Teri Gender Bender and her band Le Butcherettes continues to build a cult following. Although the line-up of musicians has changed and transformed throughout the bands existence, Teri continues to focus on making good music and inspiring her audience with every live performance.
Her time with Bosnian Rainbows allowed her to grow as a musician—although she did not play any instruments she analyzed and absorbed her surroundings and learned how to be a better songwriter and instrumentalist. Teri spent some time with us before her show at The Lowbrow Palace and opened up to us about her band, new album, and musical inspirations. Speaking with Teri I noticed a very refined person reflecting on her past experiences with life and music.
The last time I saw you perform you had Omar on bass and Lia on drums. This time around you have different line-up. Tell me about your new band mates.
I don’t even know where to start. They’re both primarily great musicians, producers, engineers. They’re complete genius when it comes to being in the studio and recording bands. So they know all the technical sides to music and what it takes to make an album. I felt that my band always needed that, where every member was there to serve the music. Not that the other ones haven’t, but they just have more experience in that matter. Chris, he mixed our record called Cry Is for the Flies. On our new, new record, he recorded the drums, but he mic’d it himself, he engineered it, mixed it, and Omar produced it. It was really cool, everyone working as a team for once, and not just me having to carry that weight of like (she says exhaustedly) ‘lets do this or that.” It was really nice. And also me being able to learn from them, because they know the real technical ways of moving and placing mic’s and using a real vintage analog console. So that’s really cool.
You mentioned your new, new album. Its not out yet?
No, not yet but Chris just mastered it and mixed it. I’m telling you, he does everything. He used to play bass in the band when Omar left the band, he replaced him…was it him? There’s just been so many people in the band. Yeah, yeah it was Chris that played bass. He’s played bass before, but it wasn’t even his calling. He was just like ‘ok I’ll just fill in for bass.’ But he was in this band called These Arms Are Snakes. The drummer, his main passion is drumming, besides recording. But, yeah the album’s not out yet. I tend to rant a lot, so excuse me. And Jamie, her main thing is not bass. She’s a great guitarist as well. But when she plays bass it sounds like she’s been doing it for years. She’s from Seattle and she’s like a big figure in the queer community. So its super cool. Wow, I have different members with different backgrounds.
Do you guys have a tentative release date, a title?
Yeah, the title is called A Raw Youth and the release date is not for sure. It should be before 2016, but you know, you make plans and then life fucks you over, so you never know.
Are you playing those songs live?
There’s one song we’re playing live off that new record. And there’s two other songs we’re playing off a new split 10-inch vinyl with The Melvins, Chaos As Usual.
You also collaborated with Buzz on a song called “We No Owe.” Tell me a little bit about that collaboration.
That song, I wrote it before I even toured with The Melvins, but I wrote it thinking of them, because they’re one of my major inspirations in music. So I was like oh this song is a Melvins song. We started touring together and when the opportunity came to meet them and basically see each other every day, he invited us to send in two songs for the split inch. So that’s when I said ‘hey, there’s this song that I have made basically off of you guys, like I ripped you guys off with this song, would you like to sing and play guitar on it? And he’s like ‘yeah of course.’ It was super natural. I’m a pessimist. I thought, oh, he’s gonna say no. Oh well, at least we’re gonna be part of the vinyl. But it was cool. He was so down to earth. Like, they’re such good people. Its amazing.
Speaking of playing with The Melvins, you’re touring with them. What has that experience been like?
Whooo! Just so welcoming. That’s the first word that comes to my mind—welcoming. You get there and the first thing you see is their crew and everyone that’s part of The Melvins family. They’re just all smiles and they even want to help us sometimes load in and load out, and I’m like ‘please, don’t do it,” cuz that’s the last thing I want to do is cause inconvenience for the headlining band. They hang out after the show with their fans. They have no problem talking. I mean there’s bands that don’t hang out after the show—I’m not dissing that at all. I’m just saying everyone has their own process, their own way of living. But their just really open. It’s really rare to see that.
During your on-stage performances you’re known to use props such as pig heads and things like that…
I used to. . .not anymore. Those days are gone.
I’ve read about the reasons why you do it, but. . .
Oh, that’s good. I didn’t do it for like the , “look at me, I’m so interesting.’ No, not at all.
What was the artistic expression, or the political expression with doing that?
I used to use pig heads. I’m vegetarian—for all the vegetarians and vegans who are gonna see this. I’d buy them from the butcher that was throwing them out, so things that people didn’t even want. The butcher was gonna throw them out anyway so I’d buy them from them. I’d be like, ‘sell me that.’ And he’d be like ‘es cien pesos.” So that’s like the PC side of it cuz you always have to be politically correct nowadays I feel. The reasoning behind it—I was just a really angry person and couldn’t take it out by confronting people. If someone would step on me, I’d take it, I’d swallow it and then just start scribbling in my notebook. . .violent imageries. So being able to use a pig head, for me personally it helped release my anger. It meant like a masochist, misogino, cerdo misogino, man or woman, cuz there’s also women that eat other woman alive. Its insane. So that’s what it meant—like, I’m gonna wear you on my head with pride and make fun of you. The mockery. . .this is what you are. Pig, pig. And the same with meat. Wearing pieces of meat or putting it on mannequins dolls, and the meat represented like whenever someone, particularly a young woman in Mexico walking on the streets alone, you’d get yelled at a lot. Like ‘mamacita, que tierna, que cosita,’ blah blah blah, like you’re a piece of meat, exposed, basically for sale, up for grabs. So that was the commentary on it. And the mannequins was a reflection of people that I saw that went to school. Girls trying really hard to be as pretty as possible, as quiet as possible, not trying to offend anyone. They’d just be like ‘I don’t see anything but I will be pretty as possible.’ That’s the veil would represent, just not seeing further than your own face or your own physical appearance. But now I’m a little older so there’s much more things to write about. I used to wear aprons with blood, but imagine, I’m gonna be doing that til I’m 40? I just don’t see it. So the blood transformed into just wearing pure red, just meant passion, anger, hunger. . . still hungry just to be able to play music. Also grateful about it cuz that’s pretty cool, like play music.
Do you consider yourself a feminist?
I do consider myself a feminist, but that doesn’t mean I’m, by any means, a man hater. Because some of the greatest feminists that helped the movement were men. Its all about the principle that if something’s fucked, work on it. Gender equality, but that doesn’t mean that just because I’m a woman I’m entitled to your job. Just on a general basis, we should have the same rights. Look at Malala [Yousafzai], the people that shot her in her head, they quietly released, I think two of the shooters that tried to kill her. What the hell is this? All these injustices that are going on. There’s this politician. She’s 21 years old in Mexico. Her name is Yakiri Rubio. She was raped, but she defended herself, killed her rapist, and she was imprisoned for defending herself. But when she got released and she fought for her rights to be released, she decided to be a politician. She’s trying to run for a political candidate. So everyone’s rooting for her, you know, the people with half a brain are rooting for her. Hopefully there will be a change, who know. But its ridiculous. I’m defending myself. This guy raped me. I have to kill him, and I’m the one that’s being put in prison. Plus, Mexican prison. I don’t even want to know what that’s like (laughs).
What’s inspiring your music right now?
Right now, my mother, without a doubt because in the moment when my father died all I could focus on was my pain, me, my pain, like in school they’d mock me, me, me, me. Fuck that. It was my mom. . . she was the one that was going through the real hard core pain. She lost her partner, her best friend, the father of her children. And this whole time it dawned on me that shit, mom, you’re the real fuckin deal, you’re the real artist. You gave so much for us. Cuz she used to be an actress when she was younger, but she sacrificed, and with my father, sacrificed. And that’s really what feeds the music. Sometimes she’ll go into the room with me with lyrics, she’ll like ‘oh I wrote this poem, but its ok its ok.’ And I read it and it’s the most depressing thing in the world. And like ‘mom, you just said its ok, but you’re talking about suicide in this poem.’ Its like ‘(in mom’s voice) let’s see what you can make out of it, use it.’ So it’s a really cool that she opens her self up that way with me. Its pretty strong.
Text: Alex Durán | Photo: Saul Torres