Interview with Cost Of Living
- 9 sept. 2016
- 3 min de lecture
Rezine: Who is who in Cost Of Living?
Chelsea: Cost of Living is Riel, the guitarist, Max, the drummer, Sam, the bassist, booker, and band manager, and myself (Chelsea), the vocalist. Sam is a hard ass at times but they have good intentions. Max, on the other hand, is the band’s comic relief. Riel is my partner and we try to keep the peace when Sam is getting at Max’s throat for constantly telling jokes. Ha! I tend to be rather coy, but I’m aggressive as fuck on stage.
Rezine: How did Cost Of Living start?
Chelsea: In the spring of 2016, I tried starting a band with a couple friends of mine under the name “Vag Panic.” We had one practice in my living room and it fell through after that. I asked my partner, Riel, if he wanted to play bass for a punk project. He agreed and I hit up my friend Sam to see if they wanted to play guitar. Sam ended up on bass and Riel on guitar instead. Sam invited their friend Max to our first practice. We had all never played together before and in the first practice, we wrote four songs together.
Rezine: What's the meaning of the name of the band?
Chelsea: Human rights strongly influence our band’s message: We are an Oakland band so the cost of living in this area is very prevalent to us and our community. Cost of living affects everyone in the 99%. We wanted to choose a name that everyone could identify with, not just punks.
Rezine: What's the band for you?
Chelsea: For me, this band is an outlet. It is a presence in the hardcore/punk community. It is a form of activism and a sense of community. It is a voice that has been ignored far too long.
Rezine: What are your influences?
Chelsea: Each member of the band brings to the table their own influences, so it’s a mish-mash of punk, hardcore, thrash, street punk, Oi!, crust, and riot grrrl.
Rezine: What inspires your lyrics?
Chelsea: Our lyrics are inspired by what we believe in and what pisses us off. In short, we believe in feminism, anarchy, and equality. We are just as easily influenced by what infuriates us, such as sexism, racism, religion, systematic poverty, war, politics, physical, verbal, and sexual abuse, homophobia and transphobia, and rape and rape culture. Of course, our lyrics are also heavily influenced by personal experience: Half the band (myself included) are rape survivors. Having an outlet for that kind of trauma not only goes a long way for us, but also fellow members of the punk community with similar experiences.
Rezine: Is there a theme you like to talk about in your songs?
Chelsea: Yes, absolutely. As mentioned above, abuse is a prevalent theme in our songs. Our demo alone has two songs about rape. We want our music to be a platform for those who are unheard in the hardcore/punk community. It’s about giving power and confidence back to those who have had it stripped away from them. We want people to hear our music and use their anger to fight back for justice.
Rezine: Whats coming up for Cost Of Living?
Chelsea: We’re playing some local shows, but we have a tour coming up in November up north to Oregon and Washington. We’re going to be recording a split with The Vaticunts, a rad band from Bellingham, WA. We are looking into getting another guitarist in the near future as well. We just released our demo, but we intend on recording an EP by the beginning of next year. Our main focus right now is writing new music.
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