Toxic Fem: Feminism, Punk, and No, They Won’t Shut Up!
Photo by @hey.babe.photography on Instagram
It was the summer of ‘69, and Toxic Fem developed in Ria Overwater’s basement in Calgary. The riot grrrl and feminist punk band is high-energy and known for never shutting up. Now, they are one of Calgary’s most sought-after bands in the all-ages scene. Cultivating a space for folks to be authentic, they have become an inspiration for youth in Calgary.
The band enters 2024 with their debut EP, Toxic Fem Just Won’t Shut Up! Which explores topics that are important to them, such as mental health and feminism. They are on the rise and have no plans to stop for anyone who gets in their way. From finding out who doesn’t shut the fuck up, to their musical inspirations, I had the chance to sit with the band at a boba shop to find out all the answers.
Reverie: How did ‘toxic Fem’ come to fruition?
Anakin: It goes back to the summer of ‘69
Maria: Rehab was meant to be a fresh start… *we all laugh* Joking, but I was sad and lonely in high school, reached out to some girls and said, “Hey, let’s jam in my basement!” The others never really played music like that before but I had. I did Girls Rock Camp before, oh! Also known as Bam! Camp because they rebranded to be more inclusive. Anyway, I wanted to start a band, cool! Faith was in that original line-up Emi, came along when we needed a new bassist
Emi: Yeah! My dad told me ‘cause he and Ria’s dad talked and said, “Yeah! They need someone” and since our parents knew each other my dad told me, “Hey! Go do this.” And I did. Rented a bass and not being great at it at first, but I mean I’m better now I guess.
Faith: We liked her and she was the first person we auditioned.
Emi: And that’s only because the other person moved their audition time back which meant my audition was moved earlier with zero notice. I had like 3 days to get ready and prepare and I was like, “Oh shit!”
Faith: We picked her, now she’s in the band!
Ria: Then we needed a new guitarist, we were just like, “Emi, you know all the songs, you play guitar.” We were looking at new guitarists and we saw Anakin and he also played bass, he’s pretty good. So, Emi started playing guitar and Anakin became our bassist. But, We realized they sounded good when they swapped instruments so Anakin became our guitarist and Emi became our bassist.
Anakin: It was varying success.
Faith: Yeah! Both of them have very different styles whenever they play guitar or bass. We just liked the sound of Anakin on guitar and Emi on bass. So that’s what we’ve been working with!
Maria: With the EP though, we had Emi on guitar and Anakin on bass.
Reverie: What inspires the world of Toxic Fem? Are there any bands or artists in particular that help shape your sound?
Faith: For all of us, it’s very different. We’re all into really different things. That’s what makes our sound unique . Anakin’s Into Black Sabbath, Queens of The Stone Age. I’m into bands like Mommy Long Legs and Bikini Kill, Hole. All the Riot Grrrl. Then these two, Emi and Ria are similar.
Emi: Actually, I have found myself more indie-centric recently. I’ve been super into independent and garage shit. I’ve been super into Neutral Milk Hotel but Ria is completely different even though we overlap.
Ria: I think out of all of us, I’m the one who’s most into the raw, punk sound. I also like a lot of post-punk. I also like blues and jazz-inspired sounds. There’s this band called People’s Blues of Richmond and they sound like if you had a whole bunch of jazz band kids who are fucking good doing punk.
Faith: Our sound is very all over the place but we do a good job of drawing it all together, making a cohesive band. I think it gives our sound a lot of depth & dimension.
Anakin: It also makes us fun to watch because we all take very different inspiration for how we interact on stage.
Reverie: Congrats on the recent EP Toxic Fem Just Won't Shut Up! Who in the group yaps the most?
Emi: Oh my god. That is a contest. We could order it.
Ria: We could give you like a... Like a tier list?
Faith: It’s me, I yap the most. It would be me, Emi is a close second, Ria’s third and Anakin’s fourth.
Reverie: Emi, what do you yap about the most?
Emi: I talk about video games a lot. Too many video games. Oh! And movies. Back to games though. I’m a big fan of Halo, Sonic, my favourite game is Life Is Strange but I also love Red Dead Redemption. I love video games so much and movies I'm a huge movie person I will not shut up about movies. I sit up and I watch The Sopranos and I play Halo Online.
Faith: I think for me, Anakin got in the car today, sat down, and I was like- So I just had an idea, and then I started talking for like, probably the entire duration of our car ride until we picked up Emy about Ophelia in Hamilton. Like, no, Hamilton, oh my god, Hamlet! Hamlet. Don't put that in! I meant to say Hamlet!
Emi: Please put that in!
Faith: I talk about a lot of things, and the EP is about feminism and I will never shut up about it.
Ria: One time, someone asked me if punk is all accepting & inclusive, why there's still a need for the riot girl genre? And I talked to Faith about it after, because I told her how I answered the question, but I was like, you know, I wish I had you here to talk about it with me. Faith then proceeded to make, like, what, a 20-point PowerPoint presentation, going into the roots of riot grrl. And I think that encapsulates why faith doesn't shut the fuck up.
Faith: Yeah, no it's not Toxic Fem won’t shut up. It’s specifically Faith won’t shut the fuck up.
Ria: Some of us do take bribes though.
Anakin: Money is money.
Ria: Give me some gas money and I’ll be quiet the whole ride home. Oh yeah, give me a coffee crisp and I'll shut up.
Faith: My kryptonite is to get me so overstimulated that I just don't want to talk in any given situation. Just make the room a little too loud and I'm done. I’m shutting up.
Reverie: What does the songwriting process look like? Are there any topics or themes you try and focus on whenever you're writing?
Faith: Um, our songwriting process, we, so... It's all over the place. So for a long time, we used to do it where we would write lyrics and then would write a, like, riff to go along with those lyrics. We collaborate on everything, but usually, it's not like we sit down and we're like, okay, we're gonna sit all together and write lyrics. Someone comes up with lyrics, and presents them to the group. Sometimes we group edit them or group like add on to them. But it starts usually with lyrics. And then somebody writes a bass riff, then a guitar riff to go along with it and the song builds from there. Recently we've kind of been doing it the opposite way where the music gets written first and then lyrics get written in response or used on top of that music.
Emi: And it usually starts when we're trying to work on a different song like- wait that sounds good but we're not gonna use it here. We’ll use it for something else.
Reverie: What’s your favourite song to play live?
Emi: Janice or Danny DeVito just because of how much the crowd gets into it and how fun it is to jump around while we play them.
Faith: I think yeah I feel like that's probably everyone's answer. I also enjoy playing paint live. I’d Paint The Walls Red (If I Had The Time And The Guts). We love playing that one live first of all because I get everyone to sit on the floor and I think it's funny. I always sit down during Paint the Walls because I love to run around on stage and jump around and I'm all over the place. I get tired and I'm fast, so I like to sit down. The crowd is always moshing, the crowd is always jumping around. They need a break too. And you know, paint is about like… It's about suicide and it's about struggling with life and your mental health. It's so important to take care of yourself. So we're just like, sit down, take care of yourself. Self-care! We're going to sit down, we're going to sing our sad little song and we're going to sit on the floor and rest up so that we can have more fun later. It did get to the point where I couldn’t do the song standing up. I've trained my muscles to do it sitting down but that means that I don't have the muscle memory to do it standing up. So I was trying to record it in the studio and I was standing and I was like oh this is hard this is difficult I can't do this on standing. Now we should have just had you sit on the couch. I mean I could have. It also had to do with the fact that I was recovering from like a month-long cold when I was recording the EP. We’re good now though.
Reverie: How has being in Toxic Fem influenced your lives?
Anakin: I’m being held hostage.
Ria: They are always in my house.
Ria: Okay, the genuine answer though is no drug in the world could ever feel as good as it has felt the times that we've had like moms or little girls come up to us.Like, pointing over us and telling us how much it meant to them to see us doing what we do. We once had a mom come up to us and we said, my six-year-old daughter just saw this and thought you guys were the coolest girls ever and, um, that's really the confidence boost she needs. She can get up on stage and be loud.
Faith: And to bounce back off of that, a lot of little girls who come to shows because their dads are in bands and they're coming to see their dads play, right? And I've had moms or little girls, moms say, like, my daughter didn't know that girls could do the shit that their dads are doing. Like, they didn't know that girls could do that and I'm so happy to see girls up on stage doing all the shit that their dads do or that these boys do. And I think that really means something. And even like moms coming up and being like, I'm so happy to see like what you girls are doing because I couldn't do that when I was a kid. Or I didn't have the confidence to do that when I was a kid. Or I didn't feel like I could do that when I was a kid.
Ria: Not even only little girls, like I’ve had few non-binary kids that have spoken to us and thought that we were super cool, etc. I think it's just important that youth in general get that. But especially those who just aren't naturally told by those around them, you can be loud, you can call attention to yourselves.
Faith: It’s always been an outfit for me. This band has always been an outlet for me, but in the sense that I'm someone who's always been too loud. I’ve been too much for everybody in my life. And so to have, to receive like reassurance and praise and you know, be validated for being someone who's like loud and obnoxious and screaming in your face. It's a good feeling.
Reverie: What are the three venues you like playing in Calgary?
Faith, Anakin, Ria, Emi: The Palomino.
Emi: Pardon my french but, The Palomino is based.
Ria: Enjoyed playing Blox Art Centre, however they're unfortunately relocating. We haven't played their new location yet, so we don't know where they used to operate. And not even just the space, but the sound guy that we worked with were so great. I had a monitor to hear myself, which is just awesome.
Emi: Oh yeah, should I mention specifically why I liked the Palomino basement? It’s ‘cause the sound guy talked to me about Doom 3 for like 15 minutes. Yeah, the staff at the Palomino is so nice and the venue's great.
Ria: Cosmic Creatures is cool. It has to be third. I live in the south so it's a great all-ages venue they're slowly establishing their space. Turning it from being a spot in the industrial business area into becoming an aesthetically pleasing space to be in. They’ve got a cool record shop and CDs for sale, t-shirts, cassettes and they've got a stage now. Overall just like again like Blox, working with the people at Cosmic Creature is what makes it extra nice. They’re so amazing.
Reverie: What can we expect from Toxic Fem for the rest of the year? Any live shows or tours?
Ria: I believe May 11th at Loophole Coffee. Loophole’s a great place
Faith: April 27th or 29th? Yeah, It is April 27th. I was right the first time. April 27th at Modern Love. Yeah, I did get that right. I think we’re going to Edmonton in June as well!