Approaching a decade of life, Savannah, GA’s girl fronted classic rock-n-roll trio CUSSES returns to hit where they thrive most, live.
CUSSES made an emphatic return in 2017 after a year-long hiatus. They began their resurrection opening up for Bon Jovi at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. Then shortly following up with joining The Joy Formidable on a Summer tour. Drummer Brian Lackey and guitarist Bryan Harder have been playing on and off together for over 20 years, creating the riff-driven backbone of the band’s straightforward hard rock. Angel Bond’s commanding vocals top the proverbial cake. CUSSES has evolved into a high-energy, head-banging rock show through the years that is not to be missed.
With hard-driving tracks and gripping live shows, CUSSES has established itself as one of the regions must see rock acts. This is a band that demands to be listened to, and it is sure hard to take your eyes off of all three of them.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Angel of CUSSES about the latest project, motivations, challenges and more. The band recently relocated to Nashville so be on the lookout for chances to catch them live!
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Straight up stripped down Rock n Roll with a heavy influence of the 70’s-90’s. You can hear some punk, pop, and sometimes just full on metal. The three of us all come from different parts of the East Coast and bring different elements to the music we collectively write. The drummer, Brian Lackey, is originally from the South. The guitarist, Bryan Harder is from NJ, and I have lived all over the place. So each songs translates differently to all of us and brings out colorful elements of our past, upbringing influences, and present day feels.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
We have to play! I think we all were led this way because we love it, we connect to music, we’ve all played since we were kids, and it has probably been our therapy more than anything! We need it to breathe and get through moments in life. For myself it’s helped me come to a place of peace with my past and have a platform to express it in. Which hopefully inspires others to recognize their strengths and have an over all acceptance and love for themselves no matter where they came from or what they have been through.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
The second album is a little more polished than the first for sure. I think our songwriting like with most things artistically you grow and evolve your writing and also tap into different life elements that motivate you to express. What we were trying to accomplish more on this second album was to capture our live sound. What you would hear when we play live. It’s the best part of the Cusses experience. I think whether you like our style of music or not you will love the energy and visceral feelings you get when you see us live. I don’t think we managed to capture it fully, it’s quite hard to do, but we tried! You’ll just have to come see us live to see what I’m talking about.:)
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
I think the main challenge for myself is the constant need to stay on top of your social media game. LOL Especially when you are doing everything yourselves you are wearing many hats which will take away from the creative end of it. But that’s to be expected. If you want something bad enough you have to be willing to sacrifice as much as you can to keep moving forward and hopefully see it go to another level. I love connecting with our fans, meeting new people, making people happy, feel emotions, and so forth. To be able to reach more people across the globe through these platforms is incredible. I just have a hard time self promoting myself daily without feeling full of it!
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
- Website: http://www.cussesmusic.com
- Facebook: CUSSES
- Instagram: @cussesmusic
- You tube: Check out our latest video “Critical”!
Anything else before we sign off?
CUSSES stands for that little cuss, that little rascal in all of us. Unwanted at times. But we are all CUSSES. We all have something inside of us wanting to get out that we want to express. Oh yeah and COME SEE US LIVE!
