SOUND OFF: POTTY MOUTH

One of our favorite punk bands “Potty Mouth” is currently touring new music so we couldn’t wait to catch up with Abby Weems, Ally Einbinder, Victoria Mandanas to get all the deets on new music, opening for “Taking Back Sundays” and their awesome style. Check it out.

1.What was your inspiration for your latest EP? Abby: Our last EP was like a little taste test of what’s to come from Potty Mouth. Since we became a band our sound has changed and matured a lot over the years. We went from being a punk band to being influenced by bigger rock bands like Hole and Weezer, and I think that EP is a good representation of how far we’ve come.

2. We hear you are going on tour and opening for the band Taking Back Sunday. What can we expect to see? Ally: We’re opening for them at their show in Kansas City, which is happening right after we end an east coast tour with Bayside and right before we head to Chicago for Riot Fest. Personally, I think I screamed when I first read the email asking if we’d want to open for Taking Back Sunday. I listened to them a lot when I was a teenager and never dreamed that one day I’d be in a band playing a show with them. Appropriately enough, John Nolan from Taking Back Sunday is also the reason why “Twisted” has been released into the world. He spearheaded the project behind the compilation that Twisted appears on, which is called “Music For Everyone.” It was released digitally this past spring on Bandcamp and 100% of the profits go to the ACLU. It was an honor to be asked to contribute a song, and now it’s even more surreal that we will be playing that song on the same stage as them in Kansas City.

3. What inspires you to write, produce and perform your own songs? Abby: Writing has always been very therapeutic for me. Sitting down and writing a song about something I’m going through always feels like a huge relief, and I think the best lyrics come from writing about something that’s real. It’s also important to me to think about what other people want to hear in songs. Music is great because it effects your mood, like how an upbeat song can bring you up when you’re down, or hearing certain lyrics can totally validate the way you’re feeling at the time. It’s really motivating for me to think about someone listening to our music and feeling empowered because of it.

4. If you could work with any artist – who would it be? Abby: I’ve actually had the chance to work with some of my heroes; Nina Gordon and Louise Post from Veruca Salt, Kim Shattuck from The Muffs, and Gina Shock of The Go-Go’s! But it’s still a dream of mine to write a song with Billie Joe Armstrong… and also Charli XCX!

Ally: I’d love to get in the same room as Mike Dirnt sometime and pick his brain about bass.
5. You all have such great personal style – what inspires you individually? Abby: I’ve started calling my style Power Clashing because I love to mix different colors and patterns. I’m definitely also a 90’s nerd so I get a lot of inspiration from music videos and movies, give me all the clothes from Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion!

Victoria: I usually dress for comfort. I tend to gravitate toward clean, muted colors, but will often add one splash of color.

Ally: I used to wear a lot of black, but being around Abby has definitely inspired me to become more colorful. For the past year I’ve been super attached to having green hair, which has become progressively more neon as I’ve experimented trying out and mixing different dyes. A stranger once said to me “stay weird, rave girl,” and I guess that’s a good way to sum up my recent style choices — I love anything holographic and iridescent, usually paired with mesh or fish nets. Also very into animal prints lately. I have a zebra print beret that I’m very excited to wear on this upcoming tour along with a pair of neon green tiger striped shorts Abby recently found for me.

6. What city was your favorite that you performed in? Victoria: I love playing in Salt Lake City. Long drives can make tour feel a little monotonous, but the drive in is beautiful and when you get there it really feels like its own place.

Ally: I love playing in Chicago. We’ve developed a very lovely and supportive fanbase there ever since playing a couple of big shows with CHVRCHES last year, and then playing Lollapalooza later that summer. It feels so nice and affirming to be able to return to a city as big as Chicago knowing we’ll likely see some familiar faces at every show. Also, last year we performed on an episode of JBTV, a legendary Chicago-based music TV show, and it was so fun!

Abby: I love playing Boston! I’m from Massachusetts, and it’s the closest major city to where we started the band, so it’s always kind of like a homecoming show.

7. What is your favorite song on your latest record that we can soon hear? Ally: One of my favorites is called “Do It Again,” which we’ve already incorporated as a regular song in our live set. You can actually listen to a live version of it now because it was one of the songs recorded for an episode of “Last Call With Carson Daly” when we played the Troubadour in West Hollywood this past March. I just love it because it’s pretty different than a lot of our old stuff — maybe one of our most “pop” sounding songs so far. We like to think of it as our “Robyn” inspired track.

8. Where will the band be in 5 years? Still making music and touring the world!