Female friendships can be pretty intense, especially when you are in a folk band together. Danni Parpan and Molly McCormick are best friends who started their band The Fruit Flies in Chicago in 2011. It was platonic love at first sight,” says Danni. The two pride themselves on combining musical harmony with witty stage banter, making them a versatile duo who can play anywhere from a 300-seat theater to a dive bar comedy show.
Danni and Molly’s love for each other is so apparent that I can’t imagine how they are could ever stand to be apart. But they do. While Danni just moved to Los Angeles, Molly won’t be moving here until March. During the tortuous two months apart, The Fruit Flies are playing solo shows (and hating it). “I’d always choose to play with Molly instead of alone,” says Danni. “We do a good job yes-and-ing each other.”
We all know how powerful a female friendship can be, especially when you also work together. Danni and Molly admit that their friendship can feel a little weird at times. While Danni is gay and Molly is straight, Danni says it is not the kind of situation where she is always hitting on Molly. If anything, Molly will jokingly say, “If I were gay, you’d be into me, right?” These ladies are certainly in their own form of long-term relationship-the platonic, all-consuming kind. I had a chance to interview them about their relationship over Skype, and it made for an extremely delightful afternoon.
AfterEllen.com: How would you describe your band to people who have never heard your music?
Molly McCormick: We are a two-man band. Danni plays ukulele, I’m on the guitar and we both sing. We have a tendency to do comedy splashed in.
Danni Parpan: We are a spiritual reawakening.
AE: You’ve been playing together since 2011. Does it ever feel like you’re dating?
DP: YES.
MM: We are together so much that when we aren’t it’s like, why aren’t we? You get a little jealous. We hang all the time and we play together so in that off time, I’m like, why wasn’t I invited?
DP: I think there’s a really special thing with female friendship. It can be tough because I mostly have females in my life. Molly and I work together all the time, and then we get jealous because we also have other friends. It’s clear to see that Molly’s sexual relationships are with a man and I understand what she gets from the man in her life-
MM: Oh you do?
DP: -but it gets complicated because everyone is like, “are you guys going to live together?” and we are like, “no, definitely not.”
AE: Is this the longest relationship you’ve ever had?
DP: Yes, in any sense that is not family. It’s the longest chosen relationship I’ve ever had.
MM: I agree.
AE: Any pet peeves about each other?
DP: Sometimes I can be seasonally depressed all the time. And Molly is pretty Even Stevens. Sometimes if I’m a little like, “What’s the point of anything, really?” and Molly will be like, “OK.”
MM: I don’t mean to be sassy about it. I’m just the polar opposite and that is why we click.
DP: For example, I have epilepsy and I was going through a medicine shift and the meds were making me so depressed. I went to Molly’s house and she had just got these candy-coated vitamins. I put them in my mouth and she was getting excited watching me eat them. And I said, “If you need to have this much fun eating a vitamin, you need to reevaluate your life.”
MM: Then I yelled at her about my vitamins and she ran into the bathroom and cried and then I felt bad.
DP: I think I needed to hear that cause it was like, “Girlfriend, you are bringing me down.” We help each other meet in the middle.
MM: Yeah, like now I cry for no reason.
AE: How do you balance band and personal life?
MM: It’s hard. When Danni was still in Chicago, I had a strict nine to five job, but Danni made her own hours. I would just want to get home from work, do rehearsal and go to bed. I had to prioritize and say “I’m not super old, I need to go out and hang with friends.” Danni is always up for a good time so I was like, “I need to be more like Danni.”
DP: From dating a stand-up, I know that stand-up is a very individual thing. But for us, we need each other to make it work. Not only do we have to be together to create new material, we also rehearse new material, and we also do shows. There are not enough hours in the day. We end up being together every single night. You add in other life things, like a new romantic relationship, and it gets tricky.
AE: How has it been since Danni moved to LA? What are you doing to keep the band alive?
DP: Molly wrote a beautiful song about moving to LA- the gist is “I’m gonna be there soon, I’m gonna see you soon.” She recorded it and sent it to me. She took a video of her walking around in the snow and I’m going to take video of me walking around out here. We are going to record them over each other and make a music video from opposite sides of the country.
AE: Do you ever have boundary issues in your relationship?
DP: Before I left, Molly would just take a shower and I would sit in the bathroom. Jared, Molly’s fiancée, was in the kitchen. I walked past and Jared said to me, “You have to know I trust you so much because you are the only person who I’m like, ‘Yeah you see my fiancée naked and I’m like whatever.'”
AE: How would you describe yourselves on stage?
MM: I think we are the same on or off stage. On stage it is like a tennis match. We crack jokes at each other but we know we are joking. Danni will make fun of my shoes and I’ll be like, “oh Birkenstocks are back?”
DP: It is such a joy sharing a stage with Molly because I truly believe she is the fucking funniest person in the whole world.
MM: Aw. I think you are better at formulating things to make sense, where I’m the wild card and it might not make sense if it is just me.
AE: I think with friends, just like with romantic interests, you feel it right away. You know you are going to be friends. What was the moment when you knew about each other?
MM: I cut you off, D, because I knew you would want to answer this. We were in Sketchfest together with a group. We didn’t know each other. There was this girl who was not fun to work with at all. Danni and I just clicked. You know when you ask someone, “what do you think about so-and-so” and they say what you are feeling? It sounds really caddy, but we both felt the same way.
DP: We “Mean Girl-ed” our way right into a best friendship.
AE: You guys have great style. How do you think it adds to your band?
MM: If I could choose, I would wear sweatpants to everything I do. Danni stops me from that.
DP: Every time we talk about what we are going to wear, Molly will be like,”I think we should wear pajamas tonight.” Oftentimes we will show up and we look good together, but we didn’t plan it.
AE: Where do you shop?
DP: I thrift everything. Nothing I wear is new except underwear.
MM: I get ADD by myself at a thrift store. I need help going through the racks. When I’m alone, I need to go to Old Navy or Gap.
AE: What is the worst heckle you have ever gotten?
DP: One time, we played at an old folks’ home, and we were thinking, “They are gonna be so sweet, it’s gonna be like playing a show for our sweet grandmothers, they are going to love us.” But it was like an end-of-the-line old folks home, and we were like, “These people can’t do anything, this is so depressing.” One of the only women who could formulate words really hated me. Molly and I wore matching outfits—boots and dresses-and we thought they were going to love it. But this lady kept saying “Why is that one so small?” about me. And things like, “I hate her. I hate it here, I hate this.”
MM: Yeah, we were wearing the same thing but she only hated Danni. We were like, “OK, we need to speed up ‘Santa Baby’ and get out of here.”
DP: I was so afraid the whole time.
MM: And I had a heat rash it was awful.
DP: I wonder how that lady is doing.
MM: I could take a couple of guesses…
DP: I would love to get heckled more. I would shut those assholes down so quick.
MM: And I would be like, “She’s just kidding!”
AE: What is The Fruit Flies dream? What does “making it” look like?
DP: We’d love to have music be sustainable for life-whether that’s through licensing songs, getting famous and touring, or being BFF with Taylor Swift.
MM: Anything where we don’t have to work day jobs.
AE: If you guys went on tour, what would that look like?
DP: I almost started crying because it sounds so fun. Well, if someone else was driving it would be so much fun. Molly would be like, “Where are we sleeping, where are we showering?” and I’d be like, “I haven’t shaved my armpit in three days, how do you feel about that?”
MM: Just your one armpit. Yeah, I’d be freaking out that we have no plan, but Danni would be like, “let’s see what happens! Let’s sleep in our car.” Then I would freak out and cry.
DP: Molly spends 75% of her day freaking out about how she is going to get murdered that day. And I spend 75% of my day figuring out how I would murder that murderer. Molly is always like, look at this scary news story, and I’m like let’s watch this porno and eat pizza.
AE: Is there anything I should add about you that would knock the lesbians’ socks off?
DP: I don’t know many lesbians who still wear socks.
MM: Speak for yourself.
DP: I am speaking for myself. We wear moccasins.
Listen to The Fruit Flies on their website or follow them on Twitter (@fruitfliesmusic).
Have ideas for LTR topics you want to hear about? Know a great LTR couple we should interview? Send them to [email protected].
