Movies absolutely have the power to inspire aspiring musicians to pursue rock stardom. In the case of Megasound, a new group featuring Kerry Alexander and Chris Hoge of Bad Bad Hats and Elana Carroll of Party Nails, the irresistible soundtrack, thrilling performance scenes, and gear-grinding under-the-curtain moments of Josie and the Pussycats lit the fuse.

The star-studded mid-budget film didn’t do well at the box office, but became a cult classic. It has influenced artists including Mitski, Fall Out Boy – and now Megasound, The Local Show’s Artist of the Month.

Megasound’s new self-titled record blends power-pop with hooky melodies, punchy guitar riffs, and sass-tinged vocals, capturing the magic of popular music from the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The Current caught up with the St. Paul/L.A.-based collaboration to learn more about how the band came to fruition, and why certain movies have had such a long-term impact on pop culture and beyond.

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Diane: Megasound's music sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack to She's All That or 10 Things I Hate About You.

Chris Hoge: You're nailing that.

DM: Clueless. Y'all capture that sound so brilliantly. Talk to me about this band and the sound that y'all have developed. That I know also, speaking of movies, was inspired by Josie and the Pussycats.

Kerry Alexander: Yes, these are all fitting descriptions for our vision of this band, but also just what's in our heart. I think we did have an idea of — we made an inspo playlist early on that included many songs from many soundtracks of the '90s and early 2000s. But I also feel like we weren't in a laboratory trying to exactly replicate that. I just think that music is so ingrained in us that it just sort of works out that we are able to capture that moment in time.

CH: Yeah, it feels like we're going back to our teenage selves and just playing what we loved growing up. I can't say it any better.

DM: Very nostalgic.

Elana Carroll: Yeah, it does. I think there was some nostalgia, but I think also it was almost four years ago that we were like, "Let's do this." And then it kind of felt crazy to want to make a pop-rock, power-pop rock thing. It was just kind of like, "Well, no one's done that for a while." But then things started to shift. There's a wave of rock, so now it feels relevant. But definitely four years ago, we were kind of like, "Yeah, I want to."

DM: I also want to comment that the music video for "Supersize" is outstanding. The visuals are cool. Elana, you have an effortless way of working the camera. Tell me a bit about the inspiration for the music video.

EC: Well, it was at the Museum of Illusions at the Mall of America.

CH: Yeah, I forget how we ended up there. They reached out, maybe.

KA: Yeah. Our song's called "Supersize," and I had an idea that maybe a good theme for this music video would be actual optical illusions. I was like, “Maybe we can buy really big clown shoes and clothing to make us look really big, and then maybe we can do things to make us look really small.” But then I was like, “I don't know how to actually achieve this without a warehouse with a sloped floor.”

Then I remembered that a long time ago the Museum of Illusions had written an email to Bad Bad Hats, like, "If you ever want to come check out the Museum of Illusions, let us know." At the time I was like, "Okay, not now." But then I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is the time! It's finally here!" It was really fun. We got a lot of great pictures of us in the various mirror illusions. They had this big room with a big screen in the back and a bunch of mirrors around, so you're surrounded by patterns.

EC: A step-into-it kaleidoscope is the vibe — that you can be in the kaleidoscope.

CH: And the back wall is an LED screen that you can put whatever you want on.

KA: The second we were in there, we all were like, "Oh my gosh, it's like the Apple iPod commercials from the 2000s."

EC: Yeah, that felt crazy. That seemed impenetrable at the time, being a young person and seeing the Apple commercials and Jet or Feist or whatever, and just being like, "Oh my God, you can fit all these songs in your pocket!" Technology just felt magical then, whereas now it feels oppressive. So it was kind of fun to be living this kinetic experience of whatever that was versus it just being a commercial. We just kind of leaned into that.

DM: I know that y'all have been friends for a decade. Take me back to this moment of y'all watching Josie and the Pussycats, because that is such a pivotal part of your bio.

KA: As Elana said, we had been friends for a long time, thanks to music and a shared interest in recording and songwriting. We met when I was studying abroad in Paris, and my best friend from the program I was in is Elana's childhood friend.

So we met in a very serendipitous, wonderful way and had been musicians all these years, making music parallel to each other and touring. Then Party Nails opened for Bad Bad Hats on tour in 2018, and my mom came to a show and commented after Elana's set, "Oh, her voice really reminds me of the lady from Josie and the Pussycats." I was like, "Oh, Kay Hanley. Yeah, that's cool. I could hear that." That made me think it would be amazing to play a song from the soundtrack and have Elana come on stage. So we started doing that for the encore. We'd have Elana come up and sing "Pretend to Be Nice," and we'd be the backing band. It was so fun because I'd never had the experience of just being a guitar player and soaking up the experience of watching Elana sing and perform. I kept that in my pocket, and several years later I was like, "Elana, what if we did that for real?" She was like, "Okay, great. What days are you free?" And I was like, "Oh... okay. Oh my God!"

DM: It's that easy, huh?

KA: Yeah, you guys were on a living room tour. Or maybe you were the only people to spend the night at my house. We'd been crossing paths outside of touring together, but that was the first time we talked about anything other than tour or how dirty your pants are.

KA: Really dirty.

[Laughs]

KA: But then Elana came to visit, and we were in L.A. starting to slowly work on songs. On one of the first or second visits, we watched Josie and the Pussycats all together.

EC: And we hadn't named it yet.

KA: Yeah, we didn't have a band name. We had ideas of what the band would be, but we watched the movie and it just felt like this is the sonic influence, the visual influence, the ethos. It all felt very fitting for the kind of band we wanted to have.

And then our name came from the Megasound 8000, which is the machine in the movie that puts the subliminal messages into the songs. We don't do that here.

EC: Or do we?

[Laughs]

KA: And that hankering for a sports drink you have — you're just thirsty.

DM: I need to rewatch this movie, Josie and the Pussycats.

CH: Oh, it's amazing! It really holds up.

EC: Yeah, it's bizarre. Actually, it predicted TikTok. It's crazy.

DM: Really?

EC: Yeah. It never names it by name, but it doesn't need to. You're just like, wow. We had this crazy experience where we got to actually play some shows with Letters to Cleo, and Kay Hanley is the voice of the singing Josie. And there was a lot of crying during that time, tears of gratitude. But also it was cool to hear Kay's perspective on that film, because at the time, it didn't really make a big splash.

Now, there is no such thing as a mid-budget — but this was a mid-budget film that didn't do well critically, that had some really cool actors in it: Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, Rachael Leigh Cook, one of my massive childhood crushes. There were all these amazing people. But Kay was kind of like, "Yeah, we really didn't think it really mattered to people." And we were like, "No, no, no, no, no." It mattered then. It mattered when it came out. It made me want to be in a band. Made so many people want to be in a band. And then it remained important with all of its prescient cultural technological commentary.

KA: I would not be surprised if 80% of current indie musicians would name that movie as an influence.

DM: Yes, I knew Mitski was.

EC: Oh wow. Yeah, between Josie and the Pussycats and School of Rock, I think that's pretty much everyone under 40 in music, or under 50, actually.

DM: Well, I was a big fan of the movie Spice World. I was obsessed.

KA: Yes, we've also watched that.

CH: The Holy Trinity.

[Laughs]

DM: A movie that made no sense at all. I just worshiped Sporty Spice.

EC: Absolutely.

DM: Kerry, you mentioned switching roles. This is very much a supporting role. And, Chris, you switch to drums. [Kerry is] singing harmonies and ripping awesome guitar riffs. Tell me about the experience of shifting roles.

CH: It's amazing. I love playing drums. I love to have a band that's doing something different, stretching a different muscle, and experiencing a show from a different spot on the stage. I love seeing Kerry stepping back and looking around and striking a pose.

KA: I will say, at the very first show we played, we were in soundcheck, and I started to set up my pedal board in the middle of the stage, and Chris was like, "Kerry, what are you doing?"

CH: Step aside! The ego, the giant ego.

EC: Yeah, Carrie's ego is crazy.

[Laughs]

DM: I've always known that about you.

KA: I weirdly find it scarier to just be a guitarist because I feel like in some ways that's the part of my performance that I've always felt most self-conscious of ... I read an article with Courtney Barnett one time where she listed her areas of comfort and I think she was like, guitar, songwriting, voice. And I feel like mine is songwriting, voice, guitar.

EC: Interesting.

KA: Yeah, so in some ways, it's like Chris is saying. I appreciate a moment to be like, “right, I'm a guitar player, and that's my focus,” and I just really can really work on nailing my parts and moving my body. My performance is the guitar now. So how do I emphasize that?

DM: I want to draw attention, Elana, to you. I was jamming out to your music Party Nails. It's so good. Electro-pop dance music. [Reminds me of] Metric, Lights.

EC: Yeah, absolutely. Love Lights.

DM: Tell about your background in project Party Nails and then shifting your focus to rock.

EC: It's funny. It does feel like I ultimately always wanted to be leading a rock band. And by the time Kerry and I met each other, and then even by the time Kerry and Chris were in my house, like, what about this idea? I think I'd forgotten about that because it just wasn't something that was happening naturally. What was happening naturally was I was writing songs. I was interested. I was always a guitar player. I was quite a nerd and studied music in college and was sure to get straight A's about all of that. So I just was always really hungry and looking for more stuff to ingest. Classical guitar, blues guitar.

Singing came very naturally, and I felt that it was very girly. And it bothered me. So I think that's why rock, as a younger girl, was what I wanted to do because it blended the masculine and the feminine in this cool way. And all of that is to say, I think Party Nails is my vehicle to blend a lot of things and to blend a lot of campier versions of some of these themes that we do explore in Megasound too. But yeah, there's a darker flavor. There's a little bit of noir-y elements. There's a little bit of industrial elements. But on every album, I try to have an unplugged, back-to-my-roots Americana song. And it's not easy to market, honestly, for all of those reasons.

My mom is a very eclectic music lover. Anything she can dance to. She stayed in bed for two days when James Brown died. She's really intense about her love of music. And I had a great guitar teacher who taught me to write songs, and I just always loved it.

We can be eclectic in Megasound for sure, and yet there is a vision. I've never wanted to be a solo genius. I'll do it if nobody else wants to do these things I want to do. Nobody else wants to roll around in an empty pool in the dirt. But I will. But now it's like we can do this stuff together, and that's just been a relief and also so fun.

DM: And you operate a recording studio in LA as well.

EC: I do.

DM: Did you guys record there?

CH: We did a few demos there at the beginning, I think.

DM: St. Paul, Minnesota represent.

EC: Yeah, we spent some time, and I think it influenced some things. But our Megasound by Megasound is actually recorded in Chris and Kerry's home studio. We talk a lot about our studios, so we can sort of make different choices about different gear in tandem. So actually, now I have their old distressor, which is a really awesome compressor. So yeah, we're not one studio, but we are very influenced by each other.

DM: Tell me about your show coming up at Turf Club.

KA: Yeah, we do. August 14.

DM: Excited to Agnes Uncaged on that bill. They’re awesome.

EC: Yeah, we love them.

DM: What do you have in store for that show?

KA: Yes, it was actually kind of cool because Elana was here a month ago to film our music video for our song "Lemon Peel," out now. And yeah, I just wanted to see some music and happened to go see Agnes Uncaged. So that was also a nice serendipitous moment that we get to play together now in August.

CH: Yeah, that'll be fun, and the album will have been out a week.

EC: Yeah, we'll have vinyl. It's really cute.

KA: I've heard a lot of my friends are getting babysitters to come to the show. So if you're listening to this as well, I think you could do that commitment to Megasound too.

EC: And my childhood friend's dad is going to come. Because even though I grew up in upstate New York, he grew up here.

DM: Well, now you're an honorary Minnesotan.

EC: I'm thrilled. What a nice place.

DM: I wanted to pull a quote from your bio because I thought it was pretty profound: "15 years into their careers, the members of Megasound have experienced firsthand the tumultuous gear grinding of the music industry. It's no wonder fear of and disdain for increasing commercialism in art is frequent subject matter in their songs, but just like in their namesake film Josie and the Pussycats, which precisely predicted the ever entangled mess of music and advertising ..." Curious if you have anything to expound upon on that.

KA: I think what I like about Josie and the Pussycats being this touchpoint for the band is that there is a darker undertone, obviously, to the movie that is prescient of darker undertones in the music industry right now. But the overwhelming experience of watching the movie is just that it's very fun and that you're just excited to hear great music and be endeared to this group of friends who are wanting to connect with people via great music.

So I do think that is sort of the Megasound thing, even for us. Not that we don't find great joy in connection via our other projects. We do, but it's sort of in this moment of starting something fresh, I think we all have this feeling of – it's just sort of another way to just have fun and be amongst friends and just kind of leave everything else behind, and just sort of say, "Let's go into the basement and play rock music."

Megasound perform at Turf Club on Friday, Aug. 14. Tickets and Info