Real RhyDin Weekly Exclusive: The Judes
By Robert Lucas

Anyone who has been following the RhyDin music scene has more than likely heard of the latest female powerhouse group known as The Judes. These ladies erupted out of nowhere and have been working tirelessly to prove that the girls of rock can bring just as much excitement, aggression, and sex appeal to music as the boys.

Although the girls were keeping an almost frantic show schedule throughout the summer months of 2011, playing any venue or bar with a stage that RhyDin had to offer, that came to a screeching halt in the beginning of the Fall. Many of The Judes? followers, who have deemed themselves The Hopefuls, retreated into a panic over their favorite group suddenly vanishing from all venues.

So, we at the Real RhyDin Weekly went to work tracking down The Judes and finding out exactly what had become of our four favorite beastly band members. It wasn?t an easy task, but tips piled up which eventually led us to a VIP suite at Gilt Nightclub where we awaited the arrival of The Judes. Previously, The Judes had declined any interview requests from the press so it left us with little to no idea about what to expect.

When the door opened, three lovely ladies who looked like Catholic school dropouts filed into the room followed by a leggy blonde who only beat me in height because she was wearing eight inch platform heels. After some pleasantries the girls got settled into their seats with one tall, quiet fellow standing near the door who appeared as though he were ready to strike if I made the slightest wrong move. Daunting, but the interview must go on!

RRW: First, thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here tonight, ladies. While the most loyal of Hopefuls are fully aware of whom you are, for the more casual listeners I want to make sure we have this right. We have Quinn Benoit, singer of The Judes, who also goes by Whiskey Brite-

Quinn: Those names were mostly meant for us, but we called each other by them once or twice on stage and it all went from there. People wanted to know who was who, why we picked them, the meaning behind them. It?s an inside joke gone out of control, eh?

RRW: Is there a particular meaning behind Whiskey Brite?

Quinn: Oh, there?s meaning behind all our nicknames. Look, let us save you some time. I?m Quinn, Whiskey Brite. Sort of a take on an old cartoon that played back in the day on Earth called Rainbow Brite, about a bubbly blonde girl that made the world happy with rainbows. I make people happy, but usually it?s with shots and the music I play after drinking more shots. I also sound the brightest when I?ve got Jack, Jim, or Johnnie in me.

Sam: Sam Regan. Drums. They call me Manic Revolver, mostly ?cause everyone thinks I?ve got a sensitive trigger waiting to go off at any moment. I guess it?s because I have a tiny bit of an anger issue, but it?s nothing serious. They?re exaggerating.

RRW: Just for the record, Sam. There was an incident at The Blind Pig on August 27th when a male patron got past security, climbed on stage, then proceeded to grind against Miss Benoit. That was when you tackled the man to the stage and attempted to forcibly shove your drum sticks down his throat.

Sam: A lot of things happen on stage. Can?t really remember them all.

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Quinn: Ever since then we?ve been inseparable. We?re at each other?s places all the time, we?re always practicing, or we?re at least on the phone passing around new ideas. During the summer we were either practicing or performing. I can?t say we want to perfect our stage show because it will never be perfect and there will always be things we can do bigger and better. But we want it to be an experience for the people watching.

RRW: There has been talk that your stage shows are rather outlandish. People have reported about fans being pulled up on stage and ?baptized? with bottles of alcohol. There are songs when you invite all topless women in the audience to come up on stage. There is a lot of religious imagery in your songs as well as your performances, why is that?

Quinn: I?ve always enjoyed the image of a cross. I?m not much of a religious person but I love that something so simple can rally so much hope, anger, love, peace, rage, whatever it is. No matter how you feel about it, that?s the important part. The fact that you feel something. We want people to feel something about our music, good or bad. If people hate it? Great. At least we got your blood boiling, eh? But we?re taking what interests us and what inspires us and putting it into our music. That?s what you?re supposed to do as a musician. You lay yourself out on the line for everyone to pick at.

RRW: There are a lot of people who not only feel your music, but they love it. They call themselves The Hopefuls. How do you feel about such a mass following?

Quinn: We never could have predicted it, not in a million years. But it?s great that people have been so inspired by it. I mean, that?s all in the name. The Judes.

Bekkah: We named ourselves after Jude the Apostle or Saint Jude, the patron saint of desperate or lost causes. Everyone feels that way now and then, like you?re a lost cause. Hopeless.

Quinn: Exactly! So, we kept saying we wanted to be hope for the hopeless. So the fact people grasped onto that and have started calling themselves hopeful and The Hopefuls? It means a lot. It shows we?re doing something right.

RRW: It?s obvious the fans are as important to you as you are to the fans, but many have been at a loss lately about where The Judes have gone. You ladies went from playing a venue every weekend to radio silence for months. Can you clear this up for everyone?

Quinn: Yes! We have a lot of news going on in the realm of The Judes and we?re really excited that we can finally break it all down for the fans. Of course, we?re so sorry to all of The Hopefuls out there that we kept in the dark.

Bekkah: Honestly, we wanted to make sure that everything was in absolute order before we spread the news, because we didn?t want to have to back pedal later.

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