RAPE REVENGE Interview (2012)

RAPE REVENGE

Hey! How are you? Please introduce yourself and the rest of the band.

My name is Samantha and I am the vocalist of the band.  Jesse is the guitarist, Ethan is the bassist and Matt is the drummer. 

Please tell something about RAPE REVENGE for the people who don´t know your band.

Rape Revenge is a feminist band based out of Calgary Alberta Canada.  We have lyrics about queer issues. Feminism, animal rights, anarchism, and sexual violence.  We have been around for about 2 years and have released a self titled 7”, a live cassette, and just put out our new Paper Cage 7” on To Live A Lie Records.  We are a do-it-yourself band and are dedicated to the all ages underground music scene.  We only play all ages shows.  We are influenced by the power violence and the riot grrrl movement, and identify as a ‘riot violence’ band.

Are the lyrics of your song "Car Ride With A Vivisection Intern" based on a real story?

Yes they are.  I was given a friend of a friend ride home and during our drive I found out she worked in a vivisection lab as a part of her summer internship for her science degree.  I wanted to kick her out of my car, but instead I just tried to make her feel like shit through blanket statements like “wow, it must be really hard on your spirit, like your sense of being a good person, to torture animals all day” and “so what are you learning from this research that we don’t already know? Oh, nothing? Hmm…..”

Please explain the Riot Grrrl Movement for people who have never heard about it

Riot Grrrl was a movement that originated in Olympia Washington US in the 1990’s.  Women and queers wanted to start making music and tear down the boy’s club punk had become.  Riot Grrrl brought radical feminism to the punk scene.  A lot of great bands arose from this movement, such as Bikini Kill, Team Dresch, L7, Tribe 8 and Bratmobile. Also a lot of women wrote really rad zines, incorporating the “personal is political” aspect of the feminist movement.  One really awesome aspect of Riot Grrrl is that many of the band were formed by womyn who had never been in a band before, and had never played an instrument.  This made punk super accessible and fun, and also resulted in some really creative records being put out. 

The movement is sort of over, but there are ‘post riot grrrls’ everywhere, like me and like the folks in The Gossip and Le Tigre.  I have noticed a really interesting shift where a lot of womyn are making feminist grind, feminist hardcore, and feminist fastcore.  It’s like the riot grrrl movement but faster and louder.  Really inspiring.  Some bands that might fall under this category would be Womb Raider from Montreal, Burn Collector from Edmonton, Death Rats, and I think we could be considered this too.

I´m sure you heard about the Pussy Riot case from Russia. What do you think about it?

I fully support Pussy Riot and think they are amazing.  SO inspiring.  Last I heard they were illegally charged and arrested?  Hooliganism?  So fucked up!  Reminds me kind of of the Gorilla Grrrls in America, but with punk music.  I was on the Radical Cheer Squad here a while ago, I think we were definitely a bit tamer than Pussy Riot, but it was similar.  They have my full support!

Do you have any future plans for releasing new records and music? Maybe some songs who reach the one minute mark? haha

We just put out the Paper Cage 7” and I think we have a song on there that is 1:30… It’s really long.  As we grow and change as a band I am sure more songs will come out that are longer.  I am really into sludge and doomy hardcore stuff like Caulfield from Sacramento and Mourne from somewhere in the US, so if things go my way we will have longer slower parts more often.  We wrote a song a few days ago that is definitely longer and slower.  It’s about women’s experience of agoraphobia and the fear of going outside being connected to women being harassed on the street daily by men. 

How do you write music? What inspires you to write that kind of music?

We write things as collaboratively as possible.  I usually bring lyrics to practice and we talk about them and sometimes change some things or add something.  The way I write lyrics is that I just write a page of “free writing” about a topic and then take what works from that, shorten it to fit in a 30 second song, and then often use the rest in the explanation of the song in the liner notes.  Sometimes I just come up with a line and think about it for days until the rest of the song sort of forms around it.  A few times I have taken a quote from someone else, like Billy Bragg of Angela Davis and used it as a starter point.

Music wise, we do everything together.  We write the songs in practice and all come up with ideas about how things should sound.  We have only been in this line up for a year or so, so we are still figuring each other out.  The guitarist used to be a bassist, and is still new to this genre of music, so he brings really fresh and interesting ideas that we all build off of.   

What does veganism and straight edge mean to you?

Veganism to me just makes sense for my body, for my life, and for my beliefs about resisting the oppression of others.  Veganism is also a very spiritual thing to me.  I never want to see an animal as food again.  I have chosen to dedicate this small aspect of my life to the dignity and worth of the lives of animals.  I also have chron’s disease and have basically cured that shit by eating a plant based diet.  I am really excited about feeling healthy and happy and am proud to say I have accomplished this through a low cost vegan diet. 

Straight edge is a personal choice for me, based on my identity as queer and the issue I take with seeing so many queers have to be drunk in order to express their sexuality.  I want to be comfortable with myself when I am sober.  My father is an addict and so also a part of my straight edge identity is about that and a desire to learn from his mistakes. 

Do you have any plans to play in Europe some day? By the way, can you tell me a good tour story?

We really want to come to Europe! We have been so lucky to have so many awesome people contact us from Europe and invite us to tour there.  We are hoping to come as soon as we can.  This year we are doing the west coast of the US, so maybe next year?

Touring is so fun and totally my favorite part of being in this band.  I guess the best story I can tell you is this time we played in a city and a girl spoke to me about being sexually assaulted by this guy that apparently was a big deal in the scene.  No one believed her and she felt super isolated.  I spent the whole night hanging out with her and talking about it, trying to support her and having her back.  She was really strong and super bad ass and I was really honored that she felt she could open up to me.  A few months later she started a really awesome band, and we are going to play with them when we are back in her town soon.

Which goals do you want to reach with RAPE REVENGE?

I think we have already reached my main goal, which was to inspire other women and queer to start heavy bands.  Lots of women who I have met at shows have now started some of the best bands out there. 

I guess another goal is just to write more, to write songs that really inspire people, that really reach out to the other people who feel like a freak or an outsider like I do. 

And the last goal is just to remain kind and caring to each other as a band.  Matt and I started this band and we lost 3 of our members after our first tour.  We just weren’t as nice to each other as we could have been.  We barely knew each other and then we were in a van for a month and it all just got fucked up.  This time around, I think we have built some really strong friendships with Ethan and Jesse.  I baked them both cupcakes for their birthdays, Ethan and I have lots of rad talks and Jesse and I share our common interest in meditation.  I think we are good to each other and I think that will be what helps us stick around for a while. 

The last words are yours.

Thank you so much, Ray, for inviting us to do this interview.  We are so appreciative of your support and for the opportunity to share more about our project.  Rape Revenge is always really stoked to hear from people, so if you want to email us send it to raperevengeband@riseup.net