You could say Mad Crush know a thing or two about music. Only years of experience can explain the wry wit and complimentary musicianship of the songs on the band’s forthcoming, self-titled debut album. One part June Carter sassing Johnny Cash along with two dashes of Itzhak Perlman on a midnight hayride, Mad Crush’s songs contain theatrical, back-and-forth performances between their singing protagonists Joanna Sattin and John Elderkin. Complete with humor and heartbreak, their songs are in fact bright little dramas about fussing, fighting, and occasionally making up—universal truths sprinkled with brand-new magic dust.
Please tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from and how did you get started in music? Any defining moments along the path to present day?
I grew up in North Carolina in the 1970s and 1980s, sharing a record player and an AM radio with my younger brother. We ate up the pop hits of the day – disco, anthems about cowboys and CB Radios, and the occasional crooner like Engelbert Humperdinck. When I was 12, the hippy teenagers next door invited me over to hear their music, including a rare pressing of The Beatles on Vee Jay Records—early songs rejected by their American label before their Ed Sullivan Show appearance. I heard instantly that these songs were more alive and wild and bursting with joy than the music I’d been listening to, and life wasn’t the same afterward…..READ MORE