Side Stage Magazine got a chance to speak with Thunderpussy drummer, Ruby Dunphy about the band’s upcoming debut self-titled album Thunderpussy which will be dropping May 25. Dunphy opened up about what to expect from the new album, the recording process, the band’s strong lyrical messages and more. Any true rock fan will want to read this interview to get a glimpse into the unique style and sound of what’s to come from Thunderpussy.
Side Stage Magazine: Hi Ruby
Ruby Dunphy: How’s it going?
I’m good, you?
I’m doing so good. It’s such a sunny warm day in Seattle.
Oh, that’s great! I’m glad to hear that. Yeah, we’ve been having some warm weather here in CT so we are getting into Spring. It’s kinda nice because we’ve had cold fronts for awhile.
Oh, I bet!
Thank you for setting up sometime to speak with me.
Of course.
Your self-titled album, Thunderpussy is going to drop, May 25. What can fans expect from the sound and style of the music and lyrics?
Yeah, if you’ve heard our music before or seen us live you can expect the same energy and same types of songs. Then at the same time you kinda have the polar opposite. We have a couple of songs on there no one has ever heard, much more sensual and intimate than other songs we’ve put out. It’s very personal and kinda weird that we are gonna release them because they are so personal and until this point no one had heard them. So we are so stoked to share this other form of ourselves we haven’t shared yet.
Right, I know you put out an EP before, Greatest Tits and you had included some of the songs that wound up on the self-titled album. So, I think fans got a little glimpse of what you were going to put on that, correct?
Yeah, sure! Totally!
With that being said you guys are from Seattle. You probably hear this all the time but usually a lot of bands coming out of Seattle still have that grunge sound. For me when listening to your album I didn’t hear that sound so where did you get your influence from in terms of music? Who did you draw from when writing and recording?
Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, first off Molly (Sides), the singer is from Idaho. Whitney (Petty), the guitarist is from Georgia. Leah (Julius) is from Banbridge which is an island outside of Seattle. I’m from Chicago. So we all have extremely different influences from each other. Leah came from a lot of punk, pop-punk background. Molly’s from more bluesy, Elvis (Presley) type background. Whitney more country-southern. I had thick punk-jazz, jazz training. I just graduated college with a jazz degree.
Oh, Congratulations!
Thanks, last night I literally finished my final paper!
Wow! Congratulations!
Thanks, I’m so tired!
I can imagine!
Yeah, it’s just a fusion of all of us. Whatever type of fusion that came from that is on the album. I don’t think any of us have a good way to define it.
That’s what I found when I listened to the songs. Everyone is so unique and so different. It was refreshing to hear. What was the writing process like during the recording of the album?
I was the newest member to the band so there were four or five songs written before I joined the band by Molly and Whitney. I came and added my own drum part, Leah bass and stuff. Basically, how we write songs is Molly and Whitney will come up with a melody and bring it to practice days. We’ll just take time, sit down and work on them. (We’ll) Fight with each other and stuff, disagree on stuff. At the end of the day hopefully there’s a song. So some songs were just like “awesome, that’s a song”. Others it took us to the last day in the studio to actually finish the song. So there are some songs like “Gentle Frame” which took the longest which is kinda funny because it’s like according to a pop song formula structure the easiest.
You have a powerful lyrical message that touches on many social and cultural topics. A lot of bands would have stayed clear from them. I was just wondering what drove you to be so open to explore these subjects and to record them.
We are four women playing rock music so if you are not empowered by the other members of your band you’re doing it wrong. All of us are so empowered by each other. We talk about things and with the Women’s March going on and our dip-shit, Nazi fucking president everyone’s just so mad all the time. We are just trying to spread a good message of unity, love, empathy, appreciation and just empower one another.
That’s awesome. I love that, hearing all the different ways you went about touching on subjects but in a different way musically for each song. It was cool. I liked that. So my last question for you is, I know you guys are embarking on a small US tour. Will there be any more dates or festivals? What can we expect from you guys?
Um, The short answer in long-term perspective is world domination. So we will be playing everywhere in the world and in outer space and everywhere you can and cannot imagine. But, yeah we are deep in the US soon and that is to be declared by hopefully very soon.
Thank you for the interview
Thank you so much
