A Conversation with Sandra Malak of The World/Inferno Friendship Society

Photo credit John Harrison

Danny from Don’t Panic here for an interview with the lovely Sandra Malak, bassist of everyone’s favorite band of anarchists, The World/Inferno Friendship Society. We last heard from Ms. Malak in November of 2017 after playing our All Hands on Deck festival here in Chicago and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the band’s annual Hallowmas celebration in Brooklyn. I had a chance to chat with Ms. Malak to catch up on life, Las Vegas and hangovers. Oh… and her band.

Danny Collins: What have you been up to since we heard from you last November?

Sandra Malak: I had no place to live in November. After Hallowmas in NYC, I flew back to the Rocky Mountains (where I’d run away to on Christmas night the previous year). I packed up my belongings which I’d been storing in the closet at my former apartment into a rental car and drove around the mountains for a few days looking for an apartment. I didn’t find one and could no longer afford the rental car so a friend of mine lent me his closet for my stuff and a co-worker let me sleep on the bean bag chair (which I called The Potato since it was big, brown, and lumpy) in his pot-smoke filled apartment he shared with several other 20-somethings. I bounced between a couple other floors and a couple hotels and hostels for a while until I found a place way out of my price range right before the moment I was about to give up on the whole snow-capped mountain paradise. So I settled in for another winter season in a busy ski resort town, worked my ass off at four jobs, snowboarded, broke another rib (had broken one a few months earlier and it is incredibly awful, I don’t wish it on anyone), went to Hawaii, met Pele face to face on the Big Island where she gave me hope for my future then told everyone to evacuate before sending me back to the mountains. I hiked, biked, climbed, and ran thousands of feet up in the sky all summer, had some health issues, fixed most of them for now, pitched a tent during a thunderstorm the night of the blood moon after wandering into the woods with nothing but the suit on my back, a bottle of wine, and my ukulele, (and the tent). On a random day trip I discovered the house I was meant to live in, a castle on a cliff in southwest Colorado, and dammit I’m going to keep buying lotto tickets and hitting the blackjack tables in Vegas until I win what I need to make that place mine. Where was I? Oh yes, and these days I take lots of short trips, drink a bit less, spend an obscene amount of time in Denver International Airport, and I dance. I dance a lot. Sometimes with no audible music playing. And last week I flew to San Diego to learn how to surf. Always wanted to. Jolly good fun!

DC: Wow that sounds like a very trying, yet beautiful, year. But such is life. How do you get back into the swing of playing with World/Inferno after all that?

SM: Inferno is historically known to get into the swing of things when the countdown gets to 1 -- fueled by chaos and uncertainty. That is not to say the band doesn't do the grunt work to get into gear, just that it typically all falls into place at the very moment everyone begins to truly panic. My current strategy is to panic silently, practice my parts, and take a lot of deep breaths.

DC: Chaos is a good rule to live by. It's the only thing you can truly count on. You're currently working on a new album, what has the process been like for writing and recording it so far?

SM: I currently have a camera in my closet that has had a roll of film in it for several years. (An analog camera, the kind that takes film, film being the thing that people used to put in cameras.) I don't remember the pictures I took, could've been from vacations, old apartments, ex-boyfriends...but I used to be quite a good photographer and I'm sure once I finally get that roll of film developed I'll get to enjoy and share some wonderful images. At the moment, the new album is like that.

DC: I'm excited to see how it turns out. For the uninitiated, what can we expect at Hallowmas this year?

SM: Hallowmas is where the most glamorous of ghouls gather to celebrate. Death, life, plans for the future, memories of the past. You're in a room with your ex and your enemies, people you truly love, and strangers you also love. And we all dance and sing together. We greet the Great Pumpkin, the spirit that brings us all together and respects our sincerity. The band brings the tunes, everyone else brings the fire. There is an awful lot to be outraged about right now, but let us remember that we also have much to celebrate. This year we have our good friends/Jersey favorites Crazy and the Brains joining us as well as Virginia punx Gallows Bound. Oh, and it's at the Polish National Home in Brooklyn so there will be pierogis of course.

DC: Speaking of celebrating, what’s your wonder cure for a hangover?

SM: Not drinking like a sloppy idiot the night before. But no one's perfect: 1T raw apple cider vinegar + 2T water. Or 12oz cold bottle of beer followed by 16oz water followed by 6 hours of Kung Fu movies on the couch wearing your finest loungewear.

DC: Well I had the loungewear part down. You’ve come through Chicago quite a bit, what’s been your favorite venue to play?

SM: Chicago has always been good to us and we love it as a home away from home. We've bounced around between different spots and I like that there seems to be a variety of mid-size venues whereas most cities have only one or two. I remember feeling very special when we played The Metro many years back. I think we'd been playing a lot of divey places around that time and that venue felt all fancy. We've played Subterranean a bunch which is a bit awkward in its layout but the crowds there have always been great. Playing y'alls event at Cobra Lounge last year was a treat despite the torrential rain loading in and out. And one of the most special shows was a last minute, unadvertised gig we drove to from DC after being "asked to leave" a tour with The Adicts. Several of us had plans to hang out in Chicago after that tour and we were all geared up and ready to keep playing so Aaron, the band's Chicagoan, made one phone call and the city welcomed us with open arms and made it happen.

DC: Upstairs at Bottom Lounge! That was my favorite time seeing World/Inferno. It was a really unique experience and I think every Infernite planning on going to The Adicts show ditched it and showed up for y’all. Any plans to come back in the foreseeable future?

SM: I'd count on it. If for no other reason than our Bari Sax player needs to check on his kale garden.

DC: Let’s talk about Vegas; you mentioned it before. What are some of your haunts out there?

SM: I can talk about Vegas all day long. I love casinos, I love constant stimulation, I love the concept of sparing no expense for entertainment and sensory satisfaction. I love fake volcanos, animatronic replicas of ancient Roman statues, opera singers performing in a mall, going to the Wynn where every single restaurant has a vegan menu, and I love Elvis impersonators. And I recently discovered some great non-casino related spots like The Peppermill where the servers all wear prom dresses and serve diner food under a mirrored ceiling in front of a fireplace and velvet lounge chairs, and Frankie's Tiki Room since I'm a sucker for Tiki anything. My preference is for gritty faux luxury and every time I go (about a few times a year now that I live a short and cheap flight away) I like to do something I haven't done before. Sometimes that ends up being not such a good idea. Like the time I went on one of those time-share tours they're always trying to push suckers into. I never thought I'd go for it, but they were giving away $175 in free slot play, free buffet coupons, and a free 3-night stay on my next visit. What would you do? Hopefully you would have been smarter than I was and not wasted 5 of the longest hours of your life on a process that is designed to break your spirit down to a thin powdery substance that a man in a cheap suit shoots up his nose before shoving one of his many pens into your hand and onto a piece of paper that says "sign here, SUCKER!" Well, they didn't break me. I did not buy a condo and I took that $175 right to the slot machine, played it, won the money back, cashed it out, and took it to the craps table where I stayed until 5am. However, despite the pleasure and pain I've experienced in Las Vegas, my heart lies in Atlantic City and I wouldn't be surprised if that’s where I end up.

DC: Has World/Inferno ever played out in Vegas?

SM: Yes. Las Vegas is an odd city to play in. Stuff that would happen in a normal city is less normal when it happens there because people who go there are not there to do normal things. And I would think living there would be a bit surreal because of that. We've mostly played small rock dives, Double Down Saloon, some other place I forget the name of...We played a house party there maybe ten years ago now that had an emptied out pool the kids were using as a skate ramp/mosh pit during our set. It was a good time, but the folks there were not happy when they heard the band was heading to the strip after the set to whoop it up in the casinos. Apparently that's totally not a punk move. But there was no changing our minds since there isn't one member of World/Inferno past or present who isn't a gambler. Otherwise how could any of us do this?

DC: You’re in another band called The Working Mothers with World/Inferno alumnus, Semra Ercin. How did that come together?

SM: The Working Mothers is a project that came together a few years back with Semra and a friend of mine from Boston Ross Noyes of Chandeli'ers (btw, how great of a last name is that for a punk musician to be born with?) and some folks who work at Brooklyn Music School, where I later went to teach. Americana meets The Modern Lovers kinda sound. They'd been playing for maybe a year or so and Semra rang me up looking for some acoustic bass. It was such a fun and refreshingly different band situation, hanging around Semra's Brooklyn apartment living room, her husband Alex on banjo, kids jumping around on the furniture, lots of laughing, work gossip, wine and random bargain bin liquor being passed around, sometimes spaghetti dinner... We recorded a nice album and performed around NYC a little bit but then I moved away and a new baby joined the Ercin family so things have cooled off. I'd love to get it going again though, I still play those songs in my own living room but it's a lot less fun solo.

DC: Any last thoughts you’d like to offer your adoring Infernites?

SM: You are all beautiful and glamorous. Do things that scare you, be nice to strangers, put down your phone and dance. I look forward to our audience every year, they’re what make a thousand miles across the air worth every second.

Hallowmas turns 21 this year! Come celebrate at The Warsaw in Brooklyn on Halloween night. Dress up and be there at 7pm sharp… or show up at 6 for a special Halloween treat… that might possibly be a trick. Or is it?