Four Track Friday

Anya (bass), Liv (drums), Vivian (guitar, vocals)

You'll remember Cherry Tomato from their November 13th-shared track "Unscrew.Me". After that, Jocelyn put me in touch with Anya, who agreed to get the gang together for an interview.

The three of them grew up in Sammamish, WA, where Anya and Vivian became friends in middle school. Anya could play piano and Vivian guitar, but they knew they wanted to start a band. Needing a drummer, they put an ad out on Facebook. Liv answered the call and the band was formed, though it originally included a fourth member as a vocalist.

The group broke up when Anya and Vivian went off to college, but once Liv joined them at University of Washington the effort resumed without missing a beat. This time it was just the three of them and became known as Cherry Tomato.

"As for the name 'Cherry Tomato,'" Liv says. "Anya and Viv were drunk [and] after a house show at the Mirage Garage and were waiting for the bus. Vivian found a cherry tomato on a trash can and dared Anya to eat it. Our stomachs churned as Anya picked it up without hesitation… The rest is history."

While their first single was released in November of last year, the band officially started in April of 2019. Anya recalls, "We saw that UW’s Rainy Dawg Radio was having a Battle of the Bands, and we wanted to participate in it. We sent in a submission video of us playing together, and got chosen to be one of the 5 bands that performed. We have officially been a band ever since!"

They even have plans to record an EP, but it's on hold due to the pandemic. Live shows are also on hold, but Cherry Tomato is no stranger to the stage. From the band's beginning until March of 2020, the group played 2-4 shows each and every month. "We played so many shows!" Viv said. "We used to play almost once a week; it was so fun and I really miss it. I know we're all looking forward to playing again."

When asked what their songwriting process looked like, they quickly volunteered Vivian to answer. "Oh gosh, I dunno," she began. "I keep a Google doc with all my ideas for tabs or chords or lyrics and it's all incredibly chaotic. I tend to start with a solid bass line, or some lyrics, and I build from there. Otherwise, I don't have much of a process!" Viewing songwriting as a hobby, she explains that if she plans it too much, it's not as fun.

Anya, on the other hand, describes her method as that of spontaneous creativity. "They usually just fall out of my brain all at once. I’ll go for months and months without writing a song and then one day I’ll just sit down and write an entire song (lyrics, melody, instrumentation, etc.) from start to finish." Liv adds, "It's nice working together too, if someone is stuck on a part, you have two other people who can help you think of something."

In addition to their process, they also have their influences. Led Zeppelin is a big one for these three, particularly their riff constructions and tone. "I'm always trying to recreate that in some way," Viv said, with Liv adding, "I like to stuff 'groove' into the part. Led Zeppelin is huge for that."

Grunge, too, for what Viv calls its "perfect balance of lyricism and raw emotional energy." Anya concludes, "I went through a long grunge phase in high school, so I think that has had a big influence on me. I listened to a lot of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and others. My favorite genres currently are nu-metal (which everyone hates on, I know), indie pop, pop-punk, emo rock, and math rock."

This being 4 Track, I also had to ask my favorite question: "If you could only listen to two artists for the rest of your life, who would they be?"

Viv responded enthusiastically, "Oooooooh good question! This might almost be cheating, but I would probably go MF Doom and Arctic Monkeys. Do your ears a solid and (if you haven't already) go listen to Lavender Buds by MF Doom and Secret Door by Arctic Monkeys. Both are pretty deep cuts depending on who you ask, and both are very representative of the things I admire most about each artist. They both have large, diverse, and honestly timeless discographies, so I think I could listen to them forever."

MF Doom was a legend in hip hop, most famous for the landmark album, Madvilliany, from which many have heard "All Caps." However, I definitely hadn't heard Viv's choice, "Lavender Buds." Full of lo-fi grain, captivating bass, and accenting vocals and keys, this track has an antique vibe presented with modern sensibilities.

The Arctic Monkeys, on the other hand, are a staple of modern rock. The English group's debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, met incredible success. However, their third album, Humbug, was an understated, expectation subverting, and just-as-important album. Recorded in the desert and produced by Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, the album re-shaped the group's sound in a way that some say allowed them to later create the smasher AM, with its hit "Do I Wanna Know?".

Anya went next: "That’s an easy question for me: Paramore and The Smashing Pumpkins. Paramore because they have been my favorite band for a very long time and their music has gotten me through a lot of hardships in my life (or “hard times” -- get it?). The Smashing Pumpkins because their album Siamese Dream is probably my favorite album of all time, and it has my favorite song of all time on it, which is 'Mayonnaise.'"

Haley Williams, Taylor York, and Zac Farro are no stranger to 4 Track, their "26" (from the "Hard Times" including album, After Laughter) having been shared on an earlier 4TF episode. Always vulnerable, undeniably energetic, and perfectly mastered, Paramore (and anything these three band mates seem to touch) is an absolute delight.

Of all the bands mentioned this week, Smashing Pumpkins are most similar in group to Cherry Tomato. The Pumpkins being a four-piece American rock band from Chicago, the difference is an additional guitarist.

Billy Corgan once quipped that the Pumpkins were known as everything from "'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', [and] 'the next Pearl Jam.'" However, no matter what the indie scene claimed about the group, they undeniably forged their own path and eventually produced the best-selling album of the 90's.

Liv rounded out the group's answers to this one, saying, "Elliott Smith and Bill Wurtz… I know that combo doesn't make any sense. I love DIY stuff where one person plays all the instruments, does all the production, does all the songwriting etc. It makes everything sound so personal. Check out "St. Ides Heaven" by Smith and "La de Da de Da de Da De Day Oh" by Wurtz.

As you can hear for yourself, Elliot Smith is characterized by what Steve Huey called a "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery," which he would multi-track to create texture and harmony. Doing it all by himself in Portland, Smith played guitar, piano, clarinet, bass, drums, and harmonica. "St. Ides Heaven" is the most delicate track shared today and I think you'll enjoy it alongside the others.

Bill Wurtz seems to have become famous on Vine, but he's no stranger to any technological medium. In fact, you may recognize him best from his history of the entire world. Wurtz's music often gets categorized as "jazz-pop" and has been compared to Thundercat's Drunk (which you can check out here). He even shares Cherry Tomato's attitude towards music theory, frequently highlighting in interviews that music's emotion and sound should come before theory for its own sake.

When asked in closing, "If people say something about your music or your band, what do you hope it is?" Viv led with, "I would hope that other QPOC identify with the experiences that our music speaks to. Or that we bop. Either is fine!" Anya added, "I also hope that other women or non-binary folx identify with our music as well, or feel inspired by us. I rarely see bands like ours with all femme/non-binary members in them." And Liv closed it out, “I would hire them.”

Speaking of hiring them, check them out!

Music: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music
Socials: Instagram, Facebook

And, as always, this week’s tracks are added to the collectors for all weeks' tracks on Spotify and Apple Music.

Cheers,
Tanner