Unlike some other bands, Lesbians on Ecstasy lives up to its name. The Montreal-based electro-alternative punky dance-pop quartet indeed comprises lesbians—keyboardist Bernie Bankrupt, bassist Veronique Mystique, drummer Jackie 'The JackHammer' and vocalist Fruity Frankie—and they've dabbled in the happy love pill known as Ecstasy. 'We all have, except for maybe Jackie,' Bankrupt admits. 'But we don't do it much these days—we're too busy! It's a time-consuming drug.'
Their new album, We Know You Know ( Alien8 Recordings ) , reflects this de facto sobriety, with its theme of disappointment about the lack of a lesbian utopia once promised by their acoustic guitar-strumming lesbian/feminist musical forebears. Yet the album bubbles and pulses with an electronic disco perkiness ( and tinges of Kraftwerk and early New Order ) as well as a layered vocal onslaught a la Le Tigre; lyrical references to and recreated samples of songs by many female/queer musical influences; and a cover of Betty's Is This The Way?
Friends who met while attending Montreal's Concordia University, the quartet officially launched the band in 2003. Their eponymous 2004 debut disc won critical kudos, including 'Album of the Year' from The Advocate. Shortly following the Lesbians' appearance at Austin's SXSW Music Festival this March, I spoke by phone with the Summerland, B.C.-raised Bankrupt ( yes, that's an alias ) who is also part of a second band, Boyfriend, and who organizes October's annual BEMF ( Bernie's Electronic Music Festival ) in Montreal. 'It's somewhere between a joke and serious,' she said of the latter. 'There's a lot of electronic music in Montreal but very little representation of women.'
During our chat we touched on the new album; whether they've tried other recreational substances; and how these Lesbians are kicking acoustic guitars and Birkenstocks to the curb.
Lawrence Ferber: So tell me more about the album's theme.
Bernie Bankrupt: We've revisited utopian happy lesbian songs from the 1970s and look at the way things are now. So the theme we're working with is this idea of the broken promises of a lesbian utopia that didn't happen and we're bummed.
The first track, Sisters in the Struggle, [ is ] the one where, even though I would say the actual music is a bit more positive and hopeful, the words are 'We've been waiting all our lives' and we reiterate that theme over and over: It feels like we've been waiting a long time for something positive to happen and it feels like it's going in the opposite direction. But I wouldn't say all the songs are about that—some are more hopeful. Some are more nostalgic and some are more dark. What we tried to do was create a narrative of happy, then self-doubt, then sad and then redemption.
LF: Do you think the lesbian utopia never happened because they only played acoustic instruments?
BB: [ Laughs ] I would say in some ways that it's not the most healthy thing for women and lesbians to be afraid of technology.
LF: Do you think that with a keyboard and electronic drum kit, a lesbian utopia can finally come to fruition?
BB: Maybe. We might be hopeful to say that. Talking to JD Samson [ from Le Tigre ] about this and the other ladies in Austin at SXSW, even the idea of being hopeful of the future seems naïve. Sometimes that kind of hopefulness is difficult to maintain in the light of so much crap going on.
LF: And what's the story behind the tantalizingly titled The Cold Touch of Leather?
BB: That is about our little ritual [ before we play ] . We used to wear leather gloves because we did the leather-daddy look, and we have to look each other in the eyes so we had this thing we called The Cold Touch of Leather where we all touch the leather glove and look each other in the eye before we play!
LF: How does this sophomore effort differ from the first album?
BB: It's a lot more melodic. We focused more on melodic hooks [ and ] group singing. [ We are ] trying to bring that '70s aesthetic in, but it still sounds like us—heavy bass, heavy electronic drum sounds. On the first album we [ had references to and remakes of ] a lot of lesbian material that was pretty known— [ like ] kd lang [ and ] Melissa Etheridge. People said to us, 'You won't be able to make another album, because how much lesbian material is there out there?' So it's definitely a lot more obscure, indie-produced music [ that we reference ] : lesser-known artists like Chris Williamson and the Berkeley Women's Collective.
LF: Are you four just friends, or is there incestuous romance going on within the ranks of Lesbians on Ecstasy like with ABBA or Fleetwood Mac?
BB: There's a little bit of incest but we keep it a secret. We just did this interview with DIVA Magazine from the UK and they wanted to do a couple's interview, so we made up a fake couple within the band. So that's one hint—it's not that couple! [ Laughs ] We'll leave it up for much hotheaded debate.
LF: Do people ever assume your band name is just a clever name—like Gay Dad—and you're actually a bunch of straight dudes?
BB: We've had such funny reactions about it from the gamut of people. Some assume we're lesbians and some assume we're straight dudes and some don't know. There was this band at SXSW called Lesbian—these three metal dudes from Seattle. I don't know why they're called Lesbian—and it's written in that heavy-metal font. So I think people assume we're like them and they're surprised when they see [ that we ] are lesbians.
LF: Have you tried many other recreational drugs? So you could become, like, Lesbians on GHB?
BB: I've never done GHB. It's not around much. We did actually have a side project called Dykes on Crack, which were more hard-rock personas. We played a real drum kit. We got in trouble in the States for it in the more politically conscientious West Coast zone because we were told that crack wasn't funny and it wasn't appropriate. So we put the brakes on that one. You know how the ladies get.
LF: And what about Lesbians on Cough Syrup?
BB: Well, we did do a 'screwed and chopped' version of one of our tracks in homage to our codeine cough syrup-guzzling friends down south. Do you know of the 'screwed and chopped' movement? Basically, all these kids were doing lots of codeine cough syrup in the USA's South for a while and making tracks that were super-slowed down to go with the buzz. So we did that on one of the tracks of the album. It's fun to take what you do and put the brakes on and slow it right down.'
LF: How is lesbian life up north in Montreal?
BB: It's good. It has a particular character in the city, which is almost 75 percent Francophone and 25 percent Anglophone. So it feels like there are two distinct lesbian scenes happening. Lately, there have been more events where the two come together and that's exciting to see. It's a pretty different cultural group and neighborhoods that people live in but it's fun when the ladies get together.
LF: How extensively have you toured at this point, and have their been memorable gigs along the way?
BB: We've been all over the USA and Europe. On the last tour we went to Croatia and Greece. We also played in super-small towns in the states. We [ even ] played a kid's basement! That was on our way to the West Coast and there's a lot of ground in between that and Montreal, so we ended up saying yes to weird gigs like a swinger's party! We ended up playing in Kansas City, Mo., in an old English pub on fish-and-chips night, in the stairwell! It was pretty hilarious.
LF: So if you're kicking the old-school lesbian acoustic guitars to the curb and loving the electronics, what's replacing the Birkenstocks?
BB: We wear a lot of sneakers. A real Converse kind of band—better colors.
See www.lezziesonx.com for more information.
