Day Jobs - Suckers

L-R: Quinn, Pan, and Austin

Candy Salad sounds like the kind of culinary concoction I’d consume and then hate myself for eating afterwards, but the new Suckers album by that name can be listened to on repeat without the saccharine aftertaste of masochism. We gave you an early stream of the album a few weeks ago, but if you missed it, go listen to it NOW. They recently celebrated their record release at Glasslands and, knowing I was going to get pretty schwasty and forget key details from the show, I made a couple notes on my phone during their set:

1) Sexist mofo
- I actually meant to write “sexiest mofo” because halfway through their set, one of the band members was awarded Glassland’s prestigious (?) “Sexiest Mofo of the Month” award. I have never seen another band get this award, so I thought it was worthy of note.

2) PANTY SALAD
- This is what the girls and boys around me were shouting at the band.

So, from those two things you can probably already tell Suckers is a band with groupie potential. I realized this early in the night when I took them to a somewhat isolated street corner for a chat (not as shady as it sounds), but was interrupted four times during the interview because they kept having friends running up to them and squealing and hugging them. I don’t blame their squealy friends, though; these guys are super funny and likeable. During our oft-interrupted conversation, we talked jobs, jobs, jobs--current, worst, and dream ones they had when they were children--but I ended up picking on bassist Pan most of the time (FOR THE LAST TIME, I’M SORRY).

NOISEY: Sup, Suckers? What do you guys play in the band?
Quinn: I sing and play guitar, keys, percussions, and samplers.
Pan: I play bass guitar, trumpet, electronics, and do backup vocals.
Austin: I play the same stuff as Quinn.

At the same time, right?
Yeah, we hold them at the same time.
Pan: They use a double-neck guitar that goes both ways.

[Laughs] Epic. By the way, congratulations on Candy Salad! It rules. What do you put in your candy salad?
Quinn: Basil, thyme, parmesan cheese…

What?
I don’t know. It was a name for a salad that my fiancée used to make as a little kid. She used to take all the sour candies or chocolate candies and mix them all together. Austin’s sister used to do the same, but she would melt them so it was more like a candy soup.
Austin: For dessert, she would take everything that was sweet in the kitchen and just melt them and then serve it.
Pan: Would you consider an ice cream sundae a candy salad?

I think that’s just an ice cream sundae…
What if it had sprinkles on it?

Then it would be an ice cream sundae with sprinkles on it…
Austin: Yeah… it’s already established.
Quinn: It’s an established item, Pan.

[Laughs] I’m sorry Pan, I’m totally shitting on your ideas. Well, that’s cute that the name Candy Salad has a special meaning to you guys.
Pan: Not me.
Quinn: [Laughs] Pan doesn’t like candy.
Pan: I only like vegetables.
Austin: He had a bad experience. He took candy from a stranger once.

Oh, so you only like the Salad part.
Pan: They wanted to name the album Candy and I wanted to name it Salad. We kept yelling at each other “CANDY!” “SALAD!” “CANDY!” “SALAD!” Then it became Candy Salad.

Ha! Perfect. Anyway, what do you guys do outside of the band?
Quinn: I am a bartender, mostly. I do carpentry and painting too, when I get the work.
Pan: I’m a graphic designer-slash-handyman. I’m a new handyman.
Austin: A new handyman?
Pan: A nu-handyman. N-u.

With the umlaut? N-ü?
Exactly. It’s like nu-metal but for handiwork.

Aha. What do you do exactly, as a nü-handyman?
I fixed a lock on a food truck the other day…I hung shelves at a girl’s house the other day…

Wait, is this a real job or shit you do for your friends?
No, it’s a real job.
Austin: “It’s a real job, I promise.”
Pan: It actually pays better than any other job I’ve had before. Word. What about you, Austin?
Austin: I work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a producer.
Quinn: He’s the guy who stands still in the knight’s armor and freaks out all the little kids.
Austin: It takes a lot of training.

How did you get into that?
I went to school for art and I didn’t really realize how people got jobs. I just randomly showed up at the right place at the right time and got this gig.

What were some of the worst jobs you’ve had?
Pan: I worked at McDonald’s for a summer during high school.
Austin: That should be your best job!
Pan: Yeah I got to eat all the nuggets I wanted, so that was pretty good.

Did you perhaps notice a weight change from that job?
No, I was still a teenager, so it didn’t really matter. Now that I think about it, it wasn’t a bad job.
Quinn: Ooh, I have a really bad job. In Seattle, I used to work at Labor Ready, which is a temp service. You’d go there at 5 or 6 AM and they’d set you up with random jobs. You’d always be a bitch to some construction crew or something. They would force you to sledgehammer down concrete walls or pick apart sidewalks with a metal spike while the other guy’s got the jackhammer and is looking at you like “Haha sucks for you.” I also worked at an AT&T employee fair and I helped an old man from Mississippi do the football toss. It was weird stuff.

Sounds kind of fun.
Austin: I’ve had a lot of weird jobs. I worked for this famous photographer and he used to try to get me to pose naked for him.

Was it Richard Kern?
No, he wasn’t that kind of a photographer, which made it even weirder. He’s a party photographer.

Did you ever… comply? Are these on the internet?
No! [Laughs]

If you say so. How did the three of you meet?
Quinn: We’re cousins, so we’ve known each other since birth. All of you are cousins?
No, Austin and I are.
Pan: That should be the new story though.
Quinn: We’re all cousins.

Oh, so you two have that candy salad connection. I’m sorry again, Pan.
Pan: I’m just the bass player…
Quinn: I’ve known Pan since before we moved to Brooklyn. We’re all from Connecticut. We met through random music connections.

You guys are going on tour soon! What happens on the road?
Austin: I’ve learned to love Starbucks, which in New York you’re sort of trained to hate. But when you’re out there, it’s like, “Oh my God I can get a cup of tea and breakfast things!”
Quinn: These guys actually won’t use the blankets at motels. They sleep on their sleeping bags on top of their beds. I don’t do that.
Pan: It’s gross, especially the top blankets, like the quilts. Those don’t usually get washed.

Yeah, that’s true, and who knows what happens in motel rooms. Do you guys have pre-show rituals?
Yeah, 45 minutes of prayer.

Oh, cool.
I’m just kidding.

[Laughs] I actually believed you for a second! Do you guys have guilty pleasure music?
Quinn: No, because I don’t feel guilty. I guess maybe Pearl Jam, occasionally.
Pan: I realized I do have a guilty pleasure: the last Guns N’ Roses album.

No. Chinese Democracy??
Yeah. That’s my real guilty pleasure.
Quinn: It’s playing in his head right now.

You should feel guilty! (Also, I feel like I’m picking on you a lot.) Lastly, what were your dream jobs as kids?
I wanted to be an NBA basketball player.

Oh my God, I’m just waiting for an NBA player to be an indie musician on the side. I think that would be awesome.
That would be amazing!
Pan: Maybe Jeremy Lin?

But he has bad taste in music, so I don’t trust him.
Quinn: Does he? Aww.
Austin: I wanted to be an animator for Disney but now there’s no such thing.
Quinn: Oh, we were going to start an animation company together when we grew up and call it Cousins Cartooning!

That’s super cute.
Austin: But now I’m not so into it. It’s tedious.

What about Pan’s dream?
Pan: I’m living the dream right now!

See, that’s the correct answer.

Suckers are a lot of fun. Go see them live:

5/17 - Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA*
5/18 - Echo - Los Angeles, CA*
5/19 - Alex's Bar - Long Beach, CA*
5/20 - Casbah - San Diego, CA*
5/22 - Rhythm Room - Phoenix, AZ*
5/23 - Lowbrow Palace - El Paso, TX*
5/25 - Red 7 - Austin, TX*
5/28 - The Earl - Atlanta, GA&
5/29 - Local 506 - Chapel Hill, NC&
5/30 - The Ottobar - Baltimore, MD& * w/ Young Man
& w/ Devin

@kristenyoonsoo

Previously - Young Magic