Gay Death is a loud and gay American power electronics project. I was lucky enough to be able to ask them a few questions.
LE RECTUM: Can you briefly introduce yourselves?
GAY DEATH: Hi there! This is Geoffrey, but everybody calls me Jeffy, which is ok too. I'm here with my partner, Alex. He and I have been together for over 10 years, and we've been running a music label together for the past couple years.
Can you explain how your label, Industrial Tape Dispenser, was formed?
It came from having witnessed unspeakable shitshows that devolved from BADLY botched cassette releases. Little quirks and mistakes are acceptable and entirely expected, as anyone with a dupe machine will tell you. However, in the most egregious cases, I've received tapes that were completely silent much like the label shortly after accepting my money. There was a strong need for higher standards of quality control.
On this label, only one release is not signed Gay Death, it is an eponymous EP by Acheleg. Who and what is behind this release?
Acheleg is the first outside artist to be added to our roster. We were put in touch by some mutual friends on social media and we agreed to release a tape! I felt like the release turned out very good and exemplified our aim to be inclusive of all things industrial, and not exclusively harsh electronics or gay artists. Expect more on the way!
On Instagram, we can see traces of a project called AU//79 “VOLUME 1”. What about?
GAY DEATH (Alexander): That is one of my solo projects that never saw an official release. I wasn't sure if it was what I really wanted to release, so it stayed unfinished. I don't know if I will bring that project back or not.
Before talking about Gay Death, could you testify to the "discovery" of your homosexuality? How was that moment when you ended up putting the word "homosexual" on your sexualities?
I was an effeminate little boy being raised in a relatively strict Baptist household, need I say more? The signs were most often pointed out to me by my own family. Church taught me about sodomy before I learned a single thing about heterosexual sex and I would sit in a pew next to my family and think about kissing boys, hoping they would all get burned when I burst into flames. Once I was able to safely be physical with other boys the emotional numbness wore off and I began thriving.
Were you accompanied by your families, your friends, during this moment of your life? Have you had to put up with the homophobia present around you? In a nutshell, what is the life of young gay men in Texas like?
I faced either rejection or aloofness from the adults in my life during the whole ordeal. I was deeply lonesome, and that seemed to be a common experience among my gay peers.
You ended up releasing Deathful, Gay Death's first album in 2021. First of all, why did you choose Gay Death as your name? The meaning can be very ambivalent. Also, I understand the project was almost called Deathful.
That's correct, Gay Death was originally the album title until a good friend told me they thought it made a cooler band name than "Deathful", so I went with it. It appealed to me because of its duplicitous meanings within gay culture, apart from the obvious dark implications.
You present Gay Death as a duo on Bandcamp but it seems that all the releases credit only one member. Pouf is even credited as "Gay Death is Geoffrey H.". What about?
Gay Death was never intended to be a solo project, so I don't bill it as such. I'm very much open to growing the project with lineup changes, collaboration, and experimentation so I can't factually say I am its sole creator.
Can you come back to the recording of this album?
Sure! I spent about a year demoing all different kinds of gear until my Wasp Deluxe replica synthesizer from Behringer finally shipped and I instantly fell in love with how angry and loud it was! The lyrics came naturally after that, there wasn't much real creative direction to them.
Of course I can't help making the link with the project of Philip Best, Consumer Electronics, Whitehouse, or the original industrial sound of Throbbing Gristle. What are your influences for Gay Death?
I draw a lot of inspiration from my favorite kinds of club music. Acid, trance, breakcore and especially house. No specific era or geography, I think it was all fantastic and innovative.
Did the new (not really new anymore) pc music club scene have an impact on you? I am thinking in particular of artists like SOPHIE, Dorian Electra or even Hannah Diamond and Charli XCX?
I was absolutely devastated by SOPHIE's passing in early 2021. I am so happy that her music was able to catalyze some amazing projects with other artists like Shygirl, another rapper I really love.
You shot a music video for Dead Disco. We can see you excited on your sofa surrounded by drugs, alcohol and cameos of your references: Lingua Ignota t-shirt as well as the books Grudge for Life - A book about Ramleh by Richard Johnson and The Magician by Christopher Zeischegg and published by Amphetamine Sulphate (directed by Philip Best). I see certain homoerotic codes in it: shorts, high socks pulled up, bare torso. The result is really good. Can you come back to the genesis of this project and the filming?
Thank you! I was really inspired by music videos produced by Cole Bennet and rappers like Lil B, especially those for shorter or more novelty type songs. I felt like this style of music video would be a drastic departure from typical harsh noise visuals and allowed me to make clear references to the surrounding culture while embodying this unhinged lunatic spitting the vocals. My partner's twin brother was behind the camera for that video and the one for "Pictures From Your Old Phone" as well. Those are the only two music videos he's been involved with as far as I know.
I saw rap references too, but I wondered if it really came from there or not. It's really cool to see such a mix of influences. I guess you didn't discover power electronics in church. How did you come to this discovery?
Before the advent of social media if you had very niche interests then you found community in these bleak and poorly moderated forums. Back then I always perceived I was too new to participate in discussion or that people would treat me badly for being young, and usually that was the case, so I would sit and read those threads full of everybody's "Top 10 Albums" and trade around with friends, crossing them off as I went. Those lists usually included albums from the likes of Atrax Morgue, Sutcliffe Jügend, and of course, Whitehouse. They always stood out to me as the darkest of the dark and the heaviest the world had to offer when it came to both music and lyrical themes.
What is your relationship to texts? Are they available on the internet or in cassettes? How do you write them?
You can find most of the lyrics for Gay Death songs on Bandcamp, I also included lyric sheets with the Deathful debut on CD and the cassette tape reissue that came a year later. I mostly just type them into my phone whenever an idea hits me and write them out later on my computer.
Have you had any feedback on this release?
Yes, in fact I got a lot of messages and feedback regarding this release, some of it kind of contradictory. I found it very interesting to read other people's interpretations of the work and what they took away from it.
Then a small C10 comes out. Despite the duration, the atmosphere is much more haunting, dirtier. I feel like aggression is giving way to grime. Can you present this tape?
The Gay Death C10 was the first tape to get dispensed from the Industrial Tape Dispenser. It was meant to succinctly exemplify the overarching vision for ITD as collaborative. The dupe was done by Derek Rush of COMPACTOR, and UNFEELING, and the artwork was commissioned from an LGBT artist from Canada who is a dear friend of mine.
The artwork shows Mickey jerking off in front of a magazine (which I don't recognize), a butt plug and poppers. How was this cover artwork born?
Back in the 90's, if you walked into any of the gift shops near Texas beaches, they had these lewd t-shirts for sale with an image of a fat smiling rat with humongous cock and balls on it that said "Here kitty kitty" or something like that. I wanted to use that image to subvert a corporate mascot of some sort, and who better than the ultimate rat himself?
Would you have a photo? That looks terrifying haha
Not of the exact ones I saw as a kid, but here's a similar design.
At the end of 2021, you release the fourth release on your Industrial Tape Dispenser label: Therapy Camp by Gay Death limited to 1 copy and without streaming available. Can you present this release? Was it really for sale or did you keep this unique copy personally? Did you keep the masters?
Yup! That was actually a real album, written and recorded, and limited to physical-only release. The sale also included all rights to the recorded material. That means that whoever the buyer is has the sole power to either hoard the tracks for themselves forever or release them as they so please. So far, it seems that they plan on keeping to themself. I love that. I did not retain any of the recordings.
I really like this kind of approach. It would be super cool if the recordings were shared but only by sending a blank tape on which the owners of the tapes could duplicate the recordings.
If I ever find out who the buyer was I'd like to suggest that to them, if you don't mind.
This release is presented in a handmade bag. On your Instagram account I saw that you had acquired Unfinished, decomposing & re-assembled: the fashion works of Richard Ramirez (Flesh Prison Records, 2021). Is textile work one of your interests, a path you would like to explore?
I've always had an interest in couture and designer fashion. Shortly before ITD became a full-time endeavor, I was busy working on starting an avant-garde fashion label with many of the garments being inspired by Parisian sensibilities and drawing heavily from minimalist designers like Ann Demeulemeester and Issey Miyake. I'd love to bring that project back someday.
It seems to me that this is the first time that you have directly evoked a social, political problem of homophobia, here conversion therapy. What view and what position do you adopt on these subjects and how to deal with them?
Yeah, I threw the poetry out the window with that one and decided to be very confrontational. No minced words, no real lyrics, no encrypted meaning, just pure anger. Like I said, I was raised in a strict religious environment and the idea of being "sent away" was brought up a lot. I had been subjected to conversion tactics by the adults around me whenever the thought I might be gay came up. I remember one of my dad's friends standing next to the fireplace drunkenly grilling me about my sexuality (with my dad backing him up, of course) and saying things like "You know why they're called faggots, right? That's because they would tie them up and burn them like firewood," in an attempt to "scare me straight". The anger is directed by the fact that the issue isn't only systemic, it's a familial and generational affliction, and it's not something you can change with laws; not something you can teach in schools. You can outlaw conversion therapy but it won't stop bad parents from throwing away their gay or trans kids.
Speaking about the split with Richard Ramirez, how did you discover the work of Richard Ramirez?
How could I not? He's been an extremely out and active artist since before I was born. Richard and his husband, Sean, are ineffable pillars of gay noise!
How did the collaboration come about?
Richard and I emailed each other over the course of a couple busy months and decided on a length and shared some ideas for the cover art. I feel like our ideas meshed well.
The Gay Death side is power electronics as usual, that of Richard Ramirez is more drone or even industrial ambient. Was the contrast between the two sides planned?
Not really, I didn't know what to expect from Richard, honestly.
Who did the artwork for this split?
That would be me.
Daddy & Father was not released by Industrial Tape Dispenser but by Doughgirl Tapes. We find Straight Panic on several releases as well as Black Leather Jesus in their catalog. How was the meeting with this label?
Doughgirl is owned by my good friend, Trinity (RAGK). I first met her at a noise fest in Oklahoma in which she punched directly through a glass mirror with her bare fist during her performance.
Wow, is there any videos of this RAGK performance ?
It seems that there are 2 versions of Daddy & Father, a cassette version and a remastered version available on Bandcamp. You weren't satisfied with the cassette version?
No, I was actually quite happy with how it came out. I thought it sounded good. The remastered version has been edited to fit on a cassette without so much runoff for when ITD ultimately reissues the cassette.
I was going to ask you where you got the idea for this title, but it seems to me that it's much more than a title. What are your lyrics about in Daddy & Father?
Simply put, queers who stay closeted for personal gain.
It's interesting. In France, an association that you must probably know, Act Up Paris (inspired by Act Up New York) practiced the outing of politicians who were gay but hid it when the HIV epidemic was rampant and no politician seemed really worry about it. Are you interested in activism and its history?
My livelihood more or less depends on how extremely vocal I can be about the reality of my situation: I work to support my partner, who is disabled, through a home care program that's set up by the state of Texas. In this program nothing gets changed for the better unless you're willing to step up to the plate and put it all on the line for the smallest bit of positive change. Activism is a part of almost everything I do.
More recently it's a perfume, in collaboration with Cleaner Tapes (Black Leather Jesus, Faggot Front), that you released: Pouf extreme - La Mort Homosexuelle. This perfume is part of a joint project comprising a cassette sold with a larger vial of perfume (or cleanser, we don't really know). Can you present this project to us? How was the collaboration with Cleaner Tapes?
Alyx Ill (Yotzeret Sheydim) is behind Cleaner Tapes and is the one who came to me with the idea of a tape label that also sold matching bottles of poppers that were lightly fragranced. While reaching out for advice on how to assemble the fragrance, we realized that not everybody would be willing to sniff poppers in order to sample a fragrance, so we decided to make a non-poppers version so everybody can enjoy it.
Why did you use French for this fragrant release?
Ç'est très chic!
Etat Libre d'Orange has released a Tom of Finland fragrance that seems, based on reviews on the internet, to smell like leather, or maybe latex, have you had occasion to smell it?
No, I have not! But I would love to sample it as well as the one called "I Am Trash".
I have to admit that I really like the idea of selling poppers in the form of perfume or cleanser, but it seems to be a problem outside the USA. Is it because of the flammable nature of the thing?
Having to go through customs poses particular difficulties when it comes to importing certain liquids of dubious legality, yeah.
Know your place, new release will be out in a few days, do you want to say a few words about it?
Don't miss out on the tapes! They're expected to go fast!
What about the Red Bandages and Passing/Phasers projects?
What about them?
I feel like they came out and were taken down very quickly, am I right ?
Yes, they were made available digitally only for a very short time. I am not sure of the reason for this.
Let's talk a bit about hardware, you credit the hardware used for each version. Does it change regularly or are you looking to have a permanent base? Do you give yourself any constraints, such as whether or not to use a computer, for example?
I've settled on a modular synthesizer build that I'm happy with for now. Modular presents its own limitations, but allows me to gear the entire instrument toward whatever sounds I have in mind.
More generally, how do you view your production and the evolution of the Gay Death project?
It's gotten worse at the cost of becoming better.
The gay harsh noise and power electronics scene is very limited. We can mention Thomas Boettner (Straight Panic) or Richard Ramirez (Black Leather Jesus), what links do you have with these people and their releases?
We are friends and keep up with one another on social media and support one another's projects. That's pretty much it.
We saw it through several videos and photos, you're not afraid to invest yourself physically in Gay Death. Has Gay Death ever performed live? If not, do you plan to take the plunge one day?
Not yet, but maybe starting next year.
I don't think I'm taking a risk by saying that you position yourself within a gay culture. How do you view this culture? Are you collectors, researchers of artists, authors, texts? Maybe any artists to point out?
I'll say this: It's very very big, and you have to carve out space for yourself to exist in if you expect to connect meaningfully with any of it.
Do you have other artistic projects apart from Gay Death?
I've recently plunged into the world of fragrance and was thinking about bringing back my fashion house as a perfumery. We'll see where that leads me, I suppose.
What are the future projects for Gay Death?
Sorry, but I can't tell!
What are your latest artistic slaps or release, book, or whatever that deserves to be mentioned?
"Know Your Place" out on digital and cassette this Halloween!
Yes, of course, I was thinking of other artists, any recommendations?
Uhh. . . read books by Audrey Szasz! Available from Amphetamine Sulphate and Infinity Land Press! They're fucking earthshattering books.
Thank you !
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