Aubrey Edwards of Boom Chica Boom

Boom Chica Boom is a go-go dancing duo from Texas.

Aubrey will dance for you.  She won't strip.  But she'll dance, oh hot damn will she dance.



Chief Magazine: So you’re a vegetarian. Were you raised vegetarian?

Aubrey Edwards: Yeah. My mother was a fanatical seventh day Adventist. My father was a preacher, more or less, and the seventh day Adventist dogma says that you’re a vegetarian. So I was a vegetarian until I was six, when my mother passed away. When she passed away, my father denounced God and my sister, myself, and he became atheists and we began eating meat. I ate meat for two years and then I went back to being a vegetarian when I was eight. I made the choice to go back on my own, but my family continued eating meat.

That’s a pretty intense childhood.

Hey man, I’m wise beyond my age. I’m an old soul.

Was your sister older or younger?

Older, by three years.

Is everybody still an atheist these days?

My father became an agnostic, and then he became a born again Christian about four years ago. Then he denounced god again about two years ago. Not really a catalyst for that one. Now he’s just a retired cop who lives out in the Arizona desert and shoots guns by his trailer. He always likes to fight with his “liberal communist pinko daughter” who’s been brainwashed by revisionist history. So, it’s pretty cool. All we can do is shoot guns and play chess. They’re the only two things that don’t polarize us.

Are you any good at chess?

I’m pretty good. Not really, I can be beaten by a child. But I enjoy it.

You said earlier you Ralph Nader speak today. What was that all about?

He’s got a new book out called The Seventeen Traditions, where he basically talks about how the fashion in which he was raised, with very political-conscience and socially aware parents, and how they passed down these certain traditions to him that enabled him to live his life the way he lives it now. You know, to be a civic leader and to be aware of things in the world and whatnot. It was pretty interesting. He just talked about how what he does is rooted in his childhood, and how parenting is much more different now than what it used to be.

I’ll tell you what, not that it’s cool, but when I was a kid if I acted up my dad would slap the shit out of me, and I never did it again. Now this permissive parenting blows my mind. Kids are fucking out of control. I was a teacher for seven years in the public school system, and it’s wild. I never thought I would be that grown-up who’s like, “Ohhhh these kids today!” But these motherfuckers are crazy! They’re not instilled with any respect for anything.

Where were you teaching?

Texas. In Austin.

Were kids bringing guns to school and shit?

No. I was a permanent substitute teacher on the east side of Austin with, as far as the economic, I guess they don’t say “at risk” anymore, they say “underserved” youth. Minority kids. My kids were like fifteen with bullet wounds and shit. Selling drugs on the corner to support their family. I could talk and talk about the public school system, but I don’t think we need to do that.

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Maybe we could talk about “Boom Chica” for a minute. Did that start in Texas?

It started in Texas when I was about nineteen years old. I began go-go dancing at a lesbian bar, and I was the token “femme” dancer. It was me and three super bull dykes. It was great, I danced there about once a week and it was wonderful. I’m straight, well... as straight as anybody can be nowadays. It all kind of blends and merges. I did that for a year and then I met my current partner Beth when I was about twenty, twenty one. And oddly enough, she had been go-go dancing with a drag queen group in Austin. So wet met and were like, “fuck this, let's just do our own thing. There’s no go-go dancers here in town, there’s plenty of titty bars, there’s burlesque dancers, but there’s nothing really in between that.” So we began about six years ago, about 2000. It’s always been her and I, the two of us, and we’ve been doing it for, like I said, six years now.

So for your first gig were you like, “I dance, you dance, let’s dance together?”

You know, I actually don’t remember what our first gig was. But it’s never been tag-team, it’s always been together, on elevated boxes. We’d make all of our own costumes, they’re all 60’s influenced: fringe. Bikinis, one pieces, wigs, bouffants, white go-go boots, fish nets. I don’t know if you’re ever seen “Hullabaloo,” or any of those old 60’s dance shows. It was modeled after that.

How does Boom Chica Boom fit into the larger scheme?  Do you think about it every day, or if the opportunity comes up?

When I lived in Austin, Beth and I would be booked on a fairly regular basis. We would do everything from host high-end fashion and VIP parties, to bartending, to being the accompaniment at soul parties. We danced with a slew of garage bands in Austin. We would host AIDS charities, we were in several videos, and just all kinds of shit. We were like the token dancing girls. But it kind of spanned everywhere. We were really busy, and then I took off to travel for about a year, and so it kind of went on hiatus for a while. I haven’t lived in Austin now for a couple of years. So now I’m kid of the east coast part, she’s the gulf coast, we fly back and forth for the bigger stuff. I also go back to Austin quite a bit for work, so whenever I’m there we’ll try and book some shows or I’ll fly back and book work around the shows.

At your shows, do you dance to your own music?

No. We always dance with DJs. At our last gig, we danced with a couple of DJs from DFA. It was at a big party during Austin’s City Limits festival. We had booked to dance with these guys who had these really great costumes with lightning bolts all over it, it was great. We can do everything from hip-hop to old 60’s soul to whatever. We kind of run the gamut. We’ve danced with mostly garage bands because that’s where the aesthetic fits in the best. We’ve danced with Deadly Snakes, Sons of Hercules, Howlin’ Pelle from The Hives, Raunch Hands, John Scoey one man band. A handful of garage bands who are kind of, in the scene. As far as hip-hop DJs, we’ve danced with DJ Mel. We dance with him about every other month at a big 80’s party that he throws. We always tailor our costumes to match the event.

Were you always dancing as a kid?

Always.

But it wasn’t allowed, right?

[Laughs.] Not until I was six. That’s when I broke loose. I remember being younger and stealing a pair of my sister’s pumps. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the lady’s shoe the pump. It’s kind of like a high heel with no heel…

Oh, I’m familiar with the pump, thank you.

So I would borrow my sister’s pumps and I would tape quarters to the bottom to make them into tap shoes. Then I would go out on to my front porch, which was cement, and I would tap dance… in a leotard and a sweatband. I didn’t have a babysitter, we were too poor, so I entertained myself by doing such things.

I’ve always loved dancing, but I never thought that I was really good at it and I always thought that I had no rhythm. Then I started playing the drums when I was in high school and realized that I had rhythm, so I started dancing even more.

Do you play the drums anymore?

No, I play the guitar now because I had to sell my drum kit when I moved to New Zealand. I liquidated. So a guitar and my ukulele are my most portable instruments which I can take with me. Boom Chica Boom has also been ukulele representatives for the most prominent ukulele company in the United States.

What does that mean?

It means that at trade shows we wear grass skirts and coconut bras and we play the ukulele representing Bushman Ukuleles.

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Did you call them or did they call you?

They called us. They also make harmonicas, and John Scoey and his one man band based in Austin uses Bushman harmonicas, and they saw us in one of his promo photos and contacted us.

How does that pay?

It pays pretty well. The prices vary depending on what we’re doing. If we’re doing a charity event, we obviously don’t ask. It’s charity. We’ve done bachelor parties, but let me make the distinction that we’re not strippers. Some people think that maybe we like getting dollar bills…

I imagine that it’s not a bachelor party unless there’s a stripper.

I think that’s what the bachelor thought as well. His girlfriend hired us. It was interesting, we just ended up making drinks all night. We did all kinds of stuff, and in Austin we kind of became, well… I don’t want to say “celebrities” but, our faces are known, and what we do is known but we can be diverse and do all kinds of shit. So if you need two dancin’ ladies, or ladies in bikini’s, whatever...

And you’re not strippers.

We’re not.

Seriously though, how much would it take?

I’ll give you a hand job for twenty dollars.

[Laughs.] Seriously though, it really is trying to bring back the fine tradition of dancing and the go-go. If you watch I can send you these old episodes of Hullabaloo or Bandstand or even Soul Train or Laugh-In. It’s just this amazing fast gyrating. Even in the movie Apocalypse Now, my favorite scene is where the Playboy Bunnies get lowered from the helicopter and they come out doing “The Pony” in costumes. It’s great. Just to see a woman dance is fucking amazing.

We’re trying to bring back this 60s tradition of dancing that doesn’t involve spreading my labia for dollar bills, it doesn’t entail taking my top off, it’s just semi-choreographed dancing to great music and great bands. It just adds to the overall aesthetic of the show. Our favorite event was, I forget his last name… Jerry something. He recently died within the past few months. He was the original writer and performer of the song “Tequila.” We were hired to dance alongside of him in this all-star line-up of crazy old school surf and garage rock guys for the Austin City Limits Austin Music Awards. It was this huge space with thousands of people, and we got to dance to “Tequila.” It was pretty amazing. He told us he was going to fly us out to LA to do his record release. But he died.

With that instance, did you guys come up with a “Tequila”- specific choreographed dance?

We did. Normally we don’t choreograph. We do for some occasions but for the most part, Beth and I have been dancing together for so long that we can read each other pretty well. Eye contact is a big part of what we do, knowing when to transition to new moves. We hardly ever truly choreograph anything, but it flows very well together. Our styles are very similar.

You do other stuff too, right? You play the guitar, do photography, was there ever a moment where you were like, “Fuck all that shit, I wanna DANCE?”

Sure, maybe at one point I entertained fantasies of being a rockette or something of that caliber. The way that I view my life is that I have a very long life and a very short life which means that I can go in one direction and be really fucking good at it, or I can spread that out and be a jane of all trades. So if I’m never doing anything new, or learning any new things or spreading my knowledge base I feel like I’m just wasting my time. So for me, in twenty years, when I maybe have grandchildren, which I don’t actually believe in procreating…

Wait, do you have kids now?

No, so having grandkids might be a little hard. Maybe I’ll marry a rich Greek man who has grandchildren already. But anyway, if I have these grandkids I can show them my go-go costume and be like, “Yeah kids, grandma used to be a go-go dancer in Texas for ten years.” I could have this amazing array of photos and memories.

But since I’ve moved from Austin there have been two new go-go troops. It’s something that, at that point in time, the music scene is Austin is huge, and there are a ton of garage bands, a ton of rock bands. It’s a very busy city. We did what was needed at that point in time. Now it comes more in spurts, and it’s more of a treat, more of a vacation from our regular lives.

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So have you met these other people in Austin? The other dancers?

Yeah, I challenged them to a dance-off. They accepted, but nothing’s come to fruition yet. We actually did a dance off. There’s a club in Austin called Beer Land. It’s one of the main garage hubs. The owners are great, they’re kind of like the mom and the dad of the scene. So for the owner’s birthday, his name’s Randall, we challenged the pre-existing group, who weren’t go-gos essentially, they’re called Satan’s cheerleaders, so it’s more of this gothy thing; pitchforks and 666 and vinyl industrial… We challenged them to a dance off… and won. There’s nothing cooler than a dance-off man, I’ll tell you what. There were about ten girls in their troop, and there were two in ours. It was ten rounds, each of us had our own songs. They, for instance would dance to Nick Cave, we would dance to The Monks. So it’s very different, we had flowers all in our hair and little white bikinis, fluorescent pink fringe. We danced on top of the bar, it was great.

How many rounds did you win?

Ten. It was an overall whole. Those girls… they were a little bigger, I think they lost some stamina.

So is dancing part of a greater fitness program, or a separate thing?

[Laughs.] I think I dance all the time. I’m always dancing, for sure. I dance a lot in the subway now.

Like on the platform?

I do. I’m just like the crazy girl listening to her walkman and dancing around.

Ok, so you don’t put out a hat.

Oh no, no. The thing is that I’m always on my bike, I don’t usually ride the subway unless it’s really cold or I have to lug a bunch of shit, and people in the subway are so sad and so gloomy and everybody has the most blank stares on their faces, so I figure if I have a little smile on the whole time and I’m dancing and moving around that maybe people feel a little better about their commute.

You never get the ol’, “What’s up baby?”

That’s why I wear the headphones.

[Drinking.]

I decided that I needed to quit drinking until I black out when I first moved here and I met some Colombians on the corner in the lower east side when I was loaded. I somehow ended up at Max Fish drinking tequila with them. So I was like, “Cool, I gotta go now, I’ll see you later.” I walked out the door, put myself in the cab and woke up the next morning in my bed covered in vomit. I was like “A) I’m not partying with Colombians anymore, and B) I need to get my shit together in this city because mama could’ve gotten rolled, or raped.

I thank my lucky stars that it'll be a cold day in hell the day somebody tries to roofie me.

([Laughs.] It’s funny. In Austin they have this thing that they call the Texas air-conditioner where you can drive home with your tall-boy in between your legs and it’s totally socially acceptable to drive home drunk. I’m not saying that’s an Okay thing. But in New York you’re more at the mercy of the city. From point A to point B there’s a lot of shit that could go wrong.

The greatest story I’ve heard, I was in San Francisco about a week and a half ago just having dinner with some buddies, and met one of their friends and they were like, “Tell Aubrey what happened at the Knock Out last weekend!” So I was like, “Oh what happened at the Knock Out?” She was like, “Well, I got real fucked up and I woke up at five o’clock in the morning in the back of the bar, and the bar was locked up and everybody had gone home. I didn’t know how or when I passed out.”

I’m done partying how I used to though, because I am good. I am really good at parytying. I was like, “You know what, I’ve done this, I’ve had my run. I don’t need to do a bunch of blow off of a stripper’s tits, take five whiskey shots and then do a naked back flip off of a party barge. I’ve done it.” It’s time to chill out a little bit. It’s all about moderation, man.

I want to talk about your photography. You recently did a New Orleans series, Blood, Sweat, & Tears: Portraits of New Orleans Residents and Rebuilders what are you working on nowadays?

That’s still my labor of love. I’ve been working for the past year on an extensive series of portraits of New Orleans residents and rebuilders. I go down to New Orleans about every other month, or every three months. I teach with a project called The New Orleans Kid Camera Project, and I’m their sole digital and studio lighting instructor. That basically started with a handful of women going into these flooded neighborhoods throughout the storm, wrangling children in various neighborhoods and trying to teach them photography as art therapy and as a way of empowering them with the knowledge of this new technical skill and also to express themselves in photographs.

So I go down, work with them, and I also work on this series I’m building of portraits. I’m trying to get that published as a book, which is trying and taxing. Aside from that I just returned from Mexico where I lived with a Zapatista community up in the highlands of Chiapas. So I was shooting there for a current project.

Also I’m beginning a Queens chapter to my Texas chapter of barbers, so basically portraits of barbers in Queens. I always have a slew of things going on. I always shoot when I travel and I travel quite a bit and always pick people off of the street, or people I meet and shoot portraits wherever I go.

Did you study photography?

I received a Bachelor’s in magazine journalism and an Associate’s in photography, but of course I was the black sheep of the program and I was told by several instructors that my work was shit and that I would never make a living off of it. Of course these are 45-year-old white men who are used to shooting for Target catalogs.

It’s really interesting to deal with two years of bullshit and non-constructive criticism just to be able to rent equipment for free. So now I’ve been making a living off of photography since I was twenty-four, so about three years now.

No day jobs or anything?

No, but I’ve done a lot of amazing things for money. I’ve been a magician’s assistant, I was a waitress at a truck stop when I was sixteen, that was pretty interesting. My most favorite thing that was said to me when I waited tables there was, “Honey, if you weighed a hundred pounds more I’d take you home to Mississippi with me and marry you.” I must have been a hundred pounds around the time I was sixteen, so we’re talking about a deuce. I’ve done a lot of things for money and nobody in my opinion should be judged for their job or what they do for money unless it’s completely detrimental to others or the environment or society. It’s my lifelong goal to have a long list of amazing jobs. But I know that photography is always going to be what I do, that it’s always going to be a part of my life.

Now in school... magazine journalism, was that photo journalism, or writing?

No, it was writing and design. But, you know, college is what it is. It’s a piece of paper, but you learn how to manage your time, you learn how to schedule, you learn commitment, maybe a handful of minor skills but really you don’t learn shit. But you gotta play the game, so I played the game for six years.

So your going back to Austin at the end of the month?

Yes. I’m going back for SXSW. It’s my proverbial cash cow.

So they give you a big badge and let you run around?

I get myself into a lot of trouble, make a lot of good stories, and see lots of fucking rock and roll. Then I go back to New York, and then to Cuba, and then Italy, and then Paris, then Alaska. I’m sailing to Cuba from the Yucatan.

What’s the best place you’ve visited thus far?

One of my favorite memories is from when I was living out of my car for about six months on the west coast from Texas up to Canada, and I was staying with friends along the way, or I would barter portraits for a place to stay. So in Vancouver I called a friend, who then called the friend of a friend and set me up with a place to stay in exchange for a portrait. As it turns out, the woman was a dominatrix. So I was welcomed into this woman’s home, took these amazing photos with her and got to listen to all of her crazy ass fucking stories about double fisting assholes all night long.

Like… two assholes and one fist?

No, no, no. One asshole. Two fists.

My travels have definitely led me to some really amazing places. For me, since I like to take portraits wherever I go, it’s not just seeing other parts of the world through my eyes, but through their experiences and their lives. I get to have this intimate moment with them where I actually get to capture them and take their photo, talk to them and get to know them. I’ve made friends all over the world by doing that. It’s so fucking cool, and I’m so grateful and thankful.

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Website

www.boomchicaboom.com
www.aubreyedwards.com

Photos

A.P. Smith
Courtesy of Boom Chica Boom

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