In late July 2024, before Sleater-Kinney tore through music from their album Little Rope on an outdoor stage in front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the first band on that humid summer night, Die Spitz, was just as mesmerizing. As they’ve been doing ever since forming in early 2022, the Austin-reared quartet plowed through a set of sludgy hard rock and punk-ish metal that radiated heat and ferocity.
Reflecting back months later, vocalist/guitarist Ellie Livingston, guitarist/vocalist Ava Schrobilgen, bassist Kate Halter, and drummer Chloe De St. Aubin remember the gig well – after all, Halter was on mushrooms for the first time (“it was like Guitar Hero numbers were coming from my fretboard,” she laughs). If you were concerned Die Spitz doesn’t take its music and career very seriously, just ask Jack White, whose Third Man Records will release the group’s debut album later this year.
It has been a long time in the making. Livingston became friends with Schrobilgen nearly 20 years ago (they bonded in ballet class in Austin) and got close with Halter in middle school. The trio assembled a band inspired by Nirvana, Pixies, and Fiona Apple, and realized only after booking a show at local venue Hole in the Wall that they also needed a drummer. Through an early supporter, they met De St. Aubin, who was already familiar with (and liked) the band after seeing online footage.
“I thought they were so cool,” she says. “I always wanted to play music with them, but I was [a] nerdy percussion kid. I played marimba and timpani and [no] rock instruments.” Once she joined, De St. Aubin steered the band’s sound and helped bring focus. “We were playing these slow-ass, more country[-leaning] songs, but having the energy of a punk band,” Livingston says. Adds De St. Aubin, “I was getting confused. I wanted to play faster, so I was like, maybe we should try going above 80 BPM.”
These tweaks paid off, as Third Man signed Die Spitz before the group even had demos to showcase. “They saw us at a live show, and they liked our live sound, and even said, ‘I don’t think your recorded music right now is a good representation of the experience you give of a live show. And we agree with that wholeheartedly,” Halter says and laughs. “Them seeing that was a very green flag, because we knew that we were on the same page with how we wanted to get our music out there.”
Die Spitz has been compared to everything from Bikini Kill- and L7-style riot grrrl to ’90s hard rock, but resists being pigeonholed into gender or genre. “If you hear this album all the way through and you say that we’re a purely punk band afterwards, then you might need to get your ears checked,” says Schrobilgen. “I also really hope that after hearing our album, people will stop caring that we’re all girls,” De St. Aubin seconds. “No one’s going around being like, Nirvana, boy band, blah blah blah. That never happens. I don’t think people get why that’s frustrating.”
Die Spitz recorded the new album with producer Will Yip (Code Orange, La Dispute). In addition to introducing the group to picklebacks (shots of Jameson chased by pickle juice), Yip was an excellent creative partner, getting to know them as musicians and people so he could tailor his advice and direction.
“He would watch how we played, so he knew what he could and couldn’t ask of me,” says De St. Aubin. Adds Livingston, “He would give opinions as a producer, but then also would listen to you and treat you as a respected musician. Sometimes I feel like I have this vision of recording as some guy is going to tell me that I’m stupid for thinking some way. But Will is very open to everything and wanted it to sound as much like us as he possibly could.”
As for what the new record sounds like, “it has a lot of the same punky, metal-y overtones that our older music has, and like our live shows have, but there are songs that are softer, slower, and more intimate that make the album an experience,” Livingston says. “That’s way cooler than putting out an album where every song sounds the same. It’s not going to intrigue or move someone in the same way.”
Something To Consume is out now on Third Man Records.
