Thanks so much to Rick for the interview! The Bomb Pops was part of the amazing early 90s Minneapolis scene that spawned so many great bands including the Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, Dearly, The Hang Ups and the classic label Grimsey Records. I was lucky to get in touch with him, and I didn’t want to let pass the opportunity to find out the story behind the band! If you haven’t heard them before try to get hold of the compilation they put out on Grimsey, which included all their songs, “Recommended for Diversion Seekers”!
++ Hi Rick! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?
No, for a short time, around 2005-7, I made some electronic and experimental, instrumental music as “Da Crouton.” Everything was hosted on a blog and plans were made for an album. But I’ve tabled that project.
++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?
Until I discovered punk, I couldn’t bring myself to play an instrument. I was a terrible student, couldn’t stand taking directions or the deliberation involved in learning the fundamentals. I loved pop music. Blondie was my favorite band from about age nine. I grew up in the Twin Cities of Minnesota in the 1980s, so I was hearing Husker Du, The Replacements, and similar bands, and also Prince, of course. I loved all of that. At some point, around age 13, I discovered community radio (KFAI, the R&B station KMOJ, and KBEM). The jazz station (KBEM) was run out of a high school in North Minneapolis, and on Friday nights there was a program called “Ready, Steady, Go.” I used to stay up late taping the show and then go into a record store called Platters to try to find out more about what I had heard. I discovered a lot of stuff that way. Probably the first indie-pop record I bought through this process of discovery would be the first Soup Dragons ep on Subway. But I had wide tastes. Eventually, The Smiths and early R.E.M. became very important to me, especially the Smiths. I taught myself to play the drums and that was my instrument. My first band tried to weld together influences ranging from The Velvet Underground, Syd Barrett, and Iggy Pop. I was always the lyricist and lead singer, so I modeled myself after Grant Hart, whom I would eventually meet just after Husker Du broke up. He was a great pop songwriter and wonderful singer. I would return to playing the drums briefly in The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, after the break up of Bomb Pops. But I didn’t have the subtlety to really do what Jim needed. He was a good friend and probably thought he owed it to me to give me a chance, since I had a hand in landing him a recording deal after he thought it was probably over for that band. We had a fun year together. Matt from Dearly was in the band at that time, and we toured. That’s how I first saw cities like Montreal, New York, and New Orleans. I met a bunch of the indie-pop kids in D.C. on that tour, also, including Chip Porter of Veronica Lake and Audrey’s Diary (who released the first Bomb Pops single). But I was a punk drummer. It was doomed to fail! After that tour, I quit music for a long time. I wrote one or two songs, but I had already moved on to other things, so no one’s heard them. My first music memories, though? Prince and The Revolution live in 1984. Husker Du live in 1987. But mostly listening to Blondie records alone in my bedroom, dreaming of New York City in the 70s.
++ Had you been in other bands before the Bomb Pops? What about the rest of the members? If so, how did all of these bands sound like? Are there any recordings?
I never recorded with this first band I mentioned, but we played some gigs in Minneapolis and they were well received. I must have been 16 and 17 when I first played drums local bars. Andrea and Bryan of Bomb Pops were both much more musical. Andrea played cello in a youth orchestra. Bryan was a talented multi-instrumentalist and was learning to record and produce. He could already play the studio by the time he was old enough to drink legally. It’s a wonder he put up with my amateurism. I taught myself the guitar (took just two lessons, with David Becky of The Autumn Leaves).
++ How was Minneapolis at the time of the Bomb Pops? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
I was deeply involved in local music. My older brother played in bands, and we both worked at First Avenue for years. I also worked at the Walker Art Center which, in the late 80s and early 90s, was a typical day job for local musicians. This is a really formative time, but it isn’t focused in any stringent way on one kind of music. I was friendly with Lori from Babes in Toyland and loved that band, also Cows and other nastier-than-grunge music. But most of those people were also into The Chills and stuff that resonates more with the indie-pop scene. In the same year, my two favorite records were Sonic Youth’s Goo and the Sarah Records compilation Shadow Factory (which I still think is that label’s finest moment). I didn’t see any contradictions in liking these extremes, but some around me did and still do. Shortly thereafter, bands like Unrest, Beat Happening, My Bloody Valentine, and a personal favorite (which I knew of but didn’t concentrate on, at first), Felt (already split up). Just before Bomb Pops formed, I discovered The Hang Ups. They were in their last year at the local art school and Brian Tighe, the main songwriter, submitted their first recordings as his senior thesis. This tape made it around and I saw them play. It was exactly what I was looking for. Until this time, Minneapolis music seemed darker, louder, basically more American. But there were people like Brian, Jim Ruiz, John Crozier (of The Funseekers, later Ninian Hawick) who were doing sophisticated but d.i.y. pop music. Dave Beckey’s band The Sedgewicks were towing the same line as the Go Betweens, whom I still adore, and then Dave started a band called Glow, which turned into The Autumn Leaves. It started to look like we had a scene, suddenly.
++ I am still wondering about the Minneapolis scene that spawned such cool bands in the 90s and also the Grimsey label. Were there any bands that for a reason or another, that you remember, didn’t get the attention they deserved? Perhaps bands that didn’t record anything or just some demos?
This is about the time that grunge hit. The bands that gained exposure didn’t sound like us. We remained friendly and received genuine support from the more rockist and punk people. But we were somewhat sidelined. Grimsey was Andrea’s genius. She rescued some of us, made us feel like there was an audience waiting somewhere. Dearly is probably the band that, to me, seemed most promising. From the moment I heard them, I wanted to be in that band. I commissioned recordings, maybe their first, for a one-off fanzine cassette I released. Their Grimsey single was in the same vein, but with the propulsion of a full band and excellent production by Bryan Hannah. They were good live–my band wasn’t. One of their last shows, they had reinvented their sound. It was veering toward power pop, even Mott the Hoople. They played a cover of Wings’ “Silly Love Songs” and it was brilliant. I’m not sure why they dissolved, but I think they could have done much, much more. Matt Gerzma, their songwriter, was extremely talented.
++ And how tight was this scene? Did it feel like a scene?
We’re talking about a small city and a small concern within an already underground music scene. Everybody was in everybody else’s business. It was extremely incestuous. There was a sense of conspiracy. We helped each other discover things, shared influences. Dave Beckey introduced me to Big Star. John Crozier introduced me to The Razorcuts. Jim Ruiz revived my interest in The Style Council and Francoise Hardy. Stephanie Winter and I both loved Blondie and The Apartments. Brian Tighe of the Hang Ups taught me about The Kinks. I was lending out my Sarah and Creation singles to anyone who cared. There were internal dramas of all sorts. There is a collective label now in Minneapolis involving some of the remnants of this scene. It was a perfect context to attempt what we attempted with Bomb Pops. But it wasn’t until the band broke up that there was much infrastructure. Grimsey didn’t exist while we were recording and releasing music. All of our records, until the retrospective of course, came out on far-flung labels in Germany, the UK, and (closer to home) Michigan. We never met the people who did the most to make our music accessible to listeners during the life of the band. So it was also lonely, in a way. We went to raves, rehearsed and wrote, and lived together on and off. But the bulk of the indie scene was out there somewhere, unless you were making very corrosive rock music.
++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?
Bryan and I were high school friends. He recorded my first band on a four track. Then we were roommates. That’s when I started writing songs on the guitar and we were playing as a duo, just in our apartment. Brian had just started working at a local studio and found we could use it when there were no bookings. We recorded one weekend, four songs, and I sent out tapes. This produced the “Paler” ep and a compilation appearance of the song “Plastic Toy Gun.” But we had no plans to do anything else a band should do, like perform. Then Andrea, whom we knew briefly in high school, came back into our lives. We invited her over one night with the intention of plying her with gin and tonic and playing her our favorite records. I distinctly recall listening to the Creation Records compilation “Doing It for the Kids” that night. We were persuading her to join us, on bass and/or cello. She said yes. Half of our rehearsals over the next couple of years went like this: eat, drink, listen to records, very little actual playing. I then started writing songs about her, because I had fallen in love with her for the second time. That went well, in fact!
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
We kicked out a roommate and turned his bedroom into a rehearsal space. But that was short lived. We then moved into a shared rehearsal space in an industrial area. We shared it with John Crozier, Jim Ruiz, and the Hang Ups at various times. Paying rent on the space did incentivize us to take rehearsal a bit more seriously. As for writing, I would write chord progressions and lyrics, usually most of the melodies, and a basic arrangement. Then the other two would shave away my worst mistakes and write their parts. Andrea’s bass lines are very inventive. And Bryan was a magnificent lead guitarist–which no other band he’d been in had realized or exploited. The problem was that we didn’t have a drummer. Bryan was a great drummer, but he couldn’t play two instruments at once. So recording was easy–we’d start with he and I playing live together on rhythm guitar and drums, then we’d overdub the rest. Steve Ittner of the Hang Ups played drums with us at our last gig, also our first gig as a four piece.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
There is no story. I thought it was a good name. It was a full sentence if you put an article in front of it; “The bomb pops.” But there was a rock band in Detroit with that name, so we just called it Bomb Pops, after the Boston Pops. Bert Kaempfert and other kitchy 60s artists were never far from our minds.
++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
Felt. That’s obvious. I still adore Lawrence. He’s my idea of a pop star, even and especially because of his famous shortcomings and untenable longings. I think that if you put on the “Pillows and Prayers” compilation and strummed along, you’d accidentally run into most of our songs. There was a strong influence from Manchester: New Order, Smiths, The Fall, Stone Roses, as different as each of these bands is from one another. We had soaked up a lot of that stuff. When I first met Andrea, I was amazed to find her walls covered with New Order posters. We all loved Brix-era Fall. And “Fool’s Gold” was an important record for Bryan and me in the year or two leading up to Bomb Pops, though I don’t think you can hear that in what we were able to produce together.
++ Your first release was the superb “Paler” 7″ on Audrey’s Diary. This Michigan label release many classic US bands from the 90s. How did you end up signing with them and did you ever meet in person?
I think I already mentioned that I met Chip after the demise of Bomb Pops, when I was playing with Jim Ruiz. There was a whole gang in Washington D.C. The zine Chickfactor was there. I had a copy of the Black Tambourine single “Throw Aggi off the Bridge” and I thought it was brilliant. So Audrey’s Diary was among a small handful of labels we sent our first recordings to, including Sarah, Bus Stop, and Slumberland.
++ Something exciting, that is not common these days, is that this 7″ was actually repressed. How many copies were made in the first run and in the second? Who pick the burgundy color for the repress? Yourselves?
The burgundy vinyl was the first pressing. I don’t know how many were pressed nor how many were sold. We made a mock up for the artwork and Chip mercifully improved on our efforts. But I remember specifying the color scheme. So though the color was our demand, we certainly didn’t expect him to press on colored vinyl.
++ Your next 7″ was released in Germany by A Turntable Friend! How did you end up all the way there? Did you mailed them a demo? How did it work out?
We mailed our second set of recordings to a slightly broader clutch of labels. We had a phone call from Germany one day claiming “Girl Daredevil” and “Riverside.” The very next day the phone rang and it was Bus Stop Records, also seeking to release “Girl Daredevil.” We gave them “Won’t Find It” instead, which they heard as the B side. We then went in to record “Decal,” which ended up being the B side.
++ This 2nd 7″, “Girl Daredevil”, had the artwork credited to the Tree of Heaven. I believe they did also some art for the Jim Ruiz Group. Who were they?
They were one guy, a friend who worked with me at the Walker Art Center, Dave Lofquist. He was a record collector and dj. He also had a keen design sense. He civilized me a little, which was no small task. Many others did their part, but his example alone was formative. Then we ended up in a love triangle and I don’t think I ever saw him again, after that imploded. I don’t know where he is now, but he was so talented. I love his work on those Jim Ruiz Group records.
++ Lastly, the 3rd 7″ was released on another classic label, Bus Stop Label. One thing I wonder about this record, is where was the photo of the band taken that is on the back of the sleeve?
It was taken at the base of a very old water tower on top of a hill in a Minneapolis park, near a lake. That narrows it down to about a hundred possible locations. The photo was taken with an antique camera by a friend of Andrea’s. The color scheme was based on an outift I really loved and wore regularly: a vintage football sweater in purple with faded lime green jeans. I think I lent Andrea the shirt she is wearing in that photo. It was a windy autumn afternoon, as you can see from Bryan’s flowing hair. We had about a month or two before the band would break up. It’s among the last happy moments we spent together as a trio, that photo shoot.
++ Of course, after talking about these classic American 90s labels, would you have liked to release in any other ones? American or not?
We had some plans to record. I wanted to do a four song covers ep while we worked on writing a full length album. Bus Stop records was lined up to do the album. But I thought we could interest Slumberland or maybe K Records in the covers ep. Two songs we briefly rehearsed for this were “Souvenir” by OMD and “Double Negative” by The Subway Sect. The only song we finished for the album began with this prophetic couplet: “These are the best laid plans / and they’re falling from my hands.” It was about not having strength enough to play my guitar properly.
++ 5 years after the 3rd 7″, Grimsey Records put together a compilation called “Recommended for Diversion Seekers”, a must have for any indiepop fans. Are these all the recordings the band made? Or are there more unreleased recordings by the band?
The only unreleased recordings were demos. The only worthy demo recording was a less washed out version of Riverside, instrumental. I think if we’d have built on that foundation, and added a bridge, maybe helped the lyrics along a little, it could have been great. But the compilation represents everything Bomb Pops finished.
++ I was checking out on Discogs the compilations you have appeared and one that caught my attention was the one on a tape called “Firefly 2” that was a tape that came with the fanzine “Burning the Midnight Firefly” by Keith D’Arcy. I feel I am much more familiar with UK indiepop fanzines, but there were some pretty good ones in the US. Were you involved in that scene at all? Do you remember appearing on other zines?
We were interviewed for a fanzine called Luddite. Also Chip interviewed us for his zine, but we were drunk and belligerent that day and we were embarrassed that he printed it. I think I contributed something to Chickfactor at some point. But that’s it. I released my own fanzine, called “Let Us Be Nice to You.” I read fanzines a good deal for a couple of years. But I wasn’t too deeply involved in the indie-pop fanzine world, not for long. But now I work in publishing, so it wasn’t all for nothing.
++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Girl Daredevil”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
This song was a weird way of trying to seduce my bass player. It was a little like an ultimatum. It probably simply means that I don’t care if this band has to break up; I just want us to stay together. The chord progression was Bryan’s. It’s the only Bomb Pops song for which I didn’t write the rhythm guitar part. It’s clearly the best thing we ever did. I’m very proud of the melody. I still remember coming home with a cassette of the rhythm tracks, which we recorded, Bryan and me, while Andrea was out of town. We had this tape for a couple of weeks, waiting for her to return and finish it with us. In that time, I wrote half the bass line, feeling impatient. We played that tape constantly, because until we heard it, still unfinished, it wasn’t clear that it was any good. But when the final pass at the chord progression comes in, that giant, compressed cymbal crash, the whole thing just opens wide. You could already hear that with just two guitar tracks and the drums, nothing else.
++ If you were to choose your favorite Bomb Pops, which one would that be and why?
My favorite Bomb Pop is the one I married. My favorite Bomb Pops song is probably “Love Me Nots.” If we’d shrunk it down to two and a half minutes and changed the key so that my voice sounded decent, it could have been an indie hit. John Crozier plays electric piano on it. It deserved more than we gave it, despite his very thoughtful contribution.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
We played four, the first of which was the release party for my zine in a local record store called Let It Be. A great store. My proudest moment performing with Bomb pops was when we covered “Peace Pipe” by The Shadows. This song was made for us. When we launched into it, there was exactly one person in the club (The Seventh Street Entry) who was likely to recognize it. That person was Jim Ruiz. And he gasped so loudly it was audible from the stage.
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
The most memorable was not the best. It was a show I played solo during the Bomb Pops’ brief existence. I played a song we never recorded and also a Television Personalities song (I can’t remember which, though I know it’s on their Painted Word album). Then Matt from Dearly and John Crozier joined me to play “Dreamabout” by The Poppyheads. This was in a coffee shop in Dinkytown, a neighborhood near the university. All of the local pop scene were there and everyone was very kind. I was in a bad way and I think it was obvious that I was sick at the time. People cheered and treated me with care. It was very therapeutic, personally. That night I felt it was important to survive, which was not a steady sentiment in my world back then.
++ And were there any bad ones?
The first one was awful because I had a new hair cut that I was unhappy with. I also dropped my pick several times during the first song. I had only one pick. I think you are supposed to have a whole line of them taped to your microphone stand, aren’t you? Not me!
++ When and why did the Bomb Pops stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?
Bomb Pops broke up when the friendships within the band hit some turbulence that we were too young to handle. I think if we had a fourth member or had more money or were more confident on stage, things might have continued. I would have continued, I know. But I was tired, also. I wanted to continue to write, but I also wanted to read more. I read for a couple of years after the end of the band, before finally pursuing a doctorate in literature. This was something I could do alone. And that felt necessary, being alone, for a while at least. I contributed to the Ninian Hawick ep on Grimsey in, I think, 1998. And then there was Da Crouton, which received some positive feedback but played itself out by 2008.
++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?
Bryan remains involved in music, primarily on the production side of things. Andrea works in the music business, and of course she ran Grimsey. They are both successful and brilliant people. I hope they take enormous pride in what they do, because what they do is impressive and improves our world. I love them both.
++ Has there been any Bomb Pops reunion?
We ate a meal together once. No one has sought us out, unfortunately!
++ Did you get much attention from the radio?
None that I know of.
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
A guy who ran a label called OXO in Minneapolis at the time–his band was called Smut–wrote a glowing review of the “Paler” ep in the local paper. That was the first and only mainstream press we received until the compilation came out years later. Someone in Toronto wrote a nice review of the compilation. But by then, other Grimsey releases had far outshined anything we had ever done.
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
Possibly that first night of gin and tonics, before we lost our innocence by trying to play live. Another possibility is playing “Goodnight, Now” in one take at four in the morning, the same recording that made it to the record. I don’t think we thought of ourselves as a band yet then, though. It was the gin and tonic that transformed us into a band.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
I have been involved with small press publishing since 1998 and fight very hard for my authors. I also like to play go to baseball games with my daughter.
++ Never been to Minneapolis so wondering if I can ask a local for any recommendations you might have? Like sights one shouldn’t miss? Food and drinks one should try?
I have lived in Chicago for a long time now and left Minneapolis for good in 1996. But if you should ever go, you must get breakfast at Al’s in Dinkytown. Then walk around a lake and imagine there is no way out except to walk into the water and drown. That’s how it was back then. No wonder I left!
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
I found you by searching for extant copies of Dearly’s first cassette, more or less out of idle curiosity. I love that you profess your appreciation for their music. And I love that you remain committed to indie-pop. I don’t listen to it much anymore, but it was a hugely compelling force for me at one time. It gave me my first successes in life, and I mean that literally. But it is so often belittled, as a genre. Those who made this music, who still make it, who stand by it, all deserve a fond salute. So here is mine, to you! Thank you, Roque. I wish you the best!
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Listen
Bomb Pops – Girl Daredevil
