It’s easy to do a faithful cover of a classic song (I’m looking at you, Weezer) but to take an original, break it down to its basic melody and the build it back up into a whole new construct? That takes talent and balls… but most of all, balls.
That’s kinda what Los Angeles-based electro/New Wave-embracing artist Candy Whips did with their soooooo out there new EP Moonlight. Lead Candy Whip Wendy Stonehenge (not his real name… as if I have to say that) grabbed a handful of songs he grew up listening to from his mother’s record collection and deconstructed them into something kinda alien… and weird… but mostly weird… but also pretty darn fantastic. He told me, “My mom would always have the oldies station playing on the car radio when I was young, so I grew up on Oldies. You could say that this is me returning to my roots.”
I mean, when most people look back at their childhood, they see it through fading yellow sepia tones. Apparently when Wendy looks back, he sees it through a kaleidoscope.
Moonlight takes those age old classics like “Duke of Earl” (you know that one… it goes “Duke duke duke / Duke of Earl earl earl / Duke of Earl earl earl / Duke of Earl earl earl“) and “Earth Angel” and a bunch of other classics and twists them into knots. It’s crazy what he does to those songs… and I like it! Read how much I like it HERE (it’s a LOT).
Wendy took a few moments to sit down with me and tell me about all about it…
So Wendy, most people of a certain age who revel in synth music would turn to the ’80s or maybe even the ’70s, like Limahl did when he recently released his cover of “A Horse With No Name” or Weezer with “Africa”. You might have created a whole new genre of Synth Doo-Wop. What drew you to the ’50s?
I grew up on oldies. My mom would always have the oldies station playing on the car radio when I was young. You could say that this is me returning to my roots.
You find a really neat undercurrent of a New Wave beat that most people never knew existed like in “Cherry Pie“. Take away the backing doo-woppy vocals and it could be a VNV Nation song. What was your process of deconstructing the song and recreating it? Like, did you try to perform it exactly like the original and then take it apart that way or did you start from scratch?
For most of these songs, I was kind of recording them as I learned them. I’d go through each instrument and find a way to reinterpret it. Once I had covered everything from the original, I’d go back and add new parts where I felt they were necessary.
I love what you did especially with “Stranded in the Jungle.” That is a song that my sister would play when I was a kid. I hadn’t heard that song in decades and you not only created a whole new beast but you also made me return to the original. Were you always a fan of these songs, or did you discover them recently?
Most of them were tracks I grew up on, with a couple of exceptions. I only recently discovered “Cherry Pie” because that’s my wife’s DJ handle. When I was getting close to having all of the tracks selected, I wanted to add another deep cut so I hit up my friend, Shannon Shaw (from Shannon and the Clams). She sent me a whole playlist of her favorites and I picked “My True Story” out of there.
What was the first song you reinterpreted for this album?
“I Only Have Eyes For You” by the Flamingos. It’s probably my favorite track, too.
Did you always envision an album or did the first cover you did compel you to cover more songs til you had an album?
I definitely had the concept in mind before I started. It was partially inspired by Silicon Teens, which was a Daniel Miller project in the late 70s. He used to cover Chuck Berry songs on synthesizers.
“Duke of Earl” was a song that I kinda never liked… and when Steve Martin put it in “The Man with Two Brains” in a scene that I cannot escape and live horrifically rent-free in my head. But you made me love it with your weird vocal effects that make you sound like a kazoo. What was the inspiration for this rendition of the song?
Haha “Duke of Oil…” I really just wanted to make it sound like it was created by robots. It took a lot of experimenting before I found a vocal style/effect to fit this one. I love the way the distorted crooning on the lead vocals contrasts the vocoder on the backups.
I could go on and on about how much I love your interpretations of these songs (all of which I knew in advance of listening to your record, so I was able to mine my memories of the song and enjoy them as such). What song are you most proud of?
Probably “Mr. Sandman.” It’s not the best track on the album but it was the most challenging. It’s actually a deceptively complex song with a lot of key changes and weird harmonies.
I read that Candy Whips are a solo side thing for you. What is your other band? What are they about?
It started as a side project during Covid but it’s kinda taken over and become my main band. My old glam rock band, Glitter Wizard, stopped being active right around the time that Candy Whips took off. I also have a country band called The Ugly that is active. I like to cover all of my musical bases.
Without getting yourself in trouble, which band do you like more? I won’t tell.
A gentleman never tells.
Who is “Wendy Stonehenge” and what is the origin of the nom de plume?
I originally created Wendy as the singer of Glitter Wizard but he has followed me into this project. I also released a psychedelic folk album under the same name about twenty years ago so he’s seen some action.
Should we expect any more explorations of other pre-existng songs or was this an experiment that you needed to get out of your system?
I’m not going to make it my main thing but you might hear more covers from time to time. I’m working on a collaboration with Mirthquake right now that will probably include another interpretation of an old classic.
Thank you for your time and thank you for your amazing album. If you didn’t read my review, I absolutely adore it.
I did read your review and it’s honestly one of the best reviews I’ve ever had. Thank you!
No… Thank YOU, Wendy Stonehenge!
