Lissy Trullie has always been a fantastic musician: Her solo material from her 2009 debut EP, “Self-Taught Learner,” and 2012’s eponymous debut LP are stuffed with post-punk gems boasting Top 40-friendly hooks. She has impressive husky pipes, which alternate between fragile sweetness and in-your-face aggression. And she has the entrancing power of the frontwomen of your indie dreams, right up there with Karen O and Beth Ditto. But, if you’ve only heard her cover of Hot Chip’s “Ready for the Floor” (which is a really great bop) or skim-read articles about her “downtown darling” credentials from her solo days, you might’ve found yourself rolling your eyes. And that would be your loss.
Now, tired of the uphill, all-eyes-on-herself battle as a solo artist and yearning to try something new, Trullie has finally re-emerged — as part of new wave-inspired duo Zipper Club. A joint project with Mason James of wild punk band Cerebral Ballzy, the band has already been snapped up by Epic Records, and their first single, “Going The Distance,” recently entered the Top 40 on Billboard’s Alternative Radio Charts. Yes, it’s been “Trullie’s time” for a while, but this time, the great music will speak for itself. Just listen to Zipper Club’s brand-new track, “Small Town,” below.
As she gears up for the release of Zipper Club’s forthcoming debut LP (which, spoiler alert, is packed with dazzling, dance-y, zany hooks), we sat down with Trullie for an iced coffee in New York’s Tompkins Square Park.
So, you’re no longer solo! Were you looking to try something new or did Zipper Club just happen?
I wanted to try another project. On the business end of Lissy Trullie, there was a lot of complication and stuff didn’t really go as planned. I had some personal things and I needed to take a break. It felt like such an uphill battle and I needed to put it on the side and try something new. It switched my writing perspective and my musical perspective in a nice way.
During your solo years, journalists had a habit of emphasizing the former model thing and the DJing at the Beatrice Inn thing, sometimes making Nico and Edie Sedgwick comparisons. And then they’d get to the music. Maybe.
At the time it was a huge let down, and, to be honest, heartbreaking. I started making music at a young age and worked so hard to get as far as I had gotten. This person is making something new, how do we put it in a category? What’s sort of a buzz-word or a tagline that will get people’s attention? I don’t think it’s a bad thing — in a way, it’s the truth, it’s part of my history. But I was playing and writing music long before I stepped in front of a camera.
Then there was the “She’s hot and she can actually shred!” mess.
There are lots of girls in music who are beautiful and who also play instruments, but I think, mostly men, don’t know where to place me. I’m androgynous and I’m really shy, which comes off as like “too cool,” which is not me at all. I’m just shy and awkward. They don’t know where to place me and they don’t trust it. I think it’s different when you’re a “pretty girl” that they can put on some kind of spectrum. You know, “this is this type of pretty girl and she’s approachable because she’s very kind or she doesn’t like know how cool she is,” or whatever it is… Somebody who’s confident and self-assured and not dressing to accommodate the male gaze is disruptive for them, and they don’t know how to take it. So they try to put me in another corner that negates any sort of talent I have. And it sucks.
Are journalists asking you to describe your style in five words these days?
I was doing an interview a couple weeks ago with the band. And the person who was interviewing us addressed most of the creative questions about how this music came about and the writing to my male counterpart, Mason. And then literally the last question was, “Okay, Lissy. Where did you get your shoes?” I was kind of shocked. Plus, the journalist was a woman.
I also remember a review of your debut album in a big music publication, which said something like, “She doesn’t have much to say,” which made me think they received an instrumental-only version of the record.
They took a quote of mine I said in another interview that was asking about the modeling thing, and they asked if it bummed me out. And I was like, “Yeah, it totally bummed me out. It helped me pay for college, I got two degrees, I’m a person who has a brain, and nobody brings that up when they talk to me.” And then they stole that quote, and instead of being like “Oh, that sucks! Everyone only focuses on the modeling thing!” they were like, “And she’s pretentious.” Really?
Has that misogyny pushed you to continue to make great music, this time with Zipper Club?
Yeah. It’s important that with this next project I get to prove that I wasn’t a flash in a pan and I have substance.
Do you think there’s a chance you’re being taken more seriously because you now have a male counterpart rocking out with you.
I really wouldn’t doubt that. I think it’s just automatic.
How did you meet Mason?
Mason and I came from separate projects. He was in Cerebral Ballzy, and I was in my own thing. And we had our own uphill battles. Cerebral Ballzy was like, real punk music. People went to their shows to see a wild show. Their audience was wild. I knew of his band and I had seen them before. We have a lot of crossover friends. We had both recorded our last records with Dave Sitek from TV On The Radio, and I had also toured with TV On The Radio. And Jahphet Landis, who drummed on Zipper Club’s record, is the drummer from TV On The Radio. Mason started the project and was looking for a female vocalist, we met, clicked, and it worked out really well. We wrote together and then finished the record, and that’s how Zipper Club came about.
What’s the story behind the band’s name?
There is a secret meaning that we aren’t really talking about. To me, it’s kind of punk. There also happens to be a foundation that we didn’t realize called the Zipper Club Foundation, and it’s for people who survived open heart surgery. I had no idea. But now, in retrospect, it’s kind of a cool association. Especially with us being a male-female singing duo, it gives the illusion of a love story, even though I’m gay, so the open heart surgery association fits in a great way — love and heartbreak. Although that’s not the entirety of our subject matter at all.
All eyes aren’t just on you anymore. How’s that going?
I really like it. My whole motivation to start another project was that I don’t wanna hold all the responsibility myself and I really genuinely love collaboration, which I didn’t have in my other project so much. It was so liberating to be like, this is a band, this equally matters to all of us. We’re in this together, we write together, and we get to share that pressure and also that excitement.
Credits
Text Alex Catarinella
Photography Katie McCurdy