Tonight at Ringside in downtown Durham, local rockers Little Miss Messy will bring their fresh blend of post-grunge rock and pop to the stage, following an opening act by Duke band The Point. Earlier this week, Recess music editor Kelly McVicker got to talk with Miss Messy herself, lead singer Carlotta Valdez, who also happens to be a graduate student at Duke studying pharmacology and cancer biology. The rest of the band (guitarist Dan Hill, bassist Dave Carey and drummer Drew Remaley) are a physicist, an architect and the owner of a construction company, respectively--not bad for day jobs. Doors for tonight's show open at 9pm. Get there early if you plan on sitting down.
So what's the story behind the band's name?
Little Miss Messy came out of a children's book. I don't remember exactly how it came about--I think the guys in the band were making fun of me because I came in with a bad hair day or something, and they were calling me Little Miss Messy, and it kind of went from there.
How would you describe the band's sound?
I'd say it's very straightforward rock with a definite grunge and West Coast feel. Personally, I was heavily influenced by Heart--my vocals are definitely influenced by Nancy Wilson's vocals. As far as the rest of the band, Dan's guitar is influenced by Stone Temple Pilots, Mother Love Bone and other bands that grew out of the Seattle scene.
The press release says you used to be a concert pianist--were you ever tempted to bring a little piano into the mix?
I suppose if we went into real studio I would be tempted to play the keyboards, but I think after you've been classically trained, you really want to do something completely different. When you're a concert pianist, you have to always accompany people, and I wanted to work more on my vocals. I didn't even tell the band about it until like six months after we'd been working together.
Do you ever get any resentment from the guys in the band for being the front woman, like in a No-Doubt-Gwen-Stefani sort of way?
You'd think that they would resent it, but they don't, because they realize it helps us get gigs. It really makes a difference having a girl up front because that's not common around here. And they're very shy, so they don't mind not being in the spotlight.
What are the band's hopes for the future?
For me personally, it's a difficult question to answer, because I think to have delusions of grandeur might be setting myself up for disappointment. It's better to think in terms of baby steps. We want to have a full-length album out by the end of the year. We've got so much material--about 25 original songs in our repertoire right now. So it's just a matter of getting all of that material recorded. I'd love to say that we're going to be boundlessly successful and have a record contract and all that, but even if that doesn't come, we're happy. Right now, we just want to get out and play, meet people and make good friends.
FYI: Ringside has recently adopted a membership policy, meaning you have to be in the club to get in the door. Membership fee is $10, but don't worry--each member is allowed six guests, and you can expect some diehard LMM heads to be hanging out at the door.
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