Boston Needs the Fatal Femmes

It’s no secret that Boston is a musical hotspot for up and coming artists; the city is saturated with young talent, hosting a wide array of colleges that unite students from all different walks of life. The Boston music scene is also extremely diverse in genres– from just about every genre of rock, to Appalachian folk, to classical, there’s no genre that you can’t find. However, even with the diversity of genres and styles, not all aspects of the city’s music scene are permissive. Despite the scene’s large scope, female artists often struggle to receive the same opportunities, respect, and praise as their male counterparts. It’s extremely rare to see a band mainly composed of women gain traction and popularity in the way that bands primarily composed of men do. 

Women are not always offered the same opportunity to play male-dominated instruments like the drums, bass, and electric guitar. Their skill is doubted, not celebrated, and they often have to work twice as hard to secure opportunities and gigs. Despite the lack of opportunities available to female artists in Boston, they continue to push forward and innovate not just the local music scene, but music at large. Artists like Tracy Chapman, Adrienne Lenker, and Donna Summer have proven that the limitations of the Boston music scene are able to be overcome. One up and coming band is the perfect example of how through being loud and unapologetic, the patriarchal structure of the Boston music scene– and music at large– can be broken down. Together, vocalist Zoey Gulotta, keyboardist Opal Gibbons, guitarist Luke Barrozo, bassist Cate Yoder, and drummer Eve Anderson, better known as the Fatal Femmes, are here to show out and show up.

From left to right: drummer Eve Anderson, keyboardist Opal Gibbons, vocalist Zoey Gulotta, bassist Cate Yoder, and guitarist Luke Barrozo. Photo by Elia Ma.

The Fatal Femmes formed after the disassembling of another band, Mercy Dogs. Gulotta and Gibbons, who played in Mercy Dogs together, wanted to keep collaborating even after the band split. As Gulotta puts it, “Opal was like, I would love to play your music with you. Opal was an immediate join.” The duo had become friends during their freshman orientation at Berklee, and quickly established a tight bond. “Opal was the first friend I made. We literally met on the first day of orientation” Gulotta explained. 

Gibbons at the band's April 12th show. Photo by Sean Perry.

Gulotta started planning the inception of the Fatal Femmes before Mercy Dogs had even split up, refusing to sit through a grueling waiting period and instead opting to plan her next creative feat in advance. “We had decided to break up before even last year ended, and then we got offered a gig at the Middle East opening for some really cool bands,” she explained. “I was kind of just planning to get my own thing together to have after the show so I could keep doing music and not kind of be in this period waiting. So I started setting up a band.”

Gulotta asked guitarist and friend Luke Barrozo to join after he expressed wanting to participate in more projects. The two grew close after working on gigs together– “I was like, wow, he's so kind and cool. And he had a Sylvia Plath book,” Gulotta added. 

Cate Yoder was recruited to the group through a simple Instagram interaction. She responded to an Instagram story posted by Gibbons after recognizing her from class, with one brief message: “I love girl bands.” 

Gulotta met drummer Eve Anderson through one of her best friends, Jude Seiner, who was Anderson’s roommate at the time. “I was calling Zoey Abby on accident the first month of knowing her,” Anderson noted. “Every time I would be like, ‘Oh, Hi Abby.’ I don't even know why. You kind of just looked like an Abby.”

Gulotta and Gibbons. Photo by Sean Perry.

When it comes to constructing songs, the band always works to prioritize collaboration. “I come in with the framework of a song, like the general idea and feeling of it, maybe certain things I want to incorporate into it, and the lyrics and stuff like that,” Gulotta explained. “I kind of like to leave a lot of space when I'm coming in, to see how everyone's own musicianship can be put into it to make it a separate thing that's all of ours.”

Barrozo explained that collaboration is what makes the Fatal Femmes so unique and different. “We're all so different on our own, and that makes our sound really us. I feel like that fits the music so well too, because it's all about being unique and a little bit weird and a little bit interesting,” he said. Yoder mirrored this sentiment, adding “We don't step on each other's toes.”

Having four female band members is a rarity in the Boston music scene, and it’s not something the band takes for granted. “When you're performing, if you're not a straight cis white man, you are representing a group of people that isn't represented in music a lot. There aren’t a lot of women who are instrumentalists in the music industry, and somehow we were blessed with four,” Anderson proclaimed.

Fatal Femmes at their 4/20 show. Photo by Sophia Bryter.

The Fatal Femmes’s distinct brand of alternative rock pairs perfectly with their charged poetic lyrics. As Gulotta explained, “I’m very inspired by rock music that's poetic in a way. Like, Lou Reed and Patti Smith, those people, just because I'm a very big writer too in general.” She also cited artists like Fiona Apple and PJ Harvey, who the band covered at their April 12th show, as big inspirations for the sound of the Fatal Femmes. Interestingly, each member of the band has very different inspirations when it comes to making music. Barrozo is inspired by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Anderson by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Yoder and Gibbons by Joy Division. This eclectic mix of inspirations fuels the outside-the-box sound of the Fatal Femmes.

In addition to their different music tastes, each member of the band had a drastically different introduction to music. Barozzo’s musical journey began after a bad football game pushed him to join band. Anderson pursued playing to fit in with her friend group, who initially took it way more seriously than she did. Gibbons discovered her love for music after quitting dance. Yoder wanted to be the first girl in her high school band to play the bass. For Gulotta, music was a natural progression from writing, something that she’s loved all her life. No matter how different the journey was for each member, each of their musical careers intersected with the inception of the Fatal Femmes.

While the band is grateful for the opportunity to express their art, the Fatal Femmes are not shy about sharing their issues with Boston’s music scene. “It's a heightened environment, but it's also a very limiting environment, especially if you're under 21,” Barrozo noted. “For the bands that are under that age, you know, you're competing, like we said before, for three venues, and those three venues are pay to play, and you have to sell 30 tickets to make your money back, but they only let 30 people in.”

Barrozo at the band's April 12th show. Photo by Sean Perry.

Gulotta at the band's April 12th show. Photo by Sean Perry.

Anderson at the band's April 12th show. Photo by Sean Perry.

“The concentration of really good musicians is a terrible contrast with, like, the two venues that everybody can play. That makes the Boston music scene shit completely… That's especially the city's fault, because of curfew laws now that are really strict,” Anderson added.

Barrozo thinks that the key to making live music accessible for musicians under 21 is to bring back shows at more casual venues, like houses and alleys. “It's just really a tough situation, I think, finding a way to bring back house shows in that kind of culture and outdoor stuff, and utilizing those bases that we already have… We've got so many alleys,” he said.

Despite being vocal about their issues with the Boston music scene off stage, the band likes to keep it light while performing. “A lot of bands are too serious. When you go to a show, you can't have fun if the people on stage aren't having fun,” Gibbons explained. 

“When you're talking back and forth, the audience feels a little bit more comfortable to dance around and really listen to your music,” Yoder noted.

Yoder at the band's April 12th show. Photo by Sean Perry.

For how new the band is, the Fatal Femmes are on an astounding upwards trajectory. “We are trying to cook up a little mini tour at the end of summer. We're looking to play in some places near like Spokane, Seattle, Portland, kind of get on the west coast a little bit,” Gulotta said. They’re also playing another show at the Middle East on October 30th.

Through both their music and sheer presence in the Boston music scene, the Fatal Femmes continue to inspire other artists and fans. “It's always a goal of mine to make sure that someone feels a little different than how they've left, like they've entered a different world and then left with a new understanding about something in their own life, or in themselves,” Gulotta explained.