The Kids Are Alright: Care Bears on Fire

How does a trio of pre-teens come together and decide to melt faces as a rock band?

[Lucio checked the Urban dictionary to figure out what “melt faces” meant. It says “high-wasted, toted up or smokin’ weed.”] We started playing together when we were 8 so we didn’t get together to do any of that—we didn’t know about any of that. Otherwise, we liked music, we all played instruments, and we’re all friends.

Alright, not quite what I meant. Anyway, how so you work together to write songs? Are any of you dominant in the process or is it a team effort?

It’s all different but mostly we all contribute ideas and then take it from there. Sophie and Lucio write the music. Izzy and Sophie do the lyrics.

Does CBOF interfere with your school work, and how often do you get together to practice and play?

Yeah sometimes. In 7th grade we have lots of homework. We also like to do other things like dance, music lessons, have a social life—or we like to think we do. We practice twice a week usually. Sometimes on weekend if we have a big gig.

How are you families involved in this — are they supportive? Are they driving this or trying to apply the brakes?

They are supportive. They drive us to gigs (sometimes have to apply the breaks). They are the roadies.

What’s your impression of the New York bar scene?

Bars? Not literally bars, right? Playing in clubs is fun. We don’t find anything that different playing clubs versus other events, but in a bar people will offer to the buy you drinks, and they come to see you perform. The New York bar scene has been very welcoming to the kid band scene which is great.

Do you get stage fright?

“I always get nervous before you a show,” says Izzy. “I always get nervous for a bit, but then once I get on I’m pretty much okay,” says Sophie. “I get a little nervous,” says Lucio.

Or is there this air of confidence at being the coolest 12-year-olds in the city?

We wish.

Are you still living like kids, or do you find you’re dealing with adults more than the normal 12-year-olds?

We’re still living like kids, but kids who also deal with grown-ups.

Lastly, you have a song called “Met You on MySpace” — um, what are 12-year-olds doing on MySpace? Don’t you know the Internet’s a dangerous place?

Yeah it’s dangerous—that’s the point of the song. We got the idea for the song because we saw kids we knew profiled as being much older and then all these creepy adults checking them out. Then it was like, “Wow wouldn’t if be funny if somebody wasn’t only older but like a magical creature.”

Thanks to CBOF for answering a few questions for us, and rest assured, kids, I wasn’t asking you about getting high — melting faces has another, more rock-related connotation altogether. Here’s the band’s debut video for Everybody Else, a song off the I Stole Your Animal album that debuts on October 2nd.

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