LA rock chicks Julie Edwards & Lindsey Troy aka Deap Vally are set to release their debut album, Sistrionix, Friday June 28. The album was recorded with producer Lars Stalfors (The Mars Volta), and it showcases the girls hurtling powered rock n roll with the kind of inextinguishable ferocity that cannot be faked. Deap Vally are the real deal when it comes to rock chicks.
What were your food influences when you were growing up and what kind of food did you eat at home or with your family?
Julie: Healthy stuff like Steamed Broccoli with cheddar cheese, quesadillas, garlic marinated roast turkey, and the occasional home-baked giant chocolate chip cookie (like, the size of a pizza).
Lindsey: My mom is an amazing cook; healthy food is her specialty. We had a big vegetable garden in our yard for some years which we would pick stuff out of and she would cook it up for dinner: tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, eggplant.mmm. My favorite dish my mom makes is homemade spanakopita. It’s to die for.
What dish or cuisine do you most like to eat on tour and why?
Julie: Small Non-fat latte with a single shot. Or a banana. Hummus and pita. Otherwise there’s not really anything consistent to eat and you mostly end up eating total crap at gas stations.
Lindsey: Healthy, fresh food can be hard to come by on the road, so whenever I have the chance to eat some veggies or salad I go for it. Like Julie said, we eat a lot of hummus because it’s cheap and yummy and healthy. Don’t get me wrong though–i love comfort food–lasagne is my weakness.
What is your ideal cooking playlist?
Julie: Vinyl! Bill Withers, Matt Baldwin, Peter Tosh
Lindsey: Edith Piaf, Django Reinhardt, Nina Simone. Vinyl is always ideal, but I’m currently homeless, so am usually listening to music from my laptop.
What type of food do you make sure to avoid before a gig or going on stage?
Julie: I don’t eat anything 4 hours prior to playing. Otherwise my brain is too busy digesting food to drum with any level of awesomeness.
Lindsey: I can’t have caffeine or anything acidic because it will fuck up my voice. I eat a lot of Manuka honey, hot herbal tea, and veggies with hummus before a show.
Imagine for a second you can request anything on your rider at Splendour In The Grass Music Festival. What food do you put on it?
Julie: A juicer and some fresh, raw beets, ginger, apples, celery, and kale!
Lindsey: What Julie said. And a blender and the ingredients to make a smoothie (bananas, mango, berries, almonds, coconut water, soy milk, bee pollen). I used to make smoothies all the time back at home. That’s something I miss a lot.
What has been your biggest cooking disaster to date?
Julie: I can’t think of a good one, but a few Christmases ago my sister-in-law (Sharin from Raveonettes) set the kitchen on fire cooking duck! There were flames leaping out of the oven and licking the ceiling above it! It was high drama, but very thrilling and memorable. And the duck actually came out delicious.
Lindsey: I once baked a whole chicken and after I cooked it became convinced that the chicken had spoiled previous to cooking because it had been transferred from refrigerator to freezer to refrigerator, which apparently is bad news. I ended up tossing the chicken and obsessively bleaching all the utensils it was cooked with, convinced there was some deadly bacteria all over my kitchen.
When you tour overseas, what food from home do you miss the most?
Julie: Quesadillas, carne asada tacos, and potato tacos from El Atacor Number Uno down the street from mi casa.
Lindsey: Bean/ cheese/guacamole burritos from Burrito King in Echo Park, smoothies, grilled cheese sandwiches, matzo ball soup Langer’s deli, and cupcakes from either Big Man Bakes or Sprinkles.
What are your both of your favourite tour van munchies?
Julie: Smoky Bacon potato chips! Gummy candy!
Lindsey: I’ve recently become addicted to honey. I’ll just eat spoonfuls of it. I love trail mix, peanut butter, and bananas.
Who is the better cook, in Deap Vally?
Julie: I have no idea. We don’t get much opportunity to cook, really. One time Lindsey made really dense, heavy cupcakes from scratch. One time I made really dense, heavy soft pretzels from a box mix. Both were edible fails.
Lindsey: “Edible fails”..hahahahah
What is your signature dish?
Julie: Penne Arrabiata, extra spicy
Lindsey: Spanakopita–my mom taught me.
