On the philosophical fever dream of a sitcom that is “The Good Place,” D’Arcy Carden plays Janet, an upbeat, helpful humanoid who knows everything that’s ever happened in the entire universe. And it turns out Carden is kind of like a real-life Janet when it comes to music trivia. As a kid, the actress’ mom and dad, who founded the Bay Area music magazine BAM in the ’70s, used to test her and her sisters’ pop expertise. “If any song came on the radio, my mom would say, ‘Who’s playing drums on this song?’ Or, like, ‘Who produced this album?’ ‘Who’s the guest singer on this?’” Carden recalls. “Then she would give whoever answered first random points that never got added up to any total. But it was definitely a point of pride.”

Thanks to her music-loving parents, Carden also makes for a great concert buddy. At age 4, she saw her first show—Huey Lewis and the News—and the night has become the stuff of legends in her house. The Cardens were invited backstage after the gig, but Huey wasn’t in a great mood because he didn’t think the show was up to snuff. Then he met little D’Arcy. “My dad likes to say that Huey walked out of his dressing room holding my hand and was in a much better mood,” she says. “He was like, ‘I feel better knowing this little 4-year-old liked the show,’ which is wild.”

Such a musical childhood might help explain why the bands of Carden’s teenage years—specifically the ones she encountered in 1993—are still so omnipresent in her life. Whether they encouraged a 13-year-old Carden to change her name ever so slightly, or ended up inspiring Janet’s robot voice, this is the music that still holds a special place in her heart today.

Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream

I put an apostrophe in my name that wasn’t there before, like Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’Arcy Wretzky, because of how influential this band was to me. D’Arcy was just the epitome of cool to me. In 1993, I was really into alternative and grunge music, and whereas the Nirvanas and the Pearl Jams felt so masculine, there was something sweeter and lighter about Smashing Pumpkins. The fact that they had a girl in their band was huge for me and my friends. I learned the guitar part to “Today,” and it made me feel like such a badass. It was like, “Wow, I can play guitar!” But, of course, anybody can play the beginning of “Today.”

Billy Corgan has one of those voices to me where—and this is gonna sound like an insult but I truly mean it as a compliment—it’s like, why the hell did he think he could be the lead singer of a band? His voice is so weird, and I’m sure there was a choir teacher or some asshole friend who was like, “You don’t have a good voice.” Yet he continued to sing. And I’m glad he did, because he made all these really good songs.