FLYER YOUR FREAK FLAG
Hangin’ with The Two Tears
By Megan Martin

With all things creative, it’s never a one-step process. You’ve slaved to get that final product – that killer song, that awe-enhancing painting, that perfectly crafted suit jacket, that all-informing editorial. It’s ready, but people still don’t know about it. Enter in step two, getting it out there, which us artistic types aren’t quite as masterful at. But promotion, like any art project, can often start with scissors, tape, glue sticks and ideas. Whether you’re making a zine or advertising a band, creating a flyer can be all a part of the fun.

Take it from Kerry Davis, guitarist and singer from bands The Red Aunts, Beehive and the Barracudas and most recently, The Two Tears. She uses smart and shocking images to really get the message across: we are playing a show that you won’t want to miss. 

Over red wine at the Sixth Ward in the Lower East Side, Davis answered some very important questions about living life as a musician and making the perfect flyer…

WC: What do you like about touring?

KD: Meeting new people, thrift shopping, eating!!!, photos, partying, seeing beautiful old streets, learning geography and languages.

WC: You were touring throughout Europe and the Middle East for awhile, what was that like?

KD: I was living in the Middle East in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Paris is only six hours away and four or five hundred Euros to get to—just like travelling from New York to Paris. So in Paris and made lots of friends in the Euro garage scene and so I toured there a lot, lot, lot. I tried to find some places to play in Dubai, but it didn’t exist. We went to the “jazz and blues” club to check it out but there was a girl playing an electric violin, a dude playing a key-tair, and a lot of English drunk dorks pretending to be fancy like all the white people there!!!

WC: When making a flyer, what are some of the most important aspects?

KD: Making a flyer is as fun as playing the show for me. I like black and white old punker style flyers. I like “jolie/laide” type of imagery—a bit provocative. I don’t use a computer, I use scissors or an x-acto or flipping paper and glue sticks or tape or both. I do like having a printer available so I don’t have to go to the copy shop just to begin the process. Kinko’s sucks the big one. It’s also really great to have an office job to use the Xerox machine.

WC: Are there other bands whose flyers you find inspiring or that stand out to you?

KD: When I was staying in Torino, it was the national election in Italy and Berlusconi was going to come back. Coincidentally, I found an ad for the MISS ITALIA pageant. Together with all the “vota” election stuff in every newspaper, I made a VOTA Two Tears per Miss Italia flyer using a fashion image. I used Miss Italy Pageant font and a photo of the sign of an Abaya shop on the Omani/United Arab Emirates border.

Hear the Two Tears at twotears.com, myspace.com/thetwotears and check out Davis' record label Simple Social Graces.