Hayley and the Crushers recently released their new album, Modern Adult Kicks, via Kitten Robot Records, which is their first with that label. It features Hayley Crusher Cain (vocals, guitar), Dr. Cain, ESQ (bass), and Action Ben Cabreana (drums). While much of the songwriting, demoing, and even the recording, was remote, they also work closely with Paul Roessler at Kitten Robot for the fully-fledged songs, and fans will notice a significant development in the layering of sound on the album, as well as a little more focused engagement with tougher life subjects like isolation and the dualities we often face.
Together, those more layered constructions and the introduction of somewhat grittier aspects of life are just what makes the the album “modern” and “adult.” The energy level you’ll find on the album, however, is very much in keeping with previous Crushers albums, and you might even find a kind of escalation in that the band have focused on sustaining that energy through twists and turns. For Hayley, as she explains below, that’s part of keeping Punk alive over time. We spoke about her mindset songwriting for Modern Adult Kicks, the step up in sound layers, and the making of their always madcap videos so far.
Hannah Means-Shannon: I was happy to hear that you worked with Paul Roessler as Producer at Kitten Robot Studios because I know he has a great approach and a very eclectic mind.
Hayley: We’d never had a Producer like this. I call him “the Fourth Crusher”, and “the Mystery Crusher.” He’s someone who is lovingly guiding you but also can tell you areas that you need to improve. As any artist will tell you, that’s not that easy that easy to find. First of all, it’s finding someone who actually gives a shit enough to really want you to improve what you do, and second of all, it’s finding the perfect artist who actually understands what you’re doing. [Laughs] We were writing during that whole pandemic period and Kitten Robot really brought us out of that weird swampland, to be honest. We’re really grateful.
I think if you have enough on the table to bring on your own, as a band, the universe will meet you half-way. Labels are not here to develop you, you have to develop yourself, and nobody will ever believe in you as much as you believe in you. We had a lot to bring to the table. We had all this music that we had started working on.
HMS: It’s a very necessary and true thing to talk about because there’s an old myth, possibly based upon the way that the music industry used to be, that still does the rounds. Some people are still focused on being “discovered” and feel that when that happens, then they will be helped to develop musically. It’s an unhelpful myth. The only truth in there is that through doing it, through creating music and recording, you do learn things and develop.
Hayley: Yes, definitely. Even though the music industry has changed so much, there’s a weird mythology of an A&R guy discovering you. I think it all comes down to people wanting validation from others outside of themselves. But once you have validation from outside of yourself, whether it’s your parents, community, or the industry, you suddenly have taken the fear and vulnerability of creating art and put it on someone else. But there is no off-ramp off of the human experience and when you’re an artist out there, you’re on that ride. It doesn’t matter how much validation you get, the only solution is to DIY, find partners you love, and love the process. If you don’t love it, you’re fucked!
HMS: This is a real conversation. A lot of industries have similar parallels. What do you think led to these songs being more “adult” in some ways? Is that in sound as well as in theme?
Hayley: There was stuff that was happening in my life, so the actual subject matter of the songs were not as planned out as usual. It was dealing with difficult situations with family members, witnessing people dealing with addiction, and seeing people dealing with loss in my life and in the greater world. But the way that we aimed to create this music was definitely planned and had a more layered approach.
We are and were a 3-piece Garage/Punk band, and if you see us live, that’s what we do. But we wanted to take more of a wall of sound approach here, kind of a Phil Spector approach. That was what we were going for here. It was wanting every hook to have another hook, and so much layering and depth going on. Adding that to the rawness of this subject matter was, I think, the magic. When we finally heard it all together, we said, “Oh my God!” I think there’s a realness and rawness to the vocals, too, and I think you hear the vulnerability in some of these songs, but it’s matched with more of a polished production. I think that’s the magic for me.
HMS: That helps me understand why I was so blown away by the energy of these songs. A lot of Punk songs have energy and speed, and that’s part of it, but I feel like the music construction is surprising, introducing twists and turns.
Hayley: I feel like that parallels the idea of being 35 and still being into Punk. How do you sustain that energy? Well, you pace yourself. You are self-aware enough to know where you need to gun it, and where you need to take a left turn. While our album Vintage Millenial was a little less mature, I feel like Modern Adult Kicks is more adult, because it’s about sustaining the energy. I did want to make something where you could tell there was a story being told, and maybe you could hear it. Maybe that’s a nod to Punk dads and their cool daughters, who are a big part of our demographic.
HMS: I was aware, with your other music, that you know what you want to say. There’s always something in there that you want to talk about. It’s not just about the sound.
Hayley: That’s the curse of feeling deeply and thinking about shit. It’s like, “God, can’t I just have a break?” It’s not that you want to say it, it’s that you have to say it. It would be great to numb out and watch Netflix. That’s why I gravitate towards music that dumbs me down a little! It makes me feel more like a happy dog in the world. We should all aspire to be like that.
HMS: I really want to be my dogs. They are so happy. I often think of that.
Hayley: God bless all the dogs in the world. Humans are much more grotesque.
HMS: How did you decide which songs to develop for this albums out of the ones that you had?
Hayley: For the song “I Fall”, Dr. Cain pretty much wrote that from start to finish, and that song made me think, “Everyone knows this feeling of feeling lost, but you’re too proud to tell people. You’re out there in the world, and you want to be in a place of happiness and comfort, but you can’t get back to that place because innocence has been lost.” That is something everybody knows. We’ve all crossed that threshold. We had just moved to Detroit, and that felt like a huge step, and we knew we could never go back to our old lives, even if we went back to our old house. I knew that I had changed, so that was a great example of that feeling.
At first I thought the song was kind of cheesy, but then I thought, “This is helpful.” I think writers, in general, know when something feels universal, and when it doesn’t. With this album, we wanted to establish ourselves as more than a fun little niche band, and be more real. I think a lot of us have felt that in 2020 and 2021. As much as it has been a hard time for everybody, we’ve all grown so much. It’s wild. Hopefully we haven’t devolved! But I am so proud of my family and friends coming back from the brink of hard things. If it hadn’t been for all these struggles, this album wouldn’t be what it is.
HMS: I think the whole public conversation has changed, where people are sharing much more real stuff than they ever did before. Social etiquette has changed, and we can bring up harder subjects, and that’s good.
Hayley: Culturally, there are wounds that we all have to work on, and it’s worth it in the long run. Maybe we are all also reassessing what matters in life.
HMS: I really like “She Drives” and “I Fall” as songs and I do feel they are very universal, by the way, and I feel like the vibe is really powerful. How did you manage to make all these videos during this crazy time? They are each really solid and interesting.
Hayley: We knew we were going to do four singles and make four videos. When we put our minds to something, we just do it. There’s a five rule thing for The Crushers. We basically use our iPhones, invite our friends, pick a place that we want to promote since we don’t have a budget.
“She Drives” was made in a truck yard, and even though it wasn’t really promotional, for the owner of the mac truck we were dancing in front of, his daughter was watching us perform and made a connection with them. “Taboo” was filmed at Flamingo Vintage in Southwest in Detroit, and that showcased their amazing store. We find locations that we can promote and that has cool ambience and energy. When you ask people if you can film a video there, they say, “That’s awesome”. Also, I video edit everything, and learned more about that during the pandemic. It’s all fun doing it and I love it so much.
HMS: That’s amazing because I feel like there’s a lot of unity in the theme and the colors that we see in the videos. You must be paying attention to that as you go.
Hayley: I’m a visual person and my husband is a designer. Dr. Cain is a multi-talented doctor. [Laughs] He helps me tweak things so that the colors really pop. We work together on that. This whole band, I feel like, has always come from a visual place where we want to be a spectacle. We became a band as normcore was on the rise. Normcore is the idea of being unaffected by things, and we’ve always rallied against that. The only rule in our house is, “No beige, ever!” The whole mission of the band was to be fun, joyful, and a visual spectacle. We wanted to bring that back. Those are some of the most fun shows I’ve ever seen!
I think it’s playing with what you have, and the absurdity of it all. Performance is a really weird concept. I think concerts are crazy, and weird, and I don’t understand how they work. We’re all there sharing a weird experience together, so why not make it crazy? That’s why I love drag queens and Dolly Parton!
HMS: I agree that no one knows why concerts work the way that they do. I recently saw Alice Cooper perform for the first time in my life. I was so shocked by the amazing overload of it. It’s going to take me months to unpack. He invented so much of this spectacle.
Hayley: We need to do some sort of actual show like that! I’m jealous.
HMS: The live play elements that you bring into your videos also really engage and remind people of the human side of things.
Hayley: I used to make little videos with my sister growing up with our camcorder. I feel like I’m doing exactly what I was doing when I was 7. I just follow that! I wish that for every human being. Do the thing you loved when you were 7 at least once a week. Try it!
HMS: The video for “Taboo” has a great duality, by the way, with two versions of yourself. What led to that idea?
Hayley: It’s basically stolen from a Twilight Zone episode, since that happens a lot in the Twilight Zone. We just bought a 1926 fixer-upper house in Detroit, and that dual scene with me as the Evil Hayley is filmed upstairs in the attic. We bought the house for the attic. It has so much ambience. It’s so haunted. We were just excited to film up there. I know that the next video that we do will just be the next thing that we fall in love with. We’re toying with the idea of filming in the snow this winter, maybe for “I Fall”. Stay tuned for that!
