Kid Congo Powers photo by Luz Gallardo.
The word legend is often tossed around without anything to back it up. But when it comes to Kid Congo Powers, it is more than fitting. Powers’ musical resume reads like a who’s who of cool bands including The Cramps, The Gun Club and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. As a bandleader himself, Powers can count Congo Norvell, Knoxville Girls and The Pink Monkey Birds among his significant credits. Keeping in mind he did this all as an out gay man at a time when out gay men were something of a rarity in certain segments of rock.
Still going strong in a career that has lasted more than four decades, Watermark had the pleasure of speaking with Powers about his new EP, “Swing from the Sean DeLear,” which he has released with his current band, The Pink Monkey Birds.
Watermark: For those not in the know, I’d like to begin by talking about nomenclature. Beginning with how you arrived at your name Kid Congo Powers.
Kid Congo Powers: Well [laughs], I was born with it. I had very esoteric parents [laughs]. When I joined The Cramps in 1980 or so, I was just going by my name Brian Tristan. They were like, “Oh no, you need a Cramps name.” I was all for it, of course. There was [already band members named] Poison Ivy and Lux Interior. Even Bryan Gregory, [who was] my predecessor, was a fake name [laughs]. We were coming up with these lists of names. The Thing was one of them! Another one was Brian Gris-gris, but they didn’t like that because it was too close to Bryan, and they were mad at him. We were brainstorming and Lux and Ivy had this Santeria style candle. “The Congo Candle,” and it said something like “When you light this candle, Congo powers are revealed to you.” They said, “Congo Powers, there’s your name right there.” I added Kid, like boxer or a pirate.
Now please say something about the moniker of The Pink Monkey Birds.
I was doing a solo act and then we had been starting to become a band. The band [members] said, “We want a name,” because I was just calling it Kid Congo Powers. I said, “That’s fine. Just choose a name and I’ll say yes.” They all said, “The Pink Monkey Birds,” thinking I’d say no [laughs]. I said, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll have.” Obviously, it’s from the David Bowie song “Moonage Daydream” — “Squawking like a pink monkey bird.”
Speaking of names, the new Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds EP “Swing from the Sean DeLear” not only bears the name of the late nonbinary L.A. music scene legend Sean DeLear in its title, but it also opens with the tribute song to Sean. What role did Sean DeLear played in your life?
Sean was a friend. Of course, that’s the biggest one. But also quite a ubiquitous person on the L.A. scene, in the gay and queer scenes; bars and parties. Also in the rock and roll scene. He was a singer in a band called Glue. He was very much a culture vulture, into all the arts. Anytime you were anywhere, Sean DeLear was there; every backstage, every private party. You’d be like, “How did Sean DeLear get here?” The same way anyone did! I always say, “Sometimes the stalker becomes the fixture.”
Sean was also a world traveler. He would show up at our shows in London or Paris. He was living in Vienna for a while. Sean was just a really bright light and a queer rock and roller, which to me is family. Although it’s quite common now, in earlier days it was not quite as common to have out, queer people in rock and roll. Of course, there’s always been. In tumultuous times, it was always a touchstone where a person’s queerness made no difference at all to people. No one looked at Sean as a weird person. Not looked down upon and a bright light. When Sean passed away in 2018, I was like “Oh my God, I can’t believe someone with this much bright energy is gone.” I started to write down the lyrics really quick, such as “swing from the Sean DeLear,” because I thought if he’s anywhere, heaven or another plane, it’s something like swinging from a chandelier at a party. I just wanted to capture the essence of Sean somehow.
A favorite song on the EP is the funky “(I Can’t Afford) Your Shitty Dreamhouse” which is the best kind of dance tune — one that moves your brain while you move your feet. What was the inspiration for that song?
The lyrics were something I wrote on the spot. We made that song and recorded it just right before the pandemic. It was right before George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter scene came on. We were already fed up with the visions, the shitty dream house of I don’t dare say its name and its administration and policies.
Yes, we know who you’re talking about.
[Laughs] To them it was some kind of weird dream house, but it was a nightmare to us, to any decent person. There’s a line in it that goes, “I can fight like I did all along/years before you were in my song.” That was a reference to ACT UP and every political uprising before that. We have been doing this for years. As a queer person you have to fight for just standing anywhere on earth. I’ve always had to deal with these people. I was not shocked by how racist or bigoted it could get. Although it is shocking, it’s something we’ve seen all along, and it’s reached some public pinnacle of ridiculousness. It even got worse after I wrote that song [laughs]. But the song is celebratory. It’s a song of punk, of empowerment. We can do this. We’ve done it before and we can keep doing it.
We’re survivors, for sure.
Yeah, we know how to survive. Don’t think you’re going to put us in our place.
The B-side of the EP contains the instrumental number “He Walked In,” with a spoken-word section. David Fenster’s video for “He Walked In,” features you walking along a road through a stunning Arizona desert landscape. Am I on the right track when I say it’s as much a tribute to where you live as it is to Jeffrey Lee Pierce (of The Gun Club)?
Yeah! You don’t need much more when you have anything that gorgeous to walk in. It speaks to the tribute to the dream I had [about Pierce]. We wanted it to have a dreamy quality. Since we’re in quarantine we couldn’t do a lot. We had to come think of something like that. Also, the dream was about a visitation. Being Chicano, but also living in Arizona for a few years, you become very aware of the indigenous people here and the land you’re on. It is a very magical land. We were hoping that would come through in the film. I picked David Fenster to work together with on this because he does a lot of great short films. He’s an arts filmmaker and documentarian. A lot of his films deal with the past and nature and spirits in nature and living among nature and the bridge between life and the beyond and memory. There were a lot of elements at work. We decided on this same simple way to do it and rely on the elements to create the magic.
We can’t talk about the EP without mentioning that not only is it available on vinyl, but the vinyl itself is pink with black splatters. How do you feel about such a visual presentation of your music?
I think it’s all very important. To me, the whole concept of being a musician is all the senses, including the visual. If I learned one thing from The Cramps or even The Gun Club and Nick Cave and the Bad Seed, it’s that creating your own world is the important thing. That’s what I always loved about the music I grew up with and artists I like. It’s a very full world of someone like Patti Smith and the Ramones or Devo or anyone. They create an entire existence and it’s something you want to latch onto and learn and follow. That’s what I’m hoping we’re doing. Things that are important are packaging. Also, Larry Hardy at In The Red [Records], is actually the one who suggested the pink and black because it went really amazingly well with the artwork which was done by my husband Ryan Hill.
As someone who began his music career in the days when vinyl was still the predominant listening format, what do you think about the vinyl resurrection?
The thing is I’ve been making records with In The Red since the ‘90s. Larry Hardy has always been a vinyl label, first and foremost. That was their trip. That’s what attracted me to him in the days of CDs in the ‘90s when people weren’t doing vinyl. Vinyl comes first for him. I didn’t really pay attention to it not being around when it was out of favor because I’m not one of the people who replaced all their records with CDs. I just wanted records. When modern stuff wasn’t on them I got CDs, of course. I think it can only be good that people are listening to records, again. I’m happy with it.
With the future of live performance still somewhat curtailed, how are you planning to reach your fans with the new music?
I’ll keep putting out and recording music, of course. A site like Bandcamp has become a really amazing place to reach people. It has the infrastructure. Of course, there’s all the social media platforms, but it’s one where you deal directly with people. They have an infrastructure for mailing lists and everything. You can talk to people who are on your list whenever you want. That keeps people informed. We’re also making more videos for this record. We’re making one for “Sean DeLear” and an animated one for the “Shitty Dreamhouse” song. Just keeping stuff coming.
It’s difficult for us to play live because we all live in different states far from each other. We’re going to have to wait until the post-vaccine pandemic society rises again. We are mainly a live band. We tour a lot everywhere in the world. That’s how we make our livelihood. Also, that’s the best way to connect with people and meet people. My favorite medium in music is the live show experience. That’s been a little daunting and disappointing, but I seem to have been very busy the whole time with lots of projects. Trying to keep in touch with people through the medium of the internet and to keep creating. I get depressed when I’m not making things.
Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds’ “Swing from the Sean DeLear” EP is available on vinyl wherever music is sold.
