When Atlanta’s own punk rock outfit The Coathangers roll into town to celebrate the release of their fifth studio albumNosebleed Weekend,expect it to be just that – a bloody, bat shit-crazy bash.
“We never thought in a million years we’d get to go to Australia once, much less go again, so it’s a big deal,” says drummer and vocalist Stephanie Luke, AKA Rusty Coathanger. “Last time we had a great time with Bone Soup, and the guys from Smack Face Records put together some really great shows for us, so I know it’s going to be a blast.”
Before their return to Australia, The Coathangers will wrap up months of playing the US, and, speaking to the BRAG on a rare day off from West Coast tour commitments, Luke is in characteristically fine form and keen to chat about recording in an iconic North Hollywood studio, finding just the right pitch for your dog toy, and what being from the South is all about. “I grew up listening to punk rock and hardcore and all that good stuff, but I’m from the South so there was a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Patsy Cline around growing up,” Luke says.
“We do have a lot of shared musical influences but we’re also different,” she continues. “Julia [Kugel, AKA Crook Kid Coathanger, guitar and vocals] is originally from Russia and she used to play classical guitar and piano, so she knows a lot about the technical side of music. It’s the same thing with Meredith [Franco, AKA Minnine Coathanger, bass and vocals], but we’ve introduced each other to music that maybe we wouldn’t have heard, and I think that helps as far as us being very collaborative, because we each have a different ear for things.
“We also wanna make sure that every song we write sounds different from the last,” Luke adds. “Of course we want our music to sound like a Coathangers song, but we don’t want to write the same song over and over again – we like to keep things fresh.”
A decade on from their inception and debut release, Self-titled, the three friends have remained true to their lo-fi sound while finding ways to keep it interesting and new, even incorporating a pet sound or two. As a follow-up to their tongue-in-cheek hit ‘Don’t Touch My Shit’ the three-piece wrote ‘Squeeki Tiki’ after Kugel found inspiration while playing with a friend’s dog. “We wanted to write a similar song because people love that one – it was always the most requested song to play as an encore, and it came about in a similarly random way,” Luke explains.
“We were staying in North Hollywood getting ready to start recording Nosebleed Weekend and we were renting an Air BnB from friends, and while Julia was playing with one of the dogs, she threw his toy. Suddenly she’s like ‘What if we use this for the percussion part of the song?’ and I was like ‘Sure! Why the heck not?’
“It was so random and Julia went through all these different dog toys to find the right tone and pitch of the squeak. It sounds silly, but it does matter with all the different types of pitches, you know? And it matches the theme of the song perfectly too.”
In the retro-inspired video clip for the single ‘Down Down’, two of the three got a chance to show off their moves, and the clip was a way of fulfilling a long-held dream. “Julia and Meredith had always wanted to do a video where they got to do a choreographed dance, so they had some good ideas even before we went into the video and they just came up with it on the spot. They’re good at dancing, so I left the dancing to them.”
The Coathangers often alternate roles within the band: on the album’s lead single ‘Make It Right’ Luke displays her signature take-no-prisoners drumming style, while on ‘Copycat’ Kugel takes the reins behind the kit. “We like to switch instruments every now and again. Julia’s fiancé plays drums in a band as well so she was practising with him and she found a really cool beat for ‘Copycat’. She plays differently to how I play so we love to hear what she comes up with,” Luke says.
“Then Meredith came up with the bassline and then I got on the guitar and started playing around with it. I play guitar very differently to how Julia plays it: she plays it with the right technique, that is!” she laughs. “But we just started jamming that song out and it just kind of came together at the last minute.”
To say the recording of Nosebleed Weekend was a little unusual would be an understatement. For the first time in 30 years the iconic Valentine Recording Studios opened its doors to musicians once again, and the Coathangers were the first to lay tracks on the vintage equipment.
“The original owner of the studio, Jimmy Valentine, had opened up the studio in an old dentist’s office in the early ’60s and he recorded big bands and stuff for old TV shows in Hollywood. Then, I guess once rock‘n’roll started becoming popular he wasn’t a fan of it, so he shut the studio down for about 30 years – but man, is it a treasure! It had all the original equipment: the soundboards, the reel to reel, the microphones – I mean everything! We got super lucky. It was a great learning lesson for everybody and we were super blessed.”
The Coathangers appear atYours And Owls Festival, Stuart Park, Wollongong on Saturday October 1 – Sunday October 2 with The Sonics, Bleached, Chastity Belt and many more; then Newtown Social Club on Thursday October 6.
