Interview Podcast with Baby J. (Stoned At Heart, Can Of Beans)

Summary: LISTEN HERE: Baby J Interview MP3 It was 2000—somewhere around there. San Pedro was on fire musically. There were uncountable numbers of shows on 4th Street. They weren't venues. Punk houses. Sometimes the houses were the pre- and post- parties. Sometimes they were the whole shebang. I remember children being there. I remember a neighborhood kid with a knife, cackling, on a trampoline. I remember this girl—fourteen or fifteen—and she lived in the back of one of the houses. She played acoustic guitar, and it wasn't like, “How darling, a little girl's playing; I wonder if she travels by canoe and draws raccoons.” Fuck that safe, patronizing, quirky bullshit. She was really good. Fearless. Funny. She made the folks on the porch stomp and dance and shake their heads. Loss and celebrations were in the same wrapper. Talent's not something bestowed only on certain ages. She was at ease amongst the freaks and weirdos and dirthead artists and wastoids and the punk underground that rivuleted and squirmed down that street. Encouragement from a diverse set of outcast peers is like spores. It's uncomfortable to give and receive compliments. Still, the fungus spreads. It's just hard to see in real time, almost invisible. Several years passed. Ebbs and flows. The girl disappeared. I didn't know it at the time, but it was hard drugs and a broken window that made her scarce. More years. I saw her in a Pedro backyard, playing. Can Of Beans. Acoustic punk with backup. Small pills of overwhelming sadness, but the type of sadness that has sunshine when it dissolves into a form of unexpected medicine. Baby J sang songs of heartbreak. We talked a bit as the yard filled with BBQ smoke. She surprised me when I asked what she'd been up to. She'd joined the Air Force reserves and was working on a collaboration with Todd Congelliere, Jimmy Felix, and Chachi Ferrara (three quarters of a then-on-hiatus Toys That Kill) called Stoned At Heart. More years passed. Now, in 2015, she's twenty-eight, with a deep catalog. I knew her rough sketch, the bullet points. It was high time to catch up and have a long talk. -Todd Taylor Interview by Todd Taylor, Simon Sotelo, and Bianca Barragan Photos by Shanty Cheryl Songs: Stoned At Heart “9th Fret” and “I'm Not Using My Brain / Desperate” off of Party Tracks Vol. 1 (Recess / It's Alive) <a href="http://itsaliverecords.bandcamp.com/album/party-tracks-vol-1">Party Tracks Vol.1 by Stoned At Heart</a> LISTEN HERE: Baby J Interview MP3 To download the file to your computer, right click the link below and select "save target as..." It's a hefty file, so it may take some time to download to your computer. To play the file without downloading (it depends on your computer's configuration for playing music files), just click it. Your media player should recognize what to do with an mp3. (If it doesn't, you're on your own.) With the year's end quickly approaching, it's time once again to focus on our yearly donation drive. If you are able to, please consider making a donation. Everything helps us continue doing what we do. We appreciate it. Thanks! Click hereto see more info (such as this year's gifts) or watch the video below.