Ditty Bops.________
The Ditty Bops, made up of couple Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald, are more than just one of the most interesting ( and cute! ) LGBT bands out on the music scene right now.
The duo plays a unique mix of folk, ragtime and more, while including an element of musical theater to their live shows. The two of them are also very vocal about being environmentally conscious, even going so far as to bike across the country on their last tour and include their own comic, The Environmentalist's Dilemma, on their Web site.
Barrett chatted with Windy City Times about their new ideas, their upcoming show at Steppenwolf ( March 7 ) , the environment and how the couple met.
Windy City Times: What have you two been up to lately?
Amanda Barrett: We've been enjoying the L.A. weather and just writing a lot of new songs and working on this anti-plastics campaign, which will hopefully be fleshed out by the time we get to Chicago.
WCT: Can you tell me a little bit more about this campaign?
AB: We made a silly musical at our last show in L.A. called 'Paper or Plastic,' based on our frustration that nobody asks you anymore what kind of bag you want. They just give you plastic all of the time. Many people don't bring their own reusable bags, and it is frustrating and it's becoming such a crazy problem—the litter of plastic and how it impacts wildlife. We are going to start a petition and hopefully get some people to sign up and commit to bringing their own reusable bags when they shop. We are planning to wear plastic until we get enough signatures.
WCT: That is awesome.
AB: My friend just crocheted me a recycled plastic bag top that I'm sure I will be donning at the Chicago show.
WCT: Hopefully, it will be warmer when you get here!
AB: [ Laughs ] Hopefully, but plastic doesn't breathe very much.
WCT: I know you're both very environmentally conscious, and you both did a bicycle tour.
AB: When we were in Chicago, we biked there!
WCT: Are you planning on doing that again?
AB: Our next tour we are planning, for the summer, is going to do an organic farm tour. It will be a tour in our bio-diesel van, but we'll be bringing our bikes, I'm sure, because we need to get out of the car. We did our vegetable bikini calendar this year, and we wanted to do something like working with Farm Aid, which is a non-profit where Willie Nelson and a bunch of other guys do a concert. We want to raise money for small farms and bring attention to organic agriculture, and visit a lot of amazing co-ops and farms and restaurants that are using local stuff.
We've been pretty obsessed with this new comic we've started. Last year we did Rumble Strips, which is our bicycle comic. Since we've been here at home, we're figuring out ways to make our house more environmental, as well as our actions, so we're making a comic about our endeavors.
WCT: I see that you both also recently shot for the L-Word [ to air March 4 ] . What was that experience like?
AB: It was really fun. We actually shot it on Halloween. … I'm curious. You never know what it is going to look like until you see it, but it was fun to shoot at the time. Everybody was awesome, and the scene was really fun.
WCT: Can you tell us anything?
AB: Oh my gosh, I don't know if I can! All I can say is somebody you may not expect was there. [ Laughs ]
WCT: When did the two of your decide you should start a band and play music together?
AB: We had known each other for four years before we started playing music together. A friend of ours just encouraged us to play together, and had heard us mess around with some songs and thought we should take it more seriously, do it more often and put something together. And we did!
WCT: It's really cool to see a young, out band that's also a couple.
AB: I think its part of why we weren't in a band earlier. The idea that you'd either break up the band or the relationship. But we enjoy having a project together, and I can't imagine touring for long periods of time without Abby and doing all that stuff myself.
WCT: What do you think of the LGBT music scene right now?
AB: Obviously, there's a lot of LGBT everything popping up now. … In the music world, I'm not really sure.
Check out www.WindyCityQueercast.com for an interview with Abby of the Ditty Bops.
