A Conversation With Tahlena Chikami: More Than Appearances
Diane Schnell had the pleasure of speaking with Bite Me Bambi's Tahlena Chikami in the return of "A Conversation With."
Tahlena Chikami shouldn’t be intimidating, and yet she is. She is beautiful and multi-talented, funny and easy to talk to. This all combines to make approaching her feel a little daunting. At least, it felt that way at first for me. As soon as we started talking, however, all feelings of that sort melted away.
In fact, she confirmed a suspicion I’ve had about her since the first time I saw her in the music video for the Bite Me Bambi song “Strippers on a Sunday.” She is basically Josie from the movie Josie and the Pussycats. I shared this observation with her, and she beamed, telling me it was one of the greatest compliments I could pay her.
This was a much better way to start.
Before Tahlena became the lead singer of the ska band Bite Me Bambi, she was a child actor. She describes this period of her life as chaotic, but acting was important to her. Her parents insisted she earn a college degree, so at 16 years old, Tahlena went to college for pre-med, then software engineering, before finally settling on screenwriting.
“The worst purchase I ever made was a college degree.” Tahlena admits. “I use it, literally, not at all and it was $80,000 for two years. I was horribly in debt for a long time.”
Even amidst the acting, music was always a part of life. “When I started performing, I was 9 years old. I did musical theater, children’s theaters, and I started doing work where I would get paid as a kid, which eventually led to TV and film. So, I was always into music.”
There were voice lessons as a child, that was how Tahlena spent most of her time. “I learned as an adult that my parents went into credit card debt to pay for my voice lessons. I did not know that. I would have advised them not to do that, but it was very kind of them. Now I say I’m paying you back by being the lead singer of a ska band.” Her tone is a bit sheepish, but I’m quick to remind her that her voice is distinctive, it makes her all the more unique for that initial work.
“It’s from singing musical theater,” she says. “and then being trained to sing jazz and blues. I got very into that in my late teens. My teacher was very into that, too, because she originally wanted me to do like classic art compositions, like singing Italian. That’s not my bag. So, I think that’s where a lot of my sound comes from, that kind of training.”
“I think because I come from a theater background even when I’m singing a song I wrote that’s about my life, there’s a performance aspect to it. I’m thinking about what I’m feeling, or if it’s a song about someone else, how are they feeling? I really think there’s a lot of acting in my vocal performance.”
Tahlena’s entrance into the music community came from an introduction by an ex-boyfriend. He was in a band, and Tahlena would come along to shows to be supportive. Eventually she realized how fun it was to be there and began wondering what it would be like to have a band of her own.
“I got all into it and the culture. The first band I ever was in was called Karate in the Garage and I learned to play guitar, started taking guitar lessons.”
A natural performer, it was the community Tahlena found that made becoming a professional musician so appealing. “[I found] all of the best friends I made as an adult through music. The community has given me so much, I wish I had found it sooner. I think a lot of my anxiety, feeling self-conscious, and self-esteem issues as a kid would have been really helped by playing an instrument and being in a band.”
Tahlena’s stage persona is entertaining and relatable, a step far away from self-consciousness. She explains her persona was built through the performances of artists she admires. “I’m influenced by all of the people I looked up to –Angelo Moore, Gwen Stefani. I remember looking up videos when I first started being the front person of a band, watching their stage performances. Pink, also, is another big one for me. And I was like, ‘I like that, I’m gonna do that.’ And that’s sort of how I created this persona.”
Tahlena admits the first songs she wrote when she started were simple. “I hear the melodies and then pick the chords that go around the melody. Then I show them to someone else [Brian Mashburn] and they make the composition of the song better.”
“I was in an all-girl punk band in my early 20s called Unicorn Injection, which was very fun. We would mostly drink too much, go to happy hour, and then play shows. We wore crazy wigs and tutus and threw glitter on people. I wrote all the songs, basically, with a little lyrical contribution from the rest of the band.”
“I think [those songs] are fun to listen to mainly because of our singer, Karen Roberts. She’s a really good lyricist. We’d write songs about why no guys wanted to have a three way with us, dumb shit like that. It was the most fun I’ve ever had being in a band.”
Lyrically, Tahlena admits it takes more to craft a song now that she’s a bit older. “When I was younger, I could write songs like nobody’s business because so much crap was going on in my life. As I get older, and I get a little more settled, there’s less chaos, less to write about. And you can only go to so many wells, so many of the same themes.”
“I’ve been thinking lately,” Tahlena mused. “About writing out stories, short stories about things that maybe happened to me or friends and then trying to write lyrics from that point of view. It might help me flush out more specific ideas, maybe be more story driven. I’m trying to get away from really broad themed songs because that’s not where music is at the moment. People identify more with specific lyrics.”
“Back in the day people liked broad themes so they could project their own lives onto it, but now, when you listen to people like Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo, a lot of people find themselves in their specificity because they remember what that felt like in that moment, it’s tangible.”
Bite Me Bambi has a very devoted following, both online and in person. Much of this comes from the way Tahlena interacts with her fanbase on Twitch. “I love our Twitch community. Their generosity has made it where we can take a lot of risks. They’re all amazing people. I love to see the support for each other, and if someone is having a bad day, rallying around that person. It’s nice to have friends in this world, and it’s sometimes very hard for people to make them, so I think it’s cool we can be a safe space for people to be themselves.”
The devotion of her fanbase can be a double-edged sword. While the friendly, loving community that is so supportive of Bite Me Bambi and each other is a welcome bonus to performing music, it can also be a source of stress. “I don’t want to let anybody down,” Tahlena says. “There are days I’m really tired or I don’t know if I can get a stream in, [but] I hope the people feel like the content they’re paying for is good enough. I don’t want to let anyone down or disappoint anyone. I never want to phone it in. If you’re nice enough to sit and watch and interact and support this community and this band, then I want to give you back something really great.”
Occasionally some of the really great things Tahlena has offered her fans involve collaborations with other artists. Tahlena and Scott Klopfenstein released a cover of the song “Islands in the Stream” in 2021, along with a video parodying Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.
“How did I meet Scott?” Tahlena smiles as she tries to remember. “That’s a great question. I think through Chris [Graue] and streaming. If I remember correctly, I think that’s how we met. When we did “Islands in the Stream” we didn’t even know each other that well.”
“It’s funny. It’s like a friend of a friend and you know them through the internet and you know all about their life.”
“We were joking about it on our stream [before it came to be]. I was like, we’ll do “Islands in the Stream” and Scott will dress like Kenny Rogers, and I’ll dress like Dolly Parton. It was [supposed to be] a crazy scenario. And then somebody went to Scott’s stream, because he used to stream right after us, after I told everyone about it. And Scott was like, ‘Tell Tahlena yes.’”
“If you ever want an example of the most Twitch thing that’s ever happened.” She laughs. “It was very fun. I love performing with Scott. He’s the most talented person I know. It’s really a treat, too. I mean, I grew up a Reel Big Fish fan. So sometimes I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s crazy.”
The Bite Me Bambi stream was born out of the pandemic, and even though live shows are a possibility again, Tahlena assures me the streams will continue. “The community is so rad, we have such a good time. I can’t imagine not doing it. It’s something a lot of other musicians I’ve met will be like, what’s up with your fanbase? What do you got going on over there? They see we’re having a good time, or that everyone went to a bar together.”
“I’m very proud and humbled to be a part of something so cool like that. The Bambinos – I don’t know if we started calling them that or if they did, but whenever they’re like “Bambinos represent at Streelight Manifesto,” it’s just fucking cool.”
Bite Me Bambi is a band worthy of devoted, supportive fans. Their music is positive, their shows are fun and safe, and their frontwoman is a charming, lovely person to talk to. Every single person I spoke to about Tahlena before our interview told me how nice she is, how fun it is to talk to her. With a reputation like that, it’s not hard to see why her fans have the reputation they do as well.
Bite Me Bambi has a new EP coming out in 2024. The first single, “Bad Boyfriend,” will be available starting January 9, 2024. They’re going on tour in the new year with Mustard Plug and Voodoo Glow Skulls. You can find their tour dates at bitemebambi.com/shows.