PipemanRadio Interviews Anna Kramer & Easy Now at Shaky Knees 2023

0:04 Hey, you love them too. That's one why you wake up of America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipeman on W fourcy dot com West Pompass number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the white Man. I don't want to good man. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures Pipeman w forc Y Radio and on your web, Anna Cramer. Nice here at Shaking Knees. Yes, so were you here last night at all?

1:04 I was not here last night, so I missed it. Black he I would have loved seeing that. He was so funny about the whole shaky knees thing. He was playing on that, like the whole set. It was so funny. He's yelling out, are your knees shaking? It? Are your knee your knees should be shaken. Everybody's like, I'm too tired for my knees to share, or yeah, everybody's knees were shaken. Yeah right, So how about you? How's it been for you here at Shaky Knees. It's been amazing. Yeah, I missed, uh the last two I missed the first two days and which I wish i'd seen Greeno Star and just also other bands but we're practicing working working it. So it's nice to be here. We we got here pretty early, so it's just been awesome.

1:57 Every single person here is like the greatest person I've ever met. Nice today. I love it. Yeah, everybody's super kind and the music has been amazing. I just saw Off Narcissist was before that, which was amazing and Off kicked. But yeah, sometimes getting stuck in here and this fun about you, I really did. I was like, dank, I'm probably doing interviews right now. I haven't even met you. I haven't stopped doing interview since like one. Oh wow, Yeah, you're gonna take a break, but I always make sure later in the day. I'm gonna be out there, get it done now, and then you can try to schedule around sets I want to go to. It never really works out. Yeah, sorry about that earlier. Not your fault. I was gonna be here still anyway, so not your fault. But I'm glad I could get you in.

2:51 I was like, and then he said you were in media. I'm like, I didn't see her. I was out here. That's probably why. Yeah, I was looking around because I was stay out there when I texted you, you definitely weren't here. I wasn't here then, yeah, so I'm missing probably in here doing an interview and that's why. And then I walked out and I'm like I was looking at the text. I'm like, oh, good thing. Yeah. I think it was my fault because I got confused about the other time. There's another interview, and I just kind of yeah, it doesn't matter. It's all good. You're here now, that's what matter. Is it that? That's what matters? And so let me just ask you too. Is like I was. I was listening to your music and it was funny because the first couple of songs were total punk rock and I'm like, what, that's way cool. And then and then I was like driving and then all of a sudden, like a you know, kind of Americana type of song came on. I'm like I looked at my like I'm like, did I go, did I I hit something or this? And I was like, oh, that's way cool, because listen, you and I come from a time where you couldn't blend genres like listen, I was on the Sunset Strip in the eighties during the height and when punks and metal heads could not be in the same place, you know.

4:17 And I was a metal head that loved punk. Yeah okay, but I was along here. I went to a punk show. I got my ass speak yeah, you know. And I just love now that it doesn't even matter anymore and true and look at Social d you know that little last time I soli saw them, they were playing a country festival, which is phenomenal that I that's kind of when actually we put out UM, well, the first first album I put out with a band, so I put one out solo like the first record. Then second record was with UM sort of the same lineup, Shannon the bass player, and then we had a drummer, Adam. And with that album it was both so it was the mixture.

5:02 It might be the album that you listened to probably you've got a new record coming out in June, because that was next. I want to talk about that UM, But for the album before that, it's it is a mixture. And I think a lot of people enjoyed that. And then some people were just like pick a genre, like what are you doing? And I was just like, are you fucking kidding? What do you mean? Pick? Coming out of my brain? I can't there's no genre. In my brain, I used to think it was stupid while I was young to anyway, because listen as an artist, Yeah, just play whatever you feel. That's the entire point. Oh, I have to be this. Let me think about it. Let me think what genre. I just thought that was insane. I hate it. There's so many of them now too. Yeah, it was the record labels back then that said like I needed it for I was managing artist not that long ago, like a like ten years ago, and I had a connection with Sony. Yeah, she's gonna get signed, and they're like, what genre is she? And she wasn't in one genre. It's just it's hard not got picked one or we can't sign him.

6:10 It's just stupid. Now that's for like hashtags, you know, so that you can say what genre. So I just put several. I just say country, I say rock, I say country rock. Yeah, I don't know what else. I don't know what it is. Look at jelly Roll. Oh so he's a good friend of mine, but right now he's topping the country charts. He was hip hop then he was rock country. And it does it all happy. Yeah, Like you can be whatever you want to be, because it is you, you're an artist. Simple. I think if we're going to take a positive about the music business today and the streaming and all that, that's what it created. Took the power away from the record labels to say you need to do this, yeah, or to change you because I remember sitting backstage as a teenager on the Sunset Stripe when the record lables were signing these bands and telling them to change the way they dress, changed their hair, changed their music, and then all of a sudden, heavy metal became acoustic. Right, Uh, that doesn't make sense, you know, which is fine, you know, but if you were doing it because you want to, not if somebody's forcing you to be a certain way, exactly. Yeah, it's it's weird that I mean, that is you know, we could go on for hours about that. About money, you know, changes everything. That's uh, you know. But so I'm happy artists can be artists now, and I'm happy listeners can be listeners. Like it's so funny because one of my friends, now that I've

7:41 interviewed a few times, just interviewed her recently, Josie Cotton. Yeah, she's complaining. Yeah I remember seeing Oh no, I guess I didn't see her. Never mind, I just made that up. But I know who you're talking about. Yeah, that's a hitch, aren't you boy? Yeah, And so I told her the first time I interviewed her, which was the first time I'm there, I'm like, you know, I'm glad I'm interviewing you now because when I was a teenager and you you know, we're real popular, then I wasn't allowed to like you. That's so insane. Yeah, and now I can tell the world that you're badass. Example, it was like, ooh, you can't like that music, Like we're all commercial, commercial hit, so you weren't allowed to like it. Yeah.

8:24 The gatekeeper thing is in every genre too, so not just you don't have just like the whole you know, record labels and all that. It's it was, you know, you've got to be metal. You got just like you said, the bluegrass, that whole thing. It's like, I mean, I I'll pick up a banjo and play, you know, shitty banjo, but it's just for a song. It's like serve the song. Yeah, so I don't. I would never call myself a banjo player, no one else would, but I loved playing banjo on the song that I made up in my head that had banjo on it. Who cares to Neil Young for that? That's my He's phenomenal. But I'm just saying, somebody who is you're gonna play mandolin on this song. He's not out there trying to be a bluegrass musician, you know, But if he wants to play mandolin on his song, he's gonna play. You know, if you're a musician, you're a creative and it's not like you think about, hey, I'm gonna play this. It does like you're saying, it's in your head, it's in your heart, and it just comes out. It's to creativity, So why should there be rules to that? Exactly? Thank you. I'm glad we're having this conversation. Yeah, it feels good. You know how many bands I've seen in the past few years that I loved as a teenager and was not allowed to go see. That's insane, you know that exploited GBH discharge. You weren't allowed to go see It's allowed to go see him because it wasn't long hair got it and if I showed up, I'd get

9:54 my ass beat. Yeah, Shannon, our bass player, he it's kind of the same. I'm he went to everything's huge Ironman fan who like everything you just name. He just went to all of it. Anyway, he was just like, you know, if he got his ass beat, it's like whatever right now. But he is super tall and you know, well there you look. But funny story and playing music too. He got to play in all any type of band, you know what I mean. That kind of does help to be able to just go. Yeah, like we said, coming full circle, funny story. What happened to me back then is I had these punk friends and we were going to his place, Posers on Melrose. That was like the famous place to get your spikes and stuff like that, but it was a punk place. Yeah, So I went with my punk friends, think it would be cool the new the owners.

10:46 Yeah. We go in there and within like thirty seconds, my friend pulls me aside. He's like, we have to leave. I'm like, and I was confused. I was like, why, let's go, and I'll tell you what happens. The owners, who were friends of him, yeah, took him aside and said, listen, get the fucking long hair out of here, or we're going to beat his ass. Were they skinheads or they just yeah, you know, it's just the way it was back in If you hear Joe Strummer like him talking about that, it's like that's not punk, no, like what what? And I never I never got it anyway because back then, unlike now where it's actually big and popular and like, it was very underground, both metal and punk. Yep, it was very similar music. And we were both the ones getting our asses beat by the jocks in high school. Why wouldn't you banished? I bet there are a lot more people that felt the same way. They just were. They couldn't say yeah. They didn't even want to bother They couldn't. They can't say it, you know, you could, you couldn't speak your mind.

11:52 Then. I remember. Another great story is one of my best friends, h he uh. I was over his house one day and I found this album that he had and I'm like, what the fuck is this? And it was that gatekeeper thing like we were metal heads and I was like he was hiding it what And turns out it's now it's been one of my favorite band since then, Adam and the Ants Kings of the Wild Frontier. That's that's interesting because that's not even what was considered way. Yeah, so as a metal head, you can't like new wave, yeah, which is why Adam thence either Yeah, I couldn't like Josie Cotton or neither exactly. It's like so stupid, like just like what you like and who cares? Like?

12:52 Am I a metal head and a punk? Yes? But do I like plenty of other music? Yeah? Of course I did. That's why music is the universal like, which's and the best therapy exactly for the artists and the listen. It's true, it's true, you know. Yeah, and that's what's great about you because you can give that therapy to lots of people. Thank you. And I love that you're doing what is you yeah, and not going by some stupid rules, and that's what makes you. To me, that's what makes you talented. Thank you. That's what I get from going to see other people, and that kind of keeps me going. It's like, well that's kind of was the whole draw to begin with.

13:33 It is just when you go to live shows, the feeling that you get, you just it's just different, you know, it's I love just listening and headphones and yeah, but there's that that feeling, you know, there's just it's just magic. So live music's live music. It is. And let me tell you something when that whole lockdown happened, because I go on tour and I do all these music festivals all year. So for me, it was the same as being an artist. Like it was like the I it is, yes in the same boat a live show. Yeah, And so basically, you know, it was like you know it. First of all, it made me realize which I always knew, but I vocalized it more that we needed it more than ever because look at the hate and the anger and everything that came from not having music. Yeah. The other thing I did was I was saying I was doing during interviews because I did a lot of phoners during the COVID. I was like I was always saying interviews like I don't give a fuck if I if there's some kid playing a recorder on stage, as long as it's live music, I want to be there. Which is kind of awesome because it did sort of I felt like it sort of opened us up to everything, Like Okay, I mean not everybody, but like I definitely felt myself, I kind of opened up my door a little bit more and just listen to different, all different stuff, whereas I might have been I mean, I definitely felt like I was an rut and depressed during the entire thing, But there was this weird thing where

15:03 we were all on the same boat for a little while. That little moment was kind of nice to sort of have to So it wasn't nice because of COVID, obviously, but it was nice to, Yeah, to have to be in the same boat as everybody else, I feel like was good for a lot of people. And to then change your view or just change your way of like, I don't know. You know what I say about artists for that situation is it gave artists a chance to jump off the hamster wheel, because that's what I'm trying. What happened. Like if you got way back thirty four years ago, if you were an artist, you went on tour, you went off tour, and then you wrote an album and you had you could be creative. Yeah, But nowadays they have you like NonStop, go go go, go, go, go go, go, never stop. You can't even create because you're creating an album on a tour bus on the way next gig and you got deadline. How many times it's an artist keep creating when you're not and you're not even finished, like you don't have a chance to be creative, you don't have a chance to evaluate who you are as an artist. You just got to you keep going through the motions because they need you to. Yeah, And I think the positive that came back of COVID is artists got to jump off the hamster wheel and get creative again and kind of determined where they wanted to go with their music.

16:37 And I've felt I've since definitely felt that more With me, it was more just like okay, you know, are we doing this or not? Because it's been kind of just like small tours and just here and there, then weekends and then you know, a couple of months and then you know what I mean. So my hamster wheel has been kind of more like just real jagged, you know, and not as smooth like okay, you know this. Things don't always turn out the way you want them to, but you just keep on persevering and moving through blasting through the COVID. It's kind of felt like it was like coming out of the you know, the bedroom basically there, you know, your cave, and that was nice to just kind of actually sort of feel like everybody was doing that. Yeah, just to see everybody kind of coming out. It was almost like a bunch of zombies, you know, coming out of the and I think too, like tell me if I'm wrong with you. Like before COVID, because you were on this hamster wheel, you really didn't have a chance to sit there and ask yourself, is this how my music I want it to be? You just kept doing it. Yeah. It's like the pressure of you know that you've got to do what's needed to get to this next part, right, is it what you even want to do or whatever you wanted to sound like or you know, yeah we did. I mean we were recorded our our next album is going to was recorded right before COVID, So literally the day we

18:07 were done, I feel like it was the next weekend was COVID. So we went to see Stergill Simpson when it turned out he had COVID on stage I think, or at least he had may have had COVID right around then, but that was great. It was just kind of this end like okay, but we knew COVID was coming. We thought it would last what a month or something. Yeah, first it was two weeks right, Yeah, and then I was like, oh shit, yeah, so we ended up mixing and just like we kind of had a long time to get all those parts together. Sometimes that was annoying because you want to just get it done, but then other times it was kind of like, well, this is kind of nice. You know, we have to wait, you know what I mean. So so that was an interesting way to end the worst vacation that is used for thinking exactly nice, evaluating exactly. Yeah, it was good. I mean, and if you're smart, you took advantage. Yeah, because there are a lot of people that did it yep, or they were having trouble before, and it was really really hard on some people.

19:07 Yeah, that was that was a nightmare. I feel bad for everybody in the music industry during that time because and people don't realize that so many people were affected by that. Yeah, I mean, it's insane. That's the wheel you're talking about. It's a whole other part of the wheel. You insane. So you know, here we are at, which is it does feel really good that things are kind of in whatever way it is, everything's starting to go again. It's starting to kind of well, did you hear the good news on Friday, No, the World Health Organization nounce that COVID is no longer an emergency anywhere in the world. It's just a regular disease. Now. Yes, I'm a high five you. There you go, So there you go. Okay, that's amazing. We're on our way.

19:53 All right, here we go. But the good news is it's I think now it's a new normal. And people say we'll go back to normal, it's I think it's a better normal. I think so in a lot of ways. Yeah, men, you know, obviously there's a learned no appreciate stuff like I think people I've learned to appreciate live music much more respect. Yes, I definitely agree with that. I remember right before COVID, when I'd read the h you know, social media about all the festivals I was doing. Now, I used to get so pissed off, like people just bitched and bitch. Yeah yeah, And it's like now they're just so happy to get out and see music exactly. That seemed too. That seems to have stayed. I agree. I noticed that, like when you when we first played out, it was just like this is a great I don't care, I don't care where I'm playing. You know, you just feel I don't know, it's just such a relief, So I think I feel it out there, like just people are ecstatic. And it's also I've been seeing like I don't know, just kind of music that I'm seeing that like and definitely seeing Bikini Kill for example, the Age group, so it was like all their their kids and their moms and dad's all seeing the show. So I'm seeing a lot of that, which I really like. I love it.

21:11 Yeah, it's pretty awesome. So yeah, I was walking in here today and I saw these parents with their two kids and I was just like, that's so cool. Yeah, it's good, you know, and the kids are just getting to hang out at festivals. I man, what more can you ask for? I know you and they love it, Like I watched these kids like and they're just getting into it more than the adults aren't. Totally. It's like, that's so cool. It's it's it's good stuff, absolutely, and you're good stuff, thank you, sir. So let's tell everybody how to connect you on the web, social media, get your music and the new one when it comes out by your merch because that's the only way band survived today are survived today. You know, I don't think people realize, Like you look at people and they're like playing at this big festival, you must be making a ton of money. Yeah, not so much. Now this has been good, but yeah, then you go do something else and it's not. So it's just it's very hard to maintain because it's just not steady, you know, unless you get to a certain spot, and if you're not there, you're kind of you're doing it, you're doing it at all. But yeah, you've really gotta you know, you gotta get that balanced. But um, well we are. So it's Anna Kramer and Easy Now is the name of our band, so Ak and Easy Now like easy Now, Easy Day. So that's our band page. And then I'm Anna Kramer ATL so that's my other. So both of those are Instagram pages that I you know, we operate or I operate. And then um also we're on band camp, which is a really good platform and you

22:48 can pre order the album there. So it's Anna Kramer and Easy Now and it's I Am So Happy You're here as the name of the new album, which can either be sarcastic or positive or any way that you want to use that phrase. That's so true too, Like I took the positive of it, and as as you said that, I'm like, oh, I can see that too. I can see how it depends on you're sarcastic exactly, you know, because I'm originally from New Jersey, so sarcasm is like my original language. I like it. I'm very sarcastic. So if they're hanging out longer, you'll be like, okay, nice. I love it. It's the only way to be and people like listen, I can't handle being around people that don't understand it, because if I have to explain it to you, then it's not They don't have that type of when you're sarcastic with somebody and they're like, what do you mean? Is it a joke?

23:38 It's like, yeah, I can't. It's already done. Yeah, jokes. I'm not explained exactly. Any other things you want to share with the listeners that we haven't covered yet before we leave and go back to the festival. I love it well, I think it's yep, it's just Anna Cremer and easy now. And then we're also in Nikki and the Phantom Callers, and so Nikki played with us and so it's the same band. So we've been playing a lot of shows as one or the other where we'll split kind of sets and Nikki you'll sing and all sing or you know, and then we do duets and harmonies and so it's been really nice. And yeah, I feel like I've got a kind of a family band thing happening, which is really nice. That's sister from another parent, you know, that kind of thing. It's so important, Like I don't think people realize how important it is, because if you're gonna spend that much time with somebody, you better be family or else. Very true. Not good. Yep. I'm also in another band, Shanty Shanty, an all girl band, and so it's me and Nikki with our two friends Anna and Julia. And that's also another family band. So I get to be in a lot of nice just play music with people that I love, which and I have a niece named Shanty Nice. Yeah, okay, look I love it. Maybe she'll enjoy there you go. I love it, well, I love it. Love you. Love that you're here at Shaky Nave. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pike Man. Very nice to me. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man i'm W four CUI Radio