• Interviews

• All
• Music
• Cinema
• TV
• Comic Books

Apr 12, 2016 Web Exclusive By Mark Redfern

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.).

For this My Firsts we talk to Anna Fox Rochinksi from Quilt. The Boston-based band released their third album, Plaza, back in February via Mexican Summer. The album is the follow-up to 2014’s Held in Splendor and includes the singles “Eliot St.” and “Roller.” Read on as Rochinksi, who grew up in the ‘90s, talks about her first best friend, first pet, first crushes, the first movie she saw in the theater, and the first time she got drunk.

First word?

I think it was “Dada.”

First best friend?

Zoe Vrabel. Our moms had been friends in the early ‘80s in Andover, MA. By the time 1987 rolled around, they were living around the corner from each other in Brookline, MA with infant daughters born just 23 days apart-and didn’t realize any of this until they met again at a local playground when Zoe and I were babies. We are still friends to this day!

First pet?

Monthoney and Cleany. Goldfish, first grade. “Cleany” was named by my brother, Alex and died pretty soon because the other fish hogged all the food. “Monthoney” was a mis-reading of the word “Monthly” I had on the calendar in my room. He ended up living for seven glorious years. He had a brief tank-mate named Slash who died of starvation, just like his predecessor. Monthoney lived next to the microwave and was huge. I used to watch him endlessly and loved him very much. By the end of his life he was swimming upside down and his scales were sticking out off of his body. I could go on forever about Monthoney. Needless to say, I fell to the ground crying when he died circa 2000.

First broken bone?

I have never had one!

First time you had to go to the hospital?

Accompanying my brother when I broke his arm (by accident!) in 1995.

First time you fell in love?

Senior year of high school.

First movie you saw in the movie theater?

The first one I remember seeing is Jurassic Park when I was 5.

First TV show you were obsessed with?

Ren and Stimpy, Doug, Rugrats. I’ve been re-obsessing over The Simpsons recently, which I was quite literally obsessed with from sixth to eighth grade.

First record your parents played for you?

I don’t know! My dad’s a musician and had jazz playing in the house probably from the second they brought me home.

First album you bought?

Let It Be was the first one I bought by myself, out of my own volition. I think I was in third grade. I got it at the Strawberries in Chestnut Hill, which ended up burning down a few years later.

First favorite band?

The Beatles, if that wasn’t made clear by the previous answer.

First favorite song?

I just loved everything The Beatles did, madly. But in fourth grade I heard “I Want You” by Savage Garden which kind of changed my life because I realized there were… other worlds out there.

First musician you had a crush on?

George Harrison, I guess. But it wasn’t really a crush. I just kinda wanted to be him.

First actor or actress you had a crush on?

Partridge Family-era David Cassidy! In fourth grade. Ask Zoe Vrabel all about it.

First concert you went to?

Aerosmith, New Year’s eve 1998, at the Fleetcenter in Boston.

First music festival you went to?

Oh jeez. Lollapalooza, 2003, to see Jane’s Addiction and Jurassic 5, at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield.

First time you got drunk?

Age 14, at Ben Cooper’s house. My first real high school party. I had like two Heinekins. SO EMBARRASING. And Total Recall was playing in the living room the whole time.

First job you had?

Paris Creperie, age 15, in Coolidge Corner. I was the youngest person working there and learned how to be a proper barista.

First car you owned?

The first car I owned was the first Quilt van, which was a white 1997 Ford Aerostar that had been used as a postal van, so there were cages installed in the back windows and no seats or stereo. I had to go walk around a junkyard to find seats that our friend drilled in for us (missing the gas tank by like an inch) and we duct-taped these big speakers to the dashboard, which connected to our jerry-rigged CD player. It actually got totaled in a minor accident, and I got a bunch of insurance money, so I turned around and got another 1997 Ford Aerostar. Except this one was green and very family-friendly.

First country you visited outside of your own?

Besides Canada, it was Russia! With Quilt in 2013. We were flown out for a one off weekend show in Moscow before we ever toured Europe!

First computer?

My family didn’t own a computer until like 1998. It was a Mac Classic II that my aunt and uncle gave us as a hand-me-down. I played lots of Oregon Trail on that thing.

First email address?

I think it was [email protected]. Yeah, I loved Aerosmith that much.

First social media account?

I had a Diaryland in like ninth grade. Does that count? Afterwards, I had Friendster, Livejournal, Myspace…

First roommate?

I had a single in the dorm my freshman year of college, so I never had a roommate until that following year, when I moved into an on-campus apartment which fit 10 people, nine of whom were girls. But I had my own room there. I’ve lived with two boyfriends, so they’re pretty much all that counts as “roommates” for me.

First book you read outside of one assigned for school?

I don’t know! I was always reading outside of school.

First instrument?

Piano, then flute, then guitar, which I finally stuck with.

First band you were in?

My friends and I had a “band” in fifth grade called Those Girls but it was sooo not a real band.

First time you performed in public?

I began performing really young, I was always in plays and sang in a professional children’s chorus. But technically, I really think the first time I was on a stage was in second grade when my music class did a rendition of Peter Paul and Mary’s “The Marvelous Toy” and I was… the toy? I don’t remember much about it. Maybe I blocked it out.

www.quiltband.com