Kuromy Teaches Us When To Spit On People

Kuromy Teaches Us When To Spit On People

Kuromy is a garage punk band from Los Angeles, consisting of guitarist-vocalist Sophia, bassist-vocalist Beef (Grace), and drummer Lani. If you’ve been attending local shows in L.A. and the Bay Area over the past decade you may have discovered them at iconic venues such as The Smell or 924 Gilman. I first heard of Kuromy when I was a teenager, and saw them perform at various points over the years. They became my role models; I thought they were the coolest people in the world. Now, as a college student, my teenage dreams came true when I was given the opportunity to interview them at Oakland Secret on May 6th, 2023. Below is the conversation my friend Mia and I had with the band before the show.

Samantha (B-Side): How did you all meet and form Kuromy?

Sophia: Grace (Beef) and I met at CSSSA (California State Summer School for the Arts ) in fucking Santa Clarita when we were seventeen.

Beef: We met and became best friends, instantly. And then we started Kuromy a week after.

Sophia: Like, less than a week after. And it turned out that she had just recently done the album art for my boyfriend at the time. 

Beef: We had been in the same scene for a while without actually meeting each other. And Lani is our fourth drummer. They’ve been with us for almost a year.

Lani: So, I’ve loved Kuromy for a very long time. So much so that I got the “K” skull tattooed on my leg. I was at the Goodwill bins shopping around, and I looked up and Sophia’s there. I was like, “Hi Sophia!”

Sophia: I was like, “Hi cute girl that I don’t know.”

Lani: Then she followed me on Instagram and I got a DM an hour later asking if I was a drummer. 

Samantha: How did you guys make your album? Do you have any cool stories behind any of the songs?

Sophia: Our first song that we ever wrote was “Cutie In The Mosh Pit.” I wrote it in like, a five-minute period, because we were both really into The Donnas’ self-titled album (1997). It’s so fucking good! And I was like, they were a band, and they were like, fourteen, and we’re like, seventeen now, so we could absolutely do that. And I was just trying to see if I could write a Donnas song. And then I wrote it.

Beef: And then the second one was “Good Shit.” The story behind “Good Shit,” if you were on Tumblr in 2015, you might know. It’s just a sort of a paragraph, a copypasta with a bunch of emojis like in it. And it’s like, “Good shit, that’s some good shit right there, sign me the fuck up, mmm that’s some good shit right there.”

Samantha: Are you guys planning on recording and releasing new music soon?

Beef: We’ll have an album coming out this year, honestly. 

Sophia: This year, fucking 2023, I know it’s fucking time. Well, it’s just like, we just need to get our gear and find someone to record us.

Lani: I mean, we have the material.

Beef: Oh yeah, we have way too much material.

Samantha: By the way, what’s your guys’ technique for scream singing? 

Sophia: As you channel your anger, you’ve just got to channel all the anger and also just not be afraid. Because this is the thing I always say. If you’re the one screaming, or being in a band and playing music, and making a lot of noise, it’s either like you’re doing it, and everyone else witnessing it is either too scared to do it, or has done it himself and knows how difficult it is. So, just go for it.

Beef: Okay, and I’ll say that’s coming from a natural, like, she can just scream and it’s easier for her. It took me way longer to learn how to do that. Honestly for me, my advice is practice in the car or wherever you don’t feel self-conscious–  where nobody’s listening to you. And you’re gonna sound really really dumb at first because at first I couldn’t scream, I could just go “ahhh,” like, I could just do that. It took me a while to figure it out. 

Sophia: It’s in your guts, it shouldn’t hurt your throat, but at a point when I’m screaming really hard it feels like the sensation of when you’re throwing up. It’s not an unpleasant feeling! 

Mia (Co-Interviewer): What are you guys’ biggest musical inspirations? We talked about the Donnas, anyone else?

Sophia: Awesome Snakes were big for us, Green Day is my favorite. Also, The Ramones were a big one, Hole was a big one, Bratmobile. And now we listen to Joyce Manor,  Nana Grizol, Defiance, Ohio.

Beef: Now I just listen to hyperpop and ambient music, so…

Lani: In terms of our sound, the Red Aunts. 

Mia: What age did you guys start playing your instruments?

Sophia: So, my cousin Chipper taught me to play guitar when I was 11. I didn’t get good at it until I started actually playing shows. 

Beef: I didn’t start playing seriously until we started the band, but I grew up playing piano and viola in orchestra.

Lani: Yeah, I was a late, late bloomer. I started playing drums when I was seventeen, but I never had a lesson. I think it’s just like jamming with friends. Then I met Sophia and was like, oh, I need to start playing shows now. 

Sophia: Can we say if we have any advice? My advice is, don’t worry about what anyone else thinks about your gear or your pedals or what kind of guitar you have. I don’t know, go get a hundred-dollar guitar from Guitar Center and get a used one. And just teach yourself how to play. You only need three chords, that’s what they say. And yeah, no seriously, it does not matter what other people think, because dudes will come with their pedal boards, some are trying to fucking tune their drums, and it’s just like, do whatever you want and tell everybody else to fuck off. Don’t be afraid to spit on people.

Beef: My advice, you know, don’t spit on people. I like to be courteous. I’m a polite punk.

Lani: I mean, I would say spit on people if they want you to. Always have a healthy amount of fear. Be fearless, but just a little bit scared and fully angry all the time. Keep finding things to be angry about, because there’s a lot of things.

Sophia: But also don’t let the anger make you like-

Beef: Don’t let it fester. That’s why you find a way to express it. I think what I’ve been learning in my life lately– it’s not really a music thing, but it can be applied to anything– it’s just to notice what makes you unhappy. And just step back from it. Just step away from it.

Sophia: That’s a very good point. And buy your clothes at the Goodwill bins and listen to Defiance, Ohio and listen to-

Beef: Listen to User 177606669 on SoundCloud. 

The rest of our conversation involved Sophia, Grace and Lani giving Mia and I “older sister” advice about playing our first shows and getting the money we deserve from larger venues. Despite the piercing yells and intense drumming that make up Kuromy’s sound, the band consists of  three incredibly sweet people who just want to pass on their wisdom and extend their confidence to non-male voices hoping to scream. Make sure to catch Kuromy at a local show, and be on the lookout for their new music in the next year. I’m excited to see what they’ve been cooking up, and you should be too!

Article and photos by Samantha Friedland