By Chase Kamp
Sugar Skull Explosion is a loud, playful and unrestrained new punk band consisting of a long-time Valley musician and his highly inspired daughter. The fanciful duo even operates under superhero aliases: The nine-year-old E-Skull plays drums and takes lead vocals while her dad, 31-year-old J-Skull, joins her on guitar.
They’ve been turning heads at local rock shows around the Valley and are set to play FiftyOne West Venue in Tempe on June 4.
The band’s four-song EP, available on their Bandcamp.com page, contains the primitive ooze of early garage rock and the kind of splashing freak-outs that punks of all ages could appreciate. Though highly volatile, the family band is fueled by pure youth expression.
It was E-Skull, after all, who expressed the desire to join forces after seeing one of her favorite bands, Sacramento pop-punk duo Dog Party, at all-ages art venue Trunk Space in Phoenix. J-Skull has been performing there for years, most often in his alternative rap project Hug of War, and E-Skull has attended many of these and other shows at the treasured venue.
She had already recorded songs on Garageband software under her solo moniker, Cherry Blossom Puppet. But then she picked up the drums last summer, and enlisted her dad on guitar. From there, they worked side-by-side to construct a set list and play their debut show at Trunk Space.
The ease of going from observer to participant in mere months is a big reason why J-Skull was drawn to punk music when he was young, and why he’s thrilled to see his daughter carry the torch.
“If you emulate Taylor Swift, there’s a disconnect—it’s a lot less accessible,” J-Skull said. “The great thing about punk is that the space between audience and performer is so much smaller.”
E-Skull is an avid punk listener, citing female-fronted punk mainstays like Sleater-Kinney and Blondie, spastic Japanese noise-punk weirdos Melt-Banana, and viral pop-metal sensations Babymetal as her favorites.
This influence shows on the short, spazzy song “Exquisite Castle”, whose dynamics turn on a time. E-Skull sings with rapt fervor: “My mind is a dungeon / nothing functions / forever in my exquisite castle.”
The harrowing song “Nightmare” has the duo trading call-and-response shouts full of horror imagery.
The end result is raw, and clearly a bit spooky: The two are admirers of The Addams Family, early Tim Burton films and Monster High. But the manic music is also refreshing. E-Skull is clearly leading the charge, making music entirely her own that doesn’t try to emulate typical kid music fare.
“I don’t think anything we make is any more morbid than a horror show that would be on Nickelodeon,” J-Skull said. “I think trying to sell kids the idea that Barbie should be a role model is way scarier than anything we do.”
When she’s not rocking with her dad or focusing on school, E-Skull enjoys reading comic books, learning the language and culture of France, and photojournalism, which she plans to pursue after attending college.
However, she has no plans to stop making music. “Ever since I was six I have planned on being a performer for the rest of my life,” she said.
She is currently taking singing lessons, she said, but her dad is the one who shows her cool new things on the drums. The two are even planning to collaborate on a Sugar Skull Explosion comic book.
It’s like that unconventional takeoff on some familiarly orthodox words of guidance: The family that plays together, slays together.
E skull is my sister I love her she is awesome and Basically the best sister I will ever have.