Who says that grindcore and death metal are boys’ genres? Not us, definitely. And Liz Selfish, the guest of this interview, is the living proof of this. She’s the lead singer of Brat, an American band that has just released a new album titled “Manslayer”. With her we talked about female serial killers, pizza and music, of course!

Benedetta

I’m here with the amazing Liz from Brat. How are you doing today?

Liz Selfish

I’m good, how are you?

Benedetta

Great, thank you. So, first of all, happy release day.

Liz Selfish

Thank you so much.

Benedetta

And yeah, the new album is out. Are there any songs in “Manslayer” that started in one way and then completely changed into the final result that we’re listening to?

Liz Selfish

Yeah, definitely. “Trophy Hunting” is one that comes to mind where Brenner wrote, you know, a whole demo and was sitting with it and didn’t really like it and thought about just kind of scrapping the whole thing. Then he and Dustin got together and kind of reworked the song and Dustin added those stops at the beginning. It just became one of our favorites and one of our singles, too.

Benedetta

That’s such a great track.

Liz Selfish

Thank you.

Benedetta

So, I mean, in extreme metal, women are like historically portrayed as the victims or the corpses in the lyrics rather than the ones holding the knife. How empowering was it for you to flip that trope upside down and write an album centered around like female vengeance?

Liz Selfish

Yeah, I just kind of selfishly wanted to input my perspective as a woman into these songs, death metal traditionally is mostly men as the aggressors. I thought it would just create a little bit more interest and provide a unique perspective to have women as the ones, you know, being the aggressors or being the predators. It just makes it feel a little bit more dynamic.

Benedetta

For sure. Absolutely. And of course, the second track of the album is named after Aileen Wuornos. She was a female serial killer. Are you a fan of crime TV shows or books?

Liz Selfish

A little bit. I do enjoy like a little bit of true crime. But yeah, I just felt like she was a really good representation of the theme of the album of, you know, it kind of acts as like a villain origin story in a way where there’s songs towards the beginning of the album that are more about issues that women have to deal with. Then our interlude kind of acts as a breaking point. The latter half of the album is mostly just about getting revenge. So kicking the album off with her, you know, her story kind of encompasses both of those things. We felt like that was the right way to start the album.

Benedetta

Also, you have Candace from Walls of Jericho guesting in one of the tracks. You, of course, and also Candace have been vocalists like for quite a long time. What did it mean to you to to have her sharing the the vocals with you on this track since, you know, you’re both prominent figures into in this extreme metal world?

Liz Selfish

Thank you. Oh, my gosh, it was huge. I’m so happy she was willing to do the track with us. She’s just got such an incredible voice and she’s just the sweetest person. I’m so honored that she was willing to jump on the track for us.

Benedetta

Can you share with us if you have any titles of demo songs that are not the actual title that the songs have like now?

Liz Selfish

You know what? I think they all were because we we have like working placeholder titles. The only one I can remember right now is “Speculum Bleed” was “Artificial Orifice“ before, I think. So, yeah, when Brenner writes the demos, he just will make like kind of like a joke name just as a placeholder to put in there. Every song had a different name first, but that’s the only one I can remember the original name of.

Benedetta

Since I’m Italian, what is your favorite pizza topping?

Liz Selfish

Well, pepperoni. I’m a classic pepperoni. We do pepperoni and onion at our house, me and Brenner. That’s our favorite combo.

Benedetta

Do you think that we will ever reach some sort of equality between men and women in the metal scene?

Liz Selfish

Oh, gosh, that’s a that’s a hard question to say. I don’t know. I would hope so. I mean, what I can say at least is since I’ve been in the metal community, which has been a very long time now, you know, I’ve seen it progress so much and it’s a much more welcoming space for women. So that’s exciting, that gives hope. There’s still, you know, a ways to go, but yeah, things have gotten a lot better.

Benedetta

If “Manslayer” were a double feature horror movie and a drive-in teaser, which two classics film would you choose to be played on the screen?

Liz Selfish

It’s funny because with this album, I feel like I get asked a lot of questions about horror movies and cinema, but I feel like I was more inspired by music, like death metal songs and, you know, country songs about women getting revenge. I’m actually not like a big movie buff or horror movie buff, but “Jennifer’s Body” is one that definitely comes to mind for me of like a great story about women getting revenge. And actually, last night, Brenner and I started watching “Kill Bill,” too. So those are like, it’s just top of mind.

Benedetta

Do you have any other hobbies outside of music?

Liz Selfish

Oh, yeah, definitely. I’m a runner. So I run every day. I also like to go to the gym and do a little bit of lifting. My main hobbies are just working out and going on runs. I also like really like costuming for Mardi Gras on Halloween. Although I don’t know if I’ll be have a chance to really do much for Halloween this year, because we’ll be on tour for most of it. But but that’s definitely something that I enjoy doing, too.

Benedetta

Do you think that life of an artist is a lonely life?

Liz Selfish

Oh, no, I don’t think so at all. I mean, I’m also I have a skewed perspective, though, because I’m so fortunate that I’m in a band with my husband, so we get to tour together. And so I think probably other people would maybe answer this differently. But I’m really lucky that I get to have him with me on tour. So really, the only thing that we miss at home is our cats. Yeah, we have two two little cats. And we have, you know, friends that come and take care of them, but we miss them a lot on tour.

Benedetta

If the United States were asked to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, and you could pick a song from “Manslayer” to compete, which one would you choose?

Liz Selfish

I think we get booted out pretty quickly. But I would, I would do “Manslayer”. It’s the anthem of the whole album. So I feel like that one would be the most fitting.

Benedetta

Liz, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me and for being such a good sport. Is there anything else that you want to add to our viewers and readers?

Liz Selfish

No, I think I think that’s it for me. But thank you so much for having me.