The Sailor Jerry Podcast
Inspired by Norman 'Sailor Jerry' Collins' Old Ironsides radio show on KTRG, we present THE SAILOR JERRY PODCAST! This is a wild homage to all our favorite things – Music, tattoos, travel, spiced rum, and more. Partnering up with our pal Matt Caughthran, the frontman of The Bronx, we're spilling these tales in our own damn style. Brace yourself for biweekly episodes, dishing out killer interviews with musicians who fuel our fire. Buckle up for The Sailor Jerry Podcast – where the coolest stories come to life.
The Sailor Jerry Podcast
72 - Scene Queen
The one and only Scene Queen joins us to discuss the decade-long grind that inspired her debut album, "Hot Singles in Your Area." Plus, the Queen addresses the term "industry plant" and the misconceptions surrounding rapidly successful female artists. We also dive into her unapologetic themes of sexual empowerment, her legendary Download Festival performance, the "twerkle pit," and her upcoming Summer School Tour. As always, brought to you by Sailor Jerry!
https://www.instagram.com/scenequeenrocks/
https://sailorjerry.com
yo what up scene, queen, hello how you doing I'm good.
Speaker 2:Um, you're gonna have to ignore the like mass pile of clothing on my bed right now. My entire closet fell over, like the entire like bar that everything was hanging on collapsed. So quite literally all of my jackets and dresses are on my bed right now. But this also demonstrates how invested I am in the pinkness of it all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, I was gonna ask you know, I saw your tweet this morning and I know you've had a hell of a day, so how you doing? Are you hanging in there, Okay?
Speaker 2:I'm so much better now to be honest.
Speaker 2:To be honest like literally my fans are so helpful. They literally gave me laundry instructions on how to like clean up my bed because I spilled coffee on it. And I'm like and it comes across in my like album that I have coming out a lot and just like in general with this project, but like terrible things are gonna happen to you in life all the time and you're totally valid for like getting upset and making like a song screaming about it. But then, past that, like you just have to learn to laugh at the situation because if anything that can happen, will happen, and it's usually stressful oh, of course, yeah, absolutely, and it always happens on like a press day or a day yeah exactly a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker 2:You know my favorite press day of all time was um. I played slam dunk in the uk and I got dropped on my head while I was crowd surfing like they tried to send me over the barricade, um, and security didn't catch me, so I fell six feet directly onto a metal grate on the back of my head, so I was like I had a severe concussion and I was wiping blood from my head and they're like you want to do this radio shot.
Speaker 1:Get her to the press tent. I went right to press tent and I swear like.
Speaker 2:I have no recollection of those like videos, but I watched them because I was like I want to know what I said and I did fine, so I guess in the end it was okay. Said and I did fine, so I guess in the end it was okay.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. That's amazing, yeah, well, you know Scene Queen. I mean we are honored to have you here on the Sailor Jerry podcast today. Really appreciate you taking the time with everything you got going on. It's awesome to talk with you. I kind of wanted to start out with a little bit of current events here, because you recently just absolutely crushed Download Festival and it's one of my favorite festivals and you know. All reports back to the front was that it was an absolutely incredible set and for those people who don't know, there's so much history with Download, with rock and metal, now that you've had a little bit of time to come down, if you could reflect on it and for those of us who weren't there, what was it like for you?
Speaker 2:Honestly, that's the first show I had so much fun and thank God I feel like I was in my bag in that show in terms of my cracking jokes and stuff but that was the first show that I ever experienced where the entire set start to finish. I was like I'm actually scared like there's so many people right now that like I, I'm stressed out, but honestly I don't know what a privilege to be able to get to play to that many people like it. Truly, I never thought that I would get to where I am in my career in general, but like to do so within like four years of its inception is kind of insane to me. Um, but also, just like I don't know, that set had so many like insanely fun things that I just didn't. There was an entire pit of people dressed in blow-up pikachu costumes. So when I opened up the twerkle pit, it was just a bunch of Pikachus throwing ass around.
Speaker 1:You know I've never heard the twerkle pit before. That's a first for me. That's pretty amazing Twerking in a circle pit.
Speaker 2:You gotta try it sometime, as much as I make fun of myself and my music and have things like the twerkle pit. The twerkle pit is weirdly the greatest icebreaker and vibe setting thing for a show ever, because if you have the courage to twerk in a circle pit, at that point nothing else can bother you, and anyone that watches you twerk in the circle pit also can't be nervous, because they're like, well, clearly that person's not going to judge me, they just twerked in the circle pit. So then the vibes for the rest of the show from then then on out are just people like down to do the most insane, feral things in the crowd, which is like the most immaculate vibe. It's exactly what you want. So I try and put that in song, two or three if possible super early in the set just to get the crowd going out the gate.
Speaker 1:Smart move. Smart move Activate the twerkle pit.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right here. So you know, let's talk about your new album, because your debut album Hot Singles in your Area. Congratulations Scene Queen. Thank you, thank you, yeah, yeah, yeah. And before we kind of dive into the record itself, I just want to give our listeners a little bit of background on how you got up to this point, because everyone's creative journey is always a little bit different and unique. So, kind of leading up to making this album, going back a little bit, how did your kind of love for music and art and creativity, how did that all take shape?
Speaker 2:Heights since I was, you know, eight years old. Just because she she also I was born in upstate New York, so she was very involved in like the early 2000s New York and then like New Jersey scene. So she was one of the first people I knew to know about like my chemical romance and stuff. So she like kind of introduced me to alternative music. And then going forward, you know, when I was in like the 2010s and like 2000s, that was when I discovered all these like post hardcore bands, like Sleeping With Sirens, pierce the Veil, bring Me the Horizon, etc. And like metalcore bands that like I realized I really liked those heavy guitars and occasional screaming. So that was kind of where I leaned within the alternative space.
Speaker 2:And then, around like 2015, I moved out to Los Angeles and my goal when I was moving out there was, like I'm going to work in alternative music, like that's always what I wanted, but then being in the industry and then also it being being 2015 and, like you know, all these bands, like having things come out on Twitter and yada, yada, yada, I realized that like the scene didn't feel like a safe space for women really. So I left the alternative space altogether in 2015. And I decided that I wanted to go into the songwriting world because initially, when I moved out there, I just like it's funny to think about now Because I said the reason I didn't want to be an artist is because I didn't want to have to worry about people's perception of me and social media.
Speaker 2:And now I am known as the social media girl to all of my friends. Like my label when I first signed like I was the one that they were like you should go look at what scene queens doing on TikTok. She's on it like whatever. So that became my life, without me knowing that that was what it was going to do, but thankfully it comes pretty naturally to me. But either way, I wanted to go into the songwriting world but I was writing in the like pop and hip hop space and I've always kind of liked that too.
Speaker 2:Like I grew up with 2000s, like pop icons you know I allude a lot to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and like Kesha and these sort of people in my music all the time and also like sonically draw a lot of reference from those as well.
Speaker 2:So I was down to write and pop stumbled into the hip hop world, fell in love with that immediately too. But then during the pandemic, when everything started happening, I moved back in with my parents in ohio just because everything was closed down in la and I didn't want to be by myself. So I was living with them and I was like I don't really resonate with any of this, like happy music. I think I like genuinely need to get stuff out by listening to, like alternative and like email music. So I fell back into that world again and then started a TikTok and I was like I've been out of this realm for a minute now. So I downloaded TikTok just to reach out to different like communities and like find friends that were still in the alternative space and built like a small following on TikTok, just making like content about nostalgic things in the alternative scene, and I realized very soon that the scene hadn't changed much since I left it.
Speaker 2:But I released a song and it was active rock initially and for whatever reason that took off on TikTok. I think it was just because I had this like following of people that followed me for like music related content. And then I dropped a song and they were just kind of like I don't know, you could sing, and then it like blew up and got like a couple million views and then put me in contact with my record label. But when they reached out to me I was like I have to be honest, I don't like this song anymore. So I sent them a bunch of demos of this like kind of experimental blend of genres and they were like we think we have the right person for you. And thank god they said that because they introduced me to my producer, zach jones, who I've done every single steen queen song with.
Speaker 2:Like I don't think I'll ever work with any other producer like or at least like if he's not executive producing on it too like I. Just he gets my brain so much and I feel like I every time I leave a session I love that song more and more and more. So we kind of like work together on everything and then had like a revolving door of like friends that I would bring in to co-write on stuff with me, just because I like to switch genres so much. So, having someone that can like dial it in because, like obviously, zach and I love experimenting with genres so much Lyrically, I'm coming in. You know I have a male producer, so he's not getting 90% of what I'm talking about in the song.
Speaker 2:He's also not queer, so he doesn't get all of those references that.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but he loves the sound of it. So he's like, yeah, let's do that. So I'm like you know, bringing all these like niche ideas in, so I bring in friends that kind of help us like dial it in and combine the two of us to make this like cool sound. I don't know. It's funny because during the pandemic I was also just listening to a bunch of experimental artists.
Speaker 2:I was listening to Wargasm, I was listening to Babymetal, um, and a handful of others, and then it just so happened that like once, once my stuff took off, I ended up touring with all of those people and then they like ended up being on my album and different things. So it is funny how the world works out. But it was about like 10 years of getting it wrong in music before I finally like got it right. But the moment that I did get it right in music, it like immediately worked for me. So I'm like Thankfully I buried all of my old demos somewhere in the cloud that no one will find them, because there is a lot of terrible, terrible, terrible material made by Hannah out there somewhere.
Speaker 1:That's really cool, though, about your journey, because you know and the way it's been validated with you know the response and your fan base loving Scene Queen. So much response and your fan base loving Scene Queen so much. It's an incredible thing, and you know whether you're a huge artist or a small artist. There's so many things that have to happen and come together for it all to click. You know like, and it's really cool that it's all happening for you.
Speaker 2:It's so funny now seeing the internet's like strange attachment to picking up the word industry plant and throwing it onto an artist. Yeah, and I feel like I only ever truly see it this often with all of my like female artist friends. But if they see a woman like becoming very successful very fast but they have no like awareness of how they did it or I've never seen them before, it immediately becomes an industry plant thing. But it's just like again, I had almost a decade of getting things horribly wrong before anything stuck and then before I like even had this connection that may have brought me to whatever. So then I ended up signing to Hopeless for the first um EP and then this record, and I just ended up re-signing them because I was like you guys took me on for absolutely no reason, like I had one song, built somewhat of a fan base and then changed the style, so a lot of those fans didn't even end up coming with me.
Speaker 2:I just lucked out that my first scene queen song angered, like metal elitist so much that they, like you know, angered my way into blowing up that song. But like they, you know, stuck their leg out for me and a lot of labels probably wouldn't have done that. And then like thank god it worked out and they've never like deterred me from doing anything creatively, like I have so much freedom to be myself as an artist and what have you so like? I don't know. It's just funny now, because it's like that comment now also just like irks me in the sense that I'm like how dare you say that little hopeless records would ever do something? That like, what's that mean?
Speaker 2:yeah, no, absolutely, and you're right about you know, there is like a really weird thing with female artists and the industry plant tag, which is bullshit, you know and, like you, end up having the success for music, because it's like years and years of preparation for one moment that may or may not stick at the end of the day. And that's the whole thing with the music industry too, is it's it's so much rejection all the time, like tours, that you get put up for that. Like you find out you're being put up for that. You're like god, I would love to go on that you get put up for that. You find out you're being put up for that. You're like God, I would love to go on that You're not going to get that one, but four years later you're going to get a better. I turned down recently a tour that I would have loved to do, but I was just like financially I just can't do this tour, and I was so mad at the universe for that tour.
Speaker 2:Just because the routing was so, so long and like whatever, it just would have been like coming off of a different tour would have been a lot for me to do. And then I get this email about two days later and my manager calls me because I'm in, um, I'm in like germany on this paris tour, like, uh, support opening for them. And he's like laughing and I'm like what happened? And he was like, oh, it's baby metal. And I was like what? And he was like and it's a short tour and you can do it. And I was like Are you kidding me? And he was like no, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 2:And I like audibly screamed because I have a manager that has seen me through like some of the most difficult times in my life, like you know, becoming a musician, and like when I first started like tracking these demos and stuff for my project, I quite literally didn't have enough money. I didn't have a car at the time, I didn't have enough money to make it to the session. I couldn't afford a Lyft or an Uber. And like if we were going at night, like it just wasn't safe for me to go on a bus at like midnight to get there Because they were also putting me in the night session because they're like we're not going to get paid enough, like I have to do two sessions in addition to this.
Speaker 2:So he was driving me to and from all of these sessions and he asked me like on the way, because we get stuck in traffic or what have you like, it'd be like an hour long drive for him. He was like, like what is your list of bands you'd want to tour with? And I like, being me, had one list where I'm like these are bands I could feasibly see. Like right now I would be first of four on the tour they could take me out. Um, because they don't need their first of four to be someone that really sells tickets.
Speaker 2:They just like want to be aligned with, you know, whatever yeah or I have the delusional side which is like these are huge bands and they want you to come out because they want it to be like a cool, like moment, sonically and whatever, and people know about you and whatever.
Speaker 2:And like one day maybe I'll get to have these tours, but I highly doubt it. And on that list was babymetal and I always put that on there because I was like also with Babymetal they're so extremely professional in all capacities and all sides of their music and artist project business, whatever. So they're so extremely selective with who they take out because they have a lot to uphold and their fan base really, really respects them. So the fact that I got that offer I never would have thought I would be able to get that anyway but like the fact that it was one of the bands that, like after all of those years of like having you know, all these no's and rejection and then feeling let down that I couldn't do, that one tour that I would have loved, like that was the band specifically was like this weird full circle moment for sure.
Speaker 1:Dang. That's crazy, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:You know I want to talk a little bit here about sexual empowerment, which is a big theme of the record. Okay, yes, some of your lyrics I mean most of your lyrics are all the way, all the way out there, which is the best Speaking a little bit to that. You know how important is sexual empowerment to you. Do you censor yourself ever? Are there scene queen lyrics out there that are just too much? You don't want to put it out there? Or how do you when you're writing? You know how do you? How do you work your way through it?
Speaker 2:So I've yet to have that in the writing sense. I think people are shocked to discover that in my day-to-day life I'm like very introverted and also reserved, but the whole point of my you know super sexually explicit lyrics, like when I am scene queen. Obviously I'm driving my personality up to 110, but I think by having like the most sexually explicit lyrics, people are obviously always going to dial back what an artist says like it's like when people listen to rap songs they're not doing half the stuff that like the rap song they're like listening to but it makes you feel like a little bit better about your personality and a little bit cooler and like your fit looks better that day, like when you listen to a rap song.
Speaker 2:So I kind of like have the same approach where I'm like I was sexually repressed for so long. I was also closeted for so much of my life. I was one of those people that didn't come out as like queer until I was in my 20s and then just like so nervous about sex. You know, with all the trauma that you're going to have in your life, you deserve to have a little bit of pleasure and I think there's nothing wrong with like expressing that through music and I try and do it in the most like intense way because I just know that like if I do it, people won't be shy about it for themselves. They like won't be shy about asking someone like is this okay during sex? Or I prefer not to do that because I'm saying the most like intensely feral things so that like small things seems a little less embarrassing, because it shouldn't be embarrassing. You know, like we should all feel comfortable and then, like I don't know, this first album that I have like coming out of, like this debut album, kind of tells the tale of like what that was like for me. You have your coming of age story, like in your teens. You know that everyone talks about, there's a million movies about it, but also you have this like second adolescence, when you like first become an adult, where you're like actually finding out things about yourself. It's not what anyone told you about yourself, you know, yeah, and I wrote this song about like my early to or like this album about my early to mid-20s and now like that it's coming out.
Speaker 2:I'm in my late 20s, um, and it's just like my first experiences as a queer person and like.
Speaker 2:I have a song on there like called oral fixation, which is essentially like going back into the dating world in your 20s and like figuring out who I thought I was and all this stuff and feeling independent and confident in myself. And then I went into the dating world and I was like, oh my god, I'm so awkward and I have no game and like all this stuff and like oral fixation is just about having word vomit when you like someone and like not knowing how to express yourself, but like I feel like the whole album just kind of goes through that. So much of like you can be totally sexually empowered, you can be fully confident, you can advocate for yourself but also make fun of yourself a little bit and I think people like forget that too. Like I know who I am, I know how I deserve to be treated and I refuse to take less than that. But also I'm allowed to make jokes at myself because humans are multifaceted and that is more real to who I am, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Let's take a couple questions from the internet here. Okay, Okay, we got Dear Scene Queen. Not that we would need one, because fuck the patriarchy. But if you wanted to pick a scene king, who would it be and why?
Speaker 2:so, okay, ironically, my boyfriend now gets like, um, a bunch of bracelets that say scene king on them and he's in a pop punk band, which is funny in hindsight, because I have all this stuff like talking shit about pop punk bands and men that tour and whatever, and like I have a song on the album called BDSM which stands for beat down slut metal but also big, dumb, stupid men.
Speaker 2:Um, it's a song that, like the intro track is just saying, like scene queen hates men, and it came from this like place of on the internet. I was getting so many people that would just criticize me or like say that I hate men. Seriously, they're gonna hate this album anyway, so I'll put that in there as song one because they won't listen to the rest of it and it like doesn't make sense for them to listen to the rest of it. I'm like intentionally creating a fan base that I would like to be a part of. So, with the scene king thing, it is funny knowing all of that now that he's like a guy in a pop punk band and like he, like he tries very hard to like my fans will like dm him and stuff, and they'll be like, treat her right hey, it's hard being the king but he has a little song about him on the album.
Speaker 2:So for all of the like scene king stress, I've put him through. I did give him a song at the end of it and it's my only wholesome track on the record is that climax?
Speaker 1:Climax Is that the song?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's cool because Climax is both like I wrote it, you know, with my significant other in mind, but I also kind of wrote it open ended, in the sense that like it's also a little love letter to my fans.
Speaker 2:Like I'm talking about how tough the music industry is and like how exhausting touring is and feeling like one day your music is hot and now it's old and like all of this stuff, but like the one thing that you have is like your support system behind you. So like I wrote a little love letter to both of them and I think it's like I don't know, it's kind of a cool way to wrap it up, because I did have that whole album about like finding myself and being seen queen and like everything that happened to me that felt like it was necessary to become scene queen and what made this project what it is. And then also like finding myself and my sexuality, but kind of ends on this note that like as important as it is to be independent, like you can also lean on people from time to time, that's like totally fine, every person needs that, you know.
Speaker 1:All right, so this one goes out to the haters right here. Okay, hey, scene queen, if you could somehow gather all your haters into one room and you were handed a microphone, what would you tell them?
Speaker 2:So it's funny, I have this like whole shtick. I have a song called pink hotel and basically, like that song is just the you know hook of it is, I put the hoe in hotel and when I did a tour it was with my boyfriend's band because he showed me this message. It was from this like british person that wrote in the most like british way imaginable.
Speaker 2:That was just like this is a hoe with her bits out, like whatever, or something like that and I would I would go on stage every night and I'd be like you're right, you're so right I am, and like, do a little twerk, because I'm like. I literally call myself a hoe in the song. Why are you using that as like a insult right now? That doesn't work. Like, pick something that I wouldn't say about myself as a joke, you know? Um, but then I would say, like, into the mic, I'm like, and my advice to this person would be before you talk about hoes, I would suggest getting some hoes first, and that is like a quote that I live by. Every time someone has a hate comment for me, I'm like, I don't know, you could hate or you could be seen queen, instead I would prefer to be seen. It seems more fun to be me right now, you know.
Speaker 1:Absolutely All right. We got some pickums here, so I'm going to give you a couple options. You pick which one you like. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:We're going to start, uh, we're gonna start with, uh, my chemical romance or fallout boy. That's so hard. My guitar player is gonna kill me because he's the most intense mcr fan, but I think I listen to fallout boy a little more often, so I'll go fallout boy nice uh panic at the disco or paramore paramore uh friends or followers friends for sure, but um, in the career sense I do rely heavily on followers, so don't unfollow me please for that answer uh, the used or taking back sunday oh, I'm gonna go to use, I think okay, uh, books or movies
Speaker 2:um, so there was this like rumor going around that my fans like lovingly spread. That was that I can't read. But it's because anytime I try and read my set list, I like accidentally skip a, like a song. If I actually am paying attention to the set list, I will not play that song. Um, and it's happened now multiple times, so that, like the whole thing about I can't read, I'm not helping this by saying a hundred percent movies. I cannot sit down to read books anymore. I don't know what happened to my brain. I think I'm on the internet too much, but I like seldom finish books. Now.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's amazing. That's a great rumor. Metallica or Motorhead, I'll go. Metallica, christina Aguilera or Britney Spears.
Speaker 2:That's so hard, I'll go Britney.
Speaker 1:Lady Gaga or Fergie.
Speaker 2:See these pop girls are stressing me out. I'll go, Lady Gaga.
Speaker 1:All right Street art. Yeah, all right Street art. Yeah, yeah, street art or fine art.
Speaker 2:Street art for sure.
Speaker 1:Rihanna or Beyonce.
Speaker 2:Man, I go Rihanna because I want to smoke with Rihanna, so bad.
Speaker 1:Ooh, that would be so sick. That would be so sick. Uh, Ashley Simpson or Jessica Simpson.
Speaker 2:Ah, I think I I listen to Ashley Simpson more than I listened to Jessica.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, all right, awesome. You know you got the summer school tour right around the corner, july 10th, kicking off in Cleveland, your debut headlining tour, which is unbelievable, so congrats on that. People can follow you online and get tickets for that. It's all over the internet. Really appreciate your time today. Scene Queen, it's been awesome talking to you, congrats on everything you got going. And our last question for you a little bit of a doozy, but what to you is the meaning of life?
Speaker 2:The meaning of life, of life, the meaning of life, I think, to pet as many dogs as possible in as many countries as possible, as many breeds of dogs as possible, finding ways to get there. I hope one day that I'm able to be financially stable enough that I can have a bus that allows me to have a tour pet and have a little dog with headphones at my shows.
Speaker 1:One day, one day, Awesome. Well, scene queen, thank you so much. Uh, appreciate you. Congrats on the new album big tour coming up. Uh, thanks for your time here on the Sailor Jerry podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me. This was wonderful talking to you.