“I wanted to be in a band because I’d never been in a band. Nardwuar said, ‘OK, The Evaporators have got a show Friday. You’ve got five days to learn ten songs, here they are. And get an outfit.’ The outfit was as important as the playing, undoubtedly, for him. So that was it. I didn’t have time to worry about it that much. Our roommate, who was Bill’s [Baker] partner on the radio show, Scott [Chernoff] – he had a bass, showed me how to play a little bit. I got some Ramones records, listened to them, learned how to play, and then did the show.” Lisa Marr
cub: Lisa, Robynn and Valeria
“Bill [Baker] gave me my first guitar, a beautiful, red hollow body with a big whammy bar that I sadly never used. Scott Chernoff gave me my one and only guitar lesson. He taught me a handful of major chords: A, D, C, E, and G, the staples of many cub tunes.” Robynn Iwata
“The big thing was Robynn could olny play the guitar sitting down. And by the time it got to them playing shows, she still wasn’t comfortable standing up, so that was an inadvertent piece of schtick that we milked to death. It was pretty charming to see this girl sitting onstage, cross-legged. [Laughs]. It was pretty good, actually. More gutsy than anything.” Bill Baker
“Lisa Marr had come to see a band I was in called Speed Queens. And we were awful, I’m proud to say. I could barely drum. But it was fun. Anyway, she came to see us and thought we were hilarious. And at that point she must’ve started thinking of asking me to be in a project with her. She and Robynn put together a project and asked me to be the drummer. It’s sort of amazing that anyone ever asked me to be a drummer in their band because I’m self-taught, I’m a really bizarre player, and I never got very complex. I could never do big fills or solos or anything. ‘Idiosyncratic’ would be the word [laughs].” Valeria Fellini
cub – My Chinchilla
“The first time playing with cub was a little bit intimidating. Valeria has a very different style. I would call her a little more jazzy. I found it very difficult to try and play like her. So both Robynn and Lisa were like, ‘Why don’t you just play how you want to play?’ And that was obviously better. I was a little bit more straight-ahead, and a little bit more obvious. At the beginning I played the same beat with all my limbs [laughs]. But I was learning as I went. My day job was welding furniture at the time. So my friend at work would show me a few drum manoeuvers after work. And then I would practise so I would be ready when I went to the studio. I remember that. Being in a band is a lot of sitting around waiting. And being the drummer, it seems like you wait even more.” Lisa G
cub (Robynn, Lisa G and Lisa) with a friend (from DC)
“When they first started, none of them, especially Robynn and Valeria, knew how to play. That used to cause a lot of consternation with people, too. By then, we were starting to get demos from people, and for all the people who really loved them, for whatever various reasons, there were a lot of people who really hated them. These were people who had been practising for years and wanting to do this, and suddenly it’s like, ‘Why is cub being interviewed on CBC?’ It was insulting beyond belief to people.” Bill Baker
“‘Cuddlecore’ is indie pop at terrifying levels of adorable.” SPIN, 2010
“(…) cub was a very do-it-yourself band – that was one of the great things about it – which was the essence of punk. Years after punk, they were still carrying on a great tradition in a fresh way. I loved it.” David Wisdom (CBC broadcaster)
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