INTERVIEW: Reclusive Noise Popstar Elizabeth Sanctuary Welding School for Girls spills the beans on Process and Persona.

INTERVIEW: Reclusive Noise Popstar Elizabeth Sanctuary Welding School for Girls spills the beans on Process and Persona.

 

i’ve been chasing this person on and off for a few months now, after making a less than spectacular pair of first appearances and a semi-obsession with their first single, we finally met under better terms at a cramped newtown noise show house party (how many people with unwashed op shop clothing and facial piercings does it take to fix a laptop that’s been completely doused with smirnoff? like 3, and the crowd either doesn’t notice it or think it’s part of the act.) and melted the ice with a couple of brewskis. i’ve always said that anyone who’ll wear a computer mouse as a belt is someone worth listening to, and her work, which exists in a league of its own, proves me right as it deservedly rises above the chaff in the noise/lofi/folk/singer-songwriter vector that’s making up most of the new releases for this year so far. 

i present to you an interview of one of the most consistently interesting people in the wellington music world, which possibly contains the most public information about her to date. read on.

 

 

first off, will you tell us who you are?

Hey hii my name is Sofia, I’m loosely associated with Elizabeth Sanctuary Welding School for Girls, a digital girl and noise pop artist who is totally real and definitely isn’t me. 

why the long name?

Honestly, it just made me laugh. A friend of mine made a joke one time about going to the cemetery that was next to my flat and taking the name of the most neglected grave I could find. I went there looking one day and was kind of disappointed that all of the most dilapidated graves were just women named Elizabeth. I just got kind of attached to the fact that for whatever reason, nobody liked these Elizabeths that much. I found a sign for a something sanctuary on the outskirts of the cemetery and that was that. I literally don’t remember where the welding thing came from. I was in a bit of a state when I made the name and it might have been a mistake to add it honestly because I’ve had people try to talk to me about it and I’ve had to reveal that I'm like, a welding poser. Genuinely embarrassing. The for Girls thing is pretty self explanatory. 

 

is there a deeper meaning behind your aesthetic, or is it just cool to be incomprehensible?

I think I’m honestly pretty comprehensible. There is some vague stuff I make jokes about with Elizabeth's backstory and how we’re different people or whatever and I am absolutely a fan of niches but most of my ’aesthetic’ is very unfiltered surface level stuff that I like? It's what I really love about old internet stuff and personalised websites, people going “Here is literally everything I like and everything about me in one place for you to look at”. It’s a really lovely way to be, I think. the deeper meaning is I really like cats and the colour green and geocities era gifs about how infertile I am.

your website contains a truly impressive collection of cat photos. can you tell us your favourite kind of cat?

GREAT question. Tortoiseshells. They’re almost all girls and they look gorgeous. I’ve been bleaching strips of my hair to try to look like them.

in the mudgoose article, his take on the Wellington bedroom recording scene is that it only exists because its artists are too poor for real studios. As a member of that scene, do you agree? Is your lofi sound a deliberate one, or a coping mechanism?

I think that’s probably true for some people, but there’s plenty of people recording music out of their parents' mcmansions that still sounds like it's been run through three tape machines and a dishwasher so not sure if I fully buy that. Most of the bedroom artists I know definitely have better options and literally just don’t like leaving the house. I’m definitely in that camp, also people are just bad at producing music I think, my songs aren’t lofi I just kinda suck at mixing. 

 

are there any smaller, local bands you'd like to recommend?

Get Fucked Like A Person, by Indigogue Browne (/ Cook ie Cutt er) is one of my favourite albums ever, gorgeous layered heartfelt and crushing noise over just really solid pop songwriting. I’ve heard Elizabeth is really into the new Angel Food ep, and god knows she isn’t small but my darling incredible friend Mieke is the hardest working artist I know and her songs make me sob on a regular basis. Her bandmates are FREAKISH tho. Would steer clear. 

would you say your music is more aimed towards freaks, or geeks?

The line is that my music is for dykes and in my experience almost all lesbians are a healthy mix of both.

last of all, when can people next see you live, and where can people find your music?

I’m gonna be playing Elizabeth's first gigs with a full band starting in July which will hopefully be pretty fun and kewl so maybe just keep an eye out on my instagram for when those get announced. My music is everywhere music is, you just have to deal with typing out the long name.

 

and with that, dear reader, we leave you. i’m pulling the curtains across my body…very dramatically…wait, no, i’m in my bedroom, and i’m too poor for real curtains. i’ve only got one, tall, skinny window anyway, so i’ve got blinds. that’s it. i’m pulling the blinds down. get out of my room. i’m not wearing pants and i don’t want to know you. 

 

~ O.