New Track: pink suits – ‘Are You Gay Yet?’

One of the first songs written for their much anticipated upcoming album Dystopian Hellscape, pink suits have released their fourth and final single release ‘Are You Gay Yet?’. Described as “a seething celebration of queerness”, it captures the duo’s distinct, definitive essence perfectly. An anthem dedicated to reclaiming your identity and sense of self, the track takes their trademark angst and channels it into a fierce salute to individuality.

The track begins with clattering, fast paced drumming that teases the riotous energy integral to pink suits’ signature sound. Fuzzy guitars begin slowly and simply, giving the vocals plenty of space to belt out the track’s central question: “Are you gay yet?” It hangs in the relative quiet of those opening lines, forcing you to confront the discomfort inherent in such an invasive and personal question, and consider the mindset of someone who thinks that’s an appropriate thing to say out loud.

Guitar, drums and vocals pick up for furious, fast paced verses that delve deeper. They depict moments that any visibly queer person will recognise, when people go out of their way to make a point of letting you know that they have noticed, in a way that evidently isn’t designed to be kind. A way that might be delivered gently, but still feels like a slap in the face.

The track alternates between the intrusive questions and the visceral emotional reaction to being asked them. The abrupt shifts between the two perspectives create a sense of whiplash that evokes the dizzy sense of disorientation that often hits when someone has caught you off-guard with such a pernicious approach to asking about your life.

‘Are You Gay Yet?’ is quintessentially pink suits. It aches with rage at the micro-aggressions that queer people are routinely expected to tolerate, yet is simultaneously infused with an infectious joy born of rejecting that expectation. With this song, pink suits are clapping back with all the frustration they are made to feel in that moment and revelling in the satisfaction of taking the power back.

Dystopian Hellscape, the upcoming second album from pink suits, is set for release on 1st April. Catch pink suits on tour over the next couple of months, including 29th March at Manchester Punk Festival and 13th April at Cro Cro Land. Dates and tickets here.

Kirstie Summers
@ActuallyKurt

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LIVE (Photos): Cherym @ Paper Dress Vintage, 24.02.2024

Having just released their debut album, Take It Or Leave It, last month via Alcopop! Records, Northern Irish trio Cherym have been big faves of ours since I first fell in love with them playing Paper Dress Vintage back in 2021. And I was lucky enough to re-live this experience last Saturday as they returned to the venue, delivering an even more wonderful set to an even bigger and adoring crowd. Fizzing with all the colourful punk-pop energy we’ve come to know and love, whilst offering fierce reflections on gender inequality and violence against women, as well as their own lived experiences as Gen Z queer folk, both the album and their live set continue to cement Cherym as one of the most exciting bands around at the moment. And I fully expect to be seeing and hearing lots more of them throughout 2024 – find out more here.

As well as immersing ourselves in their captivating raging joy at the gig last week, we were lucky enough to have a quick chat with Hannah and Alannah from the band about the tour and the new album. See our photos of the night, including excellent support from new faves Brutalligators and Hamburg’s Get Jealous, and snippets from the interview below…

Hannah: “The tour has been really, really good – we sold out our first ever Manchester headline show which was really exciting, and we also sold out our London show which is incredible. For me, it just sort of confirmed there has been a growth for the band and that more people are starting to hear our music which is amazing, and it’s a really exciting thing that’s starting to happen. We’re currently just back from the Netherlands which was really cool, there were loads of people we got to see that we haven’t met before that we’ve seen online and stuff. It was just really exciting.”

Hannah: “We wanted this album to be our truth. We wanted to be unapologetically ourselves, and I feel like that’s what we stuck by. People always used to label us as being a political band based primarily off the fact that we were all femme presenting people. We were all women and non-binary people within the band, and we were all also queer, but we never outwardly said we were a political band, we just got labelled as such. So I think with this record we were like, ‘you know what, we’ll give you political’. We have songs like ‘Alpha Beta Sigma‘ that’s very reflective of everything that’s been happening, like the atrocities of the church back home, and songs like ‘The Thing About Them’ which is about Nyree’s experience as a non-binary person, and we just wanted to speak our truth on a lot of issues.”

Alannah: “The fans have been really supportive. The new fans especially have really grasped onto the album and it’s been really lovely to see that we’ve connected with so many people. The fans that have stuck by us for a really long time have really resonated with it as well. A lot of our fans tend to be one of two people – old punk rockers who feel nostalgic about the new punk scene, and then the other side is younger fans who can relate to the lyricism and style of music that we play. When we were teenagers we really had nobody to look up to, or if there were they would be hidden between all the mainstream artists who were white men. It’s kind of nice that we’ve been able to showcase queer punk because we all come from different backgrounds, and it’s nice to see younger fans identify with that.”

Alannah: “I think our festival season is going to be really interesting this year with the new album out in the world. We’re hoping to go abroad this time again when it comes to festivals, some bigger and better things — climbing up that ladder -, which we’re really excited for. There may be some announcements coming soon too…

Hannah: “Yeah new adventures in new territories! Next for us is the Enter Shikari shows in Ireland, so we’ve got two shows in Dublin and we’ve got a show in Belfast as well, which is just insane because we’ve all been fans of this band from when we were teenagers, so to be selected to be one of the support acts for this tour is incredible. And we’re playing with Meryl Streek as well, which is going to be amazing – we love Meryl and we love his music and everything he stands for, so it’s going to be really cool.”

Alannah: “We also have something exciting in the bag that we recently announced… Our cover of Doja Cat’s ‘Boss Bitch’ which is coming out on International Women’s Day, so we’re really excited to see the reception for that! We’re also doing German dates with Get Jealous and we’re also playing again in Germany later this year with The Undertones – I think that’s all we can say without getting in trouble for now!”

Get Jealous:

Brutalligators:

Massive thanks to Hannah and Alannah from Cherym for chatting to us, and putting on such a wonderful show at Paper Dress Vintage last weekend! Take It Or Leave It, the new debut album from Cherym, is out now via Alcopop! Records – order here.

Photo Credit: Paul Dawes / @GRNDglass

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Five Favourites: Joanna Sternberg

Probably my most listened to artist of the last twelve months, New York based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joanna Sternberg released their second album I’ve Got Me last year; an exquisite rumination on life’s difficulties and hopes which perfectly showcases their vast musical talent, I can certainly see why it received such widespread acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone and Pitchfork. As well as solely writing each and every song on the record, Sternberg also played every single instrument that you hear; creating a truly unique, genre-spanning collection. With an education in Classical and Jazz music, throughout the album they weave a rich tapestry of beautifully lilting folk-strewn sounds alongside reflective narrative lyricism; all brought together with their raw, impassioned vocals. It really is something quite special that I urge you all to immerse yourselves in, if you’ve not yet already.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate Joanna Sternberg’s upcoming tour dates, I caught up with them to find out about the music that inspired I’ve Got Me most. Read about their favourite songs (we’ve allowed them six choices!) and see details of their upcoming live dates below.

I remember the night before the first day in the studio, Matthew Johnson (of Fat Possum Records) told me to come up with at least one song that I wanted to use as an example to inspire each track of the album. It helped SO much and also made me even more excited to get into the studio. Here are a few of the songs that helped to inspire me!

The Pogues – ‘If I Should Fall From Grace With God’
The Pogues are one of my all-time favourite bands, rest in peace Shane MacGowan. And I actually wrote the song ‘I Will Be With You‘ while I imagined him singing it (with The Pogues accompanying him of course!).

Judee Sill – ‘The Lamb Ran Away With The Crown’ 
The ironic and strange thing is that I wrote ‘Drifting On A Cloud‘ before I was even aware of Judee Sill, though once I became “aware” of her, I immediately became OBSESSED! But then, when I was in the studio playing this song, I really had Judee Sill in my mind, especially this beautiful track, ‘The Lamb Ran Away With The Crown’.

Tom Petty – ‘I Won’t Back Down’
This is a song that I have been obsessed with since the age of twelve! It helped me get through the horrors of being bullied and excluded in the public schools of New York City. I wanted ‘People Are Toys To You‘ to have a similar feeling and arrangement as ‘I Wont Back Down’.  

Leon Russell – ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ 
I first heard Leon Russell’s cover of this song (it’s originally by Hank Williams) in the movie A Poem Is A Naked Person. It was near the beginning of the movie and I became so fixated on it that I don’t remember anything else about that film (except for the disturbing scene that I had to cover my eyes for involving a snake…)! Anyway, I definitely tried to emulate the feeling and energy of this song in ‘She Dreams’. 

Randy Newman – ‘Losing You’
Randy Newman is in the top tier list (in my humble opinion) of the greatest songwriters of all time. He has so many songs that make me cry, and I definitely took so much inspiration from ‘Losing You’ when I recorded ‘Right Here‘; I’m sure that I’d recently been listening to ‘Losing You’, so it was definitely in my mind and my soul while I was writing, even if I was not consciously directly thinking of it.

Roy Orbison – ‘You Got It’ 
Another song that I have loved this song since I was twelve (this is the age where I discovered Limewire and the art of making mix tapes!). I wrote ‘I’ll Make You Mine‘ while imagining I was writing it for Roy Orbison to sing. At the time when I wrote it, I was not even singing my songs – my friends would sing them, as I was too scared and insecure.

Massive thanks to Joanna for sharing their favourite songs with us!

I was lucky enough to catch Joanna Sternberg at a beautifully intimate gig last year at King’s Place, and would highly recommend making sure you catch them live too! They’ll be playing at Primavera festival in Porto on 8th June and End Of The Road festival between 29th August and 1st September, as well as opening for Jessica Pratt for a special night at Union Chapel in Islington on 6th June. Tickets available here.

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

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LISTEN: tall child – ‘Damaged’

tall child, formerly known as ZHA Gandhi and previously associated with projects like Buggs and Luce Rushton (fka TV Room), has now released their debut single ‘Damaged‘. With a full band now in tow, tall child is making a name for themselves in London, having played headline shows at iconic grassroots venues like The George Tavern and supporting artists like Bel Cobain at Matchstick Piehouse.

Their soulful vocals enter straight away and are then accompanied by dreamy ripples of clean electric guitar, whilst the haunting and captivating melody immerses your ears straight away. Bringing to mind artists such as Orla Gartland and Lucy Dacus, with the ethereal shades of Mitski, their vocals shine through with a subtle soulfulness.

Soon, a lush harmony enters with a folk-strewn depth and gentle jazzy drum beat, adding a pleasing rhythmic layer and progressing the song. With melancholic undertones, the vocals shimmer with emotion complemented by delicately plucked guitar – “maybe I should count my blessings ‘cos I’m not like you, I’m nothing like you”. The song is an “introspective exploration of a turbulent parent-child relationship”, reflecting on the idea that they are glad to have not inherited the toxic traits from their absent parent. A beautifully cathartic ballad, flowing with stirring emotion.

Of their songwriting, Zha notes:

“For me, this project is about pushing the boundaries of songwriting through the analysis of personal trauma and reflection. I wanted to create a space that merges all my musical influences into one to form a truly unique sound. I’m hoping that someone with a troubled relationship with a family member can relate to this song and that it reminds them of their autonomy...”

The song builds up in energy before being brought down for the bridge, offering a slower breakdown and some time for reflection. Awash with glistening harmonies, delicate cymbals and layered voices, it’s emotive but uplifting; an acceptance. It builds gradually but brilliantly before reaching a climax and ending back on a gentle chord. ‘Damaged’ really takes you on a journey and at a lengthy five minutes, it manages to hold your attention throughout its subtle twists and turns, with a heartfelt honesty.

As for what’s next, tall child will be playing more gigs – “taking up space as a queer black artist” – and further developing and carving out their original style. A single release listening party show followed by an upcoming EP is soon to be announced, so keep your eyes peeled! 

Ella Patenall
@ella_patenall

Photo Credit: Jody Evans

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