I want you to imagine you’re at the coolest punk show ever.
The guitar is sharp and full- punchy at all the right moments and perfectly tamed at others. The bassline is thick and powerful and glides along, shaping and filling the sound. The drums are bumping and crashing, and the vocals are pure and harmonic.
Ok, now imagine an accordion jamming along with everything else.
Original photos by Monica Obradovic (@theharmonica0 on Instagram)
That’s essentially, “Who’s Asking?”.
To be clear, that’s not me answering the question. “Who’s Asking?” is a five-piece post-punk band local to the lovely city of St. Louis, Missouri. I had the chance to see them perform at a local bar called “The Platypus”, and let me tell you, dear reader, it was probably the most fun performance I've ever been to.
There were jokes, drama, storytelling, character development- and the music was pretty incredible too. From a song about how all bees go to hell to an elegy for an unwanted rodent roommate, the whole night was electric, and distinctly “punk”. Seriously, if you ever have the chance to see them perform live, don’t hesitate.
I was able to interview the band right after their performance that night, which is transcribed here in full! You can keep up with “Who’s Asking?” by following their Instagram- @the.band.is.called.whos.asking- other than that, enjoy the interview!
Who’s Asking?
Introductions
I guess we should start with everyone’s names and what they do in the band.
Aurora: My name is Aurora. My pronouns are she/her, and I play the accordion and I also sing.
Scooter: I'm Scooter. My pronouns are they/them and I play bass.
Ridge: I'm Ridge. I play drums and my pronouns are he/him. My social is 31-(redacted)
Jo: I'm Jo. She/her and I sing.
Blake: I'm Blake. My pronouns are that/bitch. No, it's actually he/him. Um, I play guitar- only in this band.
Scooter: You do have to clarify.
Band Origins
So I guess, how did this start?
Ridge: Ok, so for Jo's birthday, she insisted on having a house party that was emo cowboy themed and she was like, “I want to have a live band play for our party”.
Jo: And we had a lot of music friends.
Ridge: Yeah, we had music friends. I was like, “Done”. Literally texted, like, 4 music friends that night. I was like, “Can you do a band? Can you do a band?”.
Aurora: Can I cut in really quick to say: most of us have worked at the same produce stand and I was working at the produce stand one day and Ridge comes in and says, “Hey, I'm getting together a punk set for Jo's birthday. Can you play the accordion for it?” And I said, “Respectfully, what the hell? In what world does an accordion fit in punk?” And then we had a long meditation about it and here we are.
Blake: I should say I did not work at Roger’s Produce Stand.
Scooter: Hence the “and Co”. And then a couple months later we did another set and it was Renaissance themed and we were like, “This is too much fun to keep doing just covers. We have to keep writing stuff”.
Ridge: Mind you, we started as like a 10 piece.
Scooter: Yeah, there were a lot of people in this band.
Jo: We have like a 12 person group chat and there's what, five of us.
Blake: We lost members slowly…
Aurora: But that’s ok! It's about community. It's all about community.
Ridge: It is. And then we said, “Let's do it for real”.
Aurora: And here we are.
Wait, so do you play the accordion normally or did you like, learn for this?
Aurora: Oh, God, no. It's a family instrument, so I've been playing for seven years. My grandfather gave it to me and he was like, “You're going to learn how to play this”, and I was like, “No!!” And then I watched Amélie and I was like, “Actually I want to learn how to play this”.
Ridge: Your accordion awakening?
Aurora: Yes. And then I learned how to play and it changed my life.
Blake: So genuinely, for our second house show that we did, we had a giant jar of band names that we were pulling out randomly after every song. Some of my highlights for other band names that we suggested were “Urine Purse”-
Ridge: Boob Lake! Everyone said Boob Lake.
Blake: Everyone said Boob Blake, that was one of them.
Aurora: The Be-Atles
Blake: The Be-Atles. Basically we all just kind of fucked around in our group chat until we thought “Who's Asking?” was funny enough because whenever somebody asks what band you're in, you say, “Who's Asking?” and then they're like, “What?”
Ridge: Everyone gets got.
Jo: It was Grey! One of our friends- they’ve had this list of band names for like years. Ever since I've known Grey, they've had this list, and I'm so glad one of them has finally been able to come to fruition.
Scooter: I think we were just putting out, like, “Who fucking cares?” and then it devolved into “Who's Asking”, and we were like, “Actually, that’s fucking cool, we should keep it”.
Blake: Yeah, our group chat is called “Who’s Fucking Asking?” which is fun.
Music Background
You guys said something earlier about music school. What does your music background look like?
Ridge: I sort of went for jazz and then decided that audio was more fun.
Jo: All of us went to Webster.
Blake: I did go to music school. I think I'm the only one who like fully-
Aurora: I kind of went to music school
Ridge: We all kind of went.
Blake: Yeah. I went to school for jazz, but I went to school for jazz bass. So, this is weird playing guitar in this band.
Ridge: Blake plays bass.
Blake: That's my Instagram handle, @blk.plays.bass, but yeah- I'm the only one that went to, like, “music school”. We all went to Webster, though.
Scooter: Yeah, I went for audio too. That's how I met Ridge.
Aurora: It’s mostly audio… farm- uh, Jo works at a farm, which I think is really cool
Scooter: We all worked at that fucking produce stand, except for Blake.
Aurora: And I do theater, so that’s my background.
Influences / Inspiration
Who would you guys say are your biggest influences or inspirations- musical or non-musical?
Blake: I think we all come from extremely different backgrounds.
Aurora: That’s what makes it fun!
Blake: Yeah. I think like, what I take inspiration from- for this band- when I'm, like, writing riffs… I'm thinking about a lot of like, post-punky type stuff. So Bloc Party is a big one for me, I like Devo.
Scooter: We recently wrote a song that sounds a lot like the Talking Heads, which was a total accident and we were like, “Damn, I guess we are post punk”. We're very DIY, so anything [like that].
Blake: Fugazi is a big one for me too.
Scooter: Fugazi is huge.
Aurora: The other thing that I’ll say is- because of my fucking theater background, I write a lot of lyrics- and for me a lot of my influences are literature. So like Dante's Inferno-
Scooter: We've got a Shakespeare quote [in one of the songs]
Aurora: We’ve got Shakespeare lines in actually the song that Scooter wrote.
Scooter: It was too good to throw out.
Aurora: Yeah, ‘cause like, Shakespeare: fun. And also it's like, this is punk, so you can really do whatever you want. And it feels like Jane Eyre and Dante’s Inferno can actually be very punk if you let them. Because like, I'm sorry: “I am no bird and no net ensnares me”, like, Jane Eyre cooked with that.
That is punk. That is very punk.
Scooter: I grew up an emo kid, so My Chemical Romance is a big one for me, and I think it is for all of us. Movies are also a big influence for me. I wrote a song about a movie. So we get influences from, like, honestly, anything.
Aurora: We've got a panoramic influence.
Scooter: Yeah, we’re [just] artistic people.
Blake: I listen to Mongolian throat singing and that's how I get inspiration for this band.
For the guitar?
Blake: (laughing) Yeah
Ridge: Sea shanties and silence.
Aurora: The sea shanties are so real, though. We stay loving the sea shanties.
STL Music Scene
I'm kind of new to the St. Louis music scene, so I guess what are your guys’ thoughts on the scene in general- other bands, or really whatever?
Aurora: We should probably just let Blake answer this.
Blake: I think that- yeah, I'm in, like, the most bands of anybody here.
Wait, which is how many?
Blake: Currently I’m in like seven bands.
Aurora: Blake, this is not the “you” show, this is the community of St. Louis.
Blake: Sorry, my fault gang. I would say, like, there's a lot of really interesting things happening in St. Louis. I think my favorite scene that's happening right now is like the DIY emo scene that's going on.
Blake: But yeah, there are just a lot of good things happening. We have a really good jazz scene. We have a surprisingly good country scene as well.
Scooter: We have a really good, like, digital alternative scene. Like The Mall is my fucking favorite. And a lot of the touring bands that come through here that are associated with them are awesome, and weird DIY venues pop up all the time and they’re so much fun. Like, the Kerr Foundation, I fucking love. It's the sketchiest neighborhood ever, but it's so much fun.
Aurora: I think the thing about Saint Louis, too, is like, it's hard not to hear really good music, because everywhere you go, there is good music. I was thinking about this the other day, walking to a cafe- there was someone practicing the piano in their house and because the walls are so old on these buildings, you can just hear them practicing.
Scooter: I hear somebody practicing trombone in my neighborhood all the time.
Aurora: Right, and it’s just like, we live in a really, really musical city. And I think that's such a blessing because everywhere you go, you're listening to music, whether or not you're realizing it.
Blake: It's good. There's some downfalls, of course. I think every scene has some shortcomings, but overall I'd say, St. Louis is- there's a lot of good stuff happening here.
Scooter: It’s accessible, too.
Blake: I personally think there needs to be more eyes on it, but overall great, great stuff- even if, you know, bands sometimes don't like to get along with each other.
Aurora: Blake…
Blake: I'm not saying anything! I didn't say anything about beef. I'm subtweeting. I'm subtweeting over here.
Is this on the record or off the record?
Blake: It can be whatever you want.
The Future
What are your guys’ long or short term goals for this project?
Scooter: Honestly, to have fun.
Blake: Have fun. Make some bangers. We're working on music for a short film right now, which is kind of cool.
Scooter: We’ve got an EP in the works that we're recording ourselves, which is fun. We got some help from a friend for that who had access to a recording studio for a little bit. Um, we're all over the place, like, we just want to have a good time.
Blake: I really like this band, especially because I'm in a lot of bands that are super serious and super like, “If we're not touring and making money, it's not real, it's not a good band”. But this is just like, you know, I get to hang out with my friends and play guitar and do fun shit.
Scooter: It's just about making music and having fun.
Aurora: Yeah, we love to make music.
Blake: We just started making merch and [even] that feels a little bit sellout-y, but it's so cool.
Scooter: But we’re doing it in the most DIY way. We’re, like, printing shit at the library.
Blake: Exactly.
Aurora: Don’t call my ‘zines sellout-y!
Blake: Oh, your ‘zines aren’t sellout-y, the stickers are.
Scooter: (laughing) The stickers I made in a free app.
That whole show was very fun. Like, all the little bits and preludes to the songs.
Blake: We like to do it. Audience participation is a must.
Aurora: I'm trying to convince them all that punk is theater and theater is punk.
Blake: Wrong.
Jo: I believe it, because I believe women.
Ridge: Ok!! Up top! Up top to women. (* high five *)
Blake: I actually hate women. Put that on the record.
Jo: Unrelated, but-
Blake: Yeah, this has nothing to do with what we're talking about, I just like to say that I hate women.
Wow, ok. This is gonna get published.
Aurora: We need to media train some people…
Jo: We call him Hot Take Blake.
I can see that. (laughing) That’s crazy.
The Question
Ok, I’m contractually obligated to ask you this. Would you rather have a hamster that looks like a rock or a rock that looks like a hamster?
Ridge: I'm for the rock that looks like a hamster.
Aurora: Can we have a rock that looks like a rock? I just hate hamsters.
Blake: Oh, ok. I’m in the wrong band. I'm quitting now.
Scooter: But you like mice?
Aurora: No, I don't!
Ridge: There’s a song about killing one!
Blake: You have a song about feeling bad about killing one!
Aurora: Yeah, because- ok, I don't like some people, but do I kill them? No.
Blake: I would. I love murder.
Scooter: (laughing) Bad Take Blake, shut up.
Ok, I feel like we got like one answer for rock or hamster.
Ridge: I’m a firm rock that looks like a hamster.
Jo: Does the hamster act also like a rock?
No, it's just from kind of far away it really looks like a rock.
Jo: Does the rock also act like a hamster?
Aurora: Does the rock identify as a rock or a hamster?
Probably a rock? It’s just appearance based.
Blake: Here’s my thing. [You could get] a rock that looks like a hamster, but what are you taking care of? What are you loving? What gives you affection?
Jo: That’s the point. You’ve never had a pet rock?
Scooter: You ever just collect rocks? I’m down for a cool rock. I’ll take a rock that looks like a hamster.
Blake: All right, I'm outvoted in this, I lose.
Aurora: I think a rock that looks like a hamster- keeping in mind that I actually would really like a rock that acts like a hamster, I just don't like the hamster part of it.
Jo: I want a rock, like, scurrying around. No arms, no anything.
Blake: Bro, I just want a fucking rock. Can I turn it down and just get a rock?
Aurora: Let the record show that the rock that acts like a hamster is actually just a Roomba.
Jo: That's true.
Blake: You're so right, Aurora.
(* everyone snaps in approval *)
Closing Thoughts
Okay, do any of you have any closing thoughts?
Aurora: We are on Instagram as the dot band dot is dot called dot who's dot asking (@the.band.is.called.whos.asking) and also our EP is hopefully coming out this year.
Blake: Before the end of the year.
Scooter: Hopefully.
Blake: It'll be up before the end of the year if we settle down and do vocals.
Aurora: And we will!
Blake: Yeah. We got stuff coming out, and also we're a band.
Scooter: Closing thoughts are we're a band who likes to have fun.
Ridge: Closing thought is I'm still trying to figure out who’s asking…
Aurora: And if you want an answer to that, I woke up in a cold sweat actually last night. I said to myself: ”If I'm the one asking ‘Who's asking?’, then have I been the one asking this whole time…?”
(END SCENE)
Pictured (left to right): Jo, Ridge, Scooter, Aurora, me (!), Blake. Photo by Monica Obradovic.
And that concludes the interview! As always, a huge shoutout to Who’s Asking for letting me interview them. These articles wouldn’t exist without cool people like them, so be sure to support them however you can!
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I should probably address the fact that this is a St. Louis, Missouri article rather than a Columbus, Ohio, one. We’re not relocating or anything, but you should expect future content from both cities. Think of this more like an extra Christmas each year and less like a divorce…
But yeah, be on the lookout for more Bobcat Press content! We might have missed National Bobcat Day (October 6th), but in many ways October will be the month of the bobcat… interpret that however you want to. Alright- that’s all I have to say!
