"Before Semi Precious Weapons moved to New York or even met, we all dreamed that the city would be like it was in the Warhol documentaries. And it just wasn’t. It was more like girls wishing they were in Sex and the City and dudes swearing that they hate The Strokes when they look and sound just like them. We moved there and hooked up, but the whole place was just boring us to tears, so we said, “Fuck it, instead of complaining about the New York party scene, let’s just start a fucking trophy party band and create our own one.”
Around this time we met Lady Gaga, through Lady Starlight, who was an acquaintance of mine. She told us about Gaga and got her to open for us, and she came and was just amazing. She and Starlight lit their hair on fire, they stripped, they broke everything and they were wasted. It was beyond fucking fabulous, so I came up with the name Filthy Glamour for us all. There are two parts to it – our sound is harder and filthier than glam rock, so firstly I thought, “I’ll just go for Filthy Glamour”, and then when people say, “Well, what is Filthy Glamour? I’ll say, “It sounds like Dirty Fucking Showbiz.”
But at that point it was still very difficult – we were still on our own and it was hard for us to get booked in normal music venues. Our music was fun and we look… well, I’ve been dressing like this since I was 15… but we all look weird. I think people just didn’t know who to put us on a bill with, and as a result we started playing these dance parties in places like Coco 66 in Brooklyn, and downstairs at Webster Hall. Our music is nothing like dance, but it was just easier for us to play a 30-minute set in the middle of a DJ party than to play a show with four hipster bands.
That was a beautiful mistake, because all the dance parties were fucking packed with people there just to drink and get laid – but then they accidentally see a band! So we ended up building this scene out of nothing and creating a world of our own. We became superstars of this world that probably only 1,000 people knew about.
There were all these different people who we started playing with, who have become a part of Filthy Glamour. A girl named Tokyo Diva – she’s hip-hop, but it’s really fucking filthy and glamorous. There’s another character called Breedlove. His fashion and music motto is ‘dress to depress’, and he wears the most ill-fitting sweatpants anyone could ever wear and these dirty T-shirts with his own face painted on them. The band he’s got is sick – if you heard them and didn’t know who they were you’d be positive it was 1977.
Nico Vega fit into the Dirty Fucking Showbiz world too. They’re a three-piece with a girl singer. She’s a much different type of glamour than I am though – she performs barefoot, but as a band they look unbelievable and she sings her fucking ass off. And then there’s another band outside of LA called The Ringers, who we’ve brought to New York a couple times. They’re Iggy Pop meets kids’ cartoons! They’re fucking ridiculous. Darian Darling is a blogger and personality who’s a central part of the whole scene too – look her up. And as far as the fashion is concerned there’s a store in Brooklyn called Alter that’s kind of a home-base for Filthy Glamour. It’s cheap, it’s exciting, and it’s ridiculous. Much like the music.
Saying all that, I don’t think the New York Press is really ready for Filthy Glamour yet. I do think the kids are though. In fact, I know that for sure. When we went back and played Radio City with Gaga recently, we filmed a video at The Trash Party and it was amazing. It was the filthiest thing ever… there are actually people fucking in the video, I mean, you can’t see penetration, but it was full on. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s really fucking weird and really amazing that even though we’re away on tour, this filthy world we started back in New York – full of important characters just going for it – is still thriving. "
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