![\"Piss](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/NME-HERO-PISS-CREDIT-MAYA-FUHR@2560x1707.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
W<\/strong>atching a Piss<\/a> show is like a visceral gut punch. A 30-minute, top-to-bottom retelling of their forthcoming debut album \u2018You Made Me \/ Skin On Linen\u2019, the Canadian hardcore<\/a> punk<\/a> band and their vocalist Taylor Zantingh\u2019s live set is more akin to a performance art piece or a conceptual exorcism than a traditional gig.<\/p>\n Zantingh paces the stage, pained, straining and frequently bent double under the weight of her words. Around her, guitarist Tyler Patterson, bassist Gavin Moya and drummer Garreth Roberts conjure up slabs of noise that range from the brutal and uncompromising (\u2018I Wanted To Be A Singer\u2019) to the perversely danceable (\u2018Time Loop At Hot Slit\u2019). Interspersed between the tracks are clips of feminist activists, literary philosophers and young children. At the core and unavoidable through it all is the distress of Zantingh\u2019s lived experience, as she performs from a record dealing with the ongoing trauma of sexual violence.<\/p>\n It\u2019s far from classic festival fare, but at this year\u2019s End Of The Road<\/a>, the tent for Piss is heaving. Despite having only released three demos on Bandcamp at the time of playing, the word-of-mouth buzz around the quartet is tangible. The band have drawn increasingly dedicated crowds across Canada and North America since they began playing live in 2024, and at The Great Escape<\/a> in Brighton this May, the quartet\u2019s intensely powerful show was arguably the most talked-about of the festival.<\/p>\n Today, the crowd reaction lands like nothing else on the bill. Some are just here for the mosh-worthy sonic blitzes, but many people \u2013 mostly women \u2013 look winded. Some leave. After \u2018Andrea II\u2019 \u2013 a spoken word piece in which radical activist Andrea Dworkin declares that \u201cas the law isn\u2019t working\u2026 I favour violence\u201d<\/i> \u2013 an impromptu cheer resounds around the space. Piss\u2019 performance is magnetic, but there\u2019s substantially more going on between band and crowd than just a musical exchange.<\/p>\n \u201cI<\/strong>\u2018m always reminded that a big reason why the project is doing well is because there\u2019s this huge problem, and if so many people are resonating with it, that reflects on our artistry and our ability to talk about it. But it also reflects on how horrible a lot of people feel that they\u2019re relating to a record like this,\u201d suggests Zantingh. The band are sitting with NME<\/i> a few days before End Of The Road, sipping orange juice at a pub around the corner from their temporary digs in Wanstead. \u201cThis record is supposed to continue a conversation that\u2019s been going on for a really long time. It feels like simultaneously the easiest and the most difficult thing I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n Piss have only ever had this specific mission statement in mind. The band began when Zantingh \u2013 the only member to come from a hardcore background \u2013 met Patterson at a party, and ended up moving from Ontario to Vancouver to live with him and start a group. All the while, the vocalist, who also studied Creative Writing at university, had been crafting \u201ca poetry collection and short fiction, but nothing felt like it was clicking\u201d. When the idea came to turn them into lyrics for a record, though, that changed. Zantingh sketched an outline for the record that same weekend. Soon, Moya and Roberts were invited to join.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people want art about trauma, and then when trauma symptoms come up, all of a sudden it\u2019s like\u2026 \u2018Oh\u2019\u201d \u2013 Taylor Zantingh<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWhat was empowering was that I felt like I had the skills on one hand to say what I wanted to say in the very precise way that I wanted to say it, [but also] all my life I\u2019ve been getting really comfortable with being a total freak on stage and not caring what people think,\u201d Zantingh explains. Moving from her hometown gave her the distance to write about her past, while her bandmates swiftly proved themselves the right kind of people to facilitate and support such a heavy undertaking. \u201cEverything about this project is hard for me in some way, but the hardest thing for them is doing it for me,\u201d Zantingh readily admits. \u201cA lot of people want art about trauma, and then when trauma symptoms come up, all of a sudden it\u2019s like\u2026 \u2018Oh\u2019. But you can\u2019t have one without the other.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of this elephant in the room that I\u2019m working with three men on this project,\u201d she continues. \u201cBut [the other side] is that this record is so connected with experiences of men harming me, but then in order to create it I had this really great group of men come and, without ego, just offer their help and support in order to get us where we are. It\u2019s not just me and my lyrics that got us here; it\u2019s all of our strengths coming together for this common goal.\u201d As if to underline her point, her bandmates sit back for the vast majority of today\u2019s conversation, and just let Zantingh speak.<\/p>\n Piss are not here to make comfortable music. Across 15 tracks, Zantingh ricochets between intellectual references to the likes of Toni Morrison and philosopher Manon Garcia, and almost unbearably raw explorations of her own experience. The result is like a pinballing between the head and the body, of trying to somehow make sense of a senseless world. \u2018You Made Me \/ Skin On Linen\u2019 begins with \u2018Kai And Friends\u2019: a pure and innocent clip of young children listing what they want to be when they grow up. Then, Zantingh enters with the scream of \u2018I Wanted To Be A Singer\u2019. \u201cI keep trying to make my pain mean something<\/em>,\u201d she declares over harsh, atonal guitars. \u201cI wanted to feel safe in my body \/ I wanted to be a singer.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n In the track, the vocalist poses a statement at the crux of the record and the band: \u201cI don\u2019t know if writing about violence is helping me \/ Is it helping you?<\/em>\u201d Even now, she\u2019s still not entirely sure. \u201cOnce we finished the record and performed it a few times, I was ready to move on to the next thing. But when you\u2019re a musician, you have to do it again and again and again and again and again,\u201d she considers. More than most bands, the toll is tangible. \u201cThe band is built on a foundation of my suffering. It\u2019s inextricable, and that\u2019s very, very intense. It\u2019s the most complicated set of feelings I\u2019ve ever had to grapple with because, on one hand, it feels amazing to be able to connect with people in this way, but then the littlest thing will just make me feel completely awful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just me and my lyrics that got us here; it\u2019s all of our strengths coming together for this common goal\u201d \u2013 Taylor Zantingh<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n With Piss\u2019 momentum escalating by the week, and their debut set to only further that upon its release later this month, the vocalist is having to pay increasing mind to how she safeguards herself. For one, it\u2019s unfeasible for Zantingh to perform five nights a week. Recently, she\u2019s been \u201cconstantly adding new things to the regimen\u201d \u2013 a therapist, physiotherapist, massage therapist, and myriad supplements. \u201cIt\u2019s good to exercise and to take care of your body, but obsessively centring my life around my body also feels like a prison sometimes. I can\u2019t ever have a day where I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m just gonna get drunk\u2019. I always have to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a huge act of dedication to Piss\u2019 cause, but one that Zantingh is willing to undertake in order to start or further conversations. The children\u2019s voices at the record\u2019s opening, she says, are intended to highlight \u201cthe idea of a child as a piece of clay and how, if there are hands that shape them in a way that\u2019s harmful, then the child grows up with these fingerprints on them, into a shape that impacts everything else in their life forever. It\u2019s not like you get harmed and then you move on\u201d. \u201cI wanted the intangible wounds of sexual violence to be manifested in a physical way,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n Across several quotes and original lyrics, the band broach different aspects of rape culture and violence against women. \u2018Blocking A Scene You Can\u2019t Remember\u2019 is a traumatised incantation, delivered like the instructions of a film script (\u201cInterior: a girl\u2019s bedroom, nighttime<\/em>\u201d), while \u2018Vikki\u2019 quotes an activist friend of Zantingh\u2019s: \u201cOur boys are being raised in a rape culture, and then we\u2019re individually holding them responsible, as if they invented misogyny.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Piss\u2019 approach is decidedly nuanced, contrary to what a lot of the \u201cheinous\u201d comments on their YouTube videos might suggest, or what certain factions of their burgeoning audience might cast them as (\u201cThere were two men at the front in Bristol, and I gave the trigger warning at the start of the set, and they just both went, \u2018WOKE\u2019, and then walked out,\u201d Zantingh laughs). There\u2019s an awful lot of thought, research and different vantage points across their debut, and Zantingh is equally considered in conversation. \u201cI think the most important opinion that I have is that we should never be scared of ideas, and I think a lot of people are right now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a lot of the feminist songwriting that I hear right now, there\u2019s a trend of really simple, buzzword-type stuff. And there\u2019s definitely men out there who need to hear that, but they\u2019re probably not coming to your shows,\u201d she continues. \u201cIf you want the men in your life to be held to a higher standard, talk to them like they\u2019re adult humans with working brains and let them disappoint you. I believe in my heart of hearts that sexual violence is a collective soul wound that hurts and touches everybody. And maybe a lot of men who are close to coming to that understanding will be pushed away by having a woman who is their peer looking down on them.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, Piss offer a brutal, uncomfortable mirror to reality and let the reflection speak for itself. In \u2018You Made Me \/ Skin On Linen\u2019, they\u2019ve created a confronting yet vital piece of work that\u2019s impossible not to be affected by. It is deeply, crushingly human \u2013 filled with the sort of pain that\u2019s hard to recover from. But by putting it out there, and on the stage, Taylor Zantingh is trying.<\/p>\n\n \u201cFor me, there\u2019s never been a day in my life where I wasn\u2019t thinking about this in some way. And I still think about it every single day, but now I have a lot more control over the way that it is communicated to people,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to create this thing that\u2019s as accurate a picture as I can possibly create of my experience, and give it to people, and trust that they\u2019ll find what they need to find and take what they need to take from it.\u201d<\/p>\n Piss\u2019 \u2018You Made Me \/ Skin On Linen\u2019 is out on October 30 via Sub Pop Records.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Listen to Piss\u2019 exclusive playlist to accompany The Cover below on Spotify or on Apple Music here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n Words: Lisa Wright \/ @lisaannewright The post Piss: a punk band unflinching about the brutal toll of misogyny<\/a> appeared first on NME<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Watching a Piss show is like a visceral gut punch. A 30-minute, top-to-bottom retelling of their forthcoming debut album \u2018You Made Me \/ Skin On Linen\u2019, the Canadian hardcore punk band and their vocalist Taylor Zantingh\u2019s live set is more akin to a performance art piece or a conceptual exorcism than a traditional gig. Zantingh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-travel"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-25 19:15:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpnewswire.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"PISS](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/NME-COVER-PISS-CREDIT-MAYA-FUHR@1990x2488.jpg\")
![\"Taylor](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/NME-PISS-TAYLOR-ZANTINGH-CREDIT-MAYA-FUHR@2160x2700.jpg\")
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![\"Tyler](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/NME-PISS-TYLER-PATERSON-CREDIT-MAYA-FUHR@2160x2700.jpg\")
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![\"Garreth](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/NME-PISS-GARRETH-ROBERTS-CREDIT-MAYA-FUHR@2160x2700.jpg\")
![\"Gavin](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/NME-PISS-GAVIN-MOYA-CREDIT-MAYA-FUHR@2160x2700.jpg\")
\nPhotography: Maya Fuhr
\nHair and Makeup: Courtney Yellow-Quill
\nDollmaker: Sophie Santos English
\nLabel: Sub Pop Records<\/p>\n