Colleen Green is too cool for all your lame shit. You’d know this if you picked up her last album, Milo Goes to Compton, which we put on our best albums of 2012 list because it was that rad. You’d know exactly how much she dominates though if you’ve checked out her follow up, Sock it to Me, which just dropped last month on Hardly Art. It’s a total golden goose of a record, and has Colleen stepping away from punk standards and embracing the recording experience by herself. There’s still plenty of punk flavor on it, and her vocals are still light as a biscuit, but this one has a certain magic to it that will get heads bobbin’ from punkers and poppers alike. Pick it up and go see her on 4/25 at Radio in Somerville for this monster show with Fat Creeps, Fedavees, and Ronnie Nordac.

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Your new album rules hard! Were there any changes, either in writing or recording it, that you really wanted to make this time around? 

Thank you very much! My writing process was pretty much the same as always, although I did have a loose plan to make more synthy, upbeat jams like “Time in the World”. You can see how loose it really was, as that is the only song on the album that sounds like that. But anyway, I wanted to record it on my own like I had been doing all along, because I was scared to work with anybody else. But the great folks at Hardly Art wanted me to make a great record, so they convinced me to come record it in their basement instead of in my bedroom. I think it was a good idea!

There’s a certain ease to your songwriting which I really like. You don’t try too hard to be profound, but there’s still some heartfelt stuff that that creeps through. Like “Heavy Shit” isn’t wrought with emotion but it still gets the point across, almost more effectively. Is this intentional when you write your songs, or is the trick more not to even think about it?

 :O All of my songs are heartfelt and wrought with emotion! At least, that’s how I feel, but I am sensitive. But I just kind of write whatever comes to mind when I’m thinking about a particular topic. My lyrics are simple. They’re dumb. But at least they’re not stupid. I hate stupid shit. I hate wordy shit. I’m not trying to prove anything. I definitely don’t try to be profound. The kind of person who tries to be profound is a terrible one who is probably not that fun to hang out with.

You’re originally from just outside Boston. Why do suburban kids rock so hard? Did you have any particular favorite local bands when you were here?

I’m not from the suburbs! I am from Dunstable, MA which is a rural community about 40 miles north of Boston. In general, I don’t think suburban kids rock that hard. Usually it’s the rural or the city kids who are the coolest. I mean, if there are cool suburban kids it probably is just because there are so fucking many of them, so one or two are bound to be ok. But the idea of suburbs just makes me like, want to throw up kind of. But anyway, as a teenager I loved Drexel, The Explosion, The Lot Six, Piebald, Dow Jones and the Industrials, Big D and the Kids Table, and all that shit. My friend Jenna’s mom would drop us off at the train station in Ayer, MA and we would go to Boston to see these bands ALL THE TIME. I also went to Westford a lot to see bands like Freeto Lay, Six Cents, and Time 2 Rise. I actually interned at Fork in Hand Records when I was like 17-18. Changed my life, man.

Were you in any bands growing up, or did you play music formally in any fashion? How did you start up recording on your own, and when did you realize you were gnarly at it? 

Yes! I started my first band when I was a senior in high school, and it was an all-girl sillypunk band called FENWICK. Our main goal was to get as drunk as possible and make fun of everyone we met. The only other band I started myself was called THE HAVE MERCYS, which was the band I eventually moved to CA with, and our main goal was to smoke as much weed as possible. I’ve always written all the songs for my bands, because I am a control freak and I really like to write songs. I started writing and recording completely on my own when I moved to LA, because I was completely alone and was very depressed and didn’t do much else besides play with my drum machine, write songs and talk to Mike. My life and my attitude have changed a lot in the past 3-4 years, and I’m just older now and more comfortable with myself, and I think that’s all helped with my songwriting too. I’ve always felt that it has come naturally to me, but nowadays I just think I’m not trying so hard to sound a certain way, so that is maybe why it’s more gnarly.

Sock It To Me was released on Hardly Art, but I know that you have had a solid relationship with the folks at Burger Records. I consider myself a total fanboy of Burger and dream that someday they will have a bigger presence on the East coast. How did you end up teaming up with those folks? Are they as valuable to the music scene in Cali as I dream them to be? 

Oh yes! Everyone loves them out here. It’s because they’re really nice, super chill and above all, they GET IT. And they LOVE music and they totally have their shit together and it rules. And they smoke tons of weed. How did we meet? I don’t know! I think we just met from having mutual friends in the music scene and from me playing at Burger Records and stuff. And from smoking weed. We’ve been talking about doing a tape together for a really long time. But mostly we just like to smoke weed.

You moved from one green-friendly state to another. If Colleen Green had a strain of W33D named after her, what would it be called and what would happen to me if I took major bong rips of it?

It’d have to be called COLLEEN GREEN. The nice folks at my local neighborhood weed shoppe actually started writing “COLLEEN” on my weed bags instead of what strain it really is. They like me there. And I like them. BUT ANYWAY, if you took major bong rips of this most excellent weed, you would get really, really high.

When you leave for tour, you won’t be able to access your AOL instant messenger account for like a really long time! What will your away message read for all your friends and fans?

I usually leave my phone number and tell people to CALL ME, but no one ever does. 🙁