The Care Bears: Lucio, Izzy, Sophie
If you randomly heard CBOF’s debut album “I Stole Your Animal,” you’d probably assume they were in their early 20s and about to open for Joan Jett. The tracks on “Animal” seamlessly meld '70s rock, old-school punk and bits of the Pixies, all the while keeping up a snide commentary on boyfriends, MySpace losers and authority figures. Think CBGBs, not Radio Disney.
I sat down with band members Sophie, Izzy and Lucio at Tea Lounge in Brooklyn—well, they sat, I squatted on the floor—to understand how a bunch of tweens could bring the noise. Although the band members have parents with artistic and musical backgrounds, my idea was to find out more about what made them tick and what they think of their newfound fame. One warning: They don’t necessarily trust old people.
(Care Bears on Fire play Southpaw on Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Waterfront Ale House)
THE BEGINNING
You knew each other in kindergarten, but only started playing together a few years ago as a band. Have you improved since you officially started?
Sophie: We’ve improved a lot. When we started, we were only playing covers. Now we do our own stuff, and we do covers just for fun.
Izzy: We’re doing the Ramones’ “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg,” The Pixies “Gigantic”…
Lucio: We want to do “Cut Your Hair” by Pavement.
One of you attended the Rock Camp for Girls, right?
Izzy: I did. That’s where I started to play drums and I was taught about rock ’n’ roll. I hadn’t listened to that much rock music before that.
Are you into anything contemporary?
Lucio: No.
Izzy: Not really.
Lucio: You mean on the charts, or not? I like Lightning Bolt, Shellac, Slayer…they’re pretty cool…Mike Patton…what I like they [points finger to Izzy and Sophie] don’t like so much.
Izzy: Sophie and I pretty much like the same thing. His music…I mean, what’s Merzbow?
SCHOOL
How’s seventh grade treating you?
Lucio: Better than sixth grade.
Izzy: Yeah, that sucked.
Sophie: Yeah.
What’s your worst subject?
Sophie: Math.
Izzy: Yeah. And science.
Sophie: Yeah. I suck at science.
Lucio: I love math.
Izzy: I’m in advanced math and I don’t know why.
THE LYRICS
How long did it take to write this album?
Sophie: It took two years straight to write this. Sometimes it’s collaborating. I usually do lyrics, but Lucio’s done some.
Lucio: Two years, but in fifth grade we weren’t thinking about writing songs for an album.
Izzy: We wrote, like, two songs.
Lucio: More like four.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Sophie: Depends on the circumstances. I’ll sit down and think of everything I can think of.
Izzy: I have a little notebook, I write down anything I find interesting, like a sign or a T-shirt, then I look at the end of the book.
You have a song called “Met You on MySpace”—what’s that about?
Sophie: Looking at the band's MySpace page, you can see what kind of creepy people go on to our site.
Izzy: There’s one guy covered in blood…
How about “Jack Brown”?
Sophie: It’s about nobody in particular. I was kind of obsessed with Johnny Cash for some reason—I don’t know why, I really don’t like Johnny Cash that much. His songs are kind of like stories about particular people, and I was inspired by that. I started thinking about this person to write about…
Who got inspired to write “Five-Minute Boyfriend,” and what does it mean?
Sophie: Even in sixth grade, people would date and go out for five minutes or a day, and then have a really dramatic breakup and be like, “Oh, how horrible.”
Izzy: It was really just to get attention, and say they were going out.
Dating anybody?
Lucio: No.
Izzy: No.
Sophie: No.
THEIR FANS
Who’s your audience?
Lucio: I don’t know…younger kids…adults…
Izzy: When we play clubs, mainly adults. Sometimes our friends come…but not really. They’re not supportive. I think it’s partly because they don’t understand the kind of music we do. They’re listening to all that crappy stuff on the radio that I don’t like to listen to, all this hip-hop.
Lucio: I like some hip-hop.
Izzy: Yeah, like Sugarhill Gang…
Lucio: That stuff is the best.
Do your friends think this is cool?
Izzy: Probably…a lot more than they would vocalize to us.
Who’s your creepiest fan?
Sophie: There’s this one guy who ripped down our poster, and took 50 billion postcards, and printed out photos on nice shiny paper and asked to sign it. He knew all of our songs. He was old…
How old is old?
Lucio: Fifty, probably. Late 50s.
Izzy: He was older than we like people come to our show.
Lucio: Not necessarily...
THE FUTURE AND SUCH
Who are other bands similar to you?
Sophie: Tiny Masters of Today, Smoosh…
Lucio: No, they’re older!
Izzy: True, now they’re older, but they started as the same age we did.
Lucio: They’re, like, 14 now.
Do you want to be doing this in five years?
Lucio: Yeah, but I don’t know if we’d have the same name.
Do you own Care Bears?
Izzy: We didn’t have them. We know of them.
Lucio: Our neighbors have yard sales.…They give me their Care Bears, I have like seven.
Sophie: I have Care Bear lip balm…
Finally, do you have a band rule about inter-band dating?
Lucio: [After long, confused pause] We can make one.
Care Bears on Fire play Crash Mansion Oct. 16 and Club Midway Oct. 17
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