Crooked Tails

"Brooklyn-based city slickers Crooked Tails channel a bygone era with their floor-thumping, string-
heavy Americana. With the ghosts of Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline hanging on their shoulders, dual vocalists Jeffrey and Shana bring a sweet singalong-ability to the project, augmented by a wide range of instruments, seamlessly blending traditional old-time instruments with drums and electric guitar. Shana’s delicate soprano lends these songs a haunting quality that’s not easily forgotten.

Audiofemme: Where did you all grow up, and what did you grow up listening to?

Crooked Tails: Jeff: Dave(drums) and I grew up in Connecticut, but I was closer to Hartford and he was closer to Bridgeport. Ricardo(bassist) is from Valladolid Spain.

Shana: I grew up in a small town in Florida called Deland and Alex(lead guitar) grew up in South Florida

Jeff: The first band I ever fell in love with, which are still my favorite, was Nirvana and Ricardo is similar. From them I began getting into punk and hardcore and played that style for many years, and Dave did as well. Ricardo loved all the post punk stuff, the Pixies, Sonic Youth, Joy Division.. It was later on that we would get into the folk/alt country sound.

Shana: I listend to quite a variety growing up thanks to my family. Everything from Metal to Disco to Rockabilly to Southern Rock. Though through my teenage years it was always about the blues, early country like Johnny Cash and The Everly Brothers, and punk music. Alex grew up listening to a lot of delta blues, golden oldies, and 60′s/70′s english rock.

AF: Your drummer, Dave, walked in to audition for Crooked Tails thinking he was trying out for a Black Metal band. What’s it like incorporating different influences into what’s typically a traditional genre? Do you ever throw some of Dave’s metal background into the mix?

CT: Jeff: Well Dave knew who I was through the punk/hardcore/metal scene in CT so he came in expecting it to be something different. BUT, his favorite bands are Behemoth and Bon Iver, so he is pretty diverse. On some of the newer songs he incorporates some harder hitting drums and an edginess that I think will always be present in people’s playing that came out of those scenes.

AF: Your name makes for a striking, and kind of dark, image, and turns up in the lyrics to “Broken Tails.” How’d you settle on calling yourselves Crooked Tails?

CT: Shana: Well…because everything else was taken. hahahah. But really, we had just finished writing Broken Trails and still didn’t have a name. So Jeff and I are practicing the song one day and were like I wonder if Crooked Tales is a band, which it wasn’t! So to kind of somewhat break it away from the song we switched it to “Tails” instead of “Tales”.

AF: If you could record a song with any band or musician, living or dead, who would it be? What song would it be?

CT: Jeff: Song…I’m not sure, but an artist, though unfortunately dead, that I think I could learn a lot from is Townes Van Zandt.

Shana: Ah shit always a hard question…I always say this though, I would love to work with Jack White. Every project he’s worked on is a favorite of mine. And his recent collaboration with Wanda Jackson made my ears so happy! On the deceased side though I would of loved to work with Waylon Jennings or Patsy Cline.

5. We’re curious about your songwriting process. The music on your demo seems to flow organically from image to image, even morphing into “Hit The Road Jack” at the end of “Broken Tails.” Who writes your songs and lyrics? Is it collaborative?

CT: Jeff: Some songs Shana writes the lyrics and melodies and then I’ll add guitar, and then other songs I will write the lyrics and music to. Once we have the basic ideas, we bring the other guys in to add in their parts and give them life.
I should also add that the demo isn’t something we are all too proud of… we did it early on just to have something rough to get shows and show the other guys. So, some of the band didn’t even play on it. We go in to record a 6 song EP Jan. 18th, and we will sound much better now that we’ve been playing together for a while." - AudioFemme