DJs Vileblood (above left) and Fruitbat (above right) form a magnificently macabre duo both in life and in the DJ booth, where they spin sonic webs that can be light or dark–but always danceworthy. The Sissies of Mercy are mercilessly conquering a new generation of nightlifers.
Thotyssey: Hello Sissies, happy Spooky Season! Do either of you commit to spooky outside of the club… like are there bats and skeletons around your house year round, etc.?
Sissies of Mercy (collectively): No not really. We’re pretty minimal when it comes to home decor— other people’s Halloween decorations are cute–but if anything, our house has a churchy feel over a spooky one.
The Sisters of Mercy, the seminal 80s and 90s synth rock band worshipped by generations of goths who inspired your DJ duo name, just passed through NYC’s Brooklyn Paramount for a rare U.S. performance! Did you ever see them live?
No… I mean obviously respect to the Sisters, but the pun definitely outlasts our love for the group themself.
How would you describe the Sissies of Mercy sound when you’re DJing, for those unfamiliar?
SoM: Well it’s not “gothic” as a lot of people might imagine— we both have a lot of love for dark, synth-heavy, 80s inspired music, but really value breaking traditional genre limitations that “goths” are allowed to enjoy. Genre-wise, these days we’ve been super inspired by acid, techno, italo, and even a little bit of classic house has been finding its way into our sets. We just want people to dance! Sure, we’ll always throw cheeky classic goth track IDs in the mix for the reference point and the respectful nod, but we’ve got so much more within ourselves than just the straightforward selection maybe expected by people upon hearing our name.
When you’re together in the booth, how does it normally work? Do you switch off every hour or so, or do you each just kind of jump in when it feels right?
Usually when we’re throwing our own party, we both do one or two hour sets surrounding whoever we have as a guest, then do a b2b to close the night. When we’re booked to do guest slots we normally just do a b2b where we’re playing two songs each.
Both of us DJ and select tracks a little bit differently, so giving each other a couple of tracks at a time to really sink our teeth into feeds the journey so much more clearly than if we were both jumping in as soon as we felt like it.
Can you tell us a bit about where you’re each from, and what sort of influences you had musically, aesthetically etc. growing up that ultimately put you on this path?
Fruitbat: I’m originally from Connecticut, so I didn’t have a lot of access to music besides what my parents liked, or scrolling on Tumblr as a teenager. Throughout my adolescence, I was going to a lot of house shows where there would mostly be hardcore and punk bands playing. During that time, I was pretty into mall goth music and attire.
As I grew up and learned more about myself in college, I found more of my love for music within queer club culture. At 18, I started working at my first cabaret / nightclub where I was an usher and busser. I fell really in love with classic 70’s disco at this time because that’s what was being played, but was also seeking different places for freedom on the dancefloor. This led me to underground raves where I was dancing to a lot of hard techno. After going out for a while and not hearing music that I felt super connected to, I started becoming interested in learning how to DJ.
Vileblood: I’m from Boston, and definitely came into my sense of aesthetics and love of music from longing for a more exciting future than my childhood offered. I spent a lot of time on Tumblr and in my bedroom just playing around with clothes and makeup, until I slowly figured out what worked for me—I always wanted to make myself into a vampire or a witch, so many hours were spent learning what shapes could make that happen for me. My taste in goth music really blossomed during a period of time where I was writing poetry a lot- Fruitbat had suggested I should listen to some Christian Death after something I’d written reminded him of some of their tracks.
How did you two meet and form the Sissies?
F: We both met in Boston while going to school for our BFA’s.
V: We’d become roommates pretty much at the same time as beginning a friendship, and have just been family ever since then. Sissies has been the expression and space for our love for one another, and the joy we feel while together, really.
Do venues ever try to convince you to do a more “mainstream” set, or some genre that you don’t normally do?
SoM: Honestly, we’re lucky that most venues we play and bookers we’re connected with really just trust us to curate without much guidance. We’ll definitely try to work to make our sets work well in context of who else is on a lineup. But often the only version of mainstream that comes our way at this point is when we’re asked for super clearly “goth” sets, since so much of what we do is exploring past those confines.
Who or what is exciting to you now, musically?
F: I’ve been listening to mixes from Analog Soul, Earth Boys and Justin Strauss lately. Anything leftfield, disco or house related has been my favorite to listen to.
V: My music taste spans so much farther than I can even describe lately— I’ve been listening to a lot of Cocteau Twins (it’s getting colder, and they’re always the first addition to my fall playlists), but at the same time I’m always looking at a lot of drone and noise music, and spend a lot of time listening to noisy industrial music that helped pre-cursor a lot of the techno I enjoy now. I’ve been listening to a lot of Ontario Hospital and Atzushi Izumi, but in terms of mixes as opposed to more track oriented artists, I’ve really been enjoying deep hypnosis via the legend Wata Igarashi and some heavy crunch sets via Sawf and some other Greek industrial favorites.
So much of queer pop culture (and pop culture in general) that the past two generations of folks grew up with is sugary, colorful and easily accessible. Is there still a place for people with a darker or edgier aesthetic in today’s queer nightlife? And how would you describe the folks who come to your nights?
SoM: There’s definitely room for more darkly-inclined people in nightlife! Not even giving ourselves the credit here, New York has had such a vivid history of strange and unusual queer people thriving here after dark. While not all of those people enjoy the same reference points we do, rave and techno scenes are a perfect melting point oftentimes for everyone who didn’t maybe identify with sugary-sweet pop ideals.
Our audience is definitely a special and inspiring mix of people for us—from people who absolutely rock Trad-Goth ideals, to more experimental forms of self-expression, and definitely all the baddies who come out at night. We love them all, and wouldn’t be able to do what we do without their majorly inspiring energy.
Any interest in recording original music?
F: No not really; I think DJ’ing is the extent of my musical experience for now.
V: Yes! Totally! I just have to commit the time to making all the mistakes on the journey of learning new musical tools; I’m a bit of a perfectionist. But the interest is totally there for me! I’d love to have a vehicle to share all of the disparate musical loves I have with a more clear through line.
You of course are much in-demand this season! First off you’ll be at House of Yes on Friday, October 18th, for “House of Love!”
We’ll be DJ’ing “House of Love: Switchy Witchy,” an invite only dance and play party. You can catch us pulling from our bag of darker tracks during our set from 1 to close.
Then on October 23rd you’ll be DJing something fun: a haunted installation at Nowadays! What can you tell us about “Monstrous: Fang and Fur?”
SoM: From what we know, It’ll be transformed into an immersive queer horror party. A bunch of different performances are happening from musicians to burlesque, as well as vendors and hosts. Much mystery to uncover throughout the night! It’ll be super fun and exciting. We’ll be opening from 8 to 10, before all of the different performances take place.
And you also have a monthly residency at Trans-Pecos in Ridgewood.
We’ll be back there on Halloween to do an all night set. The crowd that comes through is super high energy, and most of them show up in head-to-toe looks. You can expect a large mix of people with different interests. Whether it’s queer people looking for a space to be themselves, or people coming to turn a look and twirl… you can find them all on our dancefloor.
What else is going on with you?
SoM: We’ve just become residents of Eli Escobar and Rafael Ohayon’s beautiful club Gabriela in Williamsburg. So you can find us playing all night sets there every month throughout the rest of the year. We mostly play a lot of disco, wave and acid house when we’re there.
And finally, an essential question: who’s your favorite Halloween horror monster / killer?
F: Pinhead from Hellraiser.
V: I get compared to Samara from The Ring so frequently, lol. But, but my all time favorite would definitely be a toss-up between Jennifer from Jennifer’s Body and Xenomorph from Alien.
Happy Halloween, Sissies!
Check Thotyssey’s calendar for Sissies of Mercy’s upcoming appearances, and follow them on Instagram (also Fruitbat and Vileblood individually) and LinkTree.
Thotyssey 