GAY HITLER!!! scream Omertà twenty times on their debut single of the same name. It’s an effective distillation of the absurd, invasive chaos of their manically intense live shows. The London garage-punks can be hard to describe but they are, if anything, a band having lots of fun: a breath of fresh air in a scene crowded with performative sincerity and emotional theatrics. We sat down with the band (James on vocals, Sonny and Ollie on guitar, Lucy on bass, Jett on keys/drum machine and Rhys on drums) at their Windmill headline to chat about everything from why they like it when people leave their gigs early to butt plugs and the time the police showed up at one of their shows.
Headlining The Windmill tonight, how does it feel?
James: Very good. It started as a very unserious band, and the one goal I had was to sell out The Windmill. We’ve done that already, so it’s like, what’s next? Magazine hahaha
Lucy: It’s like the band equivalent of peaking in high school. We’ve already sold out The Windmill and had this song, it’s been written about in magazines and stuff and it’s like, is that it now? I’m hoping this is the start to something exciting rather than the best we can do.
Are you any more nervous or excited for this one than usual?
James: I’m both. I think they’re sort of synonymous, like when I’m excited for a gig I get more nervous.
Lucy: Yeah nerves just means you care about it. I think anxiety is very much the same feeling as excitement, but it’s just the way you look at it. That’s important to get over stage fright as well, I used to have a lot of stage fright until I realised that I was just excited.
Jett: I don’t really get nervous before gigs, but what I’m doing is very low stakes. I could do pretty much anything and it would still be alright, because I play about three notes.
James: A fucking orangutan could play your part.
You’re on the bill with three other cool bands – House Arrest, Rampressure, and Daltons Fen. It seems like you all know each other and that there’s quite a close community around a lot of these noise-rock bands. How important has that sense of community been for you as an emerging band?
James: Very important. I feel like a shared interest in being a bit like, ‘I’m gonna fuck shit up’, is helpful, because I feel like you sort of progress at the same time. It was supposed to be Jawharp today, they had to pull out, but they’re good friends of ours too.
Lucy: I think we wouldn’t be playing at all, in any realm, if we didn’t have a load of friends who were putting on gigs that we could support, and then people and other bands can see us. The reason we’re headlining is because we’re friends with a lot of bands who we’ve been lucky enough to support.
Omertà means not talking to the police in the mafia. Have any of you ever been questioned by the police?
Lucy: I had no idea it meant that.
James: The police came to one of our gigs, the event was called ‘Death to the IDF’ and they showed up to check it out. They were like, “What’s this name about then?” and the guy on the door was like, “Have you got a ticket?” They said no, and he said, “Fuck off then.” It was so funny. They said they’d come back, but they didn’t because they’re pussies.
Ollie: I got stopped by the police at an airport three days ago. They had guns and shit, and they asked me, are you nervous? I said of course I’m nervous, you have a fucking gun in your hand.
Both your music and shows are very silly, what do you think draws you to that satirical element?
Lucy: It’s just funny. And we’d be boring to watch if we just played our songs.
James: There’s a lot of bands who I know are very chaotic and stuff, but they aren’t fun to watch because they’re just standing still. It’s much more fun if you bring the chaos not just to the music but to the performance.
Jett: Yeah everyone takes things so seriously and are all straight-faced, we just want to have fun onstage.
Lucy: Oh yeah, we got a butt plug today. I stuck it on my headstock in rehearsal and I was trying to shove it up James’ arse. He was proper arching his back, he wanted it.
You recorded Gay Hitler in the shed at Sonny’s house. What was that like and how did it impact the sound?
Sonny: Yeah we had all six of us, all six or seven of us-
(Uproar)
Sonny: All trying to fit into one tiny room. And it’s all like minimal gear where you’ve got to work with what you have – we had like a semi electric drum kit.
Lucy: We all had a semi. Except for me and my monkey
Sonny: We did only one or two takes because we were trying to get the live sound because we were trying to get what it sounds like at the gigs. It worked quite well, but a lot of people weren’t happy with it because I made a mistake with the synth.
Jett: We’re a band with plenty of mistakes. We’re all about mistakes.
Lucy: I was a mistake. I asked my mum if I was a mistake she said no you were a nice surprise.
Ollie: That’s sweet.
How does it feel to have Gay Hitler out, and what made you pick it above your other songs to release first?
James: I felt it was more anthemic than the rest.
Lucy: Anthemic?
James: People liked it more than the rest of our songs. It was the only one people knew because a lot of our songs for a while were just walls of noise. It’s also the only one that has a bit of structure, and we had to think about what songs are well-structured enough to record. It came out with Gay Hitler and Autofellatio, we felt the others were unplannable.
You guys formed less than a year ago, but you’ve already put out a single and sold out the Windmill – it feels like things have moved really quickly. Does it feel that way from your side too, and has any of it taken you by surprise?
Lucy: It’s so weird, man. We were shite for so long.
Ollie: I’m not surprised. I remember Juno of Children of Pope saying it best, he saw us at one of our early, old dip gigs and he was saying how he was at the back and he saw a flood of people leaving. He said I know a good band when I see people leaving.
Lucy: I’ve always wanted to be in a polarising band. I’d rather have half the room leave rather than a load of people who are not that bothered all stay. Because the people who do stay, if half the room leave, really like it. And going back to the question, it’s so surprising to me because I’m in loads of bands and have been since I was 15 and I’m very surprised that this was the one that caught people’s eyes and is actually doing something.
Your show is about the performance as much as it is the music. Where did that emphasis on physicality start?
James: At the second Old Dip (Old Dispensary) gig I slapped Jett quite violently and he started slapping me back then it got a bit more than that. It’s fucking skirmishes all the time now.
Jett: We just wanted to outdo each other and then do some more silly things.
Lucy: I feel bad because I always want to jump into the fights but every time I go to do it the song just sounds stupid without the bass. But Tim told us not to break anything today.
Do Omerta have any new year’s resolutions?
James: I think we want to play a festival or two this year.
Lucy: I’d love to play Rotterdam. I don’t know if we can do that.
Jett: If they’ve got Pink Eye performing on a boat then we should be able to. I think we’ve got a good chance of getting it.
Lucy: I want to maybe try and record an EP or an album or something.
James: Beyond playing the big gigs I would like to play a lot more weirder shit in stranger places where the stakes aren’t as high, because it’s just a lot of fun – like Rampressure played under the motorway. We need to get a generator and then we can go and perform anywhere.
Omertà are playing at our showcase in Sheffield next month. Buy lots of tickets: https://www.fatsoma.com/e/9h5azk03/what-s-next-uncle-junior-charlemagne-omert%C3%A0-meridian
Words: Donovan Livesey Photos: @fayefotoz / @lalejandrofilms
