PISS Blow The Door Wide Open and They’re Just Getting Started
Photo credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder)
Whether you're listening to their debut recording three demos or watching their live show, it is immediately clear that everything PISS creates is filled with intention and care. While they talk honestly about sexual violence and the impact of trauma, the Vancouver-based noise-infused hardcore punk quartet take time to ensure the environment they generate is safe for people to engage with the music, as lead vocalist Tay Zantingh gives a content warning before each show.
Before PISS formed, Tay was working on a multi-genre art project with a focus on short fiction and poetry, some of which she had been developing since undergrad. Friend and guitarist Tyler Paterson convinced Tay to move from Victoria to Vancouver and start a band. “[At first] we were jamming really casually. After Ty came to a poetry reading I did with Real Vancouver, we had the idea to bridge the two worlds, so this project that I'd been working on merged with PISS. We were like, 'We'll find a better name,' and then we never did," Tay says with a laugh.
The way Tay approached the initial project influenced the structure of PISS’ upcoming debut album, which saw some of the poems find new life as songs. During a week alone catsitting for friends, she started thinking about how the collection of stories and poems would fit into a record. “It was like all these gears started turning and everything was connecting,” Tay explains. “I made a huge outline with all the songs I wanted and the narrative structure. It had prompts for Ty to create riffs we could work on like, ‘I want this song to sound like you’re bashing your head against the wall.’”
Photo credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder)
While Tay has been involved in punk and hardcore since she was fifteen, this heavier direction was new to Tyler, drummer Garreth Roberts, and bassist Gavin Moya, who met while playing indie and folk music in Vancouver. “From my point of view, it was something different for all of us to do than what we were used to. I had never played in a band like this. We had never played this style of music as a group,” Garreth says.
The instrumentation is directly correlated to the lyrical content of each track with the band emphasizing the relationship between each sonic decision and the overall theme of the song. “‘there was a door’ is one of our heavier songs. Ty wanted to have a song where I just screamed the whole way through. I was thinking what sort of situation I could write about where [not being understood] would lend itself to the emotional point of the song, so I wrote about a dynamic between two people who can’t understand each other,” Tay explains.
Violence and its aftermath are major themes on the record, subject matter that is presented with visceral lyrics. “When I was writing this record, I was very concerned about writing something that romanticizes my own pain. I didn’t want to create this world where I’m somehow making it trendy or aspirational to be a victim of violence,” Tay says. “I had to think about how I was going to present myself because I want this to be almost like a play you’re watching and the focus is on how you feel about it. It’s often really scary if you’re looking at the rawness in yourself, but looking at [that reflection in] another person, there’s enough distance from you personally that you can begin to explore it and understand it from a safe distance.”
“I think about the subject matter non-stop. It’s so sensitive and so unique to each person and I do not want to mishandle it, so I think very much about why I’m doing it. Ultimately, I tried as much as possible to create something that was real and that involves a lot of ugliness or things about trauma that people maybe don’t want to think about themselves,” she adds. “If we can’t look at each other in our imperfections with tenderness, kindness, openness, and curiosity, then we’re never going to get anywhere in terms of solving this problem.”
Photo credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder)
Incorporating a wide range of samples (including Andrea Dworkin, bell hooks, and Vikki Reynolds) throughout the record was important to present different perspectives on violence while also making sure “people could find things that they were comfortable with and things that would challenge them to think a little bit,” Tay says.
Much like their music, PISS’ live show is something you experience on a molecular level. Bringing the songs to life is physically and emotionally demanding, something that Tay dealt with last year on the band's most extensive tour to date, with stops across Canada, the US, and Europe. “[The live performance has] definitely added a huge layer of complexity to the way I relate to my body and my voice that I wasn’t expecting, but I’m learning how to take care of myself every single time I go on stage,” Tay says.
This intensity is captured on their upcoming album, the majority of which was recorded live off the floor by Colin Stewart at The Hive Recording Studio in Victoria.“We had a week on the island to record it. All of us are such music fans and we all have different tastes, but we know when something’s well crafted, thoughtful, and beautiful, and I think we hit that shit,” Garreth says. “It was such a fun experience working with Colin,” Tay adds. “I’m very proud of the way the music has been able to reach people that I never could have expected it to.”
After kicking off the year with a five-date tour, including performances at Winterruption festival, PISS are just getting started. Their eagerly anticipated debut album is set for release later this year with videos and an art project involving local artists in the works, including a signing announcement to SubPop and Paper Bag Records. “Hopefully [we’ll have] time to write record number two,” Tay says.
Photo credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder)