What if Buddy Holly and Courtney Love formed a band meshing Buddy’s snappy 60’s ditties with Courtney’s outspoken declarations as a modern woman?
by NATALIE DURKIN/Photo by LINDSEY BYRNES
Meet The Regrettes, a pack of young Angelenos exploring the true meaning of punk rock. As the band’s bassist rightfully declares, The Regrettes have “worked their butts off.”
Listen up.
The Regrettes are Sage N. Chavis on bass, Genessa Gariano on guitar, Maxx Morando on drums, and Lydia Night on the mic. Chavis hails from Burbank and credits its small-town feel for helping her become “much more confident being an individual in public and having small talk with strangers.” Gariano tips her hat to Topanga Canyon’s “free spiritedness.” Morando is from Beverlywood/Culver City, and Night, his fellow Westsider, grew up in Santa Monica. “Everyone else was playing soccer and since I didn’t like that, I just wrote music,” she says.
Chavis, Gariano, and Morando met at a music school in the valley a decade ago. Night is a younger alum. The quartet “…reconnected about a year and a half ago” and The Regrettes hit the ground running all the way to Warner Brothers Records.
Feel your feelings fool! by Regrettes
Give Feel your feelings fool! the band’s January 2017 debut album, a listen to understand how Chavis, Gariano, Morando, and Night are primed for forging their own punk pathway. Their fun and infectious vibes radiate when you hear Morando keep the beat, Gariano and Chavis harmonize and strum, and Night hit notes that pull on your heart strings. They draw you in, sit you down, and share their vulnerability as Night sings of dealing “…with patronizing assholes” and “…the stretch marks on your butt.”
The band nods to sixties girl groups and 90s punk, but, Gariano affirms, “You’ve got to create your own sound and not try to emulate someone else’s.” The Regrettes do just that. Chavis, Gariano, Morando, and Night are young. The oldest, Gariano, who is only 20, laments that she’s constantly reminded of how young she looks, piquing her insecurity.
How does this young band make sure they’re taken seriously?
Night notes their “…team is amazing and extremely respectful,” but what about the other bullies, who, as Chavis says, “…exist everywhere?” The punk rock tactic to combatting patronization according to Gariano is “being gracious and mature,” which proves itself paramount at a time when Morando notices “kids feeling like they’re entitled to things…just treat everyone as you want to be treated,” he says. “When people see us live their ideas usually change, and if not, a conversation with us all fixes that,” Chavis explains. The bottom line: “Fight fire with water,” Gariano preaches.
Playing a kickass show doesn’t hurt, either.