Breakfast, Bagels, and Babe Haven with Cool Party

Hailing from the heart of Ohio, Cleveland's Cool Party blends post-rock, bubblegrunge and swirling guitars to create the coolest sounds in town. The band is composed of singer/songwriter/guitarist Laurel McCreight, bassists/vocalist Andi Chakraborty, guitarist Mario Benjamin, and drummer Vaughan Ticherich. After their show at Coda on November 22, Laurel, Andi, and Vaughan happily joined me to spill their hearts out and answer my invasive questions. 

How did you guys form? 

Andi: Laurel slid into my DMs and asked if I was interested in playing bass. 

Laurel: That did happen.

Andi: But of course I was interested, so I said yes. 

Laurel: I went to school with Mario at Cleveland State, so I was just sort of like, “Hey, let’s do this.” We adopted Vaughan earlier this year, we saved him from the pound.

Where did the name "Cool Party" come from?

Laurel: I have this sign in my room that just says “cool party.” I bought it many, many years ago and I got it because I thought it was funny. Like what does “cool party” even mean? It’s not like you’d put that up at a party to convince people that it is cool. But yeah, it just kinda works for a band name. 

Pre Show Rituals: What do you guys do before you play?

Laurel: Panic

Vaughan: Spew nonsense at each other. 

Andi: We have lots of bits, you know, lots of vocal stims we like to play around with. 

Laurel: Yeah we just kind of lose our minds a little bit. 

Do you have a favorite show you’ve played? 

Andi: I think mine was when we played with Babe Haven at Mahall’s. I’ve been a big fan of theirs for a while, so that was really cool. 

Laurel: We had a show at the Grog Shop where we opened for Liquid Mike. I think that was the first show where we all felt truly confident in what we were playing, so it just felt really good.

Vaughan: I think we all did a really good job at the Brother’s Lounge show. We played with Lake Erie Highball and Calico, who we played with again tonight, and New Moon from Cincinnati. That one was a lot of fun. 

What does your songwriting process look like?

Laurel: It usually goes down in the morning, right before I have to go to work. I’ll write a song and then I’m late to work. I guess there’s not much of a process, it’s more like I’m sitting there and I get into what I’m working on and then I’m like “oh shit, I’m late.” 

Andi: Laurel writes all of the time. Every few weeks she comes over with a new song to show us. 

Laurel: There’s a lot that are scrapped unfortunately. But the good ones happen. 

Andi: It’s all part of the process. But she (Laurel) writes all of them. 

Do you have a favorite type of bagel?

Laurel: Shit. I love a cinnamon bagel. Cleveland Bagel has this cinnamon cranberry bagel that is SO good. 

How do you top your bagels?

Laurel: Well, if it is that specific bagel, it’s just getting plain cream cheese, for sure. But I do love a bagel sandwich. 

Andi: We are big breakfast people for sure.

Vaughan: And we like a good donut or two.

Andi: We tend to get breakfast before practice too.

Vaughan: We actually all had breakfast together today.

Who are the biggest influences on your music?

All: Wednesday

Vaughan: Yeah that’s it. 

Andi: For the bass lines, I definitely take inspiration from Hum. 

Laurel: I have a list somewhere, but definitely Mannequin Pussy, Sour Widows, MJ Lenderman, even though he is on my shit list right now. Pinegrove.

Andi: Oh, Title Fight. Black Country, New Road. 

Laurel: And Babeheaven.

Vaughan: Weird Al.

Do you have plans to tour in the future?
Andi: That’s the dream isn’t it?

Vaughan: We’d like to record next. 

Laurel: Yes, an EP first. Touring is difficult though, especially because this is a side thing for all of us. 

Andi: And it’s exhausting. 

Laurel: We just followed Wednesday around to Toronto, Detroit, and then the Cleveland show and let me tell you, it was fucking exhausting. We weren’t even playing and it was still a lot.

Andi: I’m still jonesing without seeing them live right now though. 

Laurel: I think if we did it though, it would be fine. 

Andi: The best part about touring is that we’d be forced to spend a lot of time together. Whenever we all hang out it’s good vibes. Lots of jokes, it’s the best. I think going on tour, though exhausting, would be so fun. 

Laurel: We could stop at so many diners. 

Vaughan: Like Guy Fieri

Andi: Yeah, we’d be like Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. 

Streaming

Andi: Right now, we have one song out on streaming services. We need to record more.

Laurel: It’s hard. It’s expensive and we don’t really have a place to do it right now. We’re trying to DIY it though. 

Vaughan: We're trying to sell some shirts. Come buy shirts, you all want shirts. 

Andi: It’s hard to find a time where the four of us can give up an entire day. 

Laurel: Hopefully an EP soon though.

If you could tour with anyone, who would you tour with? 

Laurel. Uh. Wednesday. 

Vaughan: Obviously.

Laurel: Honestly, I’d say Daffo too.

Andi: Yes! That would be a killer lineup. 

Laurel: Mannequin Pussy. Honestly, all of the bands we said before, we’d be down. 

Vaughan: Weird Al, come on that’d be cool. 

Has living in Cleveland influenced your music? 

Laurel: Oh yes. I just wrote a song about living in Ohio. 

Andi: It’s called O-H-I-O.

Laurel: It’s not the best vibes, but it’s Ohio. 

What is the most scared you’ve ever been?

Andi: One time I was driving on the highway and a deer came out of nowhere. I had to swerve off the road. I guess that was pretty scary. That shit will get you.

Laurel: Car accident. Man that was pretty bad. 

Vaughan: I was over at my friend’s house in middle school. It was late at night and we were home alone, so we decided to watch The Ring. It got to one of the scary parts, and we heard a sound coming from this wall in his house that is made of glass. We look over and notice the faintest silhouette standing at the window. We couldn’t see the figure’s face because it was so dark, but they had their face pressed up right against the window. We could hear that they were trying to say something, so naturally we paused the movie. All we could hear was “Help. Help me.” We turned on a flashlight, but they were so close to the glass that they fogged it up too much to actually see anything. We ran to the kitchen, grabbed knives, and called my friend’s stepdad. So he comes over and checks it out, but it turns out it was just a drunk college student. He was lost and wandering through the woods, which led him to my friend’s back yard. So yeah, it ended up being fine, but that was a terrifying moment. 

Laurel: We can’t give details, but Mario was banned from Cedar Point for a little bit. I’ll leave it at that.