Z I N E 0 1 Z I N E 0 1 Z I N E 0 1 THEAQUADOLLS THEAQUADOLLS THEAQUADOLLS the team founder gabi yost
head of interviews caleigh wells head of graphic design jared elliott head of photography heather zalabak co-head of production management jiselle santos co-head of production management ky kasselman co-head of social media ashleigh haddock co-head of social media madi mize co-head of writing victoria taglione co-head of writing peyton rhodes music coordinator brandon quiroga
contributors photography michael haight graphics ariana cruz a special thanks to @pbvclothing @bitchinbeadz @sullengirluk @sugarcomaclothing @shopbiohazard @oddballvintage @m.haight
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E D I T O R S L E T T E R Its spooky season! I would like to thank The Aquadolls for being apart of our first zine! In this zine you will find out a little about one of our favorite bands and hear some of their top songs of the halloween season.
follow the aquadolls twitter @theaquadolls instagram @theaquadolls music theaquadolls.bandcamp.com shop theaquadolls.storenvy.com
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Interview by: Caleigh Wells Photos by: Michael Haight
I got the chance to talk with Melissa Brooks, lead singer, songwriter, and founder of her band, the Aquadolls. The Southern California based band was founded in 2012, and and continues to rock with co-headlining shows with bands like SWMRS, along with headlining their own shows in LA and around the US. With their “in-your-face, good vibes” and energetic shows, they are a band you won’t want to miss. Here’s what Melissa had to say about being in the band, and her love for halloween.
C
an you introduce yourself and say what you do in the band? I’m Melissa Brooks, I sing and I play guitar. I write all the music for the band, too. How did you guys come up with the band name? My very old high school friend made up the name. She said I could keep the name, so. No real meaning or backstory behind it. It kind of matches our mermaid, beachy theme going on. How did you guys meet? I met Bella - it’s kind of a cute story - I met her at one of our shows, actually. We’ve had a lot of lineup changes within the past five years. She was a fan girl at the show and was outside the venue. She wrote “MEL” in giant sharpie on her legs. We took a picture with her, and she bought merch from me and tagged my Instagram with her wearing the shirt.
I DM’d her one time because I saw that she played the bass on some of her videos on her profile. I sent her a DM like “Oh, we should jam some time!” She came to my house and brought her bass and knew how to play every one of my songs. I was shook, it was crazy. Then a year later she came to join the band! Now we’re soul buddies.
What made you want to start the band? I mean, I don’t want to totally completely give 100% credit to Paramore, but they had a lot to do with that. Growing up, I always did performing arts and musical theatre, dance, acting, choir, and I’ve also been writing songs on my own since 2nd grade. Singing wasn’t something unfamiliar to me. It’s something i’ve always been doing. I got heavily into Paramore when I was in 5th grade or middle school. [Hayley Williams] made me really want to start my own band. I had all these songs in my notebook that no one has ever heard, and I thought “you know, why not?” and I never really look back. No Doubt too, they inspired me as well.
You guys have a very cool style. What are some of you inspirations when it comes to fashion? I feel like my aesthetic personally changes from day to day, depending on my mood. I’m looking at my Instagram now like, what do I even dress like. I’m all about self empowerment. Lately, I’ve been getting more comfortable with my body, because I’ve always kind of struggled with my body image and not feeling confident. Lately I’ve been starting to love with myself and get in the habit of selflove, which is a thing that is really difficult to grasp. I’ve been trying to do that and be more confident and wear more like, bikini tops. I don’t know! I guess my aesthetic is like, ‘90s school girl from hell. Definitely ‘90’s and early 2000’s. Britney Spears, like ‘90’s hip hop. I love giant pants so much, and crop tops. Also giant t shirts, like XXL; I like being comfortable. What is your favorite song to play live? Maybe “Wonder”. Just because I’ll look in the crowd while playing it and there’s always at least somebody singing along with me, which is really cool, especially when we play places or cities that are unfamiliar to us and that we don’t go to a lot.
It’s really cool to see people singing along to songs that I wrote in my bedroom that I didn’t think anyone would ever listen to. I find that happening a lot with “Wonder.” I get really into it. Where do you pull inspira tion from while writing songs and making music? Honestly when I’m writing, I think of words, usually. Random words that I think sound beautiful together. I’ll write them down in my iPhone notes, or one of my journals, or even the voice memos in my phone. Sometimes I’ll just talk, and I’ll just be like, “What is life? What does it mean?” I’ll just go on really weird tangents of just talking into my phone for like 10 minutes. I’ll listen back to it and see if I like anything, then I’ll write it and put it into my notebook. Lately I’ve been writing based on personal experience, daydreams, and things I think about, wonder about, and question about. Whether it’s personal questions about me, figuring out who I am, who I want to be, or what I look for in a romantic relationship. I’ll also look at perspectives outside myself. How can I make a change and better the world, even just by 1%? Maybe someone can hear it, and it’ll make them feel better. I want to make people feel good.
HALLOWEEN Q U E ST I O N S What’s the ultimate scary movie to watch on Halloween? I love horror films, that’s my favorite genre of films. My favorite all time scary movie is “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, the original one. I love that movie; it’s so gory and shot so well. But I have a recommendation! It’s not a popular movie, it’s not something I had heard of before. I had to watch it for my class-- I’m a film major-so I watch a lot of weird movies. This one is called Hauso, it’s a Japanese horror film from the ‘70s, it translates to House. Oh my god, if you want to see a really twisted, weird movie, it’s like a live action anime.
It’s so gorey, extremely gorey. There’s a cat that shoots lasers out of its eyes. Super advanced for its time, because it came out of the 70’s but it seems like a low budget 90s film. Salty or sweet treats? Probably sweet. What’s the coolest costume you’ve seen? I don’t know! Okay, what’s the coolest costume you’ve worn yourself? I mean this year, for Saturday we’re playing a few Halloween shows. For every show, we’re dressing as something else. This show I’m dressing as a Clout Queen. I haven’t made my costume yet, but I’m going to put fidget spinners on my boobs, and I’m probably going to make a dress and put fidget spinners on the boob area, and write my SoundCloud link on my stomach in the front. On the back it’ll say “link in bio,” on the side it’ll say “lit,” on the other side it’ll say “check out my mixtape.” I’m going to make a crown and put fidget spinners on the crown and put Louis Vuitton and Supreme symbols all over it. I still haven’t figured out the rest of the costume, and it’s something that hasn’t been done before. Sorry, that didn’t even answer your question. I feel like my most iconic costume was Sailor Moon, because I love her so much and I wish I could be her every year, but I hate repeating costumes. I have these two Sailor Moon costumes in my closet so I just look at them and sigh. I just love Sailor Moon.
Have you seen any ghosts before? If so, what’s the story? There’s this Italian restaurant next to my high school, and there’s this rumor that back in the 1940’s, it was an Italian mob owned restaurant, and in the basement, I guess bad things happened and people got shot down there. I don’t know if this is fact or not, but this is the urban legend at my school. So I went with a bunch of friends at night once. In the basement, it’s really weird, they have a couple arcade games but they’re never turned on. They have this fence set up with a couple of dolls all lined up, and there’s this Scream thing, and all these monsters. But what’s scary is this: in the back, back corner of the basement, there is this door that has bars covering in it, so you can’t go in unless you unlock it. So my friend dared me to stick my hand in there, so I did. We knew there were apparently ghosts down there, so I was like, “If you can hear me, squeeze my hand.” I’m not kidding, my hand curled in and it wasn’t my reflexes or anything. It felt like my hand was being forced to close. It was so scary; I was screaming because I was so scared. The area around it, it was all pretty cold in the basement, but then in this one specific spot where my hand got squeezed in, it was warm. I asked it something else, “Are you a good ghost or a bad ghost?” and we heard this really weird sound, and we ran out of there and haven’t gone back to the basement since. I still get pizza there, though.
What’s your favorite memory associated with Halloween? I just love music, and my band, so I just think of our shows we do. Honestly like the past two, three years I’ve had really lame Halloweens. I didn’t do anything. I was just at my ex-boyfriend’s house watching Netflix asking if we could go out, but he said no. The best “good ole” Halloween memory was when I was 8 or 9 and I went trick-or treating with my parents and cousin and there was this house a few blocks away who had someone dressed as Michael Myers, who chased us with a shovel! We were little kids; I was probably dressed as Tinkerbell or something! He chased us with a shovel, and I was screaming so much, I think I peed my pants. When I think of OG halloween i think of trick-or-treating and decorating my house. When I was little, every year we would go all out with decorations and try to have the best house on the block. Like fog machines, and all the heads, and bones hanging. I love all the spooky things. Halloween is my favorite time of the year.
If you’re in the area, make sure to go to their SPOOPYLAND show, this Friday at The Smell in LA. If not, listen to their album, Stoked On You, along with their other EPs and singles.
THANKS FOR READING
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