Why Chastity Belt Wanted To Move To Aus After Nine Days In Melbourne

Chastity Belt guitarist/vocalist Julia Shapiro has just covered Liz Phair for GRLMIC Vol 1, a women-covering-women charity compile benefiting Planned Parenthood. Phair isn't a formative influence on Shapiro, though, but a recent discovery. "Growing up, but I wasn't even really aware of many female musicians, which is pretty upsetting," Shapiro offers. "I didn't have any female role models who played music, personally, in my life. Where I grew up, in [Palo Alto] outside of San Francisco, people weren't that cool. I have friends who grew up in San Francisco, and, to this day, they remain just cooler than me."

Exhibit A in Shapiro's lack of coolness: her tween "punk phase", where she listened to Blink-182 and Good Charlotte. "That phase lasted less than a year. Even at that age, it quickly dawns on you that they're posers," laughs Shapiro. She began playing guitar at 11 — and listening to Elliott Smith, The Cure, Radiohead, Fiona Apple — but never played in a teenaged band.

"I didn't have any female role models who played music, personally, in my life."

"I didn't have that many friends around me who played instruments," Shapiro says. "I didn't know anyone in a band. Up until I met the other ladies in Chastity Belt, I'd never just jammed with anyone else. I always wanted to be in a band, and thought that would be cool, but it just seemed so unattainable. I didn't even want to say it out loud, it was like an impossible dream. When I think about it, now, it's crazy that I'm in a band."

Chastity Belt began at Whitman College — in Walla Walla, Washington — as a uni lark. But, a positive reaction to the quartet's debut LP, 2013's No Regerts, led to a breakout follow-up, 2015's Time To Go Home. Following tours opening for Courtney Barnett and Death Cab For Cutie, the band embarked on their first Australian tour last year, and made themselves at home.

"We spent nine days in Melbourne at the end of our tour, met a bunch of people, made so many friends," recounts Shapiro. "We hung out a lot with Loose Tooth. When we were in Brisbane, we went to the koala sanctuary there. I went to the beach a few times. We went to Hanging Rock. Partied a little bit. Saw a bunch of shows. At the end of that trip, we were all like 'we're moving over!'"

When they were in Australia, they'd already finished recording their new LP, I Used To Spend So Much Time Alone, and were waiting on its producer — Matthew Simms, current guitarist for post-punk legends Wire — to send them finished mixes. Though, this time, they explored and experimented more with guitar overdubs and effects, Chastity Belt again, as with their first two LPs, recorded the basic tracks live.

"The people who we've recorded with have always said: 'I see your charm, your identity, as being a live band'," Shapiro explains. "We always want it to be like how we sound live. Not necessarily completely perfect, but it's the sound of us together."