Introducing #281 - pink suits
Let us introduce you to pink suits. Having just released their amazing second album, Margate’s pink suits are certainly a band you need in your life right now as they continue to cement themselves as one of the most fierce queer punk duos on the UK scene right now. They have just released their empowering new video for single ‘Are You Gay Yet?’.
‘Are You Gay Yet?’ reflects on numerous interactions that Lennie’s had throughout their life when people have questioned or confronted them about their sexuality. With its raw, stripped-back sound, it offers an uncompromising reclamation of being confident in who you are; a seething celebration of queerness.
They took a moment to talk to us about their music.
Hey there pink suits - how are you? So your the video for ‘Are You Gay Yet?’ is out now - can you tell us what the track about?
Hey! We are great thanks! Very happy to be putting this music video out. The song is about being gay and going back to the place where you grew up and the things that people say to you, or about you. This song was one of the first we wrote for the Dystopian Hellscape album. Based on numerous interactions I have had where people have questioned me or confronted me about my sexuality. One main instance was bumping into someone from high school in a pub who drunkenly asked, "Are you gay yet?"
At the time I was not out yet and he was intentionally making me uncomfortable and letting me know that people always knew I was gay. Straight people love to make a point of letting you know that they have 'noticed' you are gay, and try to use it to make you feel uncomfortable, or unwelcome or vulnerable in some way.
Most queer people have been through this sort of interaction time and time again, I have been yelled at in the street and called gay, had things thrown at me, eggs and rubbish and punches. I have been stopped in pub toilets and asked 'are you gay?'. I have been ridiculed and threatened in gym changing rooms. Most of the time I get the feeling that the people who 'notice' my sexuality and use it aggressively towards me are actually recognising a curiosity and queerness within themselves.
This song was us wanting to be aggressively confident in being noticeably gay. A reclamation of many moments like this when I wanted to yell, 'Am I gay yet? Fuck yes!' To tell everyone that they need to get over this shit already. People are gay. I am gay. We are gay. You might be gay too... and that is ok.
Where was the video for the track filmed? How does it connect with the track? Any behind the scenes stories from the filming process?
The video was filmed at The Bellevue pub in Margate. I always imagined it would be great to do this video at the actual pub in Manchester where the initial ‘are you gay yet?’ interaction happened, but we couldn’t take all of our mates from Margate up there so we had to do it locally. Funnily enough I had a similar interaction in this pub a couple of years ago when I was in there watching football. A guy came up to me in the toilets and quite aggressively asked me if I was gay or straight. I thought I was going to get my ass kicked in the toilets and told him I was both, to which he said ‘yea I thought so, I saw you come in and noticed you have nice trousers on… so I wanted to tell you I like your trousers’. Which was a sweet and strange moment that I thought was going to be much worse!
It was actually pretty hard to find a pub that will let you take over their space for a day and do all of this silly queer stuff. We wanted to dance around in leather underwear and dance on the pool table and strap their dartboard to my ass, luckily this pub had an empty function room and they just let us go in and do what we wanted… for free! The video is full of Margate legends… comedian Charlie Partridge, loads of Drag performers in and out of drag like Shelley Grotto, Alotta Hell, Bratty Sub, Bettany Bay, plus loads of great Margate Queers. Amy Zing who created the legendary ‘sink the pink’ is in there too!
Where are you from and what are your favourite things to do there?
We live in Margate. Our favourite things to do here are to go to the beach and do barbecues when the weather is good… which is exactly 3 days per year haha but if the sun is out, everyone heads to the beach! Also going out to places like CAMP and Margate Arts Club for a messy night of dancing and making out. Our favourite weekend of the year is coming up on August 10th - Margate Pride! Its always a wild weekend that is getting bigger every year and is a totally grassroots and non corporate pride celebration.
What are the key influences when it comes to your music?
For the first album we were very new to music and very new to punk. We mostly listed to rock and our favourite bands are The Runaways, AC/DC, Twisted Sister, Journey… but when we started writing music it came out punk! For this second album I would say our biggest influences are a lot of the bands that we have played with over the last few years who are doing something that we love or that we aspire to, very political bands like The Menstrual Cramps and Bob Vylan. People often compare us to The White Stripes who I think would be fair to say were an influence early on, also Amyl and The Sniffers. We listened to the ‘Big Attraction’ EP a lot as a reference for Dystopian Hellscape.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never listened to your music before?
We always struggle with this one as we don’t have much musical knowledge. I usually just say straight up aggressive power chord punk! But we had some help from Get in Her Ears and they said that pink suits music ‘combines the epic riffs-and-beats-duo combo of The White Stripes, with all the ferocious riot grrrl energy of Bikini Kill, plus a healthy dose of Peaches-inspired inhibition-less queer joy. Raging, yet uplifting; punk anthems that we need now more than ever.
We like that!
Now the track is out there - what next for you?
Well it’s weirdly coming out at the end of our Dystopian Hellscape tour. The track has been out for a while, as has the album since April 1st, but we are putting the video out now. In June we finished a 9 week tour so we have had some time off and we only have a few punk shows here and there coming up. We are going to be focussing on trying to push and sell the album online for a bit, as well as working on some other projects over the summer. We are doing a visual art project called ‘Porn, Protest, Politics’ and we are bringing back our live music club night ‘Queer Cuntry’ where we front a 9 piece country band! We are gigging again more consistently from September so keep an eye out! We are playing Wotsit Called Fest at the end of September which we cant wait for!
