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BYT Interview: HotChaCha

October 6, 2009 by Patrick

Many people associate Ohio with rust-belt emptiness: a place severely lacking in cool and creativity. But for serious music fans, Ohio is home to some of the most innovative (Devo), weird (Pere Ubu) and prolific(Guided By Voices) groups in pop history. The Buckeye State is also home to two of the coolest ladies to ever pick up instruments – of course I speak of the sisters Deal, Kim and Kelly.

Enter HotChaCha, an all girl group who fuse the energy of DIY punk with the detached sexiness of early Geffen-era Sonic Youth. This hip quartet hail from the once bustling city of Cleveland. Their singer, Jovana Batkovic, is a little bit Karen O (before she got bored) and a little bit Kim Gordon. And apparently she’s a killer when it comes to removing hard water stains and scrubbing plaque from the toilet. (Read below).

How’s the tour going so far? Do you have any good stories for us?
The tour is going great! It doesn’t even feel like a tour, more like a vacation. We have been staying with our friends at death by audio. We started taping a cooking show today, to show bands that you can still eat and live healthy on tour. Actually it was kind of a joke, but you never know- look out for “Cooking with HotChaCha.”

I should let you know that sometimes the Velvet Lounge can get a little wild rowdy (in a good way), but that is generally not the trend at a lot of venues round here. What’s the wildest reaction you’ve ever received while playing a show?
Ooooo I hope they get rowdy because we LOVE that!!!! Most of our shows, especially back where we play in Ohio get really crazy. The craziest thing was probably a dude who climbed on the rafters and kind of walked on ceiling! It was funky.

On the flipside – what’s the coldest reaction HotChaCha has ever received?
I guess the coldest shoulder we got…hmmm…let me think. I guess Manhattan can be kind of cold.

And now for some backstory. You were born in Bosnia and later moved to Germany. Did growing up in Europe have a strong influence your taste in music?
I think that our taste in everything especially music, is influenced by our environment, so I would say that living in Europe definitely shaped my taste in music. There was a lot of German punk rock happening when I lived there, as well as the Serbian turbo-folk :) which I would listen to whenever associating with fellow Serbs (including family). At one point I got into electronic music, which was taking over the German music scene at the time. I still am very attracted to silly, dance music.

How does life in Cleveland compare to life in Germany or Bosnia?
As far as life in Cleveland compared to Europe, I must admit that due to the living circumstances at the time I lived in Europe (war in Bosnia, refugee status in Germany) I have finally found the life I want in Cleveland. I was able to get a bachelors and masters degree, which I probably would have not done had I stated in Germany, because the instinct of work, survival, etc, was far more intense than the need to satisfy any personal desires. Also being in a band would have probably not happened because of the aforementioned reason.

There’s a history of great bands from Ohio (Pere Ubu, Black Keys, Guided by Voices, Devo). Is the heart of rock and roll still in Cleveland?
NO. Ha! I guess not in the way that people imagine it is. We do have a rock and roll museum, but that’s as rock and roll as we get- and that is barely rock and roll at all. It’s kind of boring actually. I joke! There are actually a lot of great bands in Cleveland such as Mystery of 2, Dreadful Yawns, Like Bells, and Freedom. We have a few great music venues and there are bands playing every night.
By the way, if any bands from DC coming through Cleveland, contact us and we’ll be more than glad to give you a list of venues to contact.

I’m a fan of groups that have quirky or long song titles. There are some pretty cool ones on your MySpace. What’s the story behind some of them? For example, why is it “hard to be a white boy in 1992”?
I as well as you am a fan of long titles. And the story is usually one of us, or a friend says something hilarious and we adopt it into a title. They generally have nothing to do with the actual song or its content. White boy title came from something my friend Noel said at a party and I fell of off the chair laughing.

And speaking of the MySpace, I watched the video for “Bob” and I want to know what drove you and your bandmates to go to a farm and make a video.
I think I have an obsession with the “old country” and having spent most of my childhood at my grandparents’ farm, I obsess with reliving those times. Bob is kind of an autobiographical song- if there ever was one in HotChaCha- so I guess I wanted to take it there. Everyone loved the idea though, since my band mates are total nature and animal freaks.

Tell me about the origins of your band. How do you know the other three girls and why did you decide to start playing music together.
Mandy and I knew each other from being in the same circle of friends and one day decided to start a joke girl band, more specifically a “stoner” band. Neither one of us is a stoner, so we got Lisa. I’m just kidding. We knew Lisa played drums and we asked her to join. What started as a joke turned into a fun thing we started to spend more and more time on, and the style of music we started playing was nothing like stoner rock. After we played our first show, Heather saw it and loved the band, so we asked her to join. And the rest is history.

At times, y’all remind me of Sonic Youth (especially the vocals on “J’accuse”). Do you count Sonic Youth as one of your influences? Who else inspires your songwriting?
I would say absolutely, because all of us have listened to sonic youth at some point in our lives some early, and some later stuff. As far as other influences, I must admit that a lot of the music I listen to is not really the music we make. But I also believe that we do take certain parts and aspects of the music we listen to and create what we do, which turns out different. Which is what makes it interesting, I guess. Actually, last night after we played a show at Death by Audio in Brooklyn, someone told me that he was impressed at the fact that within one song there were many styles we utilized. And considering all of our backgrounds and the music each one of us listened to, it kind of makes total sense.

And what are you listening to you right now?
My favorite bands currently are A Place to Bury Strangers, Holy Fuck and Liars. I also like Joerg Burger and some recent snob-electronic music from Germany.

Jason, of the Spiritual Machine – who’ll be on the same bill with y’all on Friday – said that HotChaCha could probably make mincemeat out of his band. Would you be down for scrapping the performance and having a battle royal? Winner takes home all the money!
Hahahahahahahaha! This is great! We only look tough! Ha! I will enter a bathroom cleaning competition any time. As far as a battle I don’t know- now I am kind of scared and definitely intrigued about the upcoming show!

HotChaCha will be playing Velvet Lounge TONIGHT. With Aquarium. DJ Ian Svenonius is DJing downstairs.
Doors 9pm
21+
$8

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