‘First, last, and everything in between’ is an interview feature where upcoming artists talk about some of the favourite music from throughout their lives and how it’s influenced them.
Margate DIY punk duo, pink suits, have returned with a new single, ahead of their upcoming second album next year. They’ve been building their live reputation, recently sharing stages with the likes of Bob Vylan and Big Joanie.
Singer/guitarst, Lennie, and singer/drummer, Ray, joined us to talk their musical favourites, their various projects outside of music, and what to expect from their new album. Check out the playlist for a taste of their selections, alongside some of their own tunes.
First song you remember falling in love with?
Lennie: Cat Stevens – Morning Has Broken
Ray: Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now
I think most people really start to form their musical ‘identity’ as teens. What music would best define your teenage years?
Lennie: Eminem & 50 Cent (Shady/G-Unit Records)
Ray: Bob Dylan
For new fans out there, what can they expect from pink suits – the band? And tell us a bit about some of the other work you do.
We come from the world of dance, performance art and cabaret. We are both trained in ballet and contemporary dance, and run a lot of performance/cabaret events. We mostly make very loud and aggressive political punk music but our artistic work is completely intertwined with community care and activism. Supporting our local community and engaging people in politics.
Over the last few years we have run live music and performance nights such as ‘The pink suits PoliRock Show‘, ‘The Love Rock Show‘, ‘The Pride Rock Show‘ & ‘Punk & Judy‘. We created a new Pantomime called ‘Christmas on Uranus‘, a new durational dance performance called ‘Closet Bodies‘, numerous cabaret performances and the live music, drag and performance night ‘Queer Cuntry‘… which is becoming a phenomenon haha! We are also currently working on a visual arts exhibition called ‘Porn Protest Politics‘.
We do all sorts of everything and genuinely believe that art and music can change the world for the better.
When did you first start making music yourself and what’s been the journey to get this point?
We first started making music in 2017, pretty much from scratch! Lennie had self taught on guitar a few acoustic songs from Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Joan Baez. Ray had never played drums. We were both coming from the world of contemporary dance and theatre and were frustrated that a lot of conceptual performance work professed to be saying something very political or radical but the work itself was too abstract to feel like it was really making a point. We had stuff we wanted to say and we wanted to really say it… out loud and unambiguously. So we wrote some lyrics and Lennie wrote some “riffs” after watching a video on how to do power chords. We borrowed an electric drum kit to practice a 3-song set and we got our first gig supporting a band called Cheeseburger, at the Aces and Eights in London. That gig was summer 2017, it was Ray’s first time playing a full drum kit.
After that it was a few gigs here and there for a couple of years as we wrote more songs and learned how to play our instruments a bit better. Then in Summer 2019 we recorded our first EP – pink suits everyone. I think we already had the songs for the full album by then but it took us another couple of years to find the money and support to record it, it also kept getting delayed due to the pandemic. So we finally recorded our debut album, Political Child, in 2021 with Aim4 Recordings in Canterbury. We tend to write songs pretty quickly but then it takes a long time to record and get them out as we are totally independent and paying for everything ourselves. The first album we recorded in 2 and a half days but this one took a couple of weeks, recording in Margate with HaloHalo Studio.
What’s your go-to sad song?
Lennie: – Antony and the Johnsons/Anohni – Bird Gerhl
Ray: Orville Peck – Let Me Drown
Go-to banger?
Lennie: Alice Cooper – Poison
Ray: Amyl and The Sniffers – Hertz
You’re due to release your second album next year. What’s the story behind it? Any surprises in store?
Following on from the first album, Political Child, released in 2021; we wanted to write songs that were a bit more personal, light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek, and more musically nuanced. I am not sure if we have achieved any of this!
This album is still very outspoken about government politics and the state of the state in the UK, but is a lot more about our own identity, our relationship to our identity and sexuality, and our mental health. The album fluctuates between general observations of global and national politics, to specific laws and attacks on peoples’ rights and freedoms, to very personal feelings and experiences, and the effects of living as a queer person in an increasingly hostile environment. It doesn’t sound it but it is a bit sillier than the last album.
It also tries to answer questions like ‘what can we do about it?’ Instead of just screaming our frustrations, we are using this album to try to encourage positive actions like self-care, community care, queer joy and celebration, protest and demonstration. The title – Dystopian Hellscape – was a front page headline in a UK newspaper a while back and we thought it was pretty apt.
There are a couple of surprises coming with this album, including a 4-second song and some amazing artwork collaborations. We haven’t seen them yet but we are very excited!
Who/what are some of the key influences on your music?
The Runaways, The Ramones, Twisted Sister, The White Stripes, Peaches, Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Jayne County, The Sex Pistols
Your guilty pleasure?
Remember What does the fox say? by Ylvis? I fucking love that tune haha
Also Michael Bolton!
Your chance to really prove your hipster credentials – tell us about an obscure favourite that not many people will know?
People of our parents generation might remember these guys but very few people our age know Dr Hook and the Medicine Show. One of our all-time favourites! Most people know them from their song When you’re in love with a beautiful woman. But we prefer the silly stoner stuff from the early 70’s like Cover of the Rolling Stone, Millionaire and Carry me Carrie.
Also as mentioned earlier… Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the band from the film of the same name by John Cameron Mitchell. Though we imagine most Queer people will be familiar with this.
Is Buffy Saint Marie obscure? She shouldn’t be but people don’t talk about her enough.
What’s been pink suits’ proudest achievement to date?
I think seeing the success of ‘Queer Cuntry‘ grow over the last couple of years. We ran this night as a one-off just as lockdown restrictions were lifting in Summer 2021, we couldn’t do a punk show but wanted to get audiences back into local venues so we decided to do a dress-up country night with a few friends.
Now two and a half years later, we have a full (and really very good) 9-piece country band and have gone from 40 people in the audience at the first one to nearly 400 at the last event. The audience comes with such love and enthusiasm for the night and it means the world to everyone involved. We even had genuine Queer country music icon, Paisley Fields, reach out from New York and he came to play with us this year. We are quite proud of this night and what it has become as an unexpected side-project to our punk music.
Finally. What’s the last song you fell in love with?
We are not sure if anything has hit us as hard recently as Allison Russell’s debut album, Outside Child in 2021. If we had to pick a song that I fell in love with the most from that album it would be Hy-Brasil.
Update: pink suits’ latest album Dystopian Hellscape is out now. Listen via Spotify or Bandcamp.
And you can follow their social channels/music via the icon links below.
You can read previous editions of ‘First, last, and everything in between’ via the archives here.
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