Sex-positive jokers who sing about being sluts? It can only be Chastity Belt Chastity Belt used to be a party band. They had songs called Giant Vagina and Pussy Weed Beer, as well as an album called No Regerts (typo intentional). Now it’s Time To Go Home – they’re older, spellcheck-ier, and less obviously concerned with making people move. But just because they’ve decided to have an early night, that doesn’t mean the fun is over. Because Julia Shapiro, who we called to speak to at home in Seattle, is pretty much the concept of party in a person: she laughs incessantly, is completely hilarious herself, and has that laconic drawl that makes it sound like she’s an old person pretending to be ‘some high kid’. I basically want to be her best friend. .. which kind of sounds like the theme and title of a Chastity Belt song. The video for the band’s recent single Cool Slut could be a 90s Disney Channel rundown of the band members and their only-slightly fictionalised hobbies. In the clip, guitarist Lydia earnestly observes some plants. “Lydia is really into gardening and stuff,” says Julia. “It’s one of her jobs here in Seattle. She works for the city, and was doing landscaping and working at the conservatory.” Do all the girls have day jobs? “Yeah, people should know that we can’t be fully supported by our music!
Right now I’m a bartender on Capitol Hill, Gretchen nannies and tutors math, and Annie’s a barista and she also nannies.” But before they moved to Seattle and got jobs, Chastity Belt attended college together. The idea behind Cool Slut first took shape when Julia and drummer Gretchen used to walk around campus, shouting out sex-positive statements accompanied by a ukulele. “Yeah, it’s pretty embarrassing that I played a ukulele,” Julia admits with a laugh. Now she has adopted the song title as her ‘tag’ – the quotation marks are heavily implied. “I’m kind of a graffiti artist,” she smirks. “I started writing ‘cool slut’ on bathroom walls. Maybe some young girls see it and think, ‘Maybe it is cool to be slutty! Yeah! I’m a slut, and I’m cool!’ I also sometimes write little tag lines beneath it, like ‘super fucking wet tonight’, or ‘touch my clit’.”
Words: Suzie McCracken Photography: Chastity Belt