Piss sign to Sub Pop ahead of October debut album — SkimNews
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- Piss signed to Sub Pop ahead of their debut album 'You Made Me / Skin on Linen,' set for release October 30, despite having released only a four-track Bandcamp demo, a few professionally recorded sets, and viral fan clips since forming in 2024.
- Singer Taylor Zantingh centers the Vancouver quartet's work entirely on her experiences with sexual violence, weaving hardcore, poetry, sound collage, and performance art with audio samples from writers including Andrea Dworkin and French philosopher Manon Garcia discussing the Gisèle Pelicot trial.
- The band's live show opens with a trigger warning and runs roughly half an hour with a set they've performed identically for two years; all lyrics and samples are subtitled in videos, which Zantingh likens to 'a little programme, like when you go to church.'
- Guitarist Tyler Paterson shapes the instrumentals like film scoring to 'uphold the narrative that Tay is weaving,' saying 'The feelings and intention come first, and the sound comes after.'
- Zantingh recalled older men at a festival calling her 'woke' during her trigger warning and walking off, noting: 'The irony is they probably need that show more than most people there.'
- Zantingh acknowledged uncertainty about the band's long-term sustainability, stating 'The foundation of Piss is built on my suffering' and that she has 'never known how long I'm gonna be able to physically and emotionally do this.'
Why it matters: Sub Pop signing Piss — built almost entirely on visceral live performance around singer Taylor Zantingh's sexual violence trauma — after only a four-track demo signals how the indie establishment has accelerated around viral, performance-driven acts. But Zantingh herself names the model's unsustainability: 'The foundation of Piss is built on my suffering.'
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