Interview: Princess Possum

Today's interview is with Princess Possum, whose album Songs of A Depressed Anarchist was recently reviewed on Musically Dependent by Colin Carroll of Owls and Other Animals.

What should people who aren't familiar with your music know, and how would you describe your sound? 

Well I guess my solo princess possum stuff would be considered folk punk. I sing sad or angry songs straight from my heart raw and untouched touching on subjects of depression,  alcoholism, anarchy, being poor, breakups and my overwhelming amount of gender dysphoria. I like to call it sad possum core ha! 

Who or what would you say some of your biggest influences are? 

My two biggest influences in my music is Days N Daze and Mischief Brew. The fast pace chords and scream style of Days N Daze is a big part of my music and so is the Mischief Brew style song writing. Combined with my own whatever it is I do. 

You had mentioned to me in a message that you're a writer and poet. Do you have any works out that you'd like people to know about? 

Yea I am more of a writer than a musician. Which is why my friend Matt Pless (interview with Matt Pless) is a big influence on me too since we’re both poet musicians. I look up to him heavily and had the pleasure of playing a show with him this past December. I unfortunately do not have my poetry book out yet but when it comes out it will be over 100 poems throughout the last 3 years titled “a timid arrangement of Blasphemy” hopefully it’ll be typed out by this year so stay tuned for that! 

What about your other hobbies outside of music? 

Well one of my favorite things to do use to be skateboarding. I unfortunately had a bad skateboarding accident this past August that almost killed me and left me hospitalized for a week with a brain bleed and skull fracture.  I want to skate again but I got to wait awhile. But I do also enjoy visual art as well and do commission paintings and pencil sketches. And font work for my bands and different ones! 

What is it like juggling responsibilities for your solo project with the bands you play in, Burnt Toast and Fetus Pizza? 

Well Burnt Toast and my solo stuff is the most active. We are about 50/50 on how it’s equaled out. Fetus Pizza doesn’t play as much but my friends that play in that band have another band that’s way more active called Duck Butter that Burnt Toast is about to release a split ep with. So juggling the 3 projects isn’t too too difficult but trying to juggle adult stresses like working almost full time while very active is. Especially in my strive to be sober.  Sobriety has not been successful so far but 6 months clean off drugs is a win in my book! 

I saw you were recently picked up by Sleepy Owl Records? Can you talk about that some? 

Yeah! Sleepy Owl Records is ran by an amazing person, my friend Colin Carroll. He plays in a band with his wife and my other good friend Dana Carroll. They were formed in Huntsville, Alabama, and now live in Chicago. They are amazing people and I recommend their music and their record label. They do a lot for the underground scene! Colin is also the one that did the artwork for my first Princess Possum album out on Bandcamp Songs of A Depressed Anarchist. I’m very honored to be apart of that label now ! 

What should people know about the next album you got coming out, and when should people expect to look for it? 

This next album coming out is gonna be a little different than my last, but only because it’s gonna be layered over. So I’ll be doing the guitar and vocals all with bass, washboard, banjo, ukulele, harmonica, and tambourines all played by me mixed in all the tracks! Which is why this album is taking a lot longer to get done. My friend Dillon Sizemore is the one recording for me and he’s doing amazing. It’s also gonna feature some of my poetry! The skelton of the album will go... Poem. 6 tracks Poem 6tracks Poem I’m really excited to put this one out. It is called Road Kill, and the artwork was done by my friend Thomas OConner who also designed burnt toast’s toaster head logo. 

What about the bands you play in? What's in store for their foreseeable future? 

Burnt Toast is going on tour in April! We will have our split ep out with Duck Butter and a full length out before the summer. We are playing with Punk With A Camera in May! And also playing Midwest Punk Fest in Illinois in June! And we will hopefully be playing a benefit show with out friends in Days N Daze in the summer as well. We are wanting to go on another tour in July but haven’t finalized anything yet. And for my solo stuff me and Tail Light Rebellion are trying to do a two week tour in August so I’m hoping that works out I love those cats! And Fetus Pizza should have its full length out this year as well. Gonna be a fun busy year and excited for the experiences and for what’s to come after !

Also see the album review for Songs of A Depressed Anarchist or just skip straight to the music and check it out for yourself!