Austin – Their name is not a Bratmobile reference and though they are four female musicians who subscribe to feminist ideals, they don’t lump themselves in with the Riot Grrrl movement of the 90’s. Guitarist and vocalist Abby Weems, bassist Ally Einbinder, drummer Victoria Mandanas, and newest member, guitarist Ali Donahue came together from various spectrums of the Massachusetts punk scene. Their music is at once catchy and powerful, with the punk simplicity of “this is a chord, this is another chord, this is a third, now form a band.” Having released their debut LP, Hell Bent, in late 2013, those outside of Massachusetts are beginning to take notice. Setting off on tour with the likes of Swearin and Perfect Pussy, Potty Mouth is bringing their raw energy to stages across the country. I spoke to them from the road as they filled me in on life on the road and the Western Massachusetts music scene from whence they emerged.
Ilyse Kaplan: I understand you’ve just started out on your first national tour, how is it going so far?
Ali Donahue: It’s going really well. I’m the newest member of the band. Before this tour, I’d only played about two or three shows with Potty Mouth. It’s been a fun learning adventure because I feel like I had to dive head first in to this experience. It’s been really fun. My other band Flea Bite is opening for Potty Mouth for nine dates. Yesterday we just played Columbus and Cincinnati and it was so much fun. Columbus was really incredible, it was a daytime show but I feel like it was definitely a highlight of tour so far. I don’t have anything to compare it to but I’m having a blast.
Abby Weems: It’s definitely going well so far. It is hard playing bars in the middle of the week; it can sometimes be a bummer. It’s fun to have Flea Bite on tour with us and have friends in every city come out so that always helps.
IK: I immediately picked up on your band name being a possible Bratmobile reference but was interested to read your views on feminism and punk. I liked your statement, “gender doesn’t equal genre.” As you’re starting to build a larger audience, are you finding people are beginning to respect your band for what it is rather than lumping you in with the Riot Grrrl movement of the 90’s?
AW: Our name is not a Bratmobile reference; it’s just a coincidence. That’s a common misconception.
Ally Einbinder: It’s hard to say; I think that we live in a world that attaches a lot of assumptions. There’s social categories people get from us. I don’t if people are starting to notice us. That was a quote that I said, gender doesn’t equal genre, because I was getting frustrated that we’re a very female identified band but that doesn’t have anything to do with how we sound. I think people who like our music and like are band are nice. We’ve been writing a lot of new material that we’ve been playing live recently. So people have been coming up to us and kind of commenting on those songs and how they’re noticeably a lot stronger, a lot heavier, more layers, not as straight forward. I think it might be changing gradually as we all become better musicians and more comfortable with our entire cohesion as a band.
IK: I understand some of you learned to play instruments while playing in this band and the play-as-you go aesthetic isn’t something as widely practiced anymore as it was in the late 70’s and 80’s. Have you found as you’re starting to write new music that your growth as musicians is adding to a growth in your writing ability?
AE: The person who was learning to play an instrument isn’t in the band anymore. I think we became stronger as we wrote more songs.
AW: I had never been in a band or really played before Potty Mouth. The only way that it’s really obviously changed is our songs get more intricate because we’ve advanced because of our experience.
IK: What was it like forming your band at Smith College? Do you feel Potty Mouth Contributed to the music scene both at the College and in Western Mass?
AE: I think we happened to spring up around the same time that a few other really good bands were starting to come up in Western Mass around the same time. When that started happening, things started to get exciting for a little while. Bands were starting to come over to Western Mass to play shows. Massachusetts is really a small state so there was a lot of crossover of bands playing Western Mass and Boston. I work at Smith, I graduated four years ago, so I’ve been there for eight years. We just played our first show at the college a month ago. Nothing like that had ever happened when I was a student. I was happy that it happened and it was our last show with our original guitar player. I hope more events like that can happen at Smith because it was really great and a lot of people came. There aren’t a lot of opportunities to see live music, particularly played by alums at the college.
AD: I’m from Boston. Even before Potty Mouth, we all knew each other because we played in other bands. Massachusetts is a small state and Western Mass and Boston are about two hours away from each other, so there’s still a lot of cross over. It’s a treat for bands from Boston to play in Western Mass or to have bands from Western Mass play in Boston. In that way there’s a lot of really exciting things happening. Right now, I personally felt inspired to become more active. There’s a lot of really inspiring women and people stepping up and getting involved in the scene. I’ve been booking a fest collectively with my friends for the past three years, that’s been a really important part of my life. It feels cool to be able to contribute to the scene while reaching other scenes and playing with friends, just doing something really cool together.
IK: What made you decide to release your first recordings, “Bad Bad,” on cassette tape?
AE: To me, cassette seemed like the most obvious choice. I grew up in the punk and DIY community and that’s just what you did—start a band and record your songs to an eight-track cassette recorder. Cassettes are the most accessible option; they’re the true DIY option. Supporters could order them through our website and you just throw them on [the eight-track] and make copies whenever you need more. At that point, when we started out as a band, we didn’t think we would get to the point we’re at now. If I was to start a new band tomorrow, I would be like okay, first step record a demo to cassette tape. It just seems like the logical first move.
IK: Your debut LP, Hell Bent, came out last year. What was the recording process like for the LP?
AW: The recording process was interesting. We recorded the whole thing over three days with our friend Will Killingsworth; he’s a local producer who works with a lot of bands. It was good to work with a friend. It was hard to schedule all of us to have enough time to record so we did it all in three days. It was a very intense recording process but I think it came out well.
IK: What were your goals in how you wanted the record to sound?
AW: We definitely wanted it to sound bigger and a step up from our EP. Our EP is softer and there aren’t as many guitar tracks. We wanted to take it up a notch by adding cool effects and having a little bit more fun with the recording process.
IK: How do you feel the response has been so far to the record?
AD: The interesting thing for me is I haven’t been in the band that long but I’ve been a fan, so it’s kind of this weird thing where I was a really big fan of the band before I was asked to play with them. I remember when the record came out, I was like this is so fucking good and I loved all the songs. I feel like a cheese ball saying that because I’m in the band now but it’s been really cool. From my perspective, I think it’s really well received. It’s a treat now, getting to be a project where people come to the shows and sing along and know a lot of the songs and are excited to see us play them. It feels cool to see people mouthing along with the songs and dancing to themselves. You go, oh sweet people like it. It’s hard to know, otherwise how things are received. People say kind things on-line, I’ve learned to stay away from the comments section of websites, though. It’s full of sexist trolls so it’s hard to know what’s good perception. Do you base it off music sites? Do you base it off fans at your shows dancing around? Do you base it off things people say in comments sections? I don’t really know, but I think over all it’s been positively received.
Ilyse Kaplan
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