An interview with Cry9c

 

Live at Cousin Danny's, 6/30/23

If you go to as many West Philly DIY music functions as me, you’ve probably seen Cry9c at some point. Sitting on the edge between electronic dance and noisy rock, they cut a distinctive wall of sound. So, in an effort to force myself to do something with this blog, I offered to interview them after a set of theirs at PhilaMOCA (10/26). They agreed, and two weeks later I drove out to Gray’s Ferry to witness their process and ask them questions.

What are your, names, pronouns, and what do you do in Cry9c?

Flor: I’m Florence, and I go by Flor, I use they and sometimes he pronouns, and I press buttons and sing words

Rashid: I’m Rashid, I use he/him pronouns, and I play percussion

Shoshana: I’m Shoshana, I use she/her, and I play guitar

How did the project start?

Flor: Shoshana and I were both reading The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, which is a book by Sandor Katz about food politics, and she got to the section about the Starlink Recall and, do you want to?

Shoshana: Yeah, Cry9c is a pesticide was approved for animal consumption but not human consumption, basically, and it got into the human food supply chain, and there was a huge recall, but the pesticide was called Cry9c and I was like “yo, that's a cool name”

Flor: Yeah, you texted me being like “Cry9c, that sounds like a cool new wave band” or like a coldwave band or something. And then like, probably two years later we were like-

Shoshana: That was definitely 2020, and then 2022 is when we played our first show. We started practicing in September 2022, me and Flor, and then we played one show at Vox

Flor: Me and Shoshana had this project, and then Rashid and I were jamming, and Shoshana and I were jamming, and I was like “what if we all jammed?”

Rashid: I was at the Vox Populi show before I knew either one of them, and then I was later introduced to Florence through friends

Florence: Andy

Rashid: Yeah, through Andy

Florence: I was chilling with Andy Loebs, and Rashid shows up, and Andy was like, y’all both make industrial music, yall should chill and jam, and we’ve been chilling and jamming ever since

Shoshana: And the rest is history

How does your songwriting process work?

Rashid: I think at first it was things Florence had that were beats and lyrics, and we would play over top of that, and then those ideas would develop collectively

Shoshana: A lot of structuring those ideas

Flor: I wrote a couple songs over last winter, and we played them together, but lately it’s been nicer to have a more communal writing process

Shoshana: There’s an idea and we see where it goes

Flor: It starts with the Groovebox a lot of the time

Rashid: Yeah, that is kind of the main thing will be a beat we’ll all work on. In the most recent one the main melody was something you were playing on guitar, and we added it to it

Do you have a specific approach to writing lyrics?

Flor: I started with making things that go with the beat, and looping them, and kind of starting with a theme or idea. But literally last practice Shoshana was reading me Cocteau Twins lyrics, and I was like “woah, what the hell, this doesn't make any sense.” So I’m trying to go for more poetic, sometimes I write things that are more inspired by the sound, but I write a lot, I journal a lot, I write a lot of poetry. And then, maybe, I’ll flip through my notebook while we’re jamming on something, I’ll take chunks and start looping them and connect them. But really, I’ve been to think more about melody and abstraction. A lot of the first songs were about, like, supernatural shit and societal collapse. But now, the more recent songs are tapping more into spiritual and godlike experiences and… (trails off) Yeah, I don’t know, I’m always changing it up. Sometimes I’ll improvise over the beat, but I think it's a combination of improvisation and borrowing from poetry I’ve written that isn’t necessarily for music 

What are some of the influences on what you bring to Cry9c?

Shoshana: I don’t know, I just listen to a lot of guitar music, honestly

Flor: I think you have some specific influences

Shoshana: definitely, I mean, Sonic Youth, I like Sonic Youth a lot, Tollund Men, though that's not really guitar music, that's just, like, vibes, but, Tollund Men favorite band, for sure. Yeah, I like John Fahey, I don’t know (laughs).

Rashid: It’s hard to say, ‘cause I don’t listen to that much music in general, or I do, but I’m really slow with media and I’ll have the same songs I’ll listen to a lot

Shoshana: Same

Rashid: I don’t know, all kinds of stuff, it’ll be like newer stuff that's just on Soundcloud, or, there are rappers I really like, then there’s older, more experimental stuff

Flor: You’ve got some CDs in the car

Rashid: Actually, yeah, definitely got a lot of CDs from Florence this year, listened to a lot of Nine Inch Nails, which was really cool, it was my first time getting into them. Alice in Chains I’m huge on, to

Shoshana: Yo, Alice in Chains rules, I love Alice in Chains

Rashid: Yeah, ‘cause I have those CDs, I’ll just listen to them in the car, like Dirt and The Downward Spiral

Shoshana: Honestly, like, Nirvana (laughs) my favorite band, I heard Nevermind when I was like 13 and that's where it all comes from

Rashid: Did I send you that video of…

Flor: Spongebob?

Rashid: I think I sent it to just Shoshana, it was of Chet Hanks

Shoshana: Oh, yeahyeahyeah! (laughs), I was like it's pretty good!

Rashid: He’s playing Something in the Way,

Shoshana: On bass!

Rashid: On acoustic bass

Shoshana: Shirtless (both laugh) wait, have you seen the Puddle of Mudd cover of the Nirvana song where he’s loosing it, I’ll send it to you its fucked up

Rashid: Yeah, Nirvana’s soo good

Shoshana: Yeah, Nirvana rules, I was just watching live videos last night and I was like “hell yeah”

Rashid: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a live video of Nirvana, actually

Shoshana: They’re funny, he’s like RRRAAGGGJHHH, he sounds really different

Rashid: I bet they have fun up there

Shoshana: He seems like he’s in pain

Flor: I think I know my answer, I listen to a lot of different music, but I feel like the top five most listened artists would be: The Knife, Animal Collective, Björk, M.I.A, and I’m trying to think, I have a top five

Shoshana: Vampire Weekend

Flor: Stop, stop! (all laugh)

Rashid: I’m trying to think of an artist you hate now, I don’t know if you do hate anything

Flor: I feel like I have a fifth, I just can’t remember what it is, I’m trying to think of what CDs I have that I listen to all the time

Shoshana: Radiohead

Flor: I had a Radiohead phase, but that's not on my top five

Shoshana: Me too, it was called today when I put on The Bends (laughs)

Flor: It was probably like Britney Spears, to be honest, her early 2000s stuff, the production value is, like, literally insane. Like, there’s a bunch of live studio instruments and shit. Every time I listen to it I’m like “what the?”. Like, pop music has just become computers and that shit was literally mad people in a studio whipping up some mind control, and some deep-ass vibes, like her golden edition of Blackout, there’s like dubstep and shit, it’s like what the fuck? (Laughing) But it's actually, like, next level

Shoshana: I feel like I missed out on pop music

Rashid: Yeah, were you ever into, like, pop?

Shoshana: Not really

Rashid: I guess I kind of was, I liked trap music a lot, which is basically like pop

Shoshana: It's definitely related

Rashid: it's like, really hi-fi, I was listening to Migos last month, like from 2016, I was like, this is awesome

Flor: I don’t know how I forgot on my top five, which is maybe just 6, or in replacement of Britney Spears is Psychic TV. I’m honestly, like, religiously obsessed with Psychic TV, so I don’t know how I forgot that, getting into Psychic TV kind of changed my life. I used to call in once a week to ask them to play Psychic TV on the radio, and they would. And one time someone texted me being like “did you just request Psychic TV on the radio?” and I was like “yeah”

Shoshana: I’ve never requested a song on the radio

Flor: Oh, I used to do it so much, there was this DJ on Sundays, but she doesn’t DJ anymore, but she’d get really excited when I called. And then one time my friend asked to play Who Let the Dogs Out, and she was like “oh, I can’t play that ‘cause its like a top 40 song” but then she was like “actually I can play it slowed down” so she ended her radio set with a slowed down version of Who Let the Dogs Out

Rashid: She couldn’t play it ‘cause it was top 40?

Flor: But one of our songs was on the radio, we got one of our songs on the radio on WKDU

Shoshana: That's definitely top 40

Flor: we’re top 40?

Rashid: They let anyone DJ on the radio now, though, they let anyone play anything

 

The Cry9cs at home. Left to right: Florence, Rashid, Shoshana

What's the best set you’ve ever played?

Shoshana: In my opinion, either of the PhilaMOCA shows

Flor: Yeah, we played a PhilaMOCA show in August, and then the one for Gloria. I think the one for Gloria, honestly*

Rashid: That was a dope set, we played it well, the seatedness was funny. What’s the best of outside of PhilaMOCA?

Shoshana: The Vicarious Love one, I remember thinking that was pretty good

Rashid: Ooh, that was pivotal, that was the first time the applause felt really room-filling, it was like “oh, word, people like this”

Flor: I think it was also that we were playing in a dungeon-ass basement, so it was kind of like-

Shoshana: It was vibey

Flor: It was really vibey. I feel like that was a good moment where people were like “damn, what the hell?”. That was our first show we played since February, too, ‘Cause we played our first shows in February

Shoshana: We played in New York

Flor: We played in New York, but our first show in Philly in two months, we were picking up, we were playing at least twice a week

Rashid: And our last Philly show was probably the worst one we’ve ever played

Shoshana Oh my God! The second Vox one?

Flor: We played Vox in February, it was our second show, and it was probably the worst set we’ve ever played

Shoshana: No, it was the second worst, that Haus of Yarga one, we sounded terrible

Rashid: Walmart Beach, probably

Shoshana: Oh, shit no, Walmart Beach was definitely the worst, that was FUCKED

Rashid: That was probably the worst, I think we got paid the most

Shoshana: (laughs) That just goes to show what the people want!

Flor: And Fourth of July

Rashid: I liked Fourth of July, Fourth of July was cool

Shoshana: I liked Fourth of July too, that one was fun, I liked the way it sounded busted

Rashid: Yeah

Flor: I think we’ve learned so much through the summer, we played 15 shows between February and October, and I think I’ve learned a lot about our sound, and knowing that we need a pretty decent sound system to hear all the sounds. So that's why PhilaMOCA, I think those are the best, and I feel like at both of those shows people were like “oh, I can really hear you”

Rashid: Yeah, you sound good at PhilaMOCA, you’ve got monitors, the subs are great

Flor: And then there's someone doing sound who, like, has a salary

Rashid: It’s got Diplo

Flor: And its Diplo’s house*

Rashid: You kind of feel like a pimp when you can go upstairs at PhilaMOCA

Shoshana: No, literally! You’re in the green room like “Yo, Diplo used to sleep here”, and then the guy’s like “yeah, the secret to the sound is Diplo’s ghost”

What are you getting to eat before you play a set?

Flor: Depends on where we are

Rashid: Realistically, anecdotally, most instances I’m going to CVS, and I’m getting a green Naked juice. I’m already at the show, so I’m too nervous to eat anything, honestly, so I’ll just have one of those, or I don’t know, something I can drink, and then fries. Florence will want to get fries, so I’ll have some fries, that’s what I did at the last show. Had some fries, then got like a $5 Naked juice

Shoshana: Damn, those are five dollars?

Rashid: Yeah

Shoshana: Thats fucked up

Rashid: Yeah, any protein thing or, like, juice thing goes for like five, six bucks, it's bad. You could always get a bahn mi for like five dollars (trailing off into laughter)

Shoshana: (laughing) Yeah, you could literally get a sandwich for five dollars!

Rashid: Yeah, yeah, it’s pretty bad

Shoshana: But you can’t drink a sandwich

Rashid: No, yeah

Shoshana: Honestly, I eat before I get picked up every time

Flor: Same

Shoshana: I’m unemployed, I don’t have anything going on

Flor: Yeah, I usually have a premade meal that I either bring with me or eat before the show. And then I double on being full with french fries, or, like, veggie sushi. I generally bring a lot of snacks, I’m a very snack motivated person

Shoshana: In a perfect world, if I’m getting some food, I probably want a sandwich or something. 

Flor: I’m trying to think what I’d get if we weren’t-

Shoshana: I feel like a sandwich is really, like-

Rashid: It’s easy to hold, you’re in a place

Shoshana: You don’t have to fuck around with a fork or anything

Flor: I would get chicken fried rice or something

Rashid: All that sounds good, I would get drunken noodles

Flor: Or pad thai

Shoshana: Alright, it seems like we’re at a chinese restaurant, what would I get? Maybe some sort of rice thing, like some tofu and rice

Rashid: That sounds good

Shoshana: (laughing) And then put it in a baguette, so it's a sandwich. You have to carbo load before you play a set. While we’re talking about it, there’s like a week-

Flor: We should get a steak before the next show

(beat, scattered chuckling)

Shoshana: Sure, fuck it, why not

Flor: we should get a rotisserie chicken, I’d get a rotisserie chicken before the show

Where’s the best cheesesteak in Philadelphia, or just your favorite?

(beat)

Rashid: Y’all don’t even-

Shoshana: I don’t really eat meat (laughs) I don’t think I’ve ever had a cheesesteak

Flor: I don’t eat bread or cheese

Rashid: That’s right, you don’t even eat bread

(beat)

Flor: Rashid, this is your answer, do you like cheesesteaks?

Rashid: I think Gojjo* has the one I prefer the most, I think it’s the best tasting one. I don’t know, I’m not a Philly head like that, so I won’t speak on it. I like Pat’s, I used to like Pat’s-

Shoshana: I used to go to… I don’t remember which one, I think Pat’s

Rashid: Their fries are really good

Shoshana: I would go with that, when we lived over there. I want to have an answer for this though, Like what’s the best cheesesteak, but I don’t have one

(beat)

Flor: Fu-Wah

Rashid: People used to tell me food in Philly was soo bad. I’ve heard quote “people in Philly don’t know what food is” and I feel like that’s a really.. fair.. assessment (trailing off into laughter)

Shoshana: Ok, but like, I think from the outside yeah. I think there are good spots, but by and large it is kind of like-

Rashid: There’s some reaally bad-

Shoshana: -There’s some reaally bad, well, and like, you think about going to New York, everywhere’s got like a big “A” posted at the window. Nowhere here even like, has that shit up where you can see it and no one cares. People are just like “fuck it, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” which I’m all for.

Rashid: Yeah

Shoshana: But, it’s just funny. The culture’s really different around food

Rashid: Yeah. Like, we live in West, and there’s good restaurants in West, but I feel like largely there’s not

Shoshana: I feel like South has good ones

Rashid: South is cool, yeah. South stresses me out, I like it, but also I feel like hanging out there stresses me out

Flor: The taco stands in South are good

Rashid: La Prima, that’s my answer. La Prima has the best cheesesteak

Flor: They don’t have a cheesesteak, but that's where we get tacos sometimes, to answer your question

Do you have anything other than Cry9c that you want to plug?

Rashid: I don’t know, I’d rather just keep it Cry9c

Shoshana: Yeah, I also don’t really have anything else going on besides this

Flor: I’ve got a lot going on, but that's a whole ‘nother story. I’m literally making a video meet up flier right now. (beat) We’re in a band, we make music

You can find the music of Cry9c at fakemp3.bandcamp.com/album/secrets-attention

Live at Haus, 7/28/23

Footnotes

*They’re referring to the premiere of Gloria’s Stupid World 2: World Stupider by local plunderphonics artist and filmmaker Gloria Quinn, which Cry9c performed at.

*The space PhilaMOCA occupies was formerly the headquarters of Mad Decent, an influential EDM label of the 2010s (look for the metal letters reading “MAD DECENT” embedded in the sidewalk outside). Mad Decent was founded by acclaimed EDM producer and, among other things, alleged revenge pornographer Diplo.

*The Restaurants listed in this segment are:

Gojjo, at 4540 Baltimore Ave

Pat’s King of Steaks, at 1237 E Passyunk Ave (not recommended)

Fu-Wah Mini Market, at 810 S 47th St

Taqueria La Prima, at 1104 S 9th St