INTERVIEW: LA’s Leftover Cuties on how it all began with a ukulele

Leftover Cuties, the Los Angeles-based band who is quickly gaining a dedicated following, can be heard in a number of different outlets. That theme song for The Big C on Showtime? Yep, that’s their “Game of Life” song. Ever watch Justified on FX? Yep, the show has played their “Through it All.” That Samsung commercial for the Olympics? You get the idea.

The band has found tremendous success in a relatively short time. The individual roots of each band member are quite varied, stretching from Israel to Kentucky. But they call Los Angeles home and are frequent presences in the clubs and concert halls along the Pacific Coast. They’re currently finishing up a mini-residency at the Cosmpolitan in Las Vegas, and then they’re headed for Venice, Claremont and Pioneertown, Calif.

They identify themselves as a crossover band, mixing smooth vocals with spirited instrumentals. They are simultaneously honoring the past and cherishing the present, making old vibes feel new again.

In 2013, the horizon appears to be the limit for the quartet. Interestingly it all began with a ukulele.

“I say the ukulele is the culprit,” wrote drummer Stuart Johnson in an email. “Austin (Nicholsen), the upright bass player, took it up as a comical counterpoint to already playing the largest instrument onstage. Shirli (McAllen), having been raised in Israel, had never really seen a ukulele in person. They wrote a song within the first few minutes of fooling around with it.”

From that initial jam session (if such a term can be used for ukulele playing), Leftover Cuties began to evolve. Johnson heard the new song while listening on his front porch, and his mind started racing to find the “appropriate percussion.” He founded a vintage calfskin drum set and a box of radio foley. Then, like cooks in search of the final ingredients, the burgeoning band added Mike Bolger who played horns and piano.

“The sound of Leftover Cuties is really just the sound that we make naturally together,” Johnson wrote. “I’m usually tripping out on Shirli’s voice and just letting go, or watching Austin whip his upright like a derby thoroughbred, haha. Mike actually shoots lightening bolts out of the end of his trumpet! Pretty exciting. The style comes quite intuitively for us.”

One of the challenges for Johnson is properly categorizing Leftover Cuties’ music. “I know our music is fun to play, even more fun to dance around to, and oddly enough appropriate for all ages,” Johnson wrote. “Just ask Brad Wilke the drummer from Rage Against the Machin(e), I have spied him on more than one occasion rocking out in the front row of the audience with his little kids.”

In the end, the drummer chooses a most appropriate label, calling the music similar to vodka: “It mixes with everything.”

The success of the band has not come without dedication to the music, both from the members of Leftover Cuties and the public as well. “I mean, we always hoped it would reach an audience,” Johnson wrote. “I believe that any time you can share something that you enjoy so much with new people you meet and see them smiling and dancing then it’s a great day, right? Luckily it has been like that for us since the beginning, and the crowd gets bigger all the time. Our breaks with TV theme songs and commercials have been great signs too that what we are doing is actually connecting with people.”

The band has released a number of albums and EPs, including “Places to Go,” “Departures,” “Game Called Life” and the most recent, “Christmas Time is Here.”

McAllen’s voice on the tracks is unique and almost indescribable. It slips into the ears of the listeners, always welcomed and somehow tantalizingly pure. The voice has a crispness to it, as if it’s forever stuck in a transistor radio or vinyl record — the type of sound that rocks one to sleep.

Her musical inspirations are quite varied. “I’m inspired by everything and everyone that crosses my way,” McAllen wrote in an email. “Places, people, experiences, feelings, film and music. You never know what will start up the next song. As far as musical inspiration, it changes all the time. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of 60’s music like Doris Day, Leslie Gore, Patti Page and off course (sic) lots of Beatles.”

The band, Johnson added, is committed to their shared success. Licensing agreements for several of their songs, plus an ever-expanding fan base, have kept them “Full Time Cuties.”

They are mostly identified with Los Angeles, if no other reason than that’s the city where the synergy was born. But when experiencing Leftover Cuties live, the audience receives a little bit of everything from a little bit of everywhere.

“Shirli is from Israel, Austin is from New York State, I (Stuart) am from Kentucky, and Mike is our native Angeleno,” Johnson wrote. “This city means something different to us all, but the unifying theme is that we all love it here. The waves, the mountains, the crazy silver-screen culture, the like-minded people who came from other places to follow their dreams. Stepping off the plane or the tour bus to land once again on California soil is always a comforting feeling. And always inspiring. You never know what waits around the corner for you here.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

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