Ivy and Suze - Q&A

As we're not exactly the kind of band anyone is going to be interviewing any time soon, I had the random brainwave from us to do a series of Q&As. It was in part inspired by Marc Maron"s WTF ending and the things he himself and President Obama mentioned in the final episodes about having conversations with people. Is that me getting narcissistic ideas above my station? Haha perhaps. Either way, the idea got bouncing around and I just thought it would be something fun and interesting between releases and whatever.

Our courageous, first subject, literally taking one for the team, issss... *drum roll* Suze!

Suzannah Jane Thunderbaker is PEN-15's lead guitarist, programmer, pianist, recording engineer, producer, blue-haired general all around mastermind. Amongst the four of us, she is without a doubt always the smartest person in the room (though being such a sweetheart she would never, ever agree with that [despite it being patently true]).

We both went out for food and chatted about the makings of a Thunderbaker. Without any more flattery and delay, it's the enigma herself - Suze! 

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Ivy: Why, hello there! Would you give a moment to introduce yourself to all the boys and girls at home? 

Suze: Haha, I am Suzannah Jane Thunderbaker, 21 years old, proud citizen of Detroit, Michigan. 

Ivy: And it's a pleasure, Suze. Suzannah? Susan? SJB? Suze. Haha I'm just messin' with ya! 

Suze: Oh you! 

Ivy: Right. Let's get down to business.

Suze: Wait, what?

Ivy: Haha mind out of the gutter, Susan, mind out of the gutter. Ok, would you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Suze: Of course. I mean, I'll try. It's always one of those weird things, talking about yourself, y'know? Anyways. I'm originally from Corktown in Detroit. Of mostly Germanic and Irish descent. Haha, kiss me quick, I'm partly Irish! And for anyone wondering, Thunderbaker is my own personal anglicisation of my extremely Teutonic birth surname. Ooh, geheimnisvolle frau! No brothers or sisters. Had a pretty nice, luckily non-traumatic, childhood. Outside of the whole music thing, I'm currently working in computer science. Ermmm... I'm a size 9 shoe? I love romantic walks on the beach?

Ivy: Haha, nice. So how long have you been playing guitar and what got you into playing and music in general? 

Suze: I did play the piano a little when I was quite young, but it was just one of those Elementary School things. I think because I was the type of autistic who was good academically, people expected me to be like this... savant who would be plonked in front of a piano and suddenly start blasting out Mozart? But the music they got you to play just didn't grab me and I eventually lost interest. It was actually quite a while after that where Guitar Hero 3 on the PS3 eventually kick-started me getting into guitar. As no doubt you can imagine, I wasn't exactly a girly girl and my dad and I would always do stuff together and hang out. He wasn't a big gamer or anything but he had a PS3 from back in the day so we'd play stuff together and as I got older that was one of them. Prior to that... I'd not particularly had a taste in music as such? But songs like Knights of Cydonia by Muse, One by Metallica, Sabotage by The Beastie Boys... erm, what else? Before I Forget by Slipknot... Barracuda by Heart... Yeah, those were songs that really pricked my ears up and sucked me in. So the natural progression from that was I asked for a guitar! That will have been 2016? While I enjoyed playing, and I don't know if it's from being neurodiverse, but sitting on my own playing just felt a bit... rudderless? Like I wasn't really getting anything tangible out of it, if that makes sense? 

Ivy: No, totally. I think when it boils down to it I've only ever REALLY played for the sake of writing, so in a way it's tool that's a means to an end, rather than just noodling away for self satisfaction? Like you said about the neurodiversity, that's probably a lot down to my ADHD.

Suze: Exactly, yes. So from that I wasn't super serious about it for quite a while. It was definitely more a kind of random "hobby" rather than something I did every day to get better? I never had lessons or anything. But then jump to a few years later in high school where I saw your poster needing a guitarist, and the rest, shall we say, is history.

Ivy: Haha yeah, past being in some classes we'd not super hung out up until that point? You were a bit of a social butterfly, studying, and doing your own thing, but I remember the day you came up to me, wide-eyed with the biggest shit-eating grin, the poster in your hand and said something like "so, Fernandez, a little birdie told me you're looking for a guitarist?!"

Suze: Haha, yes, I took the poster down so no-one could get in first and steal the place off of me! That will have been 2021 once we came back from Covid.

Ivy: Honestly, it was amazing. Obviously I had no idea you played so I was like whuuut, THIS GIRL not only plays guitar, but she wants to play punk rock?? Haha you were such a dark horse I'd have never expected it. 

Suze: Full of surprises, Fernandez, full of surprises. 

Ivy: Haha can you remember the first time we got together to play? We were SO bad. But it felt like the best thing ever! 

Suze: It really did! Haha, I mean we borderline murdered some of those songs we attempted, but despite the total lack of talent there was such a spark there! We just instantly clicked and it was literally on the way home I thought "hmm, I suppose I'd better start practising and actually get good on the guitar". 

Ivy: What kind of stuff did you start delving into? 

Suze: As we'd tried songs by the Ramones, Bikini Kill, Hole, The Donnas, Offspring, The Distillers, I did a deep dive on all of those. There were songs I already knew here and there but I needed to get my head in the same place in terms of what you guys were wanting to play. Because I enjoyed it so much and we got on so well I really didn't want to be a weak link. Not that anyone was, of course. 

Ivy: Yeah, you were suggesting songs for us to do in no time, that was really cool. 

Suze: I made sure to also work on the non-punk stuff I'd, until then, only casually messed around with. It really was one of those situations where "the more I know about different kinds of music, the better player I'm going to be, and the more I can bring to this band", which I'm kind of proud of for a 16 year old? From that, and rediscovering and looking more seriously into Muse, Linkin Park, even Slipknot, I started to notice a lot more the keyboard, piano, electronic elements, and was like "huh. Well I think that would also be super beneficial to look into", and I dug my old keyboard out from under my bed and started messing around with that too. 

Ivy: Yeah, I mean in no time you were really getting me into a lot of bands that had been totally out of my wheelhouse. While we were focussed on being a punk band, these extra elements that began to creep in really helped us develop, and especially develop me as a songwriter, a lot better than we would have without them. 

Suze: I do think it's really beneficial that we have never been a part of any scene. We've just worked in our own little bubble without trying to keep up or fit in with anyone who might have otherwise been our peers? Like, we didn't care about what other people were doing, we just wanted to be our own favourite band. 

Ivy: Yes! While I think when I started playing, like pretty much everyone, you get these visions in your head of straddling the stage at some enormodome with fucking fireworks going off or whatever, we've always just had too much fun together to, I dunno... want to risk ruining or corrupting it? And obviously, for various reasons, trying to make your way as an unknown band on a live, grassroots level is now a much, MUCH different reality. Without a ton of money or some kind of backing, the, quote, unquote, "old" days of bands jumping in a van and making their merry way across the country are well and truly gone. 

Suze: Definitely. Unless you've had, say, something go viral, the practicalities and economics of attempting to get out there as a small band on your own are perverse.

Ivy: Like, you read articles or posts of bands going out and spending the time starving and freezing to death, playing gigs to no-one in, like, Buttfuck, Missouri, having the worst time, and losing literally thousands of dollars. Fuck that.

Suze: Absolutely. From our perspective, it would be a totally pointless venture. People will try and say "but it's all about the experience" and... sorry, I don't really want to put myself, ourselves even, through the most miserable, wretched, soul-destroying experience that leaves me horrifically in debt?

Ivy: Yeah... Totally fair play to bands who want to and can do that, this is absolutely not a criticism or judgement of ANYONE and if people do get something out of it then that's fucking awesome, but for us it just doesn't make sense.

Suze: We're all... haha, I wouldn't say antisocial, exactly, but we also don't need any validation by making ourselves the center of attention? Not to sound pretentious but, alongside enjoying ourselves, it essentially really is about "the art". Obviously we're now releasing out music online and such, but that's more for the feeling of accomplishment? Like, "WE DID THAT" . I genuinely do not care one bit if no-one past ourselves ever hears it: it just makes me proud that we continue to work together, we don't argue, we have fun, and create something that is so much greater than the sum of our parts. I think that's beautiful. Haha, the power of friendship! 

Ivy: Jolly cooperation! 

Suze: Hahah oh my god, gold star on getting in a Dark Souls reference! I love it. High five! 

Ivy: In terms of recording, how do you feel about becoming our in-house, one woman studio? 

Suze: While it did start out of necessity, I do really enjoy it! There has been various learning curves getting my head around it, and I'll really frustrate myself that I seem to stumble on better ways to do things *after* we've recorded something and it's too late. I think from my neurodiversity there's that perfection slash control freak element, and while I'm not the best at doing it by any means, we know how we want to sound and I feel like it gives us a lot more freedom. 

Ivy: Yeah, totally, I don't think we'd perform and be able to experiment in the same way being on the clock with some stranger. Apart from Donna, we're all on the spectrum in some way and like being relaxed and in control of our creative environments? 

Suze: One hundred percent. 

Ivy: And where are you at now with what music you're listening to, and what in general influences and inspires your playing and approach to music? 

Suze: I'm loving bands like ERRA and Bad Omens that have that electronic element, and also the guitar work in ERRA is just SO good. I do like the electronic side Bring Me The Horizon have, too. Carpenter Brut... Garbage are obviously iconic. I've also been listening to Songs From the Big Chair by Tears for Fears, too, the production on that is just perfect. Oh, on the synthesizer note, I've just invested in the Omnisphere 3 synth plugin, which I am SUPER looking forwards to experimenting with!

Music-wise, there's also the Japanese band, coldrain, they have some good stuff, and I love lots of BOOM BOOM SATELLITES, who the singer sadly passed away a few years ago. Similar with BUCK-TICK, it's so sad how Sakurai-san passed; 4 decades in and they're still such an amazingly creative band. 

Ivy: No, yeah, I love BUCK-TICK. It's obviously you who got me into them! But yeah, it's bands like that I think that have given us the inspiration and confidence to try totally different styles and not worry about whether things might be too big of a jump from one album to the next. I hope we can get those tribute songs out as a little EP at some point.

Suze: Definitely, I'd really love to go back to that but it feels like a funny one to try and fit in currently. One day, though. I think we came up with some really interesting stuff.

Ivy: One day!

Suze: In terms of the electronic side of things, though... Nine Inch Nails were a really good bridging band that led me more into electronic music And it's cool we both like House music, too! And a lot of gothy, post-punk, new-wave things, also. 

Ivy: Yeah, we do definitely click a lot on things like that! I love that from punk bringing us together, it's developed that Donna and Mercedes now both love their full-on metal, and we really dig lots of more electronic stuff. 

Suze: Yeah, me too! It can be a bit lonely(?) when you love a band and want people to love them as music as you but no-one is interested in the slightest, so that we've ended up with quite similar tastes in that area is really cool. Like, pretty much everything where I'll say "you have to check this out!", even if you don't love it, you pretty much always know where I'm coming from. That makes me really happy. 

Ivy: Oh Suze, thank you, and absolutely me too. Musically, where do you hope for us to go with PEN-15?

Suze: Honestly, I am totally down with whatever everyone else wants. If you look how our sound has developed from our first EP to the latest album that's been quite a wild journey? We've obviously delved into a lot of different styles, we've become quite a bit heavier but also more experimental, and not *once* has any of us been resistant in the slightest to that. Not once. Everyone is so eager and open to trying new and different things and I honestly think that's amazing. I really think we're more and more coming into our own so I'm really excited to just keep seeing what we do next. Genuinely.

Ivy: Me too. Any last words for your fans? 

Suze: Wait, why does that sound rather ominous? 

Ivy: Haha, yeah, I could have worded that less ominously. Ok, any parting words of wisdom? 

Suze: Make sure to rubber up, kids 

Ivy: Haha, Jesus Christ, Susan... 

Suze: YOU LOVE IT.