When one visits the myspace page of girl band St Mannequins, they are immediately flooded with optimistic music & absolutely adorable pictures, together seeming to radiate a strong never grow up aesthetic. With influences such as Dolly Parton, Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, & a brother in boy band The Terrordactyls, it’s hard not to fall in love with the gentle humming of Melaena Cadiz and Donna Baxter. The two girls currently reside in Brooklyn, New York, recording their own music & sharing each song with the world. When describing their sound, the girls define themselves “like frosting on a cake,” & the shoe fits perfectly. St Mannequins sound a little like a cross between folk band The Ditty Bops, Australian singer Lisa Mitchell, & pop artist Lily Allen. The band formed in February of 2007 after discovering their shared love of “crossword puzzles, kite flying, fireworks, poofy dresses, ferris wheels, and country music.” Such inspirations drift through the imaginations of every listener through their unique sound & harmonic singing. I was lucky enough to talk to Donna & Melaena this afternoon, & thought I’d share it with you. Enjoy.
So, tell us a little bit about yourselves!
Melaena: Ok, I am from Kalamazoo, MI and Donna is from Greenlawn, Long Island and we met while both working at a dress shop in the West Village. [I’m] also an actress and Donna is a fashion designer. Our love of crossword puzzles brought us together. (We put together different clues from crosswords to make our first songs "Out of Bed", "Big Untruth".)
That's adorable! You two seem like quite the pair. How did you get started making music?
Donna: Well after we put together the crossword clues we made a fake album (no joke) and then someone asked us to play a show, so in 4 days we had to write those songs for real and it actually came so easily and we decided we wanted to learn all different instruments so we just kept playing around with different ones, and Melaena decided to learn the banjo which is now a huge part of our music.
It looks like it’s been quite the adventure. Where do you gather your inspiration?
Melaena: From our relationships, from newspaper articles, fairytales, and our friends. We write a lot of songs about our friends and do a lot of projects with our friends (our friend Erin who “Fairy Princess” is about wrote a play about us where we got to write songs about two mannequins who come to life at night and write music).
Donna: We try to say a lot in sort of a humorous way but there is usually a serious undertone to it.
I think some of the biggest inspirations can be the little magical moments in life, the beauty we can find in unexpected places. It sounds like you girls agree!
Melaena & Donna: ABSOLUTELY!
What is it that you're hoping to accomplish through your music? Any audience in particular that you're trying to reach, or message you're trying to send?
Donna: We are trying to have fun and hopefully people will have fun watching us. We were playing for the same type of audiences for a while (DIY shows etc.) but lately we started playing for the older NY theater crowd and they have really embraced our sense of humor, but actually what we are working on now is a children’s album. A girl came up to us at our last show and told us she plays the song "Sharks" for an autistic girl in her class she teaches and the little girl loves it and sings along and we are making plans to go play the class we can bring all our fun little instruments and have the kids play with them.
That's so touching, to hear such great feedback like that. As far as the DIY scene, I feel like the do-it-yourself generation is making such an amazing impact on our country right now. There seems to be an incredible increase in young people creating their own eclectic clothes, focusing on art and photography, earth-friendly & vegan options, recording their own music, etc. Anything to express themselves & contribute to this scene. Can you elaborate on how this scene affects your work?
Donna: I grew up in the DIY scene and it had such a huge impact on everything I do... Especially music. It’s incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by young people doing so many different new things and showing them to you all the time. Also, with the DIY scene it seems that everyone really embraces each other and helps each other out... So you are always meeting more and more people with new ideas, and of course that always helps.
Melaena: The DIY scene has helped us out so much while booking tours... When we go to play a house show in another state everyone is so welcoming and its inspiring cause it makes it seem like anything is possible just seeing our friends work start from an idea to actually being made (i.e. our friend who wrote a script and then just shot her first full length movie).
I definitely agree, it’s such an inspirational movement. Almost a Peter Pan philosophy of 'never grow up,' and it really goes to show that anything is possible!
Melaena & Donna: You are so cute, we totally agree.
Aww, thanks. Do you get to tour a lot for your music?
Melaena & Donna: We do get to play a lot of shows out of town but usually for a night or two... We have gone on two tours and hopefully soon we can have a way longer tour where we can hit the whole US... & we will come to YOU! Sometimes it’s just really hard with our schedules.
I completely understand. How would you describe the St Mannequins girl?
Melaena & Donna: The St. Mannequins girl is very positive, very considerate, has a wild imagination, still enjoys doing things now that they did when they were a kid (i.e. amusement parks) sees the magic in little everyday things, and still wishes upon the stars.
YES! Looks like I fall under that category. I'm honored. Anything else you'd like to say to my readers?
Melaena & Donna: Just that music is the best therapy in the world!
Thank you to Melaena & Donna, and check out their Myspace!
xoxo,
SPRINKLE 
