone idea for what was going to be the cover for "Everybody Wants to Be a Rock Star." We designed all of the song covers. We did all those ourselves back and forth. I did a couple of the covers, Nancy designed a couple of those, and one of them was this idea that Nancy actually had the phone and she said, "Well, why don’t we take pictures with this?" and I was like, "Well, why don't we enter it in this art show and it will serve two purposes? It'll be for the cover and it'll be for this collage."

It was during the pandemic, and so we had to clean the phone off and then drop it at one person's house, and then they would clean it off and take photos and then drop it at the next person's house, and that's how we got all the photographs. It was like, you know, this is how we communicate during a pandemic — passing the phone around, and also we can only communicate on the phone. So, it was like the whole concept of that just kind of came together really well.

“Call Me!” Featured in www.i19gallery.com’s online art exhibition, ARTdemic.
Art Concept: Nancy Cook, Thea Kearney
Photography: Nancy Cook, CJ Jeiven, Thea Kearney, Kristy Ranieri
Photo Editing: Thea Kearney