Interview with Cherry Avenue at Solar Culture

On April 15th, I caught an amazing performance by up-and-coming local band Cherry Avenue downtown at Solar Culture. They played a set of energetic and captivating punk-rock, clearly influenced by the likes of The Runaways (they even covered "Cherry Bomb"). After the band's set, I caught them outside the venue for an interview. Read what they had to say below!

Ruby: I’m from KAMP student radio, I'm here with Cherry Avenue at Solar Culture. Do you guys want to start by introducing yourselves?

Nico: I’m Nico, I play drums.

Lucas: I’m Lucas, I’m lead guitar.

Christian: I’m Christian, I’m rhythm guitar.

Bri: I’m Bri, I’m the bassist.

Gabi: I’m Gabi, I sing.

Ruby: Cool! So, assuming that you guys are named after the Cherry Avenue that’s here in Tucson, what about that street inspired you to name your band after it?

Gabi: Oh I got this one. So actually I was driving and I passed Cherry Avenue, and we were trying to come up with a band name, so I texted Lucas and was like “Lucas what about Cherry Avenue?” and Lucas was like “yeah, I like that”. And then we asked the band!

Ruby: Whenever I bike past Cherry Ave I think it’s a cute street name. I listened to your single “Outlet” on Spotify, which I really liked, and you guys did a great job playing it tonight! I really liked the message and the sound. So for that song, or just your music in general, what are your biggest influences?

Lucas?: That’s the fun part, we all draw from different influences, and because of that its very hard to not only collaborate, but also compromise. But when we do I think we come out with a really good product. My influences are drastically different from everybody else’s, and they bully me [laughter from the band].

Ruby: What are your influences?

Lucas: I’m like a thrash junkie, so I listen to Metallica, I listen to Megadeth, I love Testament, I fuck with Pantera. All that sort of rock stuff.

Ruby: I definitely hear that in your playing.

Lucas: And my guitar, with how pointy it is.

Ruby: What about the rest of you guys?

Gabi: I draw a lot from rock and punk stuff. I like lyrical things, I like very clever lyrics, so I try to implement that into the music.

Ruby: I feel like I heard that with “Outlet”, its very lyric focused.

Nico: I’m the drummer, I don’t do a lot in terms of the songwriting apart from drumming, but I really like Death Grips, Radiohead, Car Seat Headrest, all the basic internet nerd music stuff.

Ruby: We love Car Seat Headrest! So building off of influences, do you guys think that being from Tucson and the Tucson music scene influences your sound at all?

Bri: I would say so. Growing up with the scene here, the music scene, everyone kind of draws inspiration from each other for sure.

Ruby: That’s awesome. I came here pretty recently, and I’ve really liked getting to know the music scene. I think its super cool. Do you guys have anything in particular that you want listeners to take away from your music?

Lucas: For me, I just want people to have fun. That’s what I’m trying to do with this band, I just want to have fun.

Bri: Personally I want our music to make at least a little bit of an impact in some way. I don’t necessarily know how based on the songs that we have, they’re kinda all over the place, but like whatever people take away from it I want them to take away something that they keep with them.

Ruby: Anything else you want to say? Anything you want to plug?

Nico: We’re playing the Oro Valley battle of the bands on April 29th, so that’s exciting.

Christian: We’re also probably recording new music very soon.

Gabi: Like an EP, maybe.

Ruby: Cool, I’ll look out for that! Well I think that’s all the questions I have for now, thanks so much for speaking with me, and good job tonight.

Find Cherry Avenue's music on Spotify, Apple Music, and most other streaming platforms. Be sure to stream their single "Outlet", and keep an ear out for new music dropping soon! You can follow the band on Instagram, @cherryavenue for updates.