Piss releases debut album on Sub Pop confronting sexual violence — SkimNews
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- Piss performs a tightly choreographed live set centered on singer Taylor Zantingh’s experiences with gender-based violence, using trigger warnings and repeated audio samples to frame the performance as lived experience rather than entertainment
- Taylor Zantingh states the band’s foundation is built on her suffering, emphasizing that Piss cannot exist in its current form without her ongoing emotional and physical engagement with traumatic material
- Sub Pop signed Piss despite the band having released only a demo and live recordings, with their debut album You Made Me / Skin on Linen set for release on 30 October 2024
- Tyler Paterson shapes Piss’s instrumentals to mirror film scoring, prioritizing emotional intention and narrative cohesion over conventional songwriting, drawing comparisons to Chat Pile and Swans
- Andrea Dworkin and Manon Garcia are featured through audio samples in Piss’s music, situating the band’s message within feminist theory and public discourse on sexual violence, including the Gisèle Pelicot trial
- Zantingh insists on subtitled lyrics and samples in videos to ensure accessibility and clarity, describing them as a 'reading list' and expressing a desire to distribute printed versions at shows like church programs
Why it matters: For survivors and advocates, Piss offers a rare platform where trauma is not sanitized for consumption but presented raw and insistently, challenging audiences—especially skeptical men—to confront uncomfortable truths. The band’s signing by Sub Pop amplifies this message widely, despite the personal cost to Zantingh, whose ability to sustain the performances remains uncertain.
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