Seattle – Since forming as a joke at a party at Whitman College, Chastity Belt has become a serious new force in the music industry. Yet even though their second LP, Time To Go Home, which dropped this week on Hardly Art, is filled with mature, insightful lyrics, the feminist four-piece still doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Take, for instance, the new video for “Cool Slut,” a hazy, surf rock track off the new record whose tongue-in-cheek lyrics celebrate women’s sexual liberties. Frontwoman and songwriter Julia Shapiro, guitarist Lydia Lund, bassist Annie Truscott, and drummer Gretchen Grimm don their best 90’s fashion, complete with bucket hats, and play Charades, roller blade, and goof around on the harp and clarinet. It actually looks like an extended Mom Jeans commercial.
That doesn’t diminish, though, the pure talent that emanates from this Seattle band. Chastity Belt have made a name for themselves in the Pacific Northwest, performing at Sasquatch! Music Festival and at pretty much every cool venue in Seattle. They recently dominated SXSW, have already received critical acclaim for Time To Go Home, and will be touring with Courtney Barnett.
Chastity Belt ’s drummer Gretchen Grimm recently took the time to answer a few questions for Best New Bands.
Caitlin Peterkin: Were you close friends before that fateful night at the frat party?
Gretchen Grimm: We were all friends but it’s hard to remember exactly how we met…College am I right!?
CP: What were your musical backgrounds?
GG: Lydia and Julia played a little guitar growing up and Annie played violin. In high school I dreamt of being in a Fleetwood Mac cover band, but I didn’t know how to play an instrument. This is the first band any of us has been in.
CP: How does Seattle shape your identity as a band? What about the city lends itself to breeding so much talent?
GG: The weather is really conducive to staying inside and playing music. Overall the music community here is really supportive.
CP: What are some of your favorite local acts?
GG: Heatwarmer, Stickers, Dude York, Pony Time, Punishment, Mega Bog.
CP: What’s your favorite Seattle venue to play? To go see other acts?
GG: I always have a good time at a DIY spot called the Black Lodge. My favorite venue is Chop Suey, but it just switched owners…. Hopefully it’ll stay cool, but pretty much every place that has been bought out in Capitol Hill has turned into a nightmare.
CP: What bands did you listen to growing up? Who influences you now?
GG: We all love Fleetwood Mac.
CP: Post-college, how have you grown as a group artistically?
GG: We feel more comfortable playing whatever feels true to us, instead of catering to drunk people trying to party.
CP: Your lyrics are fantastic and universal to so many women. Do you always seek to make a “statement” with them, or do you just write from personal experiences? For example, “Drone” sounds like a case of “man-splaining” – is there a story behind it?
GG: There’s not one single story to that song. She [Julia] usually pieces lyrics together from a bunch of different experiences.
CP: Why do you think there aren’t more self-proclaimed feminists in the music industry? Do you get any shit from others from being a feminist band, or is it mostly supportive?
GG: It’s mostly supportive. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten shit for being feminists. Ever since Beyonce came out as a feminist, life has been a lot easier for all us. JK.
CP: You started as a joke at Whitman College, and now you’ve been featured on NPR, are playing SXSW, and will be touring with Courtney Barnett. Did you ever foresee something like this happening back in college?
GG: We had a séance and my Ouija board predicted everything.
CP: How do you want to impact the music industry?
GG: Hopefully there’s a teen girl out there somewhere listening to our music and deciding to form a band.
Click HERE for all of Chastity Belt ’s tour dates, currently listed through June 18.
Caitlin Peterkin
With degrees in journalism and music, Caitlin’s written for Paste Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and MajoringinMusic.com. She loves cheese, laughing at GIFs of corgis, road trip sing-alongs, and connecting with people over good beer and good music.
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