Interview with the Washington DC band - Strange Boutique

Resurgence after a brief hiatus

Story by Matthew Murray

07/01/2026

We spoke to Monica Richards in California and Steve Willett in Washington DC by the power of Zoom and had a good chat about Strange Boutique, the old, the new, the living and the fondly remembered departed. They have been away as a collective for the last 30 years and I wanted to know what brings them back together now after all this time, what their plans are and how things are different this time around.

Gigshack - After 30 years or around 30 years, What brought you back together again? Strange Boutique - Well, I mean, it was a little painful because it was the death of Fred Freak Smith, our guitarist. He was the guitarist’s guitarist. I mean, when he played other musicians would just, you know, stand around and watch him. He was an amazing musician. He was an amazing person. He had a lot of troubles. The last, what do you think, 10 years, probably. And so when, when, when he passed it was really heartbreaking for us but I mean we've been heartbroken for a few years about, you know, the struggles he was going through. So when he passed I happened to be in Washington DC. So Steve and I made a point to, let's meet together and you know talk about everything. And as we were talking we were like well maybe we should do a show. Maybe we should, why don't we do a show in honor of Fred? And so while we were talking, first it was going to be an acoustic show. But then after I went home and we just started going back and forth, we were like, well, maybe this could be an electric show. So we called Rand, our old drummer. And then Steve had worked with Dennis Kane. He'd worked with DK for many years. And he was like, you know, Dennis has the chops. to play Fred's guitar lines. And so it all happened that way. That's it in a nutshell. Gigshack - So you just discussed it from there and then carried on. But then obviously you went on to do that performance, but then you have written a new album and written some new stuff. So you obviously wanted to carry on. Strange Boutique - Part of it was the response that we got from doing that show. But also, I think it was just the, you know, getting back together and playing the songs and playing together. There's something special about getting in a room with people that you really appreciate and admire. And there's a very simpatico sort of musical thing that happens. When we were rehearsing and doing the show, all those sorts of things came alive. And so when the show was over it just sort of seemed like a natural to think, what can we do next? We didn't want to just jump in and just do more shows, especially considering Monica lives in California and Dennis and I live in the Washington DC area. It just seemed like the next thing to do would be to see if we could write some songs. It took us a little while to get rolling just because it was a different process for us. It wasn't like the usual sort of band sort of scenario where you've got everybody in a room once or twice a week in your house songs. We practiced at least two times a week back in the day, we practiced religiously Thursday. And so we were always writing. We were always writing together and going through things. And even when we would tour the East Coast I remember we were working on things during sound checks. You know, it was really fun because we would just work out the parts as we went. And now it's a matter of, I've got this idea and I've got these parts. I'm going to send it to you. Let me know what you think. And then if something may hit me, I'll sing something on my phone, send it back. So we just start kind of going back and forth. 3000 miles right it's much more of a build a song sort of a situation it's still very much a collaboration but it's different version of collaborating a different different way of doing it. Gigshack - So a couple of the questions i was going to ask you started to answer already there so how does it compare working together now as opposed to then and where did you write the songs and it sounds like a couple of the differences are the geographical differences so how do you think it compares then and now writing together? Strange Boutique - Previously with band practice, I can usually not really hear myself. The last time Strange Boutique was together with Fred, we had this great basement where we had the old school punk rock way of hanging mattresses all over the walls so your neighbors didn't complain. And we had this weird thing where we had this plate of plexiglass between me and the band so I was all on the other side of the basement with my mic and I could actually hear what I was doing. So I'm enjoying writing songs this way, really. It would be great if we were playing in some amazing rehearsal studio all the time. I kind of miss the spark of being in a room. But there is something that's really exciting when I send something to Monica or Dennis or Dennis sends something to me and each of us adds something to it and then shares it back out, it's always exciting. It' a little bit of a reminder of that spark that you used to get when we were all in the same room. And you'd hear, you know, the band would be playing and Monica would sing something for the first time and our ears would perk up. Now we don't get that instantaneous thing, but we get it back in a digital file. And it's what we sent her and she sends back an idea. And it's that same sort of spark. It's just a different context, a different way of sharing it and creating it. Gigshack - Cool. Where did you record this latest album? Is it multiple locations? Strange Boutique - The three of us actually have our own studios at our own places. So we kind of assembled demo versions of all the songs and then we went into Magpie Studios in Baltimore. We tracked all the drums live and then the string section. Monica did her parts in California and Dennis and I did all the other stuff in our own studios. Gigshack - How would you say your sound is different with the new music? Strange Boutique- Well, there's not the Fred wall of noise. That was definitely a signature sound. We did not want DK to just replicate Fred in order to sound like Strange Boutique. I think Steve's bass sound is pretty signature for Strange Boutique. And I think that my vocals as well. So I think it was just basically it was a different, you know, it's a different band and we really wanted Dennis to have his own sound and bring his own flavor to the songs. And I think that there could be the difference, plus we're 30 years older. Gigshack - Are you happy with the results? Strange Boutique - I think for this new album, we kind of felt that way right away, because we weren't practicing it, you know, weekly all the time. And we were just kind of building these songs. I think we’re proud of how they turned out. In a weird sort of way, it almost feels like we were sort of disassociated from the material. Once we finished it, because we weren't playing the song in a room every week, we would focus on it, we would work on it, we would demo it, we would swap the demos. And then once it got to a point where we knew we were ready to actually go in and track it you know the final version of it we would just set that demo aside and start work on the next thing and then you know we went in and recorded you know we tracked drums and strings for like three or four songs at a time um and so it it came together in a weird sort of way um And I feel personally I kind of screwed up because I sang the songs for the songs, for the studio. Now, if we had been in band practice working on these songs in a live way, I would not have run verses into chorus into verse into chorus. You know, because if you listen to some of our older songs, like A Certain Euphoria, you know, there's these great instrumental breaks. And I'm able to dance around and, you know, kind of get back into it. Whereas like Radium Kiss, you know, we've played these songs live now and I have to pretty much stand still for a certain few songs because I've got to keep the breathing going. I've got to keep the process going between verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and then, you know. So I know that if we had actually written these songs together in the same room, I would have said, hey, you guys, I need some instrumental breaks here. Yeah. When you're recording in the studio, you're just like, oh, this sounds so good. And you don't think about the fact that now we've got to take this into live. How are we going to do that? So that has been interesting for sure. Gigshack - So far, from the latest album, my favorite is On the Surface. What's your personal favourite off that album? Strange Boutique - Right now I'm loving Zoid, Zoid and Dreamland. Zoid and Dreamland and probably Twelve Chimes. Twelve Chimes just came together so quickly and so spontaneously. Gigshack - Have you been performing these new songs live yet? Yeah it's really funny because what's different now, 30 years later, is we can tell which ones people are really liking because the phones go up. It's like we play certain songs and suddenly the phones go up, and I'm like, Yeah, they like that one. But yeah, we're playing Nightbirds, 12 Chimes, Jetstream, and Radium Kiss. So we've been adding those. But we're not, you know, as a fan, I hate to go see a band where they're like, we're playing just our new album. You know, we play, we make sure that we play most of the set are the old favorites as it were. Gigshack - And I know you've been doing a lot of things, both of you. Over the time, did you ever try to get back together previously? Strange Boutique - 2004, we did a reunion show and Metropolis records put out a best of. And so it was kind of like a, a kind of kind of like trying to reintroduce strange boutique to people who didn't know the band.We got together to kind of celebrate this best of CD, and it was a crazy crazy show and Fred was completely crazy and nutty and, and we had a good time. Monica and I always stayed in touch. I know I did a couple songs with Faith in the Muse at one point. Fred and I were very close, really the stars never aligned for us to to get back together and do anything and I don't think there was a pressing need. Monica was doing her thing and Fred did a lot of things after strange boutique and he always said strange boutique was his favorite band. Gigshack - In terms of touring, in the 90s, where have you toured before? I think I read that you toured in the UK with Killing Joke? Strange Boutique - We did Manchester and London. We were supposed to do France as well. And we had visa issues. Or I guess work work visas. So we got booted off of that for not being legit. We had also done dates with them here. We did three dates with them on the East Coast and got along well. And then they said If you want to do these dates with us in the UK in a couple of months and you can make it there, you can do them. They were all heroes of ours. We all loved Killing Joke so getting the chance to play with them and get to know them just a little bit was amazing. Seeing how dedicated and how intense they were to the live show, they took it very, very seriously. And I think that kind of rubbed off just a little bit, just maybe making us focus a little more. Geordie paid Fred a great compliment, which Fred never forgot, which was when you have your hero guitarist tell you that you'e a really good guitarist. Gigshack - From your first set of albums, do you have a particular favorite? Strange Boutique - I always go back to the charm album, um, because I think replicated our live sound the most. The loved one was very atmospheric and very ghostly in ways, but it didn't really sound like us live. I've always loved Ears to the Ground, first song on the Charm album, but it's not something that... we play well because there's just there's some interesting syncopation that that's happening rhythmically so when you take out the original guitar player and you take out the original drummer when we've tried it, it just doesn't click the same way. I think audience-wise, I think the Loved One is what most people gravitate to. Gigshack - Do you have a favorite place that you like to perform in the States in a particular venue and or a particular city in general? Strange Boutique - Well, I would have to say, it's our hometown of D.C. I mean,we just had an amazing show in New York, which was really fantastic. But there's something special about playing at home, you know, D.C. area. I did love playing DC Space, which is another one that's gone. So DC space closed early on. And I think in our career, maybe, maybe we played, but we played there a lot, but that venue was so small. And people were right on top of you. By the time you got 150 people in there and that, that was all you could fit really. But you get that many people and it can be freezing outside and it's absolutely just scorching inside because everybody is so close. And the closeness between the you know the audience. I think the stage was about 12 inches tall. It was one of those places where you could be on stage and you could make eye contact with people on the very back that were up against the wall. So you could look off the stage and you would see people, elbow to elbow. Hanging. That was one of those places where you could really just feel the energy and feed off of it. Gigshack - In terms of fans, do you think that the people who enjoy your music are the people who enjoyed it originally? Or do you think it's new people or a mix? Strange Boutique - It's a whole new generation. So we played D.C. in July and all up front were, I would say these kids were like 15, 16. They were definitely seeing us for the first time. And they were loving it. It gives you that energy back. There's faces that are our age as well, people that grew up alongside us in D.C. It's so great to see old friends. But it's so great to also just have all these new young people who are just like... I mean, they're there to have the experience. And they're not looking at us like, hey, look at these old fogies. They're excited to experience something that they discovered online. So that was one of the really, really wonderful things about talking to a lot of the younger kids that came to the DC shows. was just how excited they were that not only had they found us and they were really, really into the band, but then we showed up on a calendar and they could come see us. Gigshack - You mentioned Drown earlier, do you think that a lot of the sort of younger people coming back in have come in because of the viral success of that song? Strange Boutique - It was really evident when we played live this year. You can tell that that is what has brought in all the fresh ears. It's so great. And personally, I think I'm very grateful that I can be playing live and people care. Gigshack - aside from Strange Boutique are you continuing with separate projects? Strange Boutique - Yeah, I'm actually working on my next solo album right now. So busy writing and working on that. So I'm giving myself another year to get it done. I started it years ago, but then we did Strange Boutique stuff. So I kind of put it aside. So now I'm back to working on it. I want to release it in December 2026. I think that gives me enough time to get it done. Gigshack - what more plans do you have for Strange Boutique going forward? Are you writing more songs? Strange Boutique - I think we'll do something. We don't know what yet, but I guess similarly to how we assembled Let the Lonely Heart Sing, we'll just start writing the songs and see what happens when we get to a certain point. Maybe it'll be a single, maybe an EP, maybe another full length. We don't know yet. We'll just start writing it and recording it and figure out what we're going to do with it when we get to that point. Gigshack - And in terms of touring the music, can you say you have been touring or you are touring currently? Strange Boutique - Special shows. I think I consider them as one-off shows, but we've done a few of them. And we're setting up shows now for the West Coast and some shows in Texas. We've talked about doing another round of East Coast shows in the fall. I think the idea of just sort of one-off weekends here and there. Gigshack - What was the first gig you ever attended? Strange Boutique - Oh, wow. It was very memorable. It was for my 12th birthday, I got birthday tickets to go see Kiss and ACDC in DC. So that was kind of, you know, an awakening, so to speak. I guess at that point, ACDC were pretty, pretty much unknown, they definitely took the room by surprise. Gigshack - Do you have any guilty pleasures in terms of music? Strange Boutique - We all listened to FM radio at the time it was, album oriented rock. Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac the Hollies and Crosby Stills and Nash and those kinds of things. We are all huge Beatles fans too, the first seven inch I ever bought was Band on the Run. Those were sort of my formative years. But then I think particularly in the DC area, the punk rock thing sort of exploded and there was a definite scene in a culture here that Monica was much more part of it than I ever was. But, you know, I was aware of it and I really started coming into DC around sort of a second wave of that scene in that music. We weren't listening to FM radio anymore. Then it was whatever punk record was happening. For me personally, hearing the Clash and the Sex Pistols and the Ramones and Iggy Pop and all sorts of things really just sort of perked my ears up and made me want to go leave that other stuff behind, not that I disowned but there was just something more exciting and newer that that was type of music. Gigshack - Is there any current music you're a fan of any like a new an album or a live performance that you've seen Strange Boutique - I love LCD Sound System, I saw them in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl. Gigshack - One of the things that comes to mind when I listen to your music is the Cure Oh my God, yes, we love them. All of us. Gigshack - I can hear that a little bit in your music, definitely. Strange Boutique - Yeah, Dennis and I are particularly huge Cure fans. When people ask what kind of music we do and sound like, you know you can say the Cure to just about anybody and they kind of know what ballpark you're in. I love Head on the Door. Dennis will tell you any day of the week that Disintegration is the best album ever made and he and I will debate that and Disintegration versus Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnyman, it's an ongoing debate.