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Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing. Just let that name marinate for a bit. Coming from New Zealand, the band summoned all that was harsh, emotional, and avant-garde about neofolk, industrial, and no-wave music.
Led by Casey Latimer on guitar and vocals, he was generally the man responsible for band’s rough and mesmerising sounds, as well as the endless number of ritualistic visuals. It was music and mantra that leaned on the spirit of Throbbing Gristle and 80s Whitehouse, but was channelled through a mangled guitar that would make Roland S. Howard proud.
Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing are, sadly, no more. In their wake has come Horror In Clay, a new band who tread similar ground, but lean more into the sounds of post-punk and shoegaze/dream pop.
Since first seeing Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing perform in Auckland in 2013, I’ve been infatuated with the band, the sounds, the visuals, and the feeling of pure compulsion that the group emanated. It seemed criminal that such compelling work would be denied a major audience beyond the confines of its own borders. My commitment to rectifying this, along with countless other conscious and unconscious personal missions, undoubtedly inspiring the formation of Discipline Mag.
After talking with Casey on these topics, it became apparent that he does not share my fond retrospection for GPOGP, and Horror In Clay are far more of a priority. Regardless, pay attention to the embeds on this one and enjoy these tunes while Casey low-balls me with his answers.
Hey Casey, thanks for giving Discipline Mag the time for this interview. I want to start by going back to the early days. According to the GPOGP LastFM page, the group started as an industrial noise project. I’ve recognised these influences, but never heard that sound exactly on any releases. What can you tell me about that era of your work in terms of influences and what it was you initially set out to achieve?
No worries and thank you.
In the first incarnation I was playing guitar through a four track with loop pedals, there were two drummers, a theremin player, and a lot of random screaming. It was all improvisation. Fuck only knows what we were trying to do. I think we recorded something but I pray it never turns up.
I guess as a project it has always been influenced by an industrial ethos but it was probably just us trying to put it into a cool category that wasnt fucking jazz or some shit. More than setting out to do anything, it was just to be doing something outside of the other band I played guitar in at the time.
Your first album with GPOGP, Tangiwai, carries a folk element alongside its dark and deluded overtones. How did the group jump to this style?
A group did not write that album. I wrote the album on a four track. It sounded like shit so I teamed up with Alex to play drums on and record it, and then Aki came in on it. There was no real thought as to what it would sound like. It just got hacked together and we attempted to play it a few times and then Alex quit. He rejoined after Scrying in Infirmary Architecture and contributed art and design on the Eeling album. I think anything folk about it just came through us being inspired by folk music and trying not to be a folk band.
I want to discuss other GPOGP albums soon, but first I have questions about your latest project, Horror in Clay. What were the circumstances that led to this new group, and who does it comprise of?
I was planning to start a group with my partner Charlotte and our bassist Paul just for the fuck of it. About that time Aki and I quit GPOGP so we got her in on Horror In Clay. We also now have Josh on Keys and George who is our Limp Bizkit style DJ Lethal producer/sound guy type thing.
What do you consider to be the biggest differences between GPOGP and Horror in Clay?
Time and space. Everything is different. I don’t even think about it. As it has two of the same members of course there is that familiarity, but a lot of time, change and experience has gone on. We are very different people from each other in approaches, influences, intentions and styles. I don’t think the next HIC album will even resemble the band we were before.
Your art is intrinsic to your sound world. How did you come to develop this style of work? What were the starting points and inspiration?
I think the development in any of it has just been choosing to do it ourselves rather than paying someone else to do it. As much as it was necessary to create art, it was also to create something around the music you could actually sell physically that you were proud of and people actually wanted as much as the music. We are all visual artists and enjoy bringing that process into it. It’s nothing new or original in the scheme of things.
GPOGP / Horror In Clay Adjacent Artwork by Casey Latimer (1/2)
The GPOGP albums are phenomenal pieces of work. The entire package, including the esoteric overlap where your music and art meet, has left a huge impression on me. It’s quite unlike anything I’ve heard before. Having said that, it’s not exactly “easy music”. So, off the back of this clash of inaccessibility and brilliance, and also your geography – what has been the general reception from music audiences in New Zealand? Is there much of an appetite for this kind of work? And how much interest have you had from overseas?
I think the only reason we get labelled “not easy” is that bands nowadays just put out an assemblage of attempted radio singles and call it an album. I think people who liked our pop side got frustrated with all the pretension. We were playing music that not only set out to allow us to perform ritual processes and catharsis, but to alienate and polarise opinion. We probably could have done it better.
I think we were successful all things considered.. We don’t sit on piles of unsold records. We got all the attention we deserved and wanted. I am glad there are people who it means a lot to here and overseas, but you would have to ask the label to get a better answer (about interest from overseas).
Do you think New Zealand audiences “get” your work? How did you fit in with other bands? And is there much of a scene for industrial/no-wave/experimental type music?
I’m not sure we even got what we were doing or if there was anything to get out of it. I don’t think we really thought about fitting in. We were generally just happy to play with anyone.
There is a scene for that sort of thing here. We were just lucky to be able to play with a lot of inspiring and wonderful people doing all sorts.
Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing – Scrying in Infirmary ArchitectureWith a band name like Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing and your explicit and ritualistic art, there is endless scope for misinterpretation and offence. Are there any interesting or comical anecdotes about dealings with concerned parents, outraged conservatives, censorious liberals or any other problematic groups?
I think the best one is when we received a letter of exorcism from a Church group. It was a bit freaky as they had access to information of a personal nature and none of us had any connections to the church in any way.
For the most part there has been little misunderstanding or misinterpretation.. We never set out to offend anyone or find an audience that we could offend. We were happy to just abbreviate our name. The only thing that got old was having to make up new stories or explanations around our name all the fucking time.
The GPOGP double album, Songs of Sodomy and the Compost of Aethyr, feels like an album that you invested your entire beings into. It captured everything you’d done up to that point, and in many ways pushed things further. How did it feel to finally be finished with that piece of work? How did you find the reception to it?
I think that album heralded the end of GPOGP and a chapter of my life. I felt quite a weight off of myself finishing that album and the processes it invoked. I don’t think it was an album that was ever going to be received well. No one makes a double album expecting anyone to endure it.
Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing – Songs Of Sodomy And The Compost Of AethyrYou say it wasn’t received well, but all the reviews I’ve read seemed very receptive to it (despite the persistent *THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYONE* caveat). What do you personally think of the Compost of Aethyr’s music and how does it fare against the rest of GPOGP’s albums?
I think it’s different to the other albums mostly because it consisted of two different writing and recording processes. One side was the live band, and the other sample based constructions. It also just seems to invoke within itself the end of the whole saga. A bit like the end of the game doom or something.
On the album there’s a track called LAShTAL, which happens to be the same name as an early release by Current 93. Can you share any details about the connection between that track and C93, as well as their influence on your work?
It is a word that is a formula in the context of the ceremonial magick of Aleister Crowley. It has a numerical value of 93. That (C93) song I am not so familiar with and there is no connection between them. We are all quite into Current 93.
I believe you spent a number of your younger years in the Middle East. Where was this, and what are your memories of this experience?
My parents taught at a school for the children of missionaries in the mountains of Pakistan when I was 11-13. It had a very profound effect on me. The school was attacked by a terrorist group shortly after our return.
How do you think this influenced the music that you have subsequently made?
I think it was there that I decided I wanted to play music.
As a teenager, Michael Gira of Swans ran away from his father’s home in Germany and hitchhiked through Europe until being jailed in Israel on drug charges. There’s a feeling amongst the Swans audience that there’s an inadvertent connection between experiences like this and his musical direction. Are you familiar with this story? And do you feel this resonates with your own experience at all?
There are a lot of personal experiences that I and everyone involved in these projects don’t feel any need to be, or even can be, on public record. The work is there for others to make sense of and interpret however they want. Our personal lives are not relevant to its interpretation.
From the context of being a musician, what is your definition of success? And secondly, do you want to be successful?
Working to create music and art and having fun and adventure with friends is all I want these days. I’ve had my 15 dollars of fame.
You tell me you’re content, but you’ve also admitted to pouring your heart and soul into some of your music. Further, I feel a growing interest in “different” music. Do you not want anything more than your short stint in the limelight?
I am more intent on playing snooker.
GPOGP / Horror In Clay Adjacent Artwork by Casey Latimer (2/2)
What does the future hold? What are your ambitions with Horror In Clay? Do you think GPOGP will ever reform?
We are currently recording the next Horror in Clay album. It will be the best shit anyone’s ever heard. GPOGP will never happen again.
I saw GPOGP perform at The Wine Cellar in Auckland back in 2013. During the performance, Aki’s keyboard malfunctioned and it descended into chaos which significantly enhanced the show. Your shows with GPOGP, and now Horror In Clay, have a reputation for being rather visceral and enthralling affairs. How central are the live performances to what you are doing as a whole?
Playing live is just getting on the piss and providing an atmosphere for people to dance and drink. There is catharsis in it. I don’t think we really give the audience anything apart from us playing them songs. I grew up playing music in the church and I guess my intentions have never changed in that regard.
You played some shows in Melbourne back in 2013. How was that experience? Any plans to come back?
It was such a lovely time especially getting to other places and hooning about with Orlando Furious. Having any plans and even playing locally has been out the window the past few years. We would love to get out and about but the focus is just recording the album as of the moment.
When can we get vinyl reissues of the GPOGP albums, and physical releases for the digital-only Horror In Clay albums?
I think there would have to be a demand for a reissue that would sell. It would have to be in the interests of the label or someone financing it. I am only concerned with the next thing.
Horror In Clay released the last toad hall palaver as a book and tape. Would be nice to put the next thing on a record or a big mouth billy bass.
+++ Thank you for your time, Casey +++
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