This Is My Suitcase is a pretty crazy band. You might remember a certain video featuring Patrick Stumph saying “see you in cat heaven”. Remember that awesome song in the background with the meows? That my friends is the genius work of This Is My Suitcase.
Joe of This Is My Suitcase answered some questions for Double Dance:
How did This Is My Suitcase become a band?
The musical cyclone of This Is My Suitcase was originally conceived because, throughout my many years spent heading up punk bands, I had grown tired from constantly relying on other band members who simply did not have the same level of concern for what we were doing. I care way too much- it’s like a sickness. I wanted to have somewhere that i could musically go to be alone and freak out as I saw fit; a place to care about my weird songs by my lonesome until the cows came home- and This Is My Suitcase was birthed. By the time I had released the first This Is My Suitcase full length album, Missent to Thailand, I had already enlisted three band members to play alongside me at shows, as I missed friendship and headbanging aspects of band life too much to remain alone. Over the next couple of years, we had solidified our lineup to what it is now: myself, Nicholas Manos (on the electric guitar and percussion), Jeremy Skeen (a true drum mastermind), Joseph O’ Riordan (the bass guitar), and Mary Lynn Gloeckle (our pianist and pitch-wonderful female vocalist). Obviously, our band has become an actual “band” and no longer a “solo project”, if i must use such dreaded terms as these to describe our situation. LONG ANSWER SHORT: This Is My Suitcase was originally the product of my madness, but, since then, This Is My Suitcase has blossomed into a full band musical explosion that I love more than ever.
For those who haven’t heard music from This Is My Suitcase, how would you describe the band’s sound?
For the millions of unfortunate souls who, for whatever reason, choose to read about how music sounds rather than listen to how music sounds: the music of This Is My Suitcase does not sound like the music from any band I’ve heard to date. The simplest answer I can give to this mind-bending question is: the wily music of This Is My Suitcase sounds like the even-wilier music I constantly hear inside my brain as I try to live out my pathetic life as a sad-yet-optimistic cat-person who dies for fast music and writing love stories through sad metaphors. To be honest, This Is My Suitcase tends to accidentally sound 1% like everything I listen to: a little bit like The Beatles, a little bit like Elliott Smith, a little bit like Ben Folds, a little bit like Mozart, a little bit like Good Luck, a little bit like Ok Go, a little bit like Dr Dog, a little bit like Death Cab for Cutie, a little bit like The Zombies, a little bit like The Flaming Lips, etc, forever and ever; HOWEVER, this begs the question: if you sound a weensy-little bit like a boatload of very-different bands, then what do you actually sound like? EXACTLY! This Is My Suitcase sounds like nothing, and This Is My Suitcase sounds like everything. Confused? Good. Now go listen to something from THE KEYS TO CAT HEAVEN (our full length album, released in 2009 through Paper + Plastick records) way too loud, and decide for yourself how we sound!!! When asked how our record sounds, I usually say something along the lines of: THE KEYS TO CAT HEAVEN sounds like the Muppets as The Flaming Lips covering (The Beach Boy’s) Pet Sounds in Hell, produced by Ben Folds.
Where did the band’s name come from?
Justin Zrenner, a brilliant poet that I am lucky to call “friend”, thought up the band name, and I thought to myself “holy shit, that band name is so good that I need to make a band for it!”
What would you say are some of the band’s influences (musical or not)?
Although I pseudo-answered the musical half of this question in a previous answer, I will try to answer this doozie of a question as best as I can! Lyrically, more-often-than-not, I am influenced by what is going on with/around me. For example, “Goodbye Sky” from The Keys To Cat Heaven (a song about my looming and fast-approaching death, with an “oh well, let’s party!” overtone to it) was written as a completely open window to how I sadly felt when the song was created. Whereas other songs, such as “Mean Fish” (a song about two beta fish who are separated and willing die of total heartbreak), are less literal but still have parallels to my real life. Typically speaking, all of our lyrics are influenced by my actual life, and all of our music influenced by me being a maniac that never leaves the house and drinks 200 cups of coffee a day.
If you were given a chance to tour with any band, dead or alive, who would you choose to tour with?
Holy Shit, why would you even tease me with this question? Obviously, you opening up the “dead or” half of the question makes answering impossible. Obvious answer: THE BEATLES; however, i would ideally tour with them post Abbey Road (to see “Oh Darling” live) and they had stopped touring by this point, so my final “dead” answer is: ELLIOTT SMITH. I could write a book on why I believe Elliott and I were destined to be friends, so a tour would be a perfect chance to work my charm and befriend this genius. As far as living bands, that is easy: WE WANT TO TOUR WITH THE FLAMING LIPS EVERYDAY FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES!
Who writes the songs in the band?
I (Joseph Anthony Camerlengo) write the music and lyrics for our band. Easy answer! hehe
What is your favorite color?
I am partially-colorblind, so I truthfully am not sure how to answer. The best answer is “blue”, although sometimes I think I am looking at blue and it is really purple, then everyone laughs at me and I tear up. My answer is either “blue”, “rainbow”, or “sad” (is sad a color?)
Would you say there is something (unique maybe) that sets This Is My Suitcase apart from other bands?
Let me answer that with an equally valid question, my dearest Kaitlin: Would you say that there is anything at all that This Is My Suitcase has in common with any other bands? Being in This Is My Suitcase is like being an albino squirrel in a park, no matter who sees us and no matter what we are compared to, we are always the craziest. Oh bother!
What are some of the band’s goals for the future?
We want to be able to survive, in general and financially; right now we are failing at both, it seems. With any luck at all, one day, enough people will be stoked on whatever it is that we do that I/we will be able to pay our rent and bills with it, HOPEFULLY leaving enough money for some Harry Nilsson records after life expenses are taken care of. That’s the goal, i suppose. Survival and/or Nilsson.
I’d say that was quite an interview, wouldn’t you? Now show some love to Joe and go purchase The Keys to Cat Heaven!
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