Are you a real band?

Do you mean, are we a band like you see on MTV or that your older cousin plays in? Squeaky Clean started out as a rockabilly band that played in bars and clubs, like any other band. We sent demo tapes to record companies and even released our own record in 1984. We were pretty cool at the time, but we never got a large enough following to get a record deal. So for the past twenty years or so, we have performed in places like schools, libraries, parks, senior centers and other places where people are already gathered. So we are a real band and music is primarily what we do to support ourselves. We just play music in places where many other bands don’t.

How did you come up with the name Squeaky Clean?

The rockabilly revival of the early 1980s was an outgrowth of the punk movement of the 1970s (the link was a singer named Robert Gordon). When we were going out as a rockabilly band, all the other groups were into leather, tattoos and looking real tough. But all the records we learned from (Janis Martin, The Collins Kids, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson) had photos of musicians that looked very clean-cut. Since we couldn’t really pull off the tough look, we thought we would stand out by going the other way. The fact that we later started performing for children is just a coincidence.
Also, we put out our first record when the Stray Cats were popular. Since records are usually shelved in alphabetical order, anyone looking for the latest Stray Cats record would see ours first!

Are you really “Squeaky Clean?”

Yes. And nobody can make fun of you if you don’t take yourself too seriously.

Do you really play your instruments?

 Unlike many bands you see on TV, we really play and sing and create all the music ourselves. When we are doing simple rock and roll songs, our bass-drums-guitar format is all you really need. When we perform more complicated music that has horns, strings, etc. we utilize a computer sequencer, which plays some of the musical parts that we can’t play live. Glenn programs almost all of the computer parts by himself, trying to faithfully reproduce the arrangements of the original recordings.

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