Q&A: PINKLIDS Unveil A Haunting Blend of Chaos and Rockabilly in “JUNKY GARDEN”
EMBRACING THE CHAOS – PINKLIDS has released their newest single “JUNKY GARDEN.” Blending their love for danceable rhythms with a dark, Halloween-esque edge, frontwoman Amber Lawson, alongside bandmates Ellis Roundy (guitar, keys), Matt Pantanella (drums) and Zach Flanigan (bass), delivers a high-energy, genre-bending track that pulls from diverse influences like The B-52’s, ESG and even Rob Zombie.
“JUNKY GARDEN” lives in the space between dissonant chaos and pop-like melodies, a balance Lawson naturally gravitates toward when writing. The result is a surf-punk sound that’s sinister yet catchy, invoking a spooky, cinematic feel that PINKLIDS has become known for.
Growing up, Lawson was exposed to many genres of music very early on due to her father’s own musical background. As a child, she discovered her love for rockabilly, psychedelic rock and classic rock when her father showed her Brian Setzer, The Doors and more importantly – KISS.
PINKLIDS’ journey began in 2019 as a teenage fever dream project and has since evolved. Their live shows are infamous for their wild antics, from spitting fake blood to crawling on and off stage, embodying a visceral and theatrical chaos that captivates their audience.
The band’s sonic world is as much about atmosphere as it is about music. Lawson’s sinister riffs and snarling vocals create a sense of thrilling unease, while the rhythm section, grounded by Pantanella and Flanigan, keeps the energy punchy and unpredictable. Their sound channels the eerie surf-punk and horror vibes of classic B-movie soundtracks, making them stand out in the modern punk scene.
As PINKLIDS continue to evolve, “Junky Garden” marks a significant step in their transformation. It serves as a love letter to the weird, chaotic and all things spooky, showcasing the band’s commitment to crafting a space where dissonance and melody seamlessly intertwine. The single reflects their fearless approach to blending haunting, offbeat sounds with infectious energy, cementing their place as masters of dark, danceable punk.
Photography Credit: John Lee
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
AMBER: We're into a lot of oddball things. I think it's like a smorgasbord of me growing up and loving weird horror B movies. I think that's just sort of stuck in my creative process, in the music making and anything that I do, whether that’s visual art, film, whatever I do, whatever I touch, it's a little weird.
ZACH: Musically, we're inspired a lot by a lot of noise rock and psych rock stylings. New wave is also a fairly big inspiration for us, like The B-52’s B 50 twos or like 100% those sorts of things.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
AMBER: I really like to make people uncomfortable. I think movies have a huge impact on how I work creatively, and just always have. As far as storytelling goes, I like something that doesn't sit quite well with the listener, or whatever form of media you're viewing or taking part in. I like an uncomfortable interaction with the art.
ELLIS: I think it's pretty clear through our lyrics and imagery that we interact with kitsch imagery, and I think a general dark atmosphere. As Amber mentioned, like those B movies, while not intended to be kitschy, often come off as kitschy.
LUNA: Are there particular moods or themes you find yourself gravitating towards when writing and performing? How do you channel these into your music?
AMBER: Me, personally, when I first started performing with this project, I would find myself blacking out and not and not necessarily because of nerves. I think it was this pent up anger, aggression and trauma, and it would come out through how I performed, and it still does. It's not really the prime source of my energy, but it definitely shines through. I think, just anger and angst in combination with just being goofy, there's a balance.
LUNA: What are some artists that have inspired PINKLIDS’ sound?
AMBER: I think the beautiful thing about this particular project is that everyone that's ever been a part of it has brought their own musical influences into the parts that they play. For me, it's been an odd combination. I love rockabilly and I love The Cramps. I love Stray Cats, but I also love really out there music like Mr. Bungle. I also love funk. I love Bootsy Collins and Funkadelic, and so it's just wherever we can fit what we're inspired by and love listening to, I think we try to do that.
Photography Credit: John Lee
LUNA: You just released your newest single “JUNKY GARDEN” and I absolutely adore the early rock influences and the fierce energy behind it. What is the inspiration behind the single and how your personal experiences helped shape its creation?
AMBER: The song is based on a true story. I've never had the pleasure of meeting this person, but it was a friend of a friend who just had an unfortunate event occur where he had maybe some substances in his pocket, got caught in the rain on a skateboard ride home, and safe to say, he's a little fried. I wanted to write it in the perspective of having life realizations and some sort of spiritual awakening, but in a really silly way. As far as recording it goes, this song is so old to me that it feels weird to see it come to life and have it be this tangible thing. Having gone through several sort of members of the band, they've all added their own sound, and this one just seemed to make the most sense, and it's brought it to life the most.
LUNA: Can you share a bit about your creative process when it came to writing “JUNKY GARDEN?” How did it go through the stages of just an initial idea to the final product?
AMBER: It came to life during the recording process. Then as far as the initial writing process, I had written it in high school, having spent a lot of time in school suspension due to being late and not wanting to be at school, I would work on art and write lyrics and come up with songs.
LUNA: “JUNKY GARDEN” is a sneak peek into your upcoming first EP. I would love to hear anything you would like to share about the EP. What can listeners expect from this new era of music from the band?
AMBER: We're working with someone who's really inspired all of us sonically and musically. We're working with Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and his discography as a producer and recording engineer is beyond incredible. We're all fans of his work. I think he gets it. I think he gets what we're trying to do sonically and with getting noisy and everything in between. I haven't written new material for this project in three years, up until recently, and he's really bringing it to life. These guys are really bringing it to life. It's nice to have someone that sees your vision and helps you execute it the way that you see it.
LUNA: The band has recently finished up its first east coast tour earlier this year. What has been your favorite memory or experience from touring so far?
AMBER: The cabin. It's sort of the breaths in between the shows. We stayed in this beautiful cabin in Virginia after playing Macrock, which is this amazing DIY Festival on the east coast in Harrisonburg.
ZACH: It’s a beautiful festival. The cabin was a breath of fresh air after being around a lot of people.
AMBER: There were some really great highlights as far as shows go for a Monday and having been our first tour, everyone was really supportive. They were well attended shows. And I think too, having done our first tour with no material at all to promote, that's wild. It's exciting to get people excited.
ELLIS: Everyone was so kind, and meeting new people in places we'd never been before, and having them receive the music so well and be so gracious and supportive was just eye opening.
Photography Credit: Matheus Nogueira
LUNA: What is your favorite song to play live and why is it your favorite?
AMBER: It’s unreleased right now, but we all love “Eye Catching Silver.” It's funny how it came to be. It's weird how songs come together sometimes. I wrote the guitar alone in my bedroom and brought it to Zach. Zach came up with the bass line. I told him to bang the drums a little bit, and then two months later, I came up with lyrics about what it was going to be about, and it is a goofy song. It's about being attracted to a very pretty robot lady.
ELLIS: I like that intro because that was the most challenging. It's very janky. There's a lot of different sections. I think it being challenging is what makes it exciting for me.
AMBER: It helps having such a phenomenal drummer, because we can come to him with any loose concept we have and try to spell it out the best we can, and he just nails it every time.
LUNA: You’re part of Massachusetts’ DIY and punk scenes, what do you love most about this scene? How would you describe the energy and the people that go to your shows or listen to your music?
AMBER: I think that the town that Zach and I come from, Wareham, used to have a pretty poppin scene with this venue called 3065 Live and that venue died. I found myself venturing out into Boston more. Ellis and I connected through a bill that he had booked with us on it in Worcester. What I can say about the Boston music scene is that everyone is just so excited to hear what you're doing, and everyone's pretty welcoming for the most part. I think that people are interested in something new and interesting, and the live shows that we've played in Boston have been received pretty well.
ELLIS: I'd say the Boston scene is prolific and pretty tightly knit, for better or for worse. After a few years of being in the scene myself, there aren't that many people in the scene that I don't know. I'd say for the most part, it's very tightly knit, and nobody really has much resentment. I think in terms of the sound, it's very emo and shoegaze-driven. There aren't that many bands in the area that aren't at least a little bit emo adjacent. We are probably one of only a few bands in the Boston area that aren't inspired or influenced by emo. I think we all independently listen to emo, but we are not driven by that sound. I don't know if we really fit in terms of sound, but we are definitely friends and family of many DIY people in that area.
AMBER: I would like to add that I think when I first started this project, and we had first our first few shows, they were mostly in the Boston area or greater Boston area, and we were welcomed by the OG DIY Boston bit and OG Boston bands, like Black Beach and Nice Guys, and they've been around for quite some time and opened for Jack White. Everyone's just so curious as to what someone else is making. It's nice to have the support of bands that have been established for over 10 years, and them recognizing that we're trying to do something different as much as we can. It's nice to have their support.
ELLIS: I think when people talk about Boston, they talk about a lot of the East Coast mentality, which is if someone asks you for help, you'll complain about it, but then in the end, you'll help them out. You'll do it anyway. I think that's very much like the case in Boston. I find a lot of people will be complaining about where they are on a bill as soon as they get to the gig. They all just got off work, and they're wallowing about whose amp or drum kit is going to be back line. After everyone's played, everyone's in like this sweet malaise and they're all kind to each other. None of the previous problems seems to linger. I think the East Coast mentality definitely translates to the scene as well.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
AMBER: I'm just so grateful and excited. I have worked extremely hard to keep this project alive, and have envisioned being in a band my entire life. My dad is a musician, and I pretty much show everything to him, but I'm very excited to just see where it goes. I just want to see it through. I'm very lucky to have people that also want to see it through, and also want to travel and eat good food and meet cool people, and that's all I can ask for. Hopefully we get to continue pursuing that dream with this being the vehicle.
ELLIS: We have two songs in the works that will be released in the next upcoming months.
AMBER: The two songs that we have done, we're going to turn into an EP so that should be out early next year, and followed by a spring tour to promote that music. Unlike the first tour we did, where we just went for it, this one will be a little more planned out, and we'll have more material that is tangible and listenable.
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