Miss Crazy (Markus Allen Christopher and Kim Racer)
Interview December 2006

Hardrock Haven: Alright, Miss Crazy has recently re-released your debut self titled CD, and added on three bonus tracks. Why did you decide to re-release this CD now instead of waiting until you had a full, new CD ready to go?

Markus: The reason is that the band's popularity didn't happen right out of the gate. We were with Metal Mayhem then, and we now own the masters outright. It's basically ours now, so we have a whole new beginning. People, you know, after people started catching on to it, we had 70,000 MySpace fans and a lot of fans hitting our Web site, we realized we had a pretty big underground following. The recognition the band is getting is more substantial than before, so we decided to let everyone feel the band for the first time. So, we remastered the 10 songs and we recorded the three new songs to let the people who had it already that they could get something a little bit different.

Kim: There's some new artwork, but the covers the same as well.

HRH: Do you think any of the bonus tracks go in a little bit different direction from the original tracks? For me, the chorus on "Nothing" seems like the highest note you've sung before, but the melody is still there.

Kim: I think we are going to stay in the same direction. I mean, we might do a things a little bit different sometimes, but I think we are going to stick to our roots.

Markus: Yeah, I hear what you are saying. It's a little bit, compared to the formula that we have in writing, along with our producer overlooking what we do, we had a little bit more input in that song "Nothing." It was not overseen as much as the original 10 songs. But the song "My Way" is the like the original tracks on the record. We threw it on MySpace and it got such an overwhelming response that we decided to add it on to the record. We are trying not to do everything the same … we want to give them a little something different so they say, "Oh cool. Three bonus tracks."

HRH: You just shot a new video for the new track, "My Way." What was that experience like and when is the video being released?

Kim: The video was a good experience and we got some great pictures. We have some friends who have a rock club in San Jose. We shot it on a night when it was closed, but management was kind enough to let us come in until the wee hours of the night. We haven't seen it yet but should get it in a few days. The 23rd edited version, slide-shape thing, hahah … It should be good.

HRH: How have the album sales been on this new CD?

Kim: It's going really good. You can purchase the CD on CD Baby, pretty soon on ITunes, Ebay, on our Web site too, Napster. It's doing really well.

HRH: Markus, you wrote every song on the debut CD, and had a couple co-credits with your producer Ronnie Borchert and of course Kim. On the three new tracks, Kim co-wrote "Nothing" with you. Is she going to play a larger role in songwriting with you in the future?

Kim: I hope to. It depends on the creative juices, really, we'll see how it goes. I'm still learning.

Markus: I think she is going to. She did pretty well on the songs that she did write. I think she has a lot of talent that she hasn't yet discovered. With her being, like, almost this fearless leader of the band, it kind of shows she can step up to the plate. She can be the Barry Bonds of the band. I think she has a lot to offer. It's like this: I can do all the things that I can do, but the majority of the people are looking to see what she is going to do next. I think it's kind of a nice role to play. You can tell by the photos and the way she looks and the response from the fans, they are really excited to see her progress in what she is able to do.

HRH: Speaking of Ronnie Borchert, I just did a review of his band Trixie's new CD, and your guest lead vocals on "Lookin' for Love" just slayed. To me, that was the best song on the CD, by far.

Markus: Oh right, cool. Right on. Really? We'll call him up after the review and tell him you said that. It's a really good record and almost sounds better than ours. I hope he can do that good of a job on our next record. We don't plan on switching producers, I'll tell you that. He has a new solo album coming out and I did some background vocals on that one, it was really fun working with him on his new solo record. And Kim plays bass on the whole record.

HRH: I know Miss Crazy is really exploding right now. Why don't you tell us about the role Miss Crazy is playing in the cartoon Rock Dogs.
Kim: Miss Crazy's music will be the music the cartoon characters play. Basically when you see the Rock Dogs do their thing, you are going to hear Miss Crazy music.

Markus: We are negotiating with Fox right now, and they might be picking up this project. You know, Rudy Sarzo from Whitesnake, it was his whole idea. There was a big meeting with a bunch of big-whigs, like 12 guys sitting around a table, and one of them stood up and said, "Hey, everything sounds good, but who is going to be the band. Who are we going to get?" Before he was even finished talking, Rudy stood up and said, "Miss Crazy is going to be the band." And he looked over at the guy who is helping us behind the scenes, Robbie Robfogel, really behind the band. Robbie asked if he was serious, and Rudy and said, "You call Markus and tell him Miss Crazy is the band. I love those guys, I've been listening to them a lot, they are one of my favorite bands of the year." So, it's pretty much etched in stone-we got that gig.

HRH: Miss Crazy is more than just the music, but it's about the live experience as well. Are there any plans in the future to tape a gig for a live CD or even better, a DVD release?

Kim: Definitely. We have a lot of things in the works for 2007 and we hope to have something available for people to buy if they can't make it to the shows.

Markus: If nothing else, at least a bonus track. But yeah, we have a lot of shows. We are going to be touring for about eight months starting in January. But you never know what can happen, but at the same time we are optimistic that the fan base will grow and people will really enjoy what we have to offer. We are bringing back something that is missing in today's scene. Playing arena rock is a longshot with the critics, but then again, all the critics have been absolutely wonderful. We've been getting great reviews and great live reviews. The crowds have been great.

HRH: You guys have some pretty cool endorsement deals in place. Tell us a little about those.

Kim: As a band, we are endorsed by a pic company. I have a bass endorsement and Markus has a guitar endorsement. I've got Fender basses and amps behind me, and Markus has ESP guitars.

Markus: Kim has 9 basses. 8 jazz basses, one fretless bass, and the ninth bass is a Fender Precision Block. So she's quite spoiled by Tony Franklin, her A&R guy from Blue Murder and the Firm. Tony Franklin is basically just saying, "I luuuuuv you, Kim."

Kim: (Laughing.)

Markus: (Singing The Firm song, "Radioactive!") So … that's where that's at. And I've got the ESP gig. I have five guitars. The most recent one … well they are all that Les Paul style, but I just got a James Hetfield Truckster. It's pretty cool cuz we are from the same town, as a little kid. And our pic company, In Tune Guitar Picd, is pretty cool. They handle like Motley Crue, Disturbed, and Cinderella, our rivals. I only say "rivals" because they are wary of us. Their road people were wanting to take us on tour but somehow it didn't work out. But the Kix singer, Steve Whiteman, really liked us a lot. He said I was an amazing singer. So that felt really good. It's just cool to have all of these companies believe in us enough to give us free equipment. You know, a lot of these deals musicians get a certain percentage off, where we just get this stuff for free. It's wonderful to be in their catalogs and have them link to our Web site, and to include us on their MySpace pages. It's really great.

HRH: So tell me about your most recent tour.

Markus: The last tour we did was really great. Texas is wonderful, San Antonio .. we hit a lot of places there. Oklahoma … we also did Salt Lake City which was a really packed show. Signed a lot of autographs and sold a lot of CDs. And if you look at our tour dates on MySpace, you can follow up on all of our tour dates. We have a lot ahead of us in the next few months unless a big gigantic plane drops on my house. So, it's gonna be great. We are gonna bring the Kim Racer, Markus Allen Christopher, Miss Crazy show to the fans until we can't play any more. We've got some new members too. We have Sketch Williams on drums and (singing like David Bowie) "Major Tom" on guitar. Just go to the Miss Crazy Web site, and we've got tour dates, pictures, and stuff to buy. We've even got clocks man. For Christmas, the best thing to do is to go get yourself a Kim Racer clock. Or maybe, a Miss Crazy clock or Markus clock. We've got it all, and all this stuff keeps us on tour. It's not really about the money, though, it's about sharing our music and it's what we really believe in.

HRH: Just wanna let you know that I completed my Top 10 Best of List for 2006, and Miss Crazy made my Top 10.

Kim: Whoo-hooo!

Markus: Hey, thanks. We really appreciate you man.

www.misscrazymusic.com
www.myspace.com/misscrazy