sex faces, seasoned dc punks, are not always on the same page

There were no clear warning signs of what I was in for sitting down with DC’s only reluctant rock’n’roll band, Sex Faces (sometimes stylized SEXFACES), at a band member’s office suite in DuPont Circle before their matinee show at Smash Records. On the surface, Sex Faces seem like a fresh new band composed of experienced musicians from the ranks of Coven Tree, Des Demonas, Et At It, the NVs, Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Tadzio, TK Echo, and the original Pizzagate-inciting duo, Thee Lolitas.

Even as they emerge from the shadow cast by those area acts, Sex Faces have already accomplished a lot on their debut album Bad Vibes OST (out this week on Slovenly). Along with their recent spate of weekenders and a longer tour approaching, the band appear to have caught their stride. Behind the scenes, they’re a bit of a mess. 

Today’s show will double as a launch party for the Kunst Kollectiv zine, which a few members are behind. Sprung up from flyers and t-shirts designed for the band, a haphazard process emerged in their creative process akin to an exquisite corpse. In this way, multiple personalities and opinions could coexist—whether in harmony or not—with results that feel original even if at odds with their constituent parts.

Take for instance the cover art on their new album produced by the Kollectiv, which features the Hindu god Ganesha brandishing a torn off dick. At first, the image alarmed founding Sex Faces and Kunst Kollectiv member Sal Go, who 1) hadn’t approved of the use of her patron saint and 2) had her prudish mom to contend with. Yet here we are. 

It’s akin to the experience of listening to the band: a disjointed maelstrom played up to the brink of falling apart, yet glued together by lessons absorbed from the Velvets, the Stooges, and “Expressway to Yr Skull” era Sonic Youth. The tunes are chaotic, hypnotic, and cathartic; they’re also crazy, sexy, and cool.

Read on for squabbling, in-fighting, and whatever shit talk made it past the censors. Rest assured it was all couched in loads of laughter and offered potential for personal growth within the group throughout. 

What’s your name and what do you do in and out of Sex Faces? 

Fiona: I’m Fiona. I play bass in Sex Faces. Outside of Sex Faces, I’m a therapist. 

Jacky: I’m Jack(y), Paul, George, Ringo, and Lennon. I play drums in Sex Faces, and I’m also an artist. 

Sal: Hi, I’m Sal Go. I play guitar in Sex Faces. Outside of the band, I’m a writer and an artist.

Hana: I’m Hana. I play electric viola. Outside of Sex Faces, I have some dogs. 

How’d you end up with Sex Faces?  

Jacky: The band formed at a Teen Cobra show where Sal talked to me for the first time in 20 years. She asked if I wanted to start a band with her, and I said, Yes— if you can get Al Budd in it. And she also had to come up with a really good name. Then she sent me four names, which were awful, and I was like, No, no, no. That sounds like a zine, or that sounds like a book, or that sounds like something else. And then she messaged me and said, Al’s in. And I was like, Great. And then, Al wants to call it Sex Faces. And I said, Great. Then I very specifically said, I would like it to be an atonal, Birthday Party, Pussy Galore noise thing. And she said, Great, that’s what we want to do too. Then we had our first practice and she brought a song and it was rock'n'roll with a break in the middle. And then Al brought a song and it was rock'n'roll, and I was like, This is a rock'n'roll band.

Did you get conned into rock'n'roll?

Jacky: I got conned. And then we got Neil to play bass for a while, then he moved to Florida. So I was asking everyone and someone told me a friend of a friend wanted to learn how to play bass, so we were like, Great, let’s get them, and let’s get Hana too. So we got Hana to play electric viola, and it was gonna be great. The rest is history. 

Sal: Al Budd couldn’t do the band anymore, and Neil was moving. So we were back to me and Jacky and he knew an electric viola player. I had no idea what it would sound like, but it brought a really cool element to it and unpredictability to the way we write. Hana can play without even asking what the notes we’re playing are because they’re classically trained and so good at hearing where we’re going with it. It brings this cool dreamlike nightmare element. It took us a while to find the right bassist, but then we found the right bassist.

Jacky: I was at a show and I heard Fiona moaning about playing music and asked her to play bass with us, and then she said, Great. And then she said, Send me the songs. And then I sent her the songs and then she learned the songs and then the rest is history.

Fiona (to Jacky): I told you I got kicked out of the last band I played bass in and you were like, OK, you’re in. 

What kind of reactions do you get to the viola?  

Hana: I get the John Cale comparisons. But somebody told me the other night, You’re a fiddle player. 

Sal: Maybe you’ll inspire people to pick it up. Not that it’s an easy instrument to just pick up and play.

Hana: Not since John Cale. 

What’s the difference between a violin and a fiddle? 

Hana: Well, it’s a viola. 

Jacky: A viola or a violin you play fully clothed. A fiddle you play barefoot. 

It’s like—what’s the difference between a maestro and somebody who just plays music?

Jacky: No comment.

Hana: Depends on who you know. 

If Sex Faces could be the same band but anywhere else in the world during any time in the last century, when and where would it be?

Jacky: 1980s Berlin with Neubauten, the Bad Seeds, These Immortal Souls, and Crime and the City Solution. All that heroin, darkness, black hair. That’s us. 

Sal: Yeah, I agree, it sounds more fun than New York, but New York in the ’70s would be cool too— 

Jacky (to Sal): With whom? 

Sal: Well, I don’t think I’d be friends with those guys.

Jacky: The no wave scene would’ve been interesting, but we wouldn’t be friends with any of them.

Sal: They probably wouldn’t think we were cool enough. 

Jacky: We could be peers with Lydia Lunch and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars. DNA, Contortions, but we wouldn’t get along with em.

How is doing Sex Faces in DC right now?

Jacky: It’s really easy. It’s three women and a Black dude. Are you kidding me? What is you talking about? It’s really easy. We have so many show offers. 

Sal: We are weird enough that we can play these mixed bill shows and do pretty well. 

Hana: We fit in for DC.

Jacky: I feel like we’re peerless. 

What’s your favorite place to play in the city? 

Hana: I love Rhizome. It feels like playing in my living room.

Sal: Pass. 

Jacky: I played the 9:30 Club once, you know.

Hana: You love to bring that up.

And how does it compare? 

Jacky: Sold out show. I’ve lived in DC for 26 years, and I started going to the 9:30 Club my second year in America. My whole life it’s always been like: The band comes on and all their gear has already been schlepped by the 9:30 people. The band plays their last song, does their bow and leaves. Then the 9:30 club people schlep it off. When Des Demonas played, we had to schlep our own stuff on and off, which I thought was kinda weird.

Your new album takes its name from the Bad Vibes zine Jacky started, right?

Sal: We needed a good album name because I hated all the other ones. So we co-opted Bad Vibes. I thought I could get Jacky on board if we made a new issue of Bad Vibes zine for the new album, Bad Vibes OST. So it worked out. 

Jacky: The Bad Vibes zine and Kunst Kollective zine are different. Bad Vibes is more Sex Faces now. 

I love the OST part of the album title. I’m surprised a band hasn’t used that yet. 

Jacky: It’s mushrooms. 

Sal: It has been helpful for me to come up with ideas on mushrooms. I did the whole insert on them.

So if there’s Bad Vibes OST, is there a Sex Faces movie we can look forward to?

Jacky: Yes.

Sal: It’s unmade, but we’re gonna make it 

So it’s in pre-production? 

Sal: It’ll be in pre-production while we're driving around on our tour trying to entertain ourselves.

Has this lineup toured together yet?

Sal: We did a little short tour, but nothing longer than a few days. So we’ll see if we remain a band, but I think this group gets along really well. 

Is there a risk you won’t?

Sal: I don’t think so. 

Jacky: Yes. 

Hana: Can’t get rid of me. 

Jacky: Yes, there’s a risk, which is inevitable, but after Bad Vibes OST comes out we are going back in the studio after the tour to do some more songs and put out another record. 

Fiona: It’s exciting as the newest member of the band who hasn’t been in that process with these people before. 

Jacky: Tell them the name of the song that you named.

Fiona: “Come on Dog.” 

Is that one you play out yet?

Fiona: It’s gonna be debuted tonight as a matter of fact. 

Are there any cities where you think Sex Faces will go over best?

Jacky: 1980s Berlin. 

I know we’ve established Sex Faces is peerless, but what other bands from around the country are you into right now?

Hana: Shout out to my affiliate friends and song people, Luna Honey. 

Jacky: Here’s my list. I like 504 Plan. They’re from here, they’re really young, they’re hardcore, but they’ve been treating me like a fan boy, so fuck em. I like Figure of Fun. They’re from New York. They’re like a Birthday Party rip-off band, but they’ve also been treating me like a fan boy, so fuck em. I like Genre Is Death from New York. Sensor Ghost has a new record out, which is really funny. Weegee from New York are also kind of good. Licks from New York have a Black singer who looks like me. They’re really good. 

Hana: Who are you skipping over?

Jacky: I have a list. Foul Swoops. No Man. Ar-Kaics. Bedmaker are alright. There’s this band called the Vampyres from Africa that’s really fucking good. What’s the name of your other group? 

Fiona: Caustic Hologram. 

Jacky: Caustic Hologram.

Does the band have a manifesto? 

Sal: I don’t know if we have a manifesto straight-up. We put a lyric sheet in the album because I felt like you work hard on a song. I want people to know what I’m saying. People should read the lyrics. 

Jacky: I disagree with everything Sal just said. We did not work very hard on the songs. It was very easy and seamless and it was so much fun to do it. When it comes to lyrics, English is my second language. What I really love about lyrics is how everybody comes up with their own things. Sometimes what I heard is not what my sisters will hear or what my friends would hear. That’s what I really love, where a song means something to you and then you read the lyrics and you’re like, Oh that’s what he’s saying. That’s so stupid. That’s why I’m really anti-lyrics. But that said, when you did the lyrics, it looked amazing. But I want all the readers to know that this is just a fun band. It started as a fun side thing and it’s become something else and it’s great. It’s easy. Writing songs is easy. Being in a band is easy. People saying it’s hard are really fucking annoying. 

What’s the hardest part? 

Jacky: There’s nothing hard about being in a band other than just human relationships and those are hard anyways. That’s just part of the deal. Everything else about being in a band is easy. Writing a song. Coming up with titles, booking a tour. 

What about doing the tour? 

Jacky: I don’t like touring because I like my own bed and I like Theodora and I like Liliput—

Liliput the band?

Jacky: No, I have a cat, Liliput. She’s a great tabby. 

Sal: Maybe working hard wasn’t the right word. It’s more like I’m proud of the songs. That’s what I mean.

Jacky: Being in a band is very easy. When bands say we are working hard on new records it really bugs me cause being in a band is supposed to be easy. It’s the easiest thing in the world. I think it’s fun to do it and then release it, but I think you and I as artists, once it’s done, we are working on the next thing. You’ve been in how many bands now, Sal?

Sal: Five, six, maybe? In some ways it gets a lot easier because when you’re younger, you’re just going along with things. Now I think the hardest part is people’s busy schedules.

Do you both contribute lyrics?

Sal: Yeah. 

Jacky: Mainly Sal.

Sal: Really? I think we both have different songs that we write more or less of. I do better when I have a prompt, so Jacky’s good at giving me a little prompt. And then, for instance, one song we started writing and you had the first verse and then I took that and finished the song, and it just happened to be the feminist anthem. 

Jacky: Yeah, “Can’t Do That” and “S.C.U.M.” are both feminist anthems. I wrote those. I want the readers to know that. I am a feminist. I’m the feminist of the band. It’s true. Ask me how it is to be in a band with three girls.

How is it to be in a band…with…three…

Hana: Two—

Fiona: People— 

Jacky: Easy.