As so many musicians find out, getting signed and steadily touring rarely ensures a healthy bank account. The Butcher Babies‘ frontwomen Carla Harvey and Heidi Shepherd recently appeared on the Rise To Offend podcast and we’re asked if they found anything disappointing with the level of success they’ve attained this far. They replied:
Carla Harvey: “Gosh, I don’t think there’s anything that’s been disappointing. You have to understand that we’ve been metalheads since we were kids. The first time I heard Metallica in the back of a kid’s van when I was twelve or something, I was an instant metal fan. And so to be able to go out and live my dream and be a metal singer… I mean, how can that be in any way, shape or form disappointing?”
Heidi Shepherd: “You know, I think the only disappointing thing is that we’re poor as shit. [Laughs]”
Carla Harvey: “That is true, but we were poor back then too, so… [Laughs]”
Heidi Shepherd: “There’s a whole misconception as to… if you’re a signed band, and you tour the world, and you have a lot of fans coming to shows, all of a sudden you’re making a ton of money, that’s just not the truth. However, I’ll give up the money I was making in radio, or anything else, or acting, and live my dream.”
Carla Harvey: “You know, the one thing that, I guess, would be considered disappointing—and we’ve both experienced this—is that metal was a place for us, when we were kids, to go to, because we were misfit kids. And then as adults, when we became metal singers, we actually got a lot of shit for being pretty girls that sang metal, which was really odd to me, because, like I said, for me, when I grew up a misfit kid, metal was like this safe place for me, where all kids like me were at.”
Heidi Shepherd: “That’s exactly how it was for both of us. Those are the kids that took me in when I was younger. And now it’s like all of a sudden, now that we’re actually working in metal, they don’t wanna accept us, even though they did accept us when we were… It’s kind of a mindfuck.”
Carla Harvey: “But we don’t let it affect us, really. We don’t really care what anyone says. We do what we do and we love it, and we know who we are, and we know that we are diehard metal fans since we were little itty-bitty kids. So it’s kind of like, ‘Screw everyone.’ But at the same time, it is just a little, like… What the hell?”
Heidi Shepherd: “At the beginning of our career, I think we were, like, ‘Wow! That sucks.’ But now, we just… I mean, there are so many people that make it great for us that those few little trolls under bridges, it doesn’t… I don’t really care. [Laughs]”
Comments