Glasgow’s Dancer and Portland’s Whisper Hiss Team Up for Split album and chickfactor co-interview
Whisper Hiss (Meredith Butner, Rhiannon Flowers, Jenny Rahlf, Jon Schlaffman) are a four-piece queer post-punk band from Portland, Oregon, and have been the go-to local opener on most indiepop and post-punk house and DIY shows for bands touring through Portland since 2017. Dancer (Gemma Fleet, Chris Taylor, Gavin Murdoch, Andrew Doig) are a four-piece mutant disco post-punk band from Glasgow, Scotland, that only formed in 2023. Split is a split 12-inch featuring six songs each by both Dancer and Whisper Hiss. This split release came about by chance. The label HHBTM pitched the idea of the bands recording a few extra tracks and doing a split 12-inch as a way of connecting them.
Dancer has been pretty prolific in a short time of being a band, can you tell us a little about your songwriting process?
Gemma (she/they): I’d say we are all songwriters in the band and we mix up the process all the time. It might be a fully formed song brought into practice that we all add our bits to, on bass (Love) or guitar (Bluetooth hell), vocal (Passionate Sunday) or a song that started with a drum beat (rein it in) – The split LP songs were played out all together and came together in pretty much one practice apart from You Saint that Chris brought in and Gig Economy that Doig had.
Chris (he/they): We’re just all fiends for a new song. We had a writing moratorium at the start of the year and the second we ended it there were 8 new songs we’d written individually for Dancer in secret from each other. It’s a compulsion for all of us I think. I’ll often be getting set up in practice or just idly playing and Andrew will suddenly ask “what’s that?”. I try to repeat what I did and 5 minutes later everyone else has turned it into a song. We just pounce on them when they appear sometimes. I think we write so much because there is no set process other than, “does anyone have something new that sounds good?”
Andrew (He/Him): Yeah it can be quick, I think we are developed and there is an almost gleeful energy with the songwriting. Dare I say it’s confidence sort of propelling us? Maybe that confidence has not always been there in past projects you know? So it’s infectious. I think we all think the band is good and the prospect of another song is always exciting so they keep coming.
Meredith (she/her): I love what you said about confidence! I’ve mostly played music with other women and self-taught musicians and we’ve had trouble fully owning that word. In my first bands, just being on stage itself was an act of bravery. I’ve written in bands where self doubt hovered around or we were sometimes too apologetic about our ideas with each other, and when it comes to booking or promotion I’ve also feared asking for too much or appearing too confident which has led to missed opportunities. It’s something I’m really working on looking at. It helps to have Rhiannon as a front person and co-conspirator — she’s such a force, and not a person who makes herself small. With Whisper Hiss, I feel that infectious spark you mentioned in a clear way… like I actually know that what we have is special.
Rhiannon (she/her): It’s so ingrained to cut ourselves down a notch. Saying you have something special doesn’t take away from other people or mean they aren’t also special. I want to see people around me feeling empowered and celebrated. The more I witness it in others the more inspired I am to fully show up as myself. I want that feeling and I want it for those around me.
Lyrically, are there any themes that come up often or tie together your songs on Split?
Gemma: Priority Girl is about the ‘Karen’ phenomenon and how distasteful it is to be pushy but remembering too that men complain all the time. The moral of the story is if you have a Karen you use them to do good. Gig economy follows this theme as is about someone ordering Deliveroo in a snow storm and complaining when it arrives then the driver in their haste to correct, gets in an accident ! I’m concerned that people working in the gig economy are not protected by employment law and sick pay is hard to claim.
Rhiannon: I felt instantly connected to your lyrics Gemma, and honestly felt a kinship. I feel like we both have a storytelling aspect to our songs. My lyrics are mostly autobiographical and come from my personal and internal world, then I make connections from that to things around me. I write a lot about anxiety and breaking free. On SPLIT the songs stemmed from the song Movable Objects which is mostly about freedom from stagnation and the idea that there are many paths to get somewhere.. and how a lot of what’s pressed on to us in society literally doesn’t fit anyone or make anyone happy. Fawn tells a few stories but actually was inspired by a time I was recently assaulted on a bus. A man cornered me and it was really scary! I was able to get away with the help of another woman and got off. The song is about the lose-lose where if you are noticed you are under threat, but then when you are more invisible people also don’t respect your personal space or stomp on you. Envision Another chorus actually came to me in a dream! It had the melody and everything and I actually remembered when I woke up for once!
Do you have any before show rituals?
Gemma: Shadow boxing whilst jogging a loop around the venue as the Rocky theme tune plays over the PA. In my head.
Andrew: I spend some time trying to remember my parts, as they always seem to get vague in my mind around show time. Recently I have been playing the beginning of Passionate Sunday wrong every time we play it live. The mind does weird things under mild duress.
Chris: For me, it has always been trying to find the perfect balance between time/coffee/food/alcohol. It feels like there’s this perfect combo for playing live and the constant variables (mostly how much time between arrival and show, and how much of that time is already planned for) keep it interesting. It sounds complicated but it’s mostly about not getting too drunk even if you have 3 hours to kill at a bar that doesn’t serve food or coffee.
Rhiannon: Chris that sounds a lot like me! You’ll find me in a dark corner of the bar measuring out exactly how many sips of one cocktail I’ll have and at what hour before going on stage. And strategically eating dinner 1.5 hours before doors. It’s very precise mathematics and science! I also like to do power pose, that’s a good before show move.
You are all active in other bands, is it hard to juggle the various schedules?Gemma: I think it’s harder to juggle a full time job. I really enjoy my job and doing bands so try to keep things relaxed, In the past I’ve done mad things like played in Paris, driven back to London, slept for 3 hours then went to work or gone to work directly off of a flight from Texas.
Andrew: Yes and no. There are certain weeks where every night is a band practice or a show and sometimes that feels like living a dream and sometimes it just feels like too much. Personally I have a habit of taking a lot on with music stuff. But then you think what would we all do otherwise?
Chris: This is usually the case (and certainly is for everyone else in Dancer), but for the first time in my life I am in only one band and it is my only active project. I have enough freedom in Dancer that I can use pretty much all of my guitar ideas so I’m pretty satisfied with the situation. I’ve noticed recently that the only kinds of shows that get me out of the house are improv or heavy stuff, perhaps because it’s less often we play with bands like that. I’d like to do something in one of those spheres again maybe.
What do you each do for fun outside of music?
Gemma: Watch YouTube videos of Idlewild at the Brat Awards with lovely big mug of tea. Oh, that’s still music. Maybe just the tea then, in silence?
Andrew: See above, sometimes not much else! I force myself to read, it’s one of my favourite things to do but I rarely feel relaxed enough to concentrate. Cinema. Food is good. Riding my bike. Glasgow is very grey and rainy even in the Summer sometimes so there is tendency to stop everything and go outside if good weather happens.
Chris: I’ve rekindled a childhood love of video games in recent years, which has been surprisingly rewarding. I can’t say it’s entirely unrelated to music as the soundtracks make up a lot of my listening these days. So long as you completely ignore any online community involving games whatsoever, it can be a lot of fun. I try to always play stuff that is nothing like anything I’ve played previously, which has been pretty doable mostly. There’s a lot of really great and unique stuff out there, much of it that couldn’t exist in another medium. It’s a good time for it. Other than that and music, my wife, cats, food and travel keep me happy.
What is the Portland music scene like? Supportive? Difficult to access? A bit of both?!
Jon (he/they): Portland is overflowing with bands; so many bands that there’s no way that I’m aware of even a fraction of them. From teenage bands playing house shows and whatever few all ages venues there are, all the way up to dad bands and literal grandparents playing shows every single night all over town. Legit DIY venues to play are dwindling, it seems, since I moved here in ‘08 – there used to be a lot more small spaces/dive bar type of venues where you could catch a random incredible show on any given evening. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly difficult to access, but it depends on your goals, I suppose. The punk-adjacent/queer/weirdo art and music community that I feel like I’ve become a small part of has been nothing but supportive and inspiring. That said, I’m sure there are tons of other “scenes” or music communities in Portland that aren’t on my radar at all.
Jenny (she/they): I think it is supportive and there are also some mini scenes within the larger Portland music scene. There are a lot of bands here— I feel like you have to know someone to get in with certain venues. Honestly, I’m the most hands off in the band when it comes to booking/ promoting— I very much appreciate my bandmates for getting us out there and making connections.
Meredith: Whisper Hiss has been so well received by audiences and I generally feel so much support from other local musicians and bands but, with a large number of bands in town vying for a limited number of slots, it can feel difficult to break into larger rooms with bigger crowds. Sometimes when we don’t get on a show we’d love to play we joke that, because our band name starts with a W, we must be on the bottom of all the alphabetized booking lists.
Rhiannon: Oh yes our name starting with a W has led to our obscurity, that’s gotta be it (Laughing). I feel like we have a really sweet scene of bands where shows sometimes feel like just hanging out with friends and sharing art. There’s a lot of photographers in the scene too. I met my friend Colette from the band Perimeters, because she kept posting these cool photographs of us after our shows, and one day I wrote her and was like “Come say hi next time!” And she’s such a gem.
Are there any great Portland bands that have been around forever but might not have hit the UK that we should check out?
Jenny: The Prids are the only ones I can think of that have been around a while— not sure if they’ve toured the uk, but worth checking out. It seems like many bands that had been around when we first started out sadly disbanded during the pandemic. There are so many bands here and I’m sure ones I haven’t named that deserve recognition.
Jon: Sad Horse. The members of that band also own one of the few remaining DIY show spaces in town – Turn, Turn, Turn
Meredith: Yeah, my suggestions maybe haven’t been around forever… Yuvees just moved to Brooklyn, but they are an ex-Portland band putting out great stuff. Public Pleasure’s first full length is coming out mid-October and I’m really excited to hear that. Collate, Love in Hell, and Perimeters are all great bands and friends. I’m happy All Girl Summer Fun Band are playing shows again.
We want to know about the Glasgow scene too! Does it feel inclusive? What bands should we check out?
Andrew: There is so much to say about this. Obviously there is a whole lore around Glasgow and music, it is much romanticised. Firstly none of us (now) are actually Scottish in the band, so as an English person coming into the ‘scene’ at a certain age, having lived in London for many years previously, has been fascinating. It definitely lives up to expectations in some senses, but as with all scenes the idea that everyone knows each other etc is exaggerated. But then again it can feel small and concentrated enough that you do tend to see some of the classic Glasgow characters around quite easily. There are so many different strands too – improv, electronic and clubbing scenes, beyond the expected indie pop or whatever people might think. It’s diverse and exciting, for such a small city there are loads of venues and stuff is going on all the time, but then on the flip side it can feel repetitive at times. Like there is this great venue The Glad Cafe, its ace, but I have been there like 6 times in the last couple of months and starting to get cabin fever! It’s better to get out and about though, of course, and for me and Gemma (a married couple in our 40s) it has certainly given us a fresh and new social aspect to life that we weren’t maybe getting in London so much anymore. We have met a lot of nice people who have supported Dancer and other projects we have done, so yeah it feels inclusive to us right now.
As for bands to check out there is L, Guests, Essen, Errol’s Hot wax is a cool label, Goldmold another label of note (who released our first 2 EP’s), Nightshift and Set Piece are 2 other bands I play bass in who I like haha, Come Outside, Onat Onol, Susannah Stark, Simone Antigone, Coolant, Radio Banter, Edwin Stevens, Buffet Lunch (technically Edinburgh), Nightschool records, Dragged Up, Even Sisters, Coffin Mulch, Pink Pound, R.Aggs. The list goes on and on and these are the artists within Dancer’s gravity really, there is a universe of other far out things happening. I will say that even though they don’t seem to live in Glasgow anymore, Still House Plants latest LP is pretty much my album of the year, that record blows my mind!
Is there anywhere in the world you would really like to take Whisper Hiss?Meredith: We really haven’t been many places with this project yet. Getting to know you all and working on Split has us dreaming of coming to the UK for sure.
Rhiannon: Right now coming to the UK sounds dreamy and I’d also love to tour other parts of Europe. I’m basically itching to tour! Take me everywhere!
Jon: Oh jeez, yeah, I’m up for whatever! I’m the most recent member of the band, so I haven’t done any touring as a Whispie yet but I’d love to get this batch of songs on the road in front of new faces. I think we’re alldreaming of a Euro tour; we’ll see what opportunities present themselves! Touring the west coast kinda sucks since there are really only a few cities over here, and there’s a great deal of distance between them. It’s basically Seattle, maybe Oly, Portland, and then nothing for over 600 miles (965 km for y’all, I googled!) until you hit the bay area. I envy east coast (and Euro) bands who can get in the van and play a ton of shows back to back in different rad cities each night for quick little tours or whatever. You don’t have to spend a whole day driving just to get to like Sacramento or something lol.
Jenny: UK tour with Dancer!
Like us, you guys have maybe been in other bands previously, tell us about them and do you currently do any other projects?
Rhiannon: My first band ever was called Drastic Plastic. I was only 19 and had just moved to Portland because I heard it had the most lesbians per capita. I didn’t know what per capita meant but it sounded promising. At the time there was a thriving queer punk scene, and even though I was a tad too young to have been part of riot grrrl, I was heavily influenced by all those bands from here and Olympia. I’d had this realization about being a fan. These feminist and queer bands were about building community, not hero worship. I realized I wanted to be part of a community of artists creating social change, instead of idolizing others. My next band was called Seagull and Wave, it was the first time where I played keys and sung. It was a new wavey project with just guitar, keys and drum machine. It was fun but terrifying to sing and play at the same time. It was very new. Whisper Hiss is the first band where I really found myself as a musician. I realized I can naturally play by ear, and key parts just sort of started flowing for me. Right now Whisper Hiss is my only band, but I’ve been jamming with a friend of mine on an Italo Disco/new wave inspired project that I’m excited to develop!
Meredith: In college and just after, I played guitar in a riot grrrl band called Athena Starwoman. In the early 2000s I was in a pop project called 10¢ (the dimes). This was a cool time for Portland DIY and I was active in lots of stuff like zines, crafts, running a tiny venue and recording studio called the Portland Robot Steakhouse, and hosting Handmade Bazaar a backyard summer buy/sell/trade sale with food and bands. I took a bunch of time off from music and then started a band called Anther who I played with before joining Whisper Hiss. Sometimes I write and record songs with my husband at home.
Jenny: My band history dates back to my late teens. I played in several bands up until my mid twenties when I fell off playing music for about 8 years! I left all my gear in my ex partner’s moms shed. When I went back to collect my gear I felt nostalgic and realized how much I missed music! Long story short, Whisper Hiss was born and that’s the only band I’ve been playing in since—unless you count Untitled Bedroom Project which really just consists of me and my girlfriend informally jamming out in the bedroom.
Jon: Whisper Hiss is all I’m doing at the moment (I work full-time in comics publishing and I just don’t have the youthful energy I once had lol). I played for years in a garage-punk trio here called BOBBY PERU which morphed into another band called BARB. I did a noise rock thing called HAUNTED HEAD for a little while and there was also a dub-influenced punk-ish project called COOL FLOWERS with some homies who have all been in dozens of other bands. Getting to open a show for Anika was a major highlight of my time with that band!
Whisper Hiss is a fun band, How does it feel to play together?
Rhiannon: Thank you, Dancer is very fun too! Playing together feels electric. There’s a magic that happens and we all love experimenting and being creative together. At shows we have a lot of fun. I sort of jump a lot and I like to hop over to my bandmates when I’m not behind my keyboard.
Meredith: We do have fun! I can be a kind of moody or intense person when left to my own devices, but group projects bring out a different side of me and creative collaboration really helps me access joy and let go. I’m actually such a fan of my bandmates, both as musicians and people, and I feel lucky every time we play together that I get to add my ideas and energy to the mix with theirs.
Jenny: We don’t call ourselves moody and the beat for nothing! We all bring our own unique brand of moodiness that I think we embrace and believe makes us special. We also have a lot of fun! I’ve never been in a band where writing songs is so exciting and I’m so incredibly proud of everything we do! I admire my bandmates—they are endlessly talented!
Jon: So good! It’s all felt very natural to me and the band environment has been full of love and support. They’d been a band for a while already when I joined so there were a bunch of songs that I needed to learn right off the bat, which was a new experience for me, and a lot of fun. Going into the band, having studied and learned the songs, I knew I’d be working with talented and creative songwriters so I was super excited and I’m very proud of the work we’ve done together since then. Very much looking forward to the next batch of songs – I love the whole process of songs taking shape and seeing everybody’s ideas falling into place. For me, the excitement of building up to a recording session, and ultimately an album is hard to beat, and I feel like we’ve proven to ourselves that we can kick out the jams in a pinch, if need be lol!
How do you tend to record Whisper Hiss? Do you have someone who records you regularly? and how is Portland for rehearsal spaces and recording studios in general?
Meredith: My husband is a recording engineer and we worked with him on the majority of our recordings. They were each done in different studios, I assisted and then he and I mixed at home with input from the band. Our full length tape was difficult to mix and ended up going through a lot of different drafts and taking a long time. When Jon joined the band we were still mixing that. With Jon’s new energy we quickly wrote three songs and wanted to get them recorded to have a representation of the new line up. We rent a practice space in a building that has a record store, a screen printer, rehearsal rooms and a recording studio. Jon had recorded there before and floated the idea of using it this time. It sounded so easy – we wheeled our amps down the hallway – and I loved the idea that I could just show up and play bass and wouldn’t have so many roles. Split was recorded there with Eric Crespo. He mixed at home and we went back and forth through email with notes.
Rhiannon: Recording has felt really different over the years! Our sound has distinct threads that make it Whisper Hiss, but also has changed a lot over time, and that reflects in our mixes. For our cassette we were trying for a big sound, and recorded each instrument separately. For Split we went a different approach and performed live for our takes with overdubbed vocals, bells and handclaps. I actually used a front desk bell for the beginning of Come Feel Me. I wanted the feel of working behind a front desk and someone is trying to get your attention in an insistent entitled way. I got a bit bell-happy and pushed for even louder bell in the mix, but I’m glad I got convinced that less front desk bell is more front desk bell. I want to figure out a Velcro situation on my synth so I can use the bell live. We had more fun ideas of accents and noises to add this time. I hope to keep experimenting with cool sounds even more next album! Also Meredith brought a huge tin of peanuts to recording, I will be expecting that luxury item going forward.
In 2015 Gemma and myself spent 24 Hours in Portland, checked out the Donut shop, walked around in the sun and generally buzzed off of how cool it felt to be there. The city has a reputation (to us anyway) of being one of the coolest in the USA, how would you challenge this perception? Or is it in fact just very cool?
Rhiannon: I love Portland, it is very cool in my opinion! There are some real issues with gentrification which has been happening for a long time. Another recent thing that’s come up is the music scene speaking out against Live Nation making a venue here. We try to support independently owned venues, and keep corporations from controlling and messing with the music scene. Portland is the last major city to not have Live Nation competing with local venues. Portland has changed a lot since I moved here as a teen in 2001, but it still holds its magic. In the spring there’s incredible cherry blossom trees with petals falling all over you like you are in an enchanted forest. There are small business like bars and cafes in old cute houses, and there are still parts of town that have the old feeling. There’s a lot of amazing people who I love here too. There’s a meandering feel on sidewalks, like no one is in a huge rush to get somewhere. A lot of music and creativity has come from here, and you can feel it.
Do you have a most memorable show?
Chris: Playing Pies Pala Pop Festival in Rennes earlier this year was very special. It was our second show outside of the UK, outdoors in good weather with a crowd that was as into it as we were. The festival had a great line up and really looked after everyone too. The whole thing was like a dream.
Andrew: The Pies Pala Pop fest in Rennes (France) back in June. Our second show abroad (the first was the day before in Paris) – awesome outdoor stage at a fest with loads of cool bands, good weather, big and responsive crowd. Total dream!
Gemma: I loved the gigs we did supporting Dry Cleaning, it was nerve wracking because it was a big crowd but people were not there to see us and I really thought we would be ignored or people would just chat. Surprisingly people were really engaged and we were a true warm up for the gig, by the end of the set people were really buzzed.
What is your biggest challenge as a band?
Chris: Getting to do it enough really. I’d get together to write, rehearse, tour or record every day if we could.
Andrew: Keeping it all together I think. Maybe it’s not a secret to mention we have recently changed drummers. Bands are hard. Group dynamics are hard and being on the same page is hard. For all the 99 percent of fun and awesomeness, it’s that 1 rogue percentage that can derail everything.
Gemma: Making music is always the easiest part, it’s the other stuff like organising tours and finding time to look at emails , that sort of admin stuff.
What are your live shows like?
Chris: Very very fun. It sounds like a cop-out answer but it’s an honest one. The comment we got most after coming off stage in Rennes was about how “smiley” we all are. It brings me more joy than anything, and there’s plenty to go around so that’s what we project. People pick up on it, send it back our way etc. Our best shows are just joy feedback loops between us and the crowd.
Andrew: Always great I think! We have definitely improved this year and have been reacting to some great crowd buzz.
Gemma: I really can’t help but dance around a lot, I am definitely the Dancer in Dancer. In previous bands I’ve played the bass so it’s been really freeing and new to work on the performance, I love to use the length of the stage and jump high.
Are there any places you’d like to take Dancer on tour as well?
Chris: Broadly speaking, North America as that’s where the highest concentration of people that listen to us are. I’d love to tour Japan, or really anywhere I’ve never never been. More specifically, I’d like to play The Empty Bottle in Chicago. A great deal of my favourite art and music was made in Chicago, and I hear that place in particular is a lot of fun to play.
Andrew: Well USA is of course a dream, but the money it would cost to do it legally is enough to bankrupt even the wealthiest group these days. I am not sure why it costs so much to get into the USA? For me, playing on a warm Summer’s evening somewhere in Portland with Whisper Hiss would be the greatest. But they just cut creative funding here in Scotland, so the options are shrinking by the day!
Gemma: Italy, it’s the most beautiful country and best food. I have played a few gigs there in the past and absolutely loved it, other countries in Europe have a bit more funding and appreciation of live music than the UK I think.
