Hot Freaks
Hot Freaks
2013 | Pop, Rock
— “Puppy Princess”
Sarah Darnall: The song’s been online for a long time, but, yeah, we didn’t know that any of the TikTok stuff was happening until the beginning of August [2021]. We recorded the song [“Puppy Princess”] in 2012, and we released it in 2013. It’s not about puppies or princesses [laughs]. It’s just a really fun, poppy, catchy song. It talks about feeling like you have a crush on somebody, but they don’t have a crush on you and you start to feel bad about yourself, and feel like you maybe don’t fit in. It sounds like it could be kind of sad, but it’s really fun. If you look at the videos that have our song in it on TikTok, it’s people doing all kinds of different stuff, it’s just random. People just liked the song and used it in their personal little videos. I think the song is up to 23 million plays on Spotify [39 million as of June 2022]. And the music video is up to 102,000 views [268,000 as of June 2022].
Leo Vondracek: Hot Freaks had been on hiatus as a band for years and were totally blindsided by the onslaught of attention when the song originally went viral. We didn’t even have a TikTok account so we had no idea what going viral on the platform would entail. When major labels emailed us we thought it was a scam or catfishing attempt. Since then we’ve tried to be more active on social media and connect with fans, it’s been a lot of fun. "Puppy Princess" was on the album and then it got pulled off when we did the licensing deal, which is kind of a bummer. Yeah, but I mean, I think we're still gonna put it out on the vinyl.
Sarah Darnall: Don't tell Elektra [laughs].
Leo Vondracek: I mean, to be honest, I feel like we got sort of like, the "Elektra lite" treatment [laughs]. We don't have a "record deal." It was talked about, sort of, at the beginning and we ended up just doing the one song, just because — well, at the time it happened [the band] wasn't even together, we had just sort of reconnected. And then it was just too fast, so we kind of just wanted to do one song. But, I mean, it's awesome, it's really cool that they were interested and everything. I think the way it works is they gave us an advance, and then — was it for 10 years?
Sarah Darnall: I think we split it with them for 10 years or something. They collect until they get all the money back that they paid us, so there's like a bill we kind of have to pay back, and then at that point we split it. And also there's a music video included.
Leo Vondracek: After the Elektra thing, we kind of had this weird experience because we didn't have a manager. We had this kind of temporary manager guy, fly-by-night guy, show up and kind of negotiate for us and then leave. We ended up getting actual managers after that.
Sarah Darnall: We were just kind of in over our heads on a lot of things. Micky [Alfano], my fiancé, is in Night Moves in Minneapolis. They've been on a label for 10 years, and they've had managers and booking agents, just way more pro than anything I've ever experienced. And so Micky has kind of been our fairy godfather through this experience [laughs]. Just like, "You guys need managers. You are in way over your head. This is crazy." We were just kind of googling like, "How to get a manager" [laughs], and weren't getting anywhere with that. So Micky was like, "Oh my god, you guys, I'll help you." Which was very nice.
Leo Vondracek: But it's not like the movies. It's not like in Pam and Tommy. What was that band? Was it Third Eye Blind that was at the studio?”
Sarah Darnall: "Hey, we always get the nice room because we're —"
Celeste Heule: "We're on Elektra!" [laughs]
Leo Vondracek: Yeah, it was kind of a pump and dump [laughs].
//\\//\\//
Leo Vondracek: I'm not from South Dakota, but my mom is from Beresford, and I have family on both sides that live in South Dakota. I'm from Wells, Minnesota. I did go to USD for two years. And yeah, my dad's a music teacher, so I grew up around concert band and marching band. Musically, I'm big fan of The Beatles, Weezer, The Cardigans, Ben Folds Five, Jamiroquai, those were my favorite high school jams. Started writing songs in high school, nothing really good, though. Probably first good song was when I was in college, maybe. Before Hot Freaks I played in a band with my brother called The Golden Bubbles. We played many times in Vermillion, South Dakota, we both went to college there. And later, through a mutual friend, Preston [Holm], I met Sarah. I had already met Cody [Brown] and Darin [Dahlmeier] at Ninja Fest in Vermillion, which was an emo concert. I saw their band, Welcome To The Cinema. I'm a huge fan.
Sarah Darnall: I grew up in Brookings. Started taking piano lessons when I was in third grade and then played in band, played baritone. I got a guitar when I was in sixth or seventh grade, and then I was like, "Oh, I want to get a bass and try that." Started taking lessons, and then played in jazz band a lot in middle school and high school, and I feel like that was where I learned a bunch, playing in jazz band. And then Preston [Holm], Preston's the common thread in all of this. He's like the weird, mastermind behind everything [laughs]. He asked if I wanted to play in The Wrights. We were all still in high school, but we were playing with Cody and Darin while they were going to SDSU. After that I played in another band [Buffalo Moon] with Preston in Minneapolis, because we were living up there for college. That's what got me introduced to Leo, then he was like, "Hey, we need a bass player for Hot Freaks."
Celeste Heule: I grew up playing piano, and we always had a lot of instruments around the house. I grew up in Wisconsin, West Bend. I went to college in Madison, Wisconsin, where I met some other people that I started playing music with. Started playing with the band Sleeping In The Aviary, and then we all moved up to Minneapolis together, eventually. So a couple years after I moved up here is when I met the whole Hot Freaks crew, when they were between keyboardists.
Leo Vondracek: Cody is not going to make it to the interview. Darin said he could come, but he's always in a train or a tunnel or something [laughs].
//\\//\\//
Leo Vondracek: [The self-titled album] was just the first 11 songs we finished. It was really like every one that got finished got used. Even then I was like, "Alright, we need to get a core group of singles, and they all have to be really catchy, single-type songs. Once we get that then we can just have whatever-type songs.” [laughs] Like, whatever happens is fine as long as there's four good ones. There was a couple that didn't make it out of the garage [laughs]. We recorded it in Wisconsin, most of it, with this guy Ricky who — Celeste's band Sleeping In The Aviary recorded with him. The other guy in that band, Elliott [Kozel], is a producer, so we did a lot of overdubs in Minneapolis at Elliott's house.
We're working on a new batch of songs now. We're about halfway done, hopefully have them done by this Fall. This is going to be totally different recording style because the original one we did really cheaply, and this time we were like, "Alright, let's put some days on the calendar. Let's go for it." And we went to Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It's a magical place. We spent a lot of time there and did basic tracking. Now I've been working on the tracks with Elliott, the producer for the first record, who I live with now in LA.
Celeste Heule: He was also in Sleeping In The Aviary in Madison.
Leo Vondracek: I think I want it to be called Hot Freaks 2. But maybe Hot Freaks: Maverick [laughs].
Sarah Darnall: Top Gun is getting sued for that. I'm sure our managers would get so mad at us. Like, "You guys are idiots." [laughs]
HOT FREAKS’ ESSENTIAL SOUTH DAKOTA ALBUMS
Welcome To The Cinema — Blocks and Hills (2008)
We All Have Hooks For Hands — The Pretender (2007)
The Kickback — Weddings & Funerals (2017)
Condor — Poega (2015)
Eric Holm — Eric Holm (2019)
SOURCES
Darnall, Sarah, Celeste Heule, Leo Vondracek. Interview. By Jon Bakken. 9 June 2022.
Greiner, Jodelle. “Surprise Hit on Tiktok.” Brookings Register, 21 Dec. 2021, https://brookingsregister.com/article/surprise-hit-on-tiktok.
Sylvan, Edward. “Rising Music Stars Hot Freaks on the Five Things You Need to Shine in the Music Industry.” Medium, Authority Magazine, 6 May 2022, https://medium.com/authority-magazine/rising-music-star-hot-freaks-on-the-five-things-you-need-to-shine-in-the-music-industry-9ad46737341e.
