Atlanta punk rock band The Coathangers released their fifth studio album, Nosebleed Weekend, in April of last year, and now they’re touring in support of the record. As America enters a strange new era of rebellion and uncertainty, punk music seems to be making a vengeful comeback. The Coathangers, who have a traditionally edgy style that echoes classic punk and garage rock bands from the ‘80s, should fit right in. The title track from their latest album—as well as another track called “Make It Right”—are great examples of their high energy and intensity, which is sure to charge any crowd.

The band played Siberia in New Orleans on Tuesday night alongside local bands, Yikes and Casual Burn. In between sets, band members mingled with patrons, making it a vastly different experience from your typical concert. Most of the time it was hard to tell who was who until someone got up to play. The opening bands did a great job of warming up the crowd, causing them to be rowdier with each new set. Once The Coathangers finally made it on stage, the entire bar was in an uproar, cheering with excitement to the point where the energy could be felt from a few blocks away.

Just before The Coathangers graced New Orleans with their presence, I was able to get a few words in with lead guitarist and vocalist Julia Kugel. Or as some of her fans may know her, “Crook Kid Coathanger.” I caught Julia just as she was packing up the van full of gear and merchandise for a chat about the band’s origins, how far they’ve come in the past few years and what fans can look forward to in the future.

I heard you guys started out as a “joke band”, mind telling me a little more about that?

Well that’s kind of like and urban legend. I mean we started out for fun but we weren’t joking about, you know, what we were doing we just weren’t serious and we didn’t expect it to be something that we did, you know? We were not like one of those bands who are like “We’re gonna conquer the world and be the best band ever!” But our intentions were to have fun and say what we needed to say. It kinda gets brought up a lot I guess because I guess we were pretty silly and, you know, havin’ a good time and didn’t think that anyone would listen.

Are you guys surprised at how the fan base has grown and how big you guys have gotten since then?

In a sense, we’re surprised but in a sense, we’re like, we’ve really put in the work. Because for some reason we were really motivated to go out and tour even though we had practice jams only. It was a surprise that we got offered to do a second record though. All of it kinda was magical and surprising in a delightful sort of way. For sure! Like we didn’t really ever think that people would care and that we would be together for ten years, although we didn’t think the other either, we didn’t really think about what it meant or what we were doing, we just did it. It’s quite pleasant to have been doing it, and I’ve gotten to see the world and it’s pretty cool.

So is this one of the bigger tours you guys have done?

Um, I’m not sure, haha, we haven’t really done it yet. We’ve done headlining tours throughout the years so I don’t know. This is actually a shorter tour, because we used to go out six to 8 weeks or something stupid and lose our minds and stuff. This is like a normal tour I think, for us, but we’re really excited because we haven’t been to Florida in a while, since we played with Refused, yeah and we love New Orleans  and Texas! We’re happy to go to warmer climates in February because we made the mistake of touring like the in the Midwest and in the North east in February before so we’re just really stoked to get back on the road because we have some time off to regain our brains. Now we’re good to go in the road.

So your new album, it’s amazing! What what was some of the inspiration  behind it?

Um well, you know, it sounds cheesey but for us, always life  is our inspiration and everything that happens in life so, I mean you name a song and there is a real life event behind it. It was the first time we recorded and wrote in California so I think definitely California had a lot to do with it. You could say that was an inspiration plus just, like, the focus was, um, we were really focused and really motivated on this one. We sort of craft the record where maybe before it was more like “Oh hey! Ok well lets see what happens.” It was maybe a more thoughtful record then our previous ones.

How did you like recording in California?

It was good, it was great! We got to record in a really beautiful studio and a big live room and have preproduction and time, we never allowed ourselves time before. When you record it always been like, “ok, you have a week and a half now go.” you know? We kinda sprawled it out and stretched it out and we finished it when it was ready. So, that was sick and you know, it’s really nice to wake up to beautiful weather every day. Haha it doesn’t hurt in the creative process, but yeah, overall it was a great experience, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life but it still was a great experience.

Given the band’s name and it’s origins, The Coathangers, do you think that your music is more relevant than ever now?

Well… I think unfortunately we went back, we formed during the Bush Era, we formed coming back from an anti-Bush rally, and then it was kind of a peaceful time and now that we’re going back and we do feel like all the concerns that we had when we formed the band ten years ago are starting to swim to the surface again. It seems pretty important, I hope that our music has always been relevant and our name doesn’t really… you know, just because our name is The Coathangers but, it is definitely something that we are aware of and angry about and confused about why this is happening again. The ebb and flow of conservatism and it’s fuckin weird, just fuckin weird. I mean, it’s always been relevant, it’s always been something that’s been an issue, you know? Women’s rights have always been on the forefront of our thoughts and so maybe everyone else is paying a little more attention now.

So you mentioned you guys formed coming back from an anti-Bush rally? How exactly did you come together?

Well, We’ve known each other, I’ve known Stephanie for 20 years, so from high school, and then Meredith and I worked together, she moved to Atlanta from Massachusetts, so we were just friends and we would go out and have margaritas and then come back to my house and just play, and one thing led to another and someone asked us to play a show and we were like “nooo.” but then we were like, “ok, I guess we’ll play”. That’s kinda how it all happened, just very organically. We never really played, I never played electric (guitar), Stephanie hadn’t, you know, kinda fucked around on drums but never really was “a drummer”. Meredith never really played bass and we just kinda made it up as we went along.

Do you feel you sound has kind of evolved from being a garage band to a studio band?

Haha, are we a studio band? I dunno, I mean we’ve always been fortunate enough, except the second one we recorded in our practice space. I think the sound has evolved as we have evolved as people and our skill set has gotten better and we have gotten more confident. Our sound is still our sound, we kind of always try to be playful and thoughtful and try to make every song like a little art project instead of try to adhere to any rules that we may have set for ourselves or other people may have for us. I think definitely we have gotten to record better and every record I feel is like a little experiment, with a different sound and in a different way. It’s all been pretty organic and pretty natural, we weren’t like “We’re gonna make a really slick album.” or anything like that, we just wanted to try different things and that’s what came out of us when we did it.

When it comes to writing songs and music, what does that look like for you guys?

Well writing songs is pretty random, sometime we’ll all write them together, sometimes we’ll write them individually and come in, sometimes we’ve written songs during soundcheck before. We’ve labored over some songs that have taken a long time and some songs come together in three minutes. With rehearsals, we’re pretty relaxed, we just run through the set and try to remember our parts. As basic as that may seem we haven’t really changed. Even as we were starting out we would practice three times a week.

So, you’ve pretty much kept up that regime then?

Well when we see each other, I live in Long Beach now so we’re kind of on opposite coasts now but thank god we’ve been doing this a while so it stuck with us. When we were first starting out we would practice all the time because that’s what we were most self-conscious about was our skill sets. We wanted to not be just whatever, we wanted to be musicians. That’s why we practiced all the time, every week, even on our days off. Even now we’ll kind of stick to that, like before a tour, we’ll practice quite a bit and make it a point to have the set down and have our songs down so we can concentrate on having a good time at the show.

This seems kind of like a silly question, but do you still get jitters before a show?

It depends on where we are, or who’s in the audience like our mom’s or something but overall I think we’re pretty chill. It’s always a little bit of nervous energy but it’s more like excitement because it’s always exciting to go out on a stage and see what a show will bring and sometimes it will surprise you. So yeah, it’s a little bit of nervous energy but I don’t think it’s the jitters because we used to get hella’ fuckin nervous, we used to freak the fuck out before we were on stage. For the first three years, it was really scary but now in comparison it’s cool, it’s what we do now.

Going back to you mentioned playing New Orleans, is there something special about playing New Orleans for you guys?

Well we love New Orleans! We’ve been coming to New Orleans since 2007, and there’s as special voodoo in the air, the people are so kind, the people are just down and they are rowdy and heckelly and it’s just a good time. You feel a lot of love from the audience and the people at the shows and I think that just kind of makes it for us. Plus, we always end up playing the same bar with the same folks so it’s kind of like coming home, we’re like “Hey!” and high-five and good vibes and it just really great.

So you’ve played Siberia before?

Yeah, like since it opened, I think we actually helped build Siberia, like help with the construction of it opening. Before that we played Saturn bar and whatever was before that but Siberia has been our place, and I’m Russian so the Russian food in there is so good! It’s just like my grandma’s and it just makes me feel so good to go there and order some cabbage or whatever and it’s delicious. They just do such a good job and it’s just a really rad place to have a good time.

Does your family ever come on tour with you or do they ever meet you at some of the venues?

My sister, actually, Alina, was our tour manager for a while, so it was really awesome, and Stephanie’s sister was tour manager for a while before, and my mom has flown out to Denver and actually, she drove the van out there, and she’d meet us out in Europe, and Stephanie’s parents came out to San Francisco. Yeah, our parents are ridiculously supportive of us and it doesn’t really make sense.  We were like, we’re gonna quit our jobs and be rock stars and see what happens! They were like, ok! Live your dreams! Yeah, they’re so rad, and Meredith’s parents too, and her sister, and when we went to Boston, there was like a parade of people, Francos’ come out, so it’s just so good when that happens. You feel like you’re doin’ them proud.

Are there any bands that have inspired you in your youth or just in general?

I mean, yeah, music pretty much saved my life in many ways, and I’m sure the girls could agree with that, so there’s lots of band that have inspired us. Touring with Refused was really inspiring, not only because they play so hard but also because they are so caring and educated and political, and we’ve never really taken that stance, we’ve always sort of shied away from being overly political, but it’s very important to speak up when you have a powerful voice. That has been a part that I thought I would hate but actually I fucking love being able to say something that meant something. That alone is really inspirational to see people utilize their platform and speak their truth, to unite their audience and remind us of what’s important. That was the last time, I was really inspired by a band. I mean, I don’t want to name off all the bands that have kicked my ass into being, sort of where I am now because that’s everybody, everything from Beethoven and Bach to makeup and Black Eyes and Fugazi, No Doubt, I could talk about them for days because they all have been inspirational.

What do you have in the works for the future?

Well, we’re gonna tour, we did a recording and have been writing some new material in the future for sure. We are planning some European tours, hopefully we’ll get to go to South America. Pretty much just what we’ve been doing for the past 10 years now. I can’t divulge any details because some of it’s secret, but some cool shit’s coming up so I’m pretty excited about it. It should be out in the spring or summer so it should be some really rad stuff.