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Amanda and Abby play "If You're Forced To" with ARTISTdirect

The Ditty Bops are Amanda Barrett and Abby Dewald, a pair of California artists who have bewitched LA’s musical pleasure-seeking crowd with their pure-voiced harmonies, magnetic personalities, brilliant strummin’n’fretting and wide variety of musical styles (from jugband to contemporary folk pop to the indescribable and unprecedent). In other words, the perfect duo to take:

ARTISTdirect's "If You Were Forced To" challenge!

AD: No one likes to answer these questions, but if you were forced to...

Classify your music in a genre, what would it be?

Abby: "The genre is Mint Chip on a Saturday afternoon in July."

AD: Tell us your influences, who would they be?

Amanda: "I'm influenced by Abby."

Abby: "I'm influenced right now by giant paper mache heads, cactus, rocks, fortune tellers, and my tap dancing teacher Rebecca."

AD: Cover a song by Bon Jovi, which one?

Abby: "First of all I'd have to challenge myself to remember a song Bon Jovi ever sang. I know the guitar player's name is Richi Sambora, but for the life of me I can't remember any song Bon Jovi sang."

AD: Order food from Wendy's, what do you order?

Amanda: "Do they have veggie burgers now?"

Abby: "I would not order food from Wendy's. I would fast for 20 days on Matzo meal before I'd order anything from Wendy's...unless they start selling GT Kombucha beverage."

AD: Live in one city forever, which city?

Abby: "Los Angeles, because it's magical."

Amanda: "I love Los Angeles too. It's where I grew up and it has many hidden treasures."

AD: Drink only one alcoholic beverage, what would it be?

Amanda: "Manishewitz."

Abby: "It would be GT's kombucha tea. It's not technically alcoholic, but it is fermented."

AD: Play only one venue, what would it be?

Abby: "I have honestly not found a venue that I really love, but I was just looking at where Bread and Puppet Theater used to perform in Coney Island. That looked so cool. But probably I would want to keep moving around and not play in just one place."

AD: Pick a favorite song on your new record, which one?

Abby: "My favorite song is not the same as my favorite production. My favorite song is 'Moon over the Freeway' and I like 'Fall Awake', but I think my favorite production is 'Nosy Neighbor'.

Amanda: "It's not our rendition of 'Bye Bye Love', that much I know."

AD: Pick a cover song that could've appeared on the record, which song?

Amanda: "We really wanted to include the Boswell Sisters' version of "It's the Girl". It's so wonderful to hear a song that talks about the wonder, thrill, and importance of girls."

AD: Pick your dream band to open for (past or present), who would it be?

Amanda: "I'd like to sing a duet with Carol Burnett. I want to play on the Muppet Show."

Abby: "I really like opening for Nickel Creek, they're really cool. I think my dream act to open for would be an amazing puppet show or like a really cool performace troupe that's doing really cool things. I want to open for a traveling circus. I want to open for a cartoon that exists in real life. I don't want to open for anybody. I want to walk down the street naked wearing angel wings playing my penny whistle and the world will follow. I want to open for the world."

A big thanks to The Ditty Bops for taking our challenge. Their new album, Moon Over The Freeway, is available in the ARTISTdirect Store!