Singer Stella Katsoudas and drummer Shawn Crahan form two-fifths of Dirty Little Rabbits formed, a genre-straddling act with a diverse membership. Stella herself was formerly a pop star in the US, while Shawn will be best known for his work within masked metallers Slipknot, who nowadays are of stadium size and one of the biggest bands of their kind in the world.
Dirty Little Rabbits however are taking on the task of starting afresh, the band having more of an alternative sound distinct from either of the interviewed pair’s other musical projects. This in itself placed the outfit as something of a contrast to the gothic rock sheen of Lacuna Coil, who they’d arrived at Glasgow’s ABC to support on tour, which is where we had the opportunity to talk to the friendly and refreshingly open Stella and Shawn about the band’s long gestation, as well as their plans for the immediate future now that their debut album is due out in the spring.
But first up, how would Lacuna Coil’s very loyal fanbase react to the very different sound of Dirty Little Rabbits, a band they likely won’t have heard yet? Wryly amused while contemplating the question, Shawn took a moment and explained: “We’re friends with Cristina [Scabbia, Lacuna Coil’s singer], we’re fans and all that, however with genres of music we’re not exactly the same.
“They wanted to take out some different bands, and that’s something all of us want to do. Why take out bands that are exactly like you? Take out other bands that are going to break out.
“However, their fans, because they don’t have our record yet and no-one really knows who we are, it’s kind of like the Twilight Zone.
“It’s like this is my dream, and I get up there and I give it everything I’ve got, and I wait for some reassurance... and there’s nothing.”
Stella interjected to reason: “Okay, but I do have to say this, this is what it’s been like on the tour. We’ve been playing shows, we’ll get them clapping [Shawn does some slow handclaps]... no, it’s not that, it’s this [does blank open-mouthed, wide-eyed expression].
“But we have figured out though, too, that I hate to talk onstage so we do these interlude things were the show is a continual sort of thing. So I think that people don’t know when to clap, because they’re not throwing things at us, they’re not booing!”
Joking some more, Shawn added: “But we love music and music’s God to us, so I don’t care, you know, you can throw a bottle and hit me in the face and I’m going to bleed until someone pulls me off. I’m here to play music, so it turns me on a little to play through that.”
- In the second part of our extended interview Shawn and Stella talk about the Dirty Little Rabbits “fairytale”.
- In the third part of our extended interview Shawn talks about how art’s going to “save us from ourselves” and the forthcoming release of their debut album.
