Given Cherry Glazerr’s long time KCRW fandom – the band name was inspired by our intrepid local Morning Edition anchor after all – it feels only natural that they would celebrate the release of their third album with us. And celebrate they did. Front woman Clem Creevy took to a mic festooned with Christmas lights with a palpable giddiness, and led her band through a breathless set of songs from the new album Stuffed & Ready (watch two highlights below). The band’s line-up has shifted a few times over the years, but Creevy remains constant in her growth as a vocalist and songwriter. She gave MBE a peek into this process as she elaborated on the album title saying “Stuffed and ready is this idea that I had that when you’re stuffed you feel kind of ill-equipped to do anything, but like lie on the couch and it’s this idea that even when you feel ill-equipped you go and do it anyways, because if you’re sitting around waiting for perfection nothing’s gonna happen.”
In the best possible sense Clem doesn’t seem like an artist that has ever let perfection get in the way of her artistic expression, but it does sound like creating the particular batch of songs that would become Stuffed & Ready took a great amount of careful consideration in a way that was somewhat new. Creevy also stated “I felt the need to express my raw emotions in a way that I hadn’t done before, and I questioned myself a lot with the lyrics on this album, and sort of went through it a bunch, and went through every song 100 times trying to make sure the lyrics made sense and fit with the essence of the song which I had never done before. And it was… it definitely made me feel vulnerable in a lot of ways.” She also joked that she didn’t know how sad the album was until she was done with it, and everyone started telling her how sad it was.
This all feels greatly contradictory to watching Cherry Glazerr live though; the current band is a tight knit trio consisting of Creevy, bassist Devin O’Brien, and drummer Tabor Allen. All appeared to be having an absolute blast as they dove into each raucous number, particularly on the standout singles “Daddi,” and “Wasted Nun.”
Tales of past intense performances were shared, and Creevy still shows glimpses of the charmingly awkward high schooler that we first came to know her as – especially when asked to comment on the presence of billboards (!) for the album around town. She assured us that of course the band would continue partying like rock stars in honor of the day’s release. Kicking off the festivities in the dwindling days of our basement studio was a pure thrill.
*As a bonus, if you haven’t done so yet, or simply want to brighten your day by reliving an absolute joy of a conversation take a listen to Cherry Glazerr’s 2014 interview with namesake Chery Glaser.*
Photos by Dustin Downing