MidWest Friends Fest: The One With Caitlin Edwards

Pick up some Skyline Chili, make a few friendship bracelets and grab your buds as Midwest Friends Fest is returning to the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area for its sophomore year. Midwest Friends Fest is once again taking over the Southgate House Revival in Newport, KY. 

The 2-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like Signals Midwest, Cinema Stare, The 1984 Draft and Tooth Lures A Fang will take place from 30 & 31 May with tickets available here. 

Caitlin Edwards has joined TGEFM to discuss this year’s festival for this installment of our MWFF interview series. Check it out below and we’ll see you at the bonfire in the woods!

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Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What should our readers know about Caitlin Edwards; your history, your mission, your sound?

I’ve been doing this solo project since 2017. A lot of people know me from my ska punk band Bumsy and the moochers. My solo project is more pop punk/powerpop/punk. I try to keep my music fun and honest.

You are gearing up for Midwest Friends Fest in the coming months, what does the festival circuit mean to artists like yourselves?

I love playing music festivals. Big or small. I’ve realized it’s a chance for people from all over the world or country to see your band in one place. I like the community some festivals bring like Midwest Friends Fest, FEST, Pouzza Fest. It’s all about the music, meeting new people, and getting into new bands.

What do you have planned for us beyond MWFF?

The week before MWFF, I’m playing Pouzza Fest 13 in Montreal Canada. The day before MWFF, we’re playing at Outhouse Records in Kokomo, IN, then we’re playing in Nashville the day after the fest at Eastside Bowl. We’re announcing a tour in August very soon…

What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?

The small tours we’ve done have been so fun and it’s cool to see my solo band get so much love. I was worried that people would say, “I like Bumsy better!” Don’t get me wrong, I love Bumsy and the moochers, but I hope people like my solo band just as much as Bumsy.

Regarding live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Midwest Friends Fest audience? What do you want the attendees to say about your set when they tell their friends about you?

A whole lotta energy! I want people to say, whoa their music is good and they’re good looking! haha But honestly, I always wanna leave people wanting more. I want people to say, wow they don’t hold anything back!

We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?

I wish I started touring more when I was in my mid twenties. I was still getting settled in my career as a music therapist and was focused on living on my own. Wish I put a little more focus on touring since it’s a lot easier on your body when you’re younger. But fuck it, I’m doing it now and I’m still young. If anything, I have a lot more experience touring now.

The punk, ska and indie scenes have almost always been at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes.   The flipside of course is that the gatekeeping in the scene is also very prevalent?  Why do you think the genre brings in such a welcoming community and is so happy to let everyone in and also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?

At the end of the day it takes a village. A lot of bands start to realize the only way to get heard or known is if you also support other’s bands in the scene. But be genuine about it! Support and share each other’s music, go to each other’s shows, and when you see good things happening to another band, be happy for them. Also I think people who like these genres always wanted to find their tribe and people want to feel like they belong to something, so that’s part of it too.
As far as gatekeeping goes, I’ve asked that question myself and the answers I’ve received revolve around caution. People will gatekeep certain venues because unfortunately there are shady people that will make these safe spaces unsafe. For example, some venues do not want to let a band they don’t know personally play their venue because that band may have racist, homophobic, transphobic people in their band. Maybe there are predators in the band. Another reason is, the more people know about a venue or something DIY, the more likely a cop can find out about it and shut the venue down. It sucks because I can see the other side as well, you want to open the doors to all bands and work together to build a community. It’s best to keep going to each other’s shows and get to know each other. I believe that’s what will open the gates more.

This festival is all about friendships and music. What do you value most in friendships amongst yourself and your stagemates?

Honesty. I’d rather hear a harsh truth than a soft lie. If there’s something you don’t like in the friendship, say something. If there’s something you don’t like happening in your band, say something.

Caitlin is from Chicago. The city has always been a home to some amazing artists. What happens in Chicago that leads to so much of an overabundance of great music In the scene lately (and always)? How does the area feed into the music you are writing, if at all?

We’re spoiled for sure with so many talented musicians from so many genres. I think we all draw influence from each other and what happens in the city. We get transplants from other states who are also talented and bring their influences in from their region as well. I definitely have written about Chicago in my music and the city definitely inspires me in my writing.

I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t very familiar with Caitlin Edwards before you joined the MWFF roster.  Now that I’ve watched the “Nobody Cares” video I’m fairly obsessed. Tell me a little bit about the new single?  What was going on at the time that helped kickstart the songwriting and video-storyboarding processes?

Thank you! It’s a song about calling out the rockstars in the music scene and their bullshit, people who make their tattoos their whole personality. At the end of the day, you’re just another person, nobody cares. I feel like I see a lot of these rockstars and personalities at shows so I wanted to make the video at our show. I had also just released my pervious single not too long ago, “Candy Corn”. I loved the killer pumpkin head in that video and wanted to bring her back to finish off the annoying drunk at the bar.

What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do”  Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?  On the flipside to that one… Who are some non-MWFF bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?

When I saw Green Day play the entirety of American Idiot at the Vic in 2004 when I was 14, I knew I wanted to play music live.
Hummus Vaccumm! My other band I’m in Calico Plaid, played with them last in year in Chicago and they blew me away. Not just with their music, but their humor was so good. Don’t miss their set!

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this newcomer by the name of Taylor Swift. Her growing fanbase trades friendship bracelets. If you made a bracelet for MWFF, what word or phrase word you put on it?

Titles of my songs, “Unlucky Charm”, “Candy Corn”, or “NCAYFT (Nobody cares about your fucking tattoos)”.

Post show jam session in a large, empty field. What song are you singing around the bonfire? (Pardon my playful biases, but everything I know about the Midwest comes from shitty movies and songs by the Kinsella Bros. so I assume everyone playing here has spent some time at bonfire parties in the fields off some lonely county road)?

Honestly we were all mostly getting drunk by a fire and toasting marshmallows but if we were playing a song, probably something by Weezer.

Midwest Friends Fest is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?

Hummus Vacuum, Dad Hats, Boy Clothes.

Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?

No