Auckland's Crap Date Share Debut Single 'Genoa City Blues' + Interview

Auckland new wave synth-pop duo Crap Date have announced themselves to the world with their snappy debut single 'Genoa City Blues', ahead of their very first live show this Friday supporting party-starting funsters Spring Break at Whammy Backroom. The inaugural release from the team of Jamie Lee Smith (Princess Chelsea) and Marcel Bellvé (Lipsink, Battle Circus) draws inspiration from never-ending daytime television soap opera The Young & the Restless, hitting listeners like a bullet through the heart with its twinkly synth melodies and panoramic tag-team vocals. We had to know more, and demanded Crap Date immediately dish the dirt on their new project and single. They gracefully complied, listen to 'Genoa City Blues' and read our short email interview with the band below...

Please tell us, who is Crap Date?

Jamie Lee Smith: One night Marcel was walking past Charlie’s Karaoke when he heard my siren call singing Fleetwood Mac or some other drunkgurl bs and decided to come in. He asked if I would sing Nancy & Lee's 'Summer Wine' with him. I scoffed and requested I sing Lee's more interesting parts and he sing Nancy’s chorus. During this beautiful duet I was berated by a drunk guy for singing “the man’s part.” This inspired us to continue singing together and write some dumb songs.

Marcel Bellvé: Now we’re a dumb band who write songs that involve some kind of crap date scenario, whether it’s a girl falling in love with the alien doctor currently operating on her, or your house party that we aren’t coming to.

What's 'Genoa City Blues' about?

Marcel: It’s about the first episode of The Young & the Restless. But it’s satire so we’re not paying any royalties. Everything Crap Date does is satire... for future reference. From what Jamie told me, it’s about two swingers who don’t know what they are doing and one of them has a concussion.

Is your new song a taste of more releases to come soon?

Marcel: Yes and no… there’s definitely a synth-pop thread that runs through everything we’ve written so far, but as it’s all influenced new wave songs there’s going to be a lot of diversity as well. On the other hand, I think it’s easier to hear what makes a collection of songs different when you’ve written them and perhaps easier to hear what makes them similar when you’re the listener. The two of us have been talking about our music as soapwave because of the soap opera aesthetic we’re tapping in to, so you can expect there to be lots of clichés and idiot plots all the way through.

What can punters expect from your first ever show, this Friday with Spring Break?

Marcel: Bring a date. It’s gonna be crap.

Jamie: This Friday will just be us two as the summer got away from us and we are still writing songs for the set. We have a couple band members lined up, Lani Purkis (Happy Birthday) and John Ropiha (Happy Birthday to you too - he doesn’t know he’s in the band yet).

What other projects have you both been involved with?

Jamie: I played with Princess Chelsea for about 5 years before I dropped out to go study audio engineering and do my own thing. Marcel used to play with Battle Circus and has a very cool project called Lipsink. He’s released a cover of Neil Young’s 'My My, Hey Hey' [swoon].

You can catch Crap Date supporting Spring Break at Auckland's Whammy Backroom on Friday 18th January.