Rape Revenge Interview 2012

First Off i would like to say that RxR is a fucking awesome band and most of all, awesome people. i got to talk with Samantha, Jessey and the rest of the dudes at one of their L.A shows a couple of months ago and it was a blast. everyone should most definitely check them out. cool tunes cooler people. if you get a chance to check them out grab the 7" and have a nice chat with them. you can listen to the "PAPER CAGE" EP on their bandcamp  Rape Revenge Bandcamp
Interview with Samantha.

Hi Alex,

We did get home alright! It was actually a shock to me that our van made it.  Tour was amazing! Thanks for the rad chats we had.  Here are my answers:

How did rape revenge start and why?

Rape Revenge started with me and Matt almost 3 years ago.  We wanted to make a band that was aggressive, in your face, and feminist as fuck.

First show and how did it go?

Oh man... our first show was at this weird all ages venue called The New Black with a bunch of bands I don't even remember.  Our drummer at the time showed up super late, had to borrow a ton of gear and was just generally a total jerk.  We kicked him out shortly after the show becuase he kept cancelling practice to go drink wtih friends.  This was before we decided to form a straight edge member'd band.  I think we did ok though, for a first show.  It was just exciting to be screaming in people's faces.

What bands influenced you guys musically? and what influences you lyrically?

Personally I am really inspired by any other women identified singers.  The band Hysterics blows my fucking mind, same with Deathrats when they were around.  I really love Limp Wrist too, and am a huge fan of Thou.  I like doomy hardcore and a lot of sludge bands, so I am always trying to bring that into the mix.  Lyrically my roots are in krust because that is where I first started and where I read the most politically inspiring stuff, like with Crass or Poison Girls or Initial State. 

What happened to the other female members of RR?

The other women in Rape Revenge lost interest, didn't want to be as dedicated (ie. practice regularly, play shows, go on more tours), and just weren't feeling the music anymore.  It was mutually agreed that they would no longer be in the band.  They both are incredibly talented musicians, both of them play in this awesome band called The Shrapnelles, Arielle is in The Throwaways who are one of the best bands in Calgary and Gwen is always starting new fun bands.  It is really unfortunate it didn't work out with them, but I think it was the right choice for everyone involved. 

Matt and I struggled for a long time, trying to find women identified members to join Rape Revenge.  We live in Calgary AB, we play a really specific underground type of music, we wanted women who were stoked on not just what this band is about but in for all the places we wanted to take this project.  It became a choice between adding man identified members who were everything we were looking for besides the gender we wanted, or not playing shows anymore.  I know Matt is still pretty upset about the fact that there are no other women.  After a tour with 3 men I am also feeling it's time to start playing music with women again.  That said, I am still really grateful for Jesse and Ethan's contributions to this band and am very glad they joined Rape Revenge because they really believe in this project.

How did you get asked to do a 7" by will from to live a lie?

We asked him! He ordered a tape and our original 7" and I was stoked because he has released some of my favorite records.  We are really lucky to have had a few labels contact us and offer to do a release, so we got to really make our own choice.  We also were burned pretty hard by our past label and so we wanted someone to put out our record who had a few releases under their belt, who would really have our backs and be open and fair with us, and Will seemed to be all of that.  It's been totally awesome working with Will.  I am still kind of blown away that someone will pay to put out a record I make!

Paper Cage is out, so how has the reception been like?

Really great! We are super grateful for all the support.   I personally think this record is more aggressive, more full, and still raw and furious, so it is great to hear similar reactions and know we are creating the effect we intended.

Any new materiel in the works?

Yes! We wrote a few new songs before leaving for tour.  One is called Safe and Soundless and it's about women's experience of agoraphobia.  I am really proud of this song.  It was our FIRST song that just arose out of a free jam.  Most of our songs have bee written in this sort of cold and calculated way, like Jesse will bring a riff and we will be like "ok, play it faster, take away all the major notes, and don't let it groove at all.  Oh and play it once instead of 8 times".  But then one jam Ethan was just busting out a riff and Jesse did all this cool noise over it and we went with it.   We also wrote a few other songs, one about how being straight edge isn't about protecting myself from rape.  It's not a women's fault she is drunk when she is raped, it's the man who raped her's fault for raping someone.  Women have a right to choose to use drugs or alcohol and still be safe.  Anyway, we will be writing a new album in the next few months and already have a few songs in the works!

What did you guys think of your L.A. shows? and California? oh and meeting us haha

Our show at Corazon Del Pueblo got shut down by the cops, which fucking sucked.  But it was amazing before then.  The band that opened, Agowilt, blew my fucking mind.  Yay primitivist punks!!!  The space itself was very inspiring.

The LA House show was really awesome, super intimate and like the house shows we play here.  La Bella is such an incredible band and it was so nice to play a show with them again (we played with them at New Directions Fest in Olympia). 

Meeting you was really great!

What did you guys think of the entire west coast tour? and how did you guys spend it while not playing shows?

The tour was so fun! It is really nice to see new places and learn from different communities.  In Calgary, our shows are like 99% white straight dudes, and so it was really exciting and awesome to be at shows with tons of people of color, more women and queers, and just feel... at home.  People were incredibly kind and welcoming to us, which was very nice.

When we weren't playing shows, we were stuffing our faces with vegan food.  We don't get much of that in Calgary, so we hit up a lot of awesome restaurants.  We were also at some record stores, books stores, doing stupid buying related shit.  We also went for lots of swims in lakes and rivers and had really awesome hang outs with people! In Redding I jumped off this old abandoned car bridge into the coldest river of my life.  It was so scary and awesome!

When can we see you guys down here again?

Hopefully soon!

Bands you support?

Local bands from Calgary:
Brain Fever
Lab Rat
Tel Fyr
Apologist
Gummers

Non-Local:
La Bella
Hysterics
Agatha
Ahna
Violent Restitution
Vile Intent
Stress Relief

Last words?

Thank you very much for doing the interview with us! We really appreciate the support.  If people want to get in touch they can email us at raperevengeband@riseup.net or they can check out our tumblr at raperevengeband.tumblr.com