We ask all of our artists the same questions, and we’re always amazed at how different and interesting they are! Here is our interview with Elizabeth Bougerol (vocals, washboard) & Evan Palazzo (piano), of foot-stomping jazz outfit The Hot Sardines.

What’s the story behind the name of your band?
EB: I saw a tin of hot sardines packed in cayenne pepper at a Brooklyn supermarket, and it just stuck.

Where can we hear your music?
We play all over our home base of New York City. These days we’re appearing regularly at the Top of the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District, in the former Boom Boom Room, a swank club right out of a Fred Astaire movie. We play some wonderful speakeasy-style parties like Shanghai Mermaid, Swing House and Wit’s End. And we made a first album, “Shanghai’d,” this year.

Do you have any news, upcoming tours, or anything else you’d like us to hear about?
Nothing concrete, but: Europe!

What’s the funniest or most embarrassing incident that has occurred to you on stage or on tour?
EB: During an especially high-energy show, I shimmied a vintage slip (the elastic was shot) clear off my body, and it landed around my ankles.

EP: I went onstage at Lincoln Center in front of 6000 people in a suit but forgot to wear socks. I think it worked.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
EB: A vet, but I don’t have the stomach for it.

EP: A performer and an entertainer, but also a combination of Rick Blane and Victor Laszlo.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
EB: We played some wonderful shows this year — we opened for the Bad Plus and Zaz, an incredible gypsy-jazz-pop artist from France. And we headlined at Lincoln Center on Bastille Day, which was especially heartwarming for me, being French.

EP: Doing what I love is more then anyone can ask for in life, and I’ve got that. Artistically, co-creating the Hot Sardines and composing my first musical, a show set in 1930s New York called “The First Lady of Christmas.”

What’s your biggest fear?
Sound equipment!

What is your one guilty pleasure or vice?
EB: I’m not sure I buy the “guilty” part of pleasures.

EP: Fortunately, I have many. One is Bloody Marys at 6pm.

EB: His Bloody Marys are the best anywhere.

What are the 3 things in life you are 100% sure of?
EB: That music reminds you of what’s important. That the best thing you can do for the world is pursue things that bring you joy, openly and often.

EP: That music is a joyous and uniting spiritual force for good, and that “Satch Plays Fats” is the greatest jazz album of all time.

What foreign countries have you visited? Name one of your favorites and why.
EB: I’m a sucker for Italy — they elevate life’s little pleasures to an art form. Like passeggiata, the tradition of taking a stroll through town at cocktail hour. You have to love a nation that has a word for that.

EP: Most of Europe, and boy do they love American jazz!

Where do you live?
New York City.

Favorite go-to restaurant?
EB: I love Prune — less a go-to than an indulgence, but what an indulgence.

EP: I’m in a slump. My favorite, a French place called La Petite Auberge, closed in October.

Favorite go-to place to grab a drink?
EB: There’s a joint near me, Sidecar, that makes the most amazing Moscow Mule.
EP: Crocodile Lounge (free pizza!)

If you had to move tomorrow where would you go?
EB: Somewhere by the sea.

EP: The Berkshires.

What’s your favorite venue to see a show?
EB: Jalopy, in Red Hook, is perhaps the venue in NYC with the most soul. A husband-and-wife team started it (it’s also a music school and instrument shop), and it feels like you’re in some dance hall in the South. The church pews add to the religious experience. And I love Barbès, also in Brooklyn.

EP: Some of my favorites include City Winery and Joe’s Pub. Speaking as a musician, these places have the best sound engineers and systems. And their liquor ain’t bad, either.

Favorite venue to play?
EB: We all love playing Shanghai Mermaid, a monthly speakeasy here in the city (we recorded our album there). People really dress up and come to party — it’s about as close as you can get to time-travel to the 1930s.

EP: Any venue is my favorite when the crowd is having a great time and the band is swinging.

What’s the first concert you saw?
EB: Madonna.

EP: The Grateful Dead.

What’s the last concert you saw?
EB: Nicole Atkins.

EP: Pink Martini.

Recommend 2 or 3 albums you are currently listening to.
EB: June Christy, “Something Cool.” Zaz’s self-titled album. And I have this Japanese compilation of Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Sevens that’s in fairly heavy rotation.

EP: Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger (live), “Precious Friend.” The Two Man Gentlemen Band, “Dos Amigos, Una Fiesta.”

What’s the best viral video you’ve seen recently? (Please provide the link)
Kittens Riding a Roomba

3 recommended movies?
EP: Bug, Midnight in Paris, Back to the Future.

EB: The Muppets, The Muppets, The Muppets.

2 recommended books?
EP: “Downbeat: The Great Jazz Interviews,” Leonard Bernstein’s biography by Humphrey Burton.

EB: “Starman,” the David Bowie biography by Paul Trynka, and Gene Wilder’s memoir “Kiss Me Like a Stranger.”

What was your favorite cartoon growing up?
EB: I love the old Warner Bros. stuff — Bugs Bunny all the way.

EP: Tom and Jerry, hands down.

What’s your favorite TV show currently airing?
EB: 30 Rock.

EP: The Walking Dead.

If you had 5 dollars to spend in a convenience store what would you purchase?
EB: Five dollars’ worth of Corn Nuts.

EP: A huge bag of Skittles.

What’s in your refrigerator right now?
EB: Leftovers and this hot-pepper sauce my dad makes that could strip paint.

EP: Nothing. I order in.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
EB: I’d like to teleport myself places, because who can afford plane tickets anymore?

EP: Time travel, to go back and experience musicians like Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller live.

What types of people or actions unnerve you (besides interviewers)?
EB: The guy seated next to me at a Ray Lamontagne show answered his cell in the middle of the show. I will never understand that.

EP: Tardy musicians, gurus of any kind, doctors or nurses wielding needles.

Have you ever stolen anything? If so, what? Did you get caught?
EB: I stole a hat once. I’d put it on my head because my hands were full, forgot about it and felt terrible.

EP: I “borrowed” my dad’s car in the middle of the night on many joy-ride occasions. I only got caught once.

Describe the last time you laughed yourself to tears.
EP: Betty White’s “bender over” line on “Hot in Cleveland” (Google it).

EB: I snorted soup last Christmas when my dad told this really filthy joke.

If you could add any question to this interview what would it be? (Please make sure to answer it)
EP: When are we going to get flying cars? I don’t know the answer but according to Jules Verne, we should have them by now.