Bands with cats - Rob from Weird Candle with Ashlee & Naiomi

– by Cheena Jean Normandin

Your bands and roles: Weird Candle – half of the songwriting and lead vocalist.

What are your cats’ names? Ashlee (two years old) and Naiomi (three months)

What are their origin stories?

Ashlee was adopted from SPCA In May 2014, and Naiomi was born last month in Burnaby BC. My friend’s cat had babies, so we adopted the cutest one (Naiomi), the only pure grey kitten out of a litter of black and white cats.

Who feeds your cats?

I feed the cats at 10 a.m. Ash eats raw meat purchased from Long Live Cats and Dogs on Hastings. We usually buy her salmon, or beef, or chicken, or deer. We switch it up every week. Naiomi at the moment eats PC gourmet wet kitten food from a mini can. Slowly we are conditioning her to develop a pallet for raw meat.

In the afternoon, Jessi, my partner in crime and babies momma, usually feeds them around 5 p.m. We give them a snack before bed too usually. Also they both love chewing on rabbit ears.

What are your cats’ theme songs?

Ashleee has three: 1. Real Lady Marmalade. 2. “Independent” by Destiny’s Child 3. “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The 2 Of Us”, by Sparks.

Naiomi’s theme song is: the probably theme song from Ducktales. Or the theme from the board game Trouble.

What is the most impressive thing that your cats have murdered?

Ashlee got rid of all our mice, but she is a classy gal. She never brings the corpses back to us a trophies. She’s modest at heart, and enjoys slaughtering giant moths from time to time.  Naiomi on the other hand was mauling a giant spider the other day. We barely saved his life…

If your cats see a GIANT spider. What is the course of action?

Giant spiders? Refer to previous question.

Where is the last inconvenient place that your cats have fallen asleep?

Both cats love to fall asleep in my box of Weird Candle T-shirts. Now they are covered in cat hair and are on sale for 20 per cent off.

If your cats threw a raging party, what are the staples on the playlist?

If Ashlee threw a party she would be spinning Bone Thugs ‘n’ Harmony, R Kelly, Doggystyle, Salt ‘n’ Pepa, and some new stuff, Nikki Minaj, Beyonce, etc.

Naiomi on the other hand would be trying to eat Ashlee’s spinning records. Ashlee would hiss at her and turn up the music. Naiomi I think would be more into eight-bit Chiptune jamz, on her iPod.

If you wake up in a Freaky Friday situation with your felines, what’s the first course of action on their behalf? On yours?

If I woke up as Ashlee I would beg Jessi for lots of pets and human food. I would not be into raw meat. If Ashlee woke up as me, she would finally use my hands to open the fridge and devour a tube of meat, and a block of butter, and maybe a carton of ice cream. She would probably also find Syd and take out some Kill Bill-style revenge on him for scratching her right eyeball out. Also she would probably put all the bully cats of Hastings-Sunrise in the back of my car and drive them out to some farm in Abbotsford and ditch them.

If I woke up as Naiomi, I’d play, eat, and sleep all day. If she woke up as me, she would probably do the same thing.

You can listen to Weird Candle on bandcamp below as well as like them on Facebook.

You can also see them on Oct. 2 for their EU tour kick-off show. It’s at a secret venue, with a not-so-secret event page.