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Brandy Warhol
Electralux
![Sweet Assassin:
The Barbarellatones’ Robbie Quine dives into a slutty maelstrom of Revlon, reverb, and unholy love.
May 2007
Robbie Quine: Guitarist. Performer. Songwriter. Singer. Surfer. Pan sexual lord of magenta flowers and magic. Quine is a singular artist; but his Rock ‘n Roll personas are multi-faceted. Giving nods to the venerated mavericks of Glam, Goth, and Surf, the sounds that Robbie Quine has created for The Barbarellatones are as much about his own cosmic manifesto as they are ageless reminders of other glorified eras. Seen through the rose-colored glasses of a neo-Glam visionary, The Barbarellatones effuse love, loss, stardust and lipstick. Where blood running through mortal veins is every bit intoxicating as a sticky concoction of glitter and semen, The Barbarellatones are a b-movie sleaze dream of trash, class, deviance, and dignity sans arrogance. Quine is more than a Glam/Goth/Surf king cum laude. Standing 5 feet, 8 inches in height, yet appearing taller by impression, the tattooed frontman of The Barbarellatones is a study in technicolor contrasts. Damaged, strong, full of heart, and with tremendous sadness underneath it all, he exudes sensitivity, a dose of shyness, and above all else, sweetness that transcends preconceived notions of what it is to be male or female in one’s emotional makeup. Like the Pacific ocean he surfs daily, the identity of Robbie Quine is spread out over a light-inflected surface that leaves little indication of where underneath the sea green depths are and where the shallow areas lie.

Growing up in Hollywood, CA, Quine attended Fairfax High School, which he dubs “Fairfucks High,” describing his alma mater as having “a lot of quaaludes and a lot of fucking” at the time. Ditching school, surfing, and listening to Glam, Robbie Quine made the transition from fan to band member, having played in a succession of groups by his late teens. At the age of 16, Quine moved to Hawaii. “I’m a Leo and kind of a romantic person. I just wanted to go surf the big waves in Oahu. It was very sobering because I bit off a little more than I could chew; and I almost drowned at the North Shore. I have a lot of respect for the ocean and I love surfing. I got bitch slapped when I was cocky and thought I could handle these giant waves.” In spite of his near death experience, Quine stayed in Hawaii for two years, surviving on odd jobs that included driving a bicycle petty cab, selling pot “like almost every petty cab driver,” and low level pimping before returning to his home state, beginning a pattern of transpacific travel that would continue into adulthood. “I was a tiny bit of a pimp, a microscopic pimp. I’d have tourists get in, and they’d say, ‘Hey, do you know where we can get some action around here?’ I knew a few girls, and they’d give me 20 bucks, a little kickback. Surf pimp.” As for his mutual love for Hawaii and California, Quine explained, “I would live in Hawaii full-time if the music scene was better out there, but it’s so lame. I miss Glam; I miss rockin’ out; so that’s why I always come back. Nobody gets the Glam thing in Hawaii. I’ve had people throw a can of beer at me and call me a faggot when I was just walking down the street. It’s really rednecky.”

Robbie Quine, in front of a mirror with accoutrements adorning the porcelain below, creates a showman’s showman. At the mic, an exhibitionist on stage with an electric guitar, leather jacket, and wearing leopard print g-string underwear, Quine has put together a definitive Barbarellatones line-up consisting of the incomparable David Arnson on guitar and electric sitar, an enigmatic bassist with blue-black hair named Alexis, a conventional looking but no less effective drummer in the form of Roy Stayley, and the wildly entertaining Electralux and Brandy Warhol on backing vocals and theatrical entertainment. Brandy is also known as Kelly Mantle, a supercharged glamour star in her own right.
Before The Barbarellatones, Quine was best known for heading up the Glam/Goth outfit, Sex With Lurch. Sex With Lurch’s oeuvre includes tracks produced by the highly regarded Geza X and Paul Roessler. In various incarnations, Sex With Lurch cavorted about the landscape of Hollywood for six years. By December 2002, after the demise of Sex With Lurch, the future singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter of The Barbarellatones left California for Hawaii once again, ultimately spending three years in Lahaina on the west coast of Maui. “I always do a lot of healing in Hawaii, emotional healing and physical healing, too. I get in great shape from the surfing and I work on some of my emotional stuff.” During his time in exile, Robbie Quine reinvented himself and recorded no less than five Barbarellatones discs with co-producer Joe Vant. Aside from various guest spots by future members of The Barbarellatones and other brilliant accomplices, Quine wrote, arranged, sang and played various instruments on all the tracks. Quine’s masterplan is to record the next Barbarellatones record with the newly solidified line-up.
The latest release, Interview With A Glampire, is among the best, if not the best, of The Barbarellatones’ current discography. There are not-so-subtle tips of the hat to Ziggy and Alladin Sane era Bowie, Velvet Underground, and Lou Reed circa Transformer. In spite of its derivations, Quine is able to reveal his own voice, literally and figuratively, on this record in a way that defies all expectations based on previous efforts. Where Quine really differs from his influences is in the level of sophistication one hears relative to instrumentation, exotic melodies, and a sense of lyrical humor that doesn’t fall into a trap of silliness if for no other reason than the sole strength of Quine owning and admitting to every sentiment he sings. Lifting the lid off its coffin, Interview With A Glampire wakes up in a city of cheap parties, Boris Karloff picture shows, and sex off the map in a soup-elixir of psychedelic gypsy music (“Magdalena,” “Interview With A Glampire”), late ‘50s/early ‘60s slow-dance pop (“Will You Respect Me In The Morning?”), and It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll era Stonesy guitar riffage (“Corn Huskin’ Man”), all within a cornucopia of other sub-genres that dilates the senses and ventures beyond a mere triumvirate of Glam, Goth, and Surf music.
Overlooking the ocean amidst a panorama of Malibu hills on a bright, California sunshine afternoon with coffee and two tape recorders running, Robbie Quine spoke candidly about music, sex, death, regret, and the value of each human being embracing every aspect of his or her character. Quine is thoughtful, articulate, and concise in conversation, but not a choirboy by any stretch of the imagination. He unselfconsciously reveals his roots at regular intervals, favorably responding to the initial suggestion of an interview with “Killz.” One can be under the impression, however, that Robbie Quine is unassuming enough to hide his perspicacity - or at least the actual level at which it operates within him – that in fact he’s far more conscious of people and his surroundings than he sometimes appears to be. On the other hand, Quine isn’t necessarily guarded about himself in a personal sense, either. That very aspect of his spirit is what has remained intact, crushed by neither school, society, nor the ugliness of hard knocks inflicted on nearly every soul in the modern world. Like several artists in possession of considerable talent, the true nature of Quine’s intellect lies within the music and, by relation, the raw emotions that constitute it.

I: WHERE GLAM, GOTH, AND SURF COLLIDE
GREG DEBONNE: Given the mixture of Glam, Goth, and Surf in The Barbarellatones’ sound, what do you think is the relation between those styles on a broader, cosmic level?
ROBBIE QUINE: For me, it’s more of just who I am as a person. I’m a surfer and I’m a goth. I know it’s kind of a weird mixture. Generally, goths are night people; and I’m sort of a day person. It doesn’t really mix well, but it’s who I am. It’s just keeping it honest as far as who I am as a person. I love Goth and I love surfing, so I just made ‘em 69 each other.
GD: And the Glam?
RQ: The Glam is sprinkled on top of ‘em, so it’s a ménage à trois.
GD: Why is the sound of The Barbarellatones made up of that particular fusion of styles, Glam, Goth, and Surf? If you had to pick a relation between all three of them, what would it be between those styles that allows you to put them together in the context of The Barbarellatones and make them fit?

RQ: Surf music has a certain go-go, white soul sort of thing to it. For me, at least, it’s very danceable Rock; and I like that. I like the hypnotic dreaminess of Goth and I love Glam. I don’t know if all of it amalgamates properly, but I try to always have those three influences in my music.
GD: What are the threads from an arrangemental standpoint, musically and relative to instrumentation, that allow you put them together? Do you even know or is it something that just somehow happens?
RQ: I think it’s something that just happens. I just go by what feels cool to me. Sometimes it doesn’t go so smoothly. With certain songs, I go more in a Glam direction or a Goth direction or a Surf direction. It’s not always 33 and a third each.
GD: Is there any one of those three that you feel is more sophisticated or complex?
RQ: I think Psychedelic music, dark Psychedelic, which I also like, is probably a little more complicated. The Surf is the easiest. The Goth can sometimes be very ‘droney’ and hypnotic, which is also easy. I love the more minor scales, Arabic scales, and a little bit of heroin rock – Velvet Undergroundish sort of a vibe – so that’s in a lot of my music, too.

GD: You mentioned that Goth is a little more drone-like, but the instrumentation can be exotic.
RQ: Yeah, that’s true.
GD: What sort of exotic instrumentation do you put in The Barbarellatones sound? There’s some violin in there……
RQ: Right. I love strings. In Sex With Lurch, our bass player was a cellist. We used her cello on a lot of songs. I’ve always thought cello is badass – very Goth – and I love it. I also like the violin. I love reverb guitars; and I like very pretty 12-string finger picking, little Arabic riffs, accents and flavors.
GD: It’s funny that you mention the 12-string guitar. I understand that your 12-string guitar, purposefully, has the 5th set of strings missing, the pair of As, which is what it would be missing if you utilize the standard tuning of E, B, G, D, A, and E again in the bass. Does that particular configuration of your 12-string find its way onto many of The Barbarellatones’ tracks?
RQ: It sure does. I don’t like when 12-strings are too pretty, too Donovan-esque, where everything is just very beautiful and hippie-ish. It’s too gay.
GD: Yeah, so you want it to sound a little bit warped. Maybe not warped, because I think the sound you get with The Barbarellatones is beautiful, but it’s dark. So, I guess you can be totally beautiful without being gay about the sound.
RQ: Right. That’s what I’m going for. What I do is, I’m sort of giving away all my secrets here but so be it, I don’t use octave strings on the 12-string guitar. I double up the strings, which is very hard on the neck. It can actually warp the neck.
GD: What do you mean you don’t use octave strings?
RQ: On a regular 12-string, the low E also has a high E next to it. It’s the same with the two A strings and so on. They’re octaves. That’s what gives the instrument its really pretty sound. On my 12-string, I just have the E of the same gauge, and the high E of the same gauge. The Bs are of the same gauge. There are no octaves. So, it gives it a chorus.
GD: So it’s the exact same tone in unison. You actually put the same gauge strings together. The pair of Es, same gauge; the pair of Bs, same gauge?
RQ: Right, but I don’t have A strings on there. That gives it a more overall minor tone. It’s difficult because I have to stretch my fingers like crazy to play my bastardized version of a bar chord. I’m stretched all over the neck; but I’ve been playing like that for years, so I’m used to it.
GD: You say that the configuration is going to give you, overall, a more minor tone; but isn’t what’s going to give you a minor tone really based upon whatever composition you have in your head and what you want to convey, not necessarily the way the instrument is tuned?
RQ: Yeah, that’s true, too; but not having the A strings does give it a darker sound.
GD: If we can touch back on something that we were talking about a little while ago, you mentioned that in addition to Glam, Goth, and Surf, you also like Psychedelic. I hear vignettes of other styles as well. If someone were to ask you by what other genres of music do you think you’ve been influenced and that you incorporate into The Barbarellatones, what would you say?
RQ: I grew up listening to Psychedelic music from my dad, who was an acid head and a stoner. God bless him; he turned me onto a lot of great music. He’s an actor who hung out with Dennis Hopper and all those freaks. There’s a wide array of Psychedelic music, which also exposed me to Folk. You know, in the ‘70s, everything went Joni Mitchell and got all ‘folkified.’
GD: You seem to have a derisive point of view about that music.
RQ: Well, I don’t really like it, except there are a few artists like Neil Young that have come along, these more junkie-ish Folk people that do sprinkle a little bit of darkness into their Folk thing; and I like that. Some people like Nick Cave have gone way far with it.
GD: What other ways do you get a unique sound for The Barbarellatones?
RQ: I have an electric sitar that I play on a lot. I don’t take the A-string off of the sitar, so it counterbalances with the 12-string guitar.

GD: There’s a fair dose of sexuality in The Barbarellatones’ lyrics. Lyrically, Glam and Goth have always had their own individual slants of sexuality. Given that you’ve oozed both Glam and Goth onto your lyrical palette, how do you think their respective differences in sexual vibe coalesce together in your own lyrics?
RQ: One thing I love about Goth is that it’s got a sense of romantic sensuality; and it’s a tiny bit creepy; and it’s a tiny bit S&M-esque. And I like that. Goth has got a little bit of a bondage fetish side to it. I think it’s very cool that the guys wear makeup just as the girls do. That’s the same thing I like about Glam, too. With Glam, it’s a little more bi [sexual]. It’s a little sluttier. Definitely, the Glam side has a lot of the drug stuff, too.
GD: But Goth doesn’t so much?
RQ: I’m sure that Goth probably does, too. It seems like the whole glitter thing is way off the Richter scale. It’s very trashy, very sleazy, but fun at the same time. The Goth trip, to me, is a little more subdued, a little dreamier, but very, very sexy. That’s the common thing in both of ‘em that I like. The Glam scene is sexy; the Goth scene is sexy.
II: INTERVIEW WITH A GLAMPIRE

GD: You have a new record, Interview With A Glampire. What does it represent to you?
RQ: It touches on what we talked about earlier. I’m a little bit Gothic, I’m a lot Glam, and I’m a surfer. I always try to have those three elements in my music. I don’t force it; it just naturally flows out. Almost every song I write, you can hear all three of those influences. I like the Goth scene, but if I have to put myself in one category, I’d say I’m more of a neo-Glam rocker than anything else.
GD: What does the record represent to you on a personal level?
RQ: A lot of things. First of all, the whole vampire mystique, to me, is sensual. As a junkie, I can relate to just wanting to come out at night. I was a heroin addict and living more in an underworld sort of place. It was romantic for awhile, but I knew it was destructive. Eventually, I bottomed out on the heroin and got clean. It was hard. It was a difficult journey, but I don’t look back at that part of my life as though it was a waste of time or anything to have shame about. I went through it; I’m glad I lived through it. I’m evolving and moving on to other things.
GD: How do you enjoy the night, the underground, and the darkness without being a junkie? Is it possible?
RQ: Yeah. It took awhile to get comfortable with being clean. First of all, I had to let go of all my old friends because I wouldn’t have a chance. Being in the drug world and being in the clean world, it doesn’t really work for me. So I just dove into the clean world with both feet and reinvented myself. The first year, I could barely play music. I felt sick when I played my guitar. Nothing was flowing out.
GD: Why?
RQ: I just had to get used to being clean. I was still detoxing.
GD: So, if I understand you, you feel that Interview With A Glampire is a representation of being comfortable with the new you?
RQ: Yeah, I think so, and gaining more acceptance about it.
GD: The tonality of the record is certainly more colorful than some of your previous work. It’s more colorful than Sex With Lurch. Would you tend to agree?

RQ: Yeah, I would. I’m getting more playful with it. Some people are not going to dig it; and that’s o.k. You can’t please everyone. That’s what art is about. I’m constantly reinventing myself, growing, changing, and trying new shit. So, there’s a playfulness about it which some of the Goth people won’t like. They don’t like silly songs. They don’t like joking and sarcastic humor very much. It’s not really their trip. I’m also a nasty boy; and I write about a lot of sexual stuff. But not all my music is that way. “Interview With A Glampire,” the song, is about alienation. It’s about knowing a deep kind of loneliness, isolation, not really connecting with others in a healthy way, and just being dark.

GD: Do you still feel that way now?
RQ: Sometimes; yeah.
GD: Pushing the lyrics aside, the music is representative of not fitting in?
RQ: Definitely. When I write a song, I try my best to make it come straight from my heart. Even the more playful stuff is just a different facet of who I am. Maybe it’s more of my child self. I mix it up. I can write dark ballads, Gothabilly, kickass songs, Surf music; all of it.
GD: Interview With A Glampire seems to be such a serious evolution from your last record, Coldsore. Besides what you mentioned, just on a strictly musical level, what do you think it is that makes Interview With A Glampire such an evolution from your previous work? Where do you think the differences lie in tonality, color, and vibe?
RQ: Part of it would be that I had this killer violinist/mandolin player: Willie Wainwright. He’s part Indian and part Irish. So he’s got that Celtic soul, but it’s mixed in with a little of his Indian. He got it right away. We’d do one take and it sounded killer. Then we just pressed record and laid it down. He got the vibe of it. I wanted that gypsy, Transylvanian trip going on, but not too pretentious or forced. I wanted it to be organic, the fantasy of the glampire. And he got it.
III: FOR HEIDI
GD: The Barbarellatones’ myspace page quotes Robbie Quine as saying, however potentially tongue-in-cheek, that “Rock music should be sleazy and glamorous.” In that declaration of yours, where does the humor and the reality meet each other?
RQ: Just look around at the world. Those two things are side by side all the time. There’s a lot of serious stuff going on; and there’s also a lot of delightful, absurd things about life. I like both of those aspects. I don’t want to write an album where you listen to the whole thing and at the end of it, you wanna slit your wrists.
GD: You feel that you can take sexuality seriously, have it be a personal part of your art, and yet still look at it with a sly sense of humor?
RQ: Right. It also depends on how I’m feeling when I write the songs. I don’t sit down and say, “O.K. I’m gonna try to write a hit song.” I just write whatever flows out of me.
GD: In what ways does your own sexuality as a human being find its way into your lyrics?
RQ: Oh, it’s all over the place in there. I am not writing from stuff that I haven’t lived. I was a junkie; I have turned tricks in the past; I’ve experimented. I think that sex is a buffet - you should try a little of everything - but for me, love is so awesome that I would just kneel before it. I mean, I love having fun and trying different stuff, but love is just so powerful and awesome that I think everyone at some point kneels before love, it’s power, and how healing and full of wonder it is.

GD: Being that’s the spiritual conclusion you’ve drawn, do you regret the experimentation you’ve had in the past?
RQ: I don’t regret it. The only thing I regret is that some people got hurt. I was directly responsible for that.
GD: Emotionally?
RQ: Emotionally and, a couple of times, physically. I had a girlfriend who overdosed. We were together; and we were shooting up. I loved her. We just flew a little too high.
GD: And she passed away?
RQ: Yeah, in San Francisco. That is something where if I had a button and could go back in time, I would use the button for that. I would like to have intervened somehow and said, “Baby, let’s go get cleaned up. Let’s go into a hospital; let’s go to a methadone center. Whatever it takes. Let’s get honest. We’re starting to spiral out of control. Let’s make a phone call or something.”
GD: With that kind of sadness, regret, and human wreckage, how did you find and get back to the playfulness and joie de vivre, the colorfulness of the Glam and the Goth? You can move on, but you have a memory. You can’t necessarily forget; so how did you get back your lust for life that exists on both of your last two records?
RQ: I’m only partially there. I feel like I’m haunted; and I have a certain amount of sadness in my heart, all the time, for Heidi. That’s her name. I miss her. I have this gratitude journal; and I write everyday, “I love you, Heidi.” On some level, I’m still processing that, but there’s a whole world out there; and I am in love with life. It’s perfect that you said ‘lust for life’ because, not to mention the fact that I love Iggy, I do have a lust for life. I love life; I love love; I love evolution. Those are all interchangeable words for god as far as I’m concerned. I have gratitude for everything. I have gratitude that Heidi loved me. I have gratitude that I lived through the overdose. I have gratitude that I finally got clean after all those years of being a junkie. I celebrated 15 years of being clean & sober in AA on last Sunday.
GD: Congratulations. 15 years, man.
RQ: Thanks. I’m very, very stoked on that. You know, if there’s anyone who sees this interview that has a drug problem, I invite you to do an about face, take an honest look at it, and take contrary action.
GD: Very nice. Do you wanna lighten up the tone?
RQ: O.K. Sure.
GD: Yeah? ‘Cause we got heavy there.
RQ: (laughs) Yeah, we did!
IV: CORN HUSKIN’ MAN

GD: Over the years, there have been quite a few songs about masturbation. “Corn Huskin’ Man” off of your new record seems to be about that subject; and I might add, the subtlety of the title in that regard is sheer genius. I can’t ask Pete Townshend why he wrote “Pictures Of Lily,” but I want to ask you why you wrote “Corn Huskin’ Man.”
RQ: Well, I think that inside of every man dwells a corn huskin’ man. I know that inside of me there’s one. It’s just a crack up. My dad, I don’t know if he’s a sex addict or what, but he always had porno magazines around. When you’re a little kid growing up and you see those magazines, it’s pretty intense. My attitude about sex is that it’s wonderful; it’s playful; it’s fun. Let’s be honest. We all like it. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have body shame or sex shame; and I’ve always been staunchly, very clear about that for myself. I just don’t think it’s real healthy. So, that’s another one of my playful, perverted little songs. It just cracks me up. For some reason, I sometimes write ‘rednecky’ little songs. Maybe it’s just to get it out of my system.
GD: Is a song like “Corn Huskin’ Man” ‘rednecky’?
RQ: I think it sort of is, ‘cause the character works on a farm. You can hear the sheep at the end.
GD: Is there a significance to the cowbell on the track? It’s badass. I love cowbell.
RQ: Yeah, I really dig it, too. That’s just to add the redneck flavor. I’m glad you like that song, because I love that song.
V: MILFIN’

GD: You have other songs such as “Milfin’!” and “Will You Respect Me In the Morning?” There seems to be a sense of humor mixed with the deviance. Where and how do you create that balance between humor and sleazy sexuality?
RQ: It’s part of who I am. It just comes out. For me, a lot of my music, and people probably pick up on it when they listen, it’s a way for me to get my feelings out. It’s almost like a therapy. A lot of it, maybe I’ve got some work to do on myself, I probably do, but I do enjoy this slutty sex stuff; and I like to write about it.
GD: In “Milfin’,” you describe the subject of the song as, and I quote the lyrics directly, “She’s a banker in a tight skirt. Middle aged and loves to flirt. I can smell her when she walks my way. She wears Tigress by Faberge. She’s got a Martha Stewart vibe. Got me feeling strangely hornified.” Is the song based on a real live woman?
RQ: Yeah, it is. It’s not about any one particular woman, but it’s very Mrs. Robinson-ish. I think most guys have had a little fantasy about some older, nectar babe that looks pretty fierce. Even though she’s got little crow’s feet or she’s a little tore up, she’s still really sexy.
GD: So, have you ever experimented with a MILF?
RQ: I’ve done some milfin,’ yeah. That song is a true song.
VI: CHOCKY, THE HAWAIIAN DIRT CAT
GD: You’ve lived in both Hawaii and California. How has each of those locales affected your sound and definition as an artist?
RQ: That’s a good question. It’s pretty clear that growing up in Hollywood, the timing was perfect. When I was 13, Ziggy Stardust [ed. note: David Bowie’s landmark 1972 Glam-Rock classic] came out. Shortly after that, I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I bleached my hair blonde, started wearing eye liner, and I never stopped. I’ve just been a Glam rocker since I’ve been a teenager. Then, when I was a junkie, I morphed into Goth; and I loved that. The whole time, I was surfing. I started surfing when I was 12, so when I was 16, I moved to Hawaii. I love the warm water, the tropical warm breezes; and the sunsets are fucking gorgeous there. It’s beautiful. Anyone who’s ever been there knows. Hawaii really nurtured my surf rock roots; and so did California because of The Beach Boys, The Ventures, and all that stuff. What really got me started with mixing the Goth, the Surf, and the Glam together was The Cramps. The first time I heard The Cramps, it just rocked me so hard. I even like The B-52s. I’m really dating myself here, but I have to tell the truth. New Wave is another aspect that you can hear in my songs.
GD: You mean real New Wave, not what people started to call New Wave. Because I don’t think a lot of people know what real New Wave is, can you name a few artists?
RQ: Yeah. For me, bands like Television, all the CBGBs kind of bands. I loved Devo when they first came out. I just thought it was bitchen. There’s a lot of bands like that.

GD: You do have a song from 2005’s Coldsore disc entitled “Chocky (Hawaiian Dirt Cat).” Out of all the ways in which Hawaii could have found its way into your songs, how is it that a Hawaiian “dirt cat” was the one?
RQ: I rented this little ohana guest house in Lahaina. It’s hot as hell. In the summer, it’s not a super comfortable place to be. This really smelly dirt cat came over; and he was just crying his ass off. At first, I thought he was a real high maintenance, pain-in-the-ass cat. The song is an exact true story. He did have poo-poo in his fur and a twig in his tail; and he stunk. He was really crabby. I don’t know how this cat got into my heart. He just would come lay on my surfboards. I had a little scooter. He would fall asleep on the seat of the scooter, leave all his fur on it; and I’d have to clean it off. He was like Pigpen from Peanuts. Everywhere he went, there was a cloud of dirt and fur. He was kind of a punk rock, smelly old cat. I asked my neighbor how old was Chocky; and she said, “23.” I had no idea that cats get that old. I don’t think they do get that old. I think Chocky is one of the oldest cats in the world; and he looks like it. If you’ve seen Star Wars, I’m sure you have, he looks exactly like Yoda. He’s only got one tooth. So, I wrote this song about him. It was just for fun, kind of a joke that my girlfriend and I got off on. I stuck it on the cd and a lot of people liked it. The song started getting played on college radio.
GD: I love the chorus with the harmonic A on top. How did you do that, by varying the volume knob back and forth?
RQ: We did a harmonic and put a tremolo on it.
GD: Did you use a BOSS pedal for the tremolo or an amp?
RQ: We just set it on the amp.
GD: Like on a Fender Twin?
RQ: Yeah, exactly. Fender Twin is what I always use on the Surf Rock.
GD: So, again, out of all the ways in which Hawaii could have found its way into one of your songs, why that cat?
RQ: It’s hard to explain. He just had so much character; he was such a fuckin’ crackup. And he was so old. I felt sorry for him. I was afraid that he would drop dead or something, so I just gave him love. He hung out all the time; he would always sleep on my surfboard. It was his favorite spot to sleep.
VII: FROM LAHAINA TO TOKYO, WITH LOVE.

GD: One of the more interesting aspects of Interview With A Glampire is relative to the song, “Rocking In The Land Of The Rising Sun.” You’ve lived in Hawaii, and there’s always been a strong relation between the Japanese and the Hawaiian islands. You mentioned to me on another occasion that when you played Safari Sam’s, MTV Japan showed up and was just stoked on The Barbarellatones. How does Japan equate to you and your music? Is there a relation?
RQ: Yeah. I have an insanely obvious b-movie fetish. I love cheesy, bad, sci-fi horror movies. Anything b-movie-ish. I love the bad acting, the bad writing, and just the whole campiness and cheesiness of it. Godzilla movies, Kung Fu movies, anything like that, I usually get a kick out of it. I also like Pop art. So, I try to do my own musical version of Pop art.
GD: Pop art, such as?
RQ: I have a song called “Tokyo Cowboy.” A lot of the themes of my songs are slanted towards b-movies, like “Monster Surf Party,” “Zombie Drag Queen,” and then “Tranni Troglodyte.”
GD: And you’re equating that colorful aspect to Japanese Pop culture.
RQ: Right. It seems that in Japan, they enjoy cartoon-esque, semi-Glam characters. They’ve very o.k. with really colorful, over-the-top characters.
VIII: THE DIABOLICAL DEVIL DOLLZ

GD: Let’s talk about the Barbarellatones’ current members. On backing vocals, you have Brandy Warhol and Electralux, both of whom were in your previous band, Sex With Lurch. What do Brandy and Electralux bring to The Barbarellatones?
RQ: They’re both superb drag queens. They’re funny and sexy. Their tongues are sharp as a knife. They have a great sense of humor; a very Glam Rock style, androgynous, and a tiny bit trashy. Maybe more than a tiny bit.
GD: Of course, Brandy Warhol is actually Kelly Mantle, a recording artist in her own right. How does it work out that a lead singer/frontperson type of artist such as Kelly is o.k. with playing a supporting role in The Barbarellatones?

RQ: I think she does it ‘cause it’s so fun. There’s chemistry with this band. We get together; we always have a blast.
GD: What about Electralux? Who is she as a creative entity?
RQ: Electralux? Her boy name is Michael Holdaway - and she’s a stylist – picks out your clothes. She’s an image consultant.
GD: What’s the relation between Electralux and Brandy?
RQ: They’re just friends. They were the Lurchettes in Sex With Lurch. I didn’t want to call them by that name anymore. Because with The Barbarellatones, it just doesn’t fit, I was thinking that my new name for Brandy Warhol and Electralux is The Kitty Cat Dollz. (laughs) Very classy. Not to be confused with The Pussycat Dolls.
IX: MR. COOLANGATTA
GD: You have a great asset to the band in David Arnson. Dave, of course, is from the longtime venerated Surf group, Insect Surfers. Not only an excellent Surf-oriented guitarist, he also lends an exotic element to The Barbarellatones’ live sound with his use of electric sitar. In your eyes, what is his equation to the band?
RQ: I couldn’t ask for a better lead guitarist than Dave. I so get off on playing with him. At the end of “Tranni Troglodyte,” I say, “Electric Wooly Mammoth.” I point to Dave, and he plays this weird guitar sound effect that sounds like a fake Wooly Mammoth. He’s really creative. Dave Arnson is, hands down, one of the best Surf guitarists in the whole state. He’s very melodic and a good showman. Some guitar players just sit there with their hair in their face; and they’re rockin’ out but barely moving around. Dave’s hopping around like a frog. He’s just totally slutty; he’s great.
X: ALEXIS

GD: Out of the instrumentalists in The Barbarellatones’ live show, Alexis is the only female member of the group. One time on the telephone, you mentioned to me that you liked having a female player in the band. Who is Alexis, and what is it about the male-to-female equation in a band that you really like?
RQ: I love having some female energy in the band. I’m not talking about the drag queen energy. That’s a different kind of energy, which is also fun, amusing, and it works; but having a woman in the band just helps to balance out the energy. I like it and it works well. Plus, it also makes a statement that chicks can rock just as well as guys can; and I think it’s good not to be sexist.
GD: How do you think the sound of The Barbarellatones would be different if you didn’t have a female bassist?
RQ: It would change the energy around a bit. I just feel more comfortable having a girl in the band. I like how it feels.

XI: STAYLEY LIKE PAISTE
GD: Roy Stayley is the drummer. Tell me about Roy and what he brings to The Barbarellatones’ sound as a drummer.
RQ: Roy was my drummer in Sex With Lurch. He was also in Green Jello. Roy is just one of the best Rock ‘n Roll drummers. I don’t want to play with any other drummer except him. He is so fierce. He’s a little behind the beat – keeps it kind of sluggish – very three in the morning and you’re in a strip bar. He’s just got that swampy drumming. It’s a tiny bit late, a little behind the beat. It’s a lazy handed kind of style. It’s great for Surf rock. He’s just fantastic.
XII: THE GLAMPIRE

GD: Last, but not least, Robbie Quine. Who are you?
RQ: I am just a multi-faceted, little thrashed around the edges, musician-artist-surfer-songwriter. I’ll just pick up my guitar and just write whatever comes out. I’m not trying to be a big Rock star; I just love music. I like music that’s hypnotic. I like music that’s dreamy. I like music that’s sexy. Sometimes I want spiritual aspects in there. I’m just doing my art and having a great time with it. Playing live with The Barbarellatones is a blast. I love it; it’s fun. Recording is fun. I’m working with Paul Roessler. To me, he’s like the American [Brian] Eno. He’s one of the most creative keyboardists around - really thinks outside the box – very good sense of melody. He sings backup on my new stuff. I just let him run with it. When he has an idea for harmonies, I say, “Dude, do it.” I trust him. We have a song called “Damn This Illusion.” We have a song called “The Itty Bitty Titty Committee.” They’re almost done and are coming out great.
GD: You said that you don’t aspire to be a Rock star, but you certainly perform with a lot of showmanship. Is there a contradiction in terms?
RQ: Probably, yeah; but I’m doing it because I love it. I’m doing it in the pure sense. All the rockers that I love are just like that. Bowie. Iggy. They’re all over the place. You can’t take your eyes off ‘em when they’re on stage. Those are the kinds of musicians I really get off on.
GD: So the star aspect would just be a by product of what you do?
RQ: Yeah. I think if I was really trying to be a Rock star, I wouldn’t be writing songs about Hawaiian dirt cats and “Tranni Troglodyte” cavemen-drag queens. I’d be writing something a little more mainstream. I don’t care about that.
XIII: THE BARBARELLATONES
GD: Conceptually, what are The Barbarellatones?
RQ: I wanted ‘tones’ because a lot of Surf bands use the name ‘tones;’ but we are androgynous, neo-Glam, b-movie sci-fi space sluts. If you’ve seen the movie Barbarella, that’s why we chose that name. Barbarella is a sci-fi sleaze movie about an intergalactic space slut, played by Jane Fonda. For some reason, she always winds up in bed with somebody, either an alien, her boss, or she even has sex with an angel. She has sex with everybody. I love the whole concept of a space slut, kind of nymphomaniac, very glam, b-movie-esque character. So that’s what we’re going for.
-- Greg Debonne
© 2007 All Rights Reserved


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