The Internet’s Biggest bREAKOUT haRDCORE Band: Die Spitz Interviewed

Die Spitz at La Maroquinerie by sixtine Cail

If your interest in harcore music reflects onto your internet feed, there’s no doubt that you know who Die Spitz are. The all-female rock band from Austin have broken the internet with their hardcore sound and contagious energy. Their iconic KEXP live session went viral, they played huge festivals including Coachella, and toured for months at a time all over the world, yet Ellie (singer/guitarist), Ava (singer/guitarist), Kate (bassist) and Chloe (drummer) have held on tight to their authenticity and their friendship. Another thing that makes them unique is that there is no clear leader. Each one of them is the face of the band, with the instruments they play changing regularly within their sets and all of them bringing something different to their writing and performing. I was able to get an interview with Die Spitz on the spot backstage at Paris’ La Maroquinerie and, as you might have guessed, they were a fucking vibe. 

Die Spitz, the name, means The Sharp in German right? Is there a meaning behind that?

CHLOE: That was an accident. 

AVA: Yeah, we just thought it sounded cool. We looked it up on Google Translate. It was, like, the point, but that’s not why we named it. We wanted to be The Spits but the spits is already a band so we were like what if we put Die in front of it? That's cool. 

Is that why you have a lot of sharp knife and sword imagery and themes in your music?

ELLIE: No, that’s ‘cause I’m a nerd. I’m a really big Lord Of The Rings fan and I have a collection of weaponry. So yeah, that’s what that stems from. I actually got the title for Throw Yourself To The Sword from Pretty Little Liars. 

Oh my god I fucking love Pretty Little Liars.

ELLIE: Bro, Hannah’s mom was like “Hannah, you can’t just throw yourself to the sword!” and I was like, wait….

I read somewhere that you guys were inspired to start the band after watching the Motley Crue movie The Dirt? And also that you started the band as a joke to mock other bands?

KATE: That’s a lie. 

ELLIE: That never happened. They made it up. 

CHLOE: It wasn’t that it was a joke, it was so we could hang out more. 

AVA: It was COVID, so we couldn’t see each other. 

ELLIE: We would just drink beers in my parent’s garage and sound bad. 

KATE: We didn’t know how to tune our instruments. 

Have you guys seen the speculation online that you guys are industry plants?

KATE: Well we are! Simon Cowell’s our daddy. 

AVA: Yeah he actually handpicked each of us and put us together like one direction. But he doesn’t like to talk about it, so don’t ask him. We’re, like, an undercover project of his. And all our dads are billionaires. And all of our dads are actually the same guy. 

KATE: And our mom is the same. 

(looking at pictures that fans gave them) that’s the one I said was AI… There’s a thing where old men take print out pictures of us for us to sign and sometimes it’s like fifty of them at a time and I think they’re selling them on Ebay, but that one, we opened it and Chloe said “I’ve never seen this picture before” and I was like “Oh its AI” and she got really sad (laughs). 

Wait, can we talk about the old men at the concert tonight for a second, though? ‘Cause like...

ELLIE: We love and respect the respectful old men that are oldheads that love vinyl and metal music, I get you, but…

KATE: I took this video to post and be like “how do we fix this problem?” (laughs)

Kate shows me a video from her perspective pointing out at the crowd, all you can see is old men and the video stops at one old man with a super long beard, waving nicely. We all burst out laughing

KATE: Except for Gandalf. Like, if you look like Gandalf it’s okay. I don’t know if you saw it today, I was hitting the men’s cameras? I always black belt those guys. 

Are most of the shows like that?

ELLIE: It used to be more and then after the album I feel like we had a lot more younger people and more of our demographic. I don’t know, it's not like I don’t want some in there. Some of them are sweet. Gandalf? Sweet. 

AVA: But then there are also the ones that are taking pictures up your skirt. 

ELLIE: Yeah and also taking space from the people that we want to make a hardcore space for. 

Even when you said “girls to the front” they weren’t moving. It was crazy. 

ELLIE: Dude, like, if you’re gonna be a fan you might as well respect the people who we are and want to help. 

AVA: No, they be doing shit and I’m like “do you listen to the lyrics? All these songs are about you.”

Okay, so for each one of you which song carries the most personal meaning?

KATE: Fergalicious… oh, like, of our songs or?

AVA: Most definitely Go Get Dressed. I wrote it about depression and how that feels. I don’t know, It was a fun one to write? I guess? It’s a sad one to write but it was kind of healing to put it into words. 

ELLIE: I would say Down On It. I also wrote it about being depressed but in a different way. An angrier way, like, a sad-angry way. But, I like to play that song. 

CHLOE: I would say Voir Dire is probably my favorite or my most personal song. Yeah, it’s just my qualms with America and American politics. 

AVA: Some of them are just words, man. Pop Punk Anthem…

CHLOE: .. makes no sense. 

AVA: It’s about Twilight.

CHLOE: That was, like, the vibe I was going for. 

ELLIE: We wrote a song about Twilight and mermaids, and swords, and Pop Punk…

AVA:.. And piss

CHLOE: We have range. 

I feel like your fan base grew pretty quickly and there are so many people that are so involved in what you guys are doing. What do you think makes them identify with you guys so much? 

AVA: Ooh, I’ve never thought about that. 

ELLIE: I think they can tell that we’re friends on stage. It’s very obvious. 

AVA: I would say that it’s genuine. They can’t really read the industry plant part, it goes straight over their heads. I think that we’re really good friends in real life, too. 

KATE: Pretty much. I think that the generation growing up on The Wiggles… we’re, like, taking over that. 

AVA: We’re the next Wiggles. 

ELLIE: Oh, I did see that someone said we were industry plants because we got better. Like, aww thanks I guess?

KATE: No females can’t write by themselves! That’s crazy!

AVA: Well, I don’t really know why people relate with us. It’s probably the friendship. And having the outlet for anger that’s also kind of silly at times. I think it’s therapeutic in a way for a lot of people, especially young people. And then a lot of the old men don’t relate to us in any way shape or form. They think we’re hot, so they come to our shows. 

What are some genres you would like to experiment with in future music?

ELLIE: Yeah we might do… not techno… kind of like house music but still with instruments but with a drum pad or something.

CHLOE: A drum pad. That would be cool. I want to go one like a weird psychedelic route. We’re like 60 and we’re just playing hand pans for way too long and it gets really weird. 

KATE: We’re definitely going to have a weird psychedelic album. 

CHLOE: It’s like a 400 minute album. 

ELLIE: Our 40th year reunion we’re just hand panning 

AVA: But yeah soon we’re going to release a pop album or something. So we can…

KATE: …Fix the old man problem.

Ellie, you said you wanted to make more of a visual universe out of your music. Do you have any plans for future releases in that aspect of things?

ELLIE: Definitely, yeah. I would just say a little bit of ideas. I’ve just been really into directing things. I wanted to be an actor at one point so that was my first intro into entertainment and I just think making music videos is so fun and I really want to make a concept album that’s based around awesome visuals that are weird and cool. I don’t really know what yet. Maybe it’ll happen. 

Have you been writing the next album?

AVA: Yeah. A little bit. We’ve kind of been taking a break. We had like a month and a half off which is, like, our longest break in two years or something? We didn’t do a lot. We really took advantage of the break part of it. I slept so much. 

ELLIE: That was also after touring for ten weeks straight. I was like ‘I’m so lazy’ but I was also like ‘damn you were just on the road for ten weeks’! 

AVA: But yeah, we’re talking to labels.

KATE: I really like one of them.

AVA: Yeah, we have one we really like. But we are going to start writing more this year and we’re hoping to record by the end of the year. 

Oh wait I actually do want to ask, where’s your favorite place you’ve been on the tour?

CHLOE: I actually loved playing in Atlanta. 

ELLIE, AVA: Atlanta’s really fun. 

KATE: Florida and… Fayetteville? In Arkansas? 

AVA: Yeah Fayetteville, Arkansas was really fun. It’s always the places you never expect. Paris has great crowds, like insanely good crowds. Y’all are fucking crazy. Oh, Berlin! Berlin’s fun. 

Oh, but one of you did say [on stage] that this was your favorite crowd. Was that true?

AVA: Yeah, no, I do love this crowd. Like last year when we played we had never played here before, I just remember being blown away by the turnout and how crazy everyone was and then again today. It was crazy. It was so fun.

Despite the irony and jokes in their answers, there is true, deep meaning behind Die Spitz. Their widespread success shows other women in this largely male dominated field and genre that it is possible for them to take stages as large as theirs. Their shows and music itself also speak of extremely important themes about today’s world in a way that is impossible to ignore. They spread these messages simply by being themselves, turning their friendship and topics they are passionate about into a sound that inspires the crowd and listeners all over the world.

Die Spitz at La Maroquinerie by Sixtine Cail