Die Spitz are an up-and-coming all female punk band from Austin, Texas following in the footsteps of such notable acts as Bikini Kill, L7, the Coathangers, and Bratmobile.

Barely of legal drinking age, these young women have been tearing their way across the US as the supporting band for Amyl and the Sniffers with an upcoming Texas Tour with their punk rock brethren – The Spits. Their live show is overflowing with energy and aggression and is not to be missed!

Die Spitz | Illustration by Justin Jackley

“We hate music!”

Hello Die Spitz! To start off, please introduce yourselves. Who are you and what is your role in the band?

Kate: I’m Kate [Halter]. I’m the bassist.

Ellie: I’m Ellie [Livingston]. I play drums. [all laughing…] I play guitar and sing, not the drums.

Chloe: I’m Chloe [Andrews] and I play drums and I sometimes sing and play guitar.

Ava: I’m Ava [Schrobilgen] and I play guitar and sing and sometimes drum.

Ellie: I’m Ellie and I don’t drum!

Chloe: The duality of the band.

All right, cool. What was it like recording your first full length album?

Die Spitz: Rushed. It’s also not full length. We haven’t done a full album yet; it’s technically an EP but it was really fun. It was kind of rushed, but it was a very cool thing to experience because none of us have done that before.

Where did you record? Did you work out of a home studio or a professional space?

Die Spitz: We recorded at Austin Signal and a local coffee shop called Try Hard Coffee sponsored us and helped to record an album for us.

That’s pretty awesome.

Die Spitz: Shout out to Try Hard. Thank you! Thank you, Jon [French] and Jon [Nies]. Thank you both Johns. You’re the best! And Kevin Butler at Test Tube Audio.

What’s your writing process like?

Die Spitz: Usually, one person comes up with a riff or a song and then we put it all together and people add their parts in. We might tweak it a little bit and then we play it, and we always play songs live before we release it. We didn’t know it was a thing to not ever perform a song live before it was released and still it seems weird. It’s stupid. Goddamn LA! We’ve had a lot of songs that died off and never got recorded. We played them live first and it just didn’t work out.

Do you always play a song live before recording it?

Die Spitz: Yeah, apparently, like LA bands will record their entire shit without ever gauging what a real audience thinks.

Yeah, so it’s about the feedback of the audience?

Die Spitz: Yeah, also, how we feel, like if we feel uncomfortable playing. I don’t know. Like we have a song that I wrote that we only sometimes play live because it’s just kind of not the vibe sometimes. It’s still going to be on the album. It’s actually one of our first songs that we’re doing more.

Are y’all working on a new album at this time?

Die Spitz: Yes! We are! We are excited.

What can you tell us about that or is it a secret?

Die Spitz: It’s gonna be a very versatile album with different stuff on it. It’s gonna be really fun at some points and then it’s gonna be a song that you might cry to and then right after that you’re gonna be like “yeah!” and then something it sounds like your mom would like. It’s gonna be a really fun album to make and hopefully people like it.

I’m sure they will! Y’all are doing awesome and really blowing up lately. You’ve been playing for a year or so?

Die Spitz: Coming up on second January will be our two-year anniversary. We want to do a “happy birthday show” in Austin.

Cool! I haven’t seen y’all play live yet. I missed last year when you opened for L7 at Mohawk. I’m really looking forward to it tonight!

Die Spitz: Yeah!

If y’all could collaborate with any musician, who would be your dream collab? Living or dead…

Die Spitz: Rico Nasty! I would love to write a punk album with her. She’s got a great punk voice and she’s an awesome rapper too. She’s really cool. I also want Miley Cyrus to make a punk album with us so bad. She has an incredible voice for that.

Maybe she will read this interview and that can happen.

Die Spitz: I hope so. Miley Please! Come on!

How has it been touring with Amyl and the Sniffers? Pretty fun?

Die Spitz: They’re the sweetest people ever. Genuinely. Just so positive and sweet and actually people that should be looked up to and idolized. Not in a weird way, but they are good inside and out as musicians and as people.

Yeah, I interviewed them earlier today and they were super nice.

Die Spitz: So kind. Very nice. And so fucking hilarious. So damned funny! We are so lucky to be with them.

Are you starting to pick up Australian accents yet?

Die Spitz: Oh crikey! No, they said that ours suck but I swear we can do them when they are not around. Yeah, I get so nervous. [incomprehensible Australian something…]

Yeah. Amy asked me if I could do an Australian accent, but I was not about to even try in front of them! Any crazy stuff happened on tour with them or any fun or interesting stories?

Die Spitz: Murder scene. Yeah, we’ve seen some shit! We went to a haunted house, well, it was at a hotel that we went to, but it was really a haunted house. There was a murder scene on our bed. We were checking for bedbugs and there was literally someone’s head that had been shot or something. It was on the box springs so it had spilled over or something. Piece of tour advice for everybody – always check under the mattresses under the sheets, not only for bedbugs, but also for copious amounts of blood. Maybe bring a blacklight. If we had brought a black light to that room… crazy. Have you ever seen American Horror story? The Hotel Season? It was like that. It was like the screams in the hallway and like the dead smells and the hooker coming out. There was a hooker that came out. She was really hot. Full respect to sex workers. But it was comedic at the time. She came out of the room with a sign of the murder scene, which is even better. Mind you, we had driven for 15 or 14 hours that day to get some sleep and it’s like four am and then we got to this luxurious hotel because we treated ourselves and we got there in time for Continental Breakfast. I love Continental Breakfast!

Free Breakfast! Yeah, I’ll take a murder scene over bedbugs any day. It’s brutal.

Die Spitz: I agree. Yeah, I’ve had bedbugs and I had to bomb my house with treatment.

I did too. That was the closest I’ve ever been to killing myself was having bedbugs. It’s just torture 24 hours per day!

Die Spitz: Literally. Yeah, they just won’t leave. That’s my number one fear. It’s a valid fear.

Yeah, it’s pretty terrible! So, to change gears here, what are you listening to lately?

Die Spitz: Harry Potter audio books. Honestly, I’m so sick of my music. I can’t. They’ve been listening to Title Fight which is cool. But I don’t know. I’m just not in the mood. I like to listen to Alien Podcasts. We listened to Jeanette McCurdy’s audiobook. Fucking pretty heavy but finished it in a day of driving.

That’s a lot of audio books.

Die Spitz: No music. We hate music! Ears need a break. Like, I don’t know. I can’t. Or just silence. Silence is really nice.

The sound of silence. So, what are you all up to when you’re not making music or listening to audio books?

Die Spitz: Working our day jobs. Yeah, school and day jobs. I floss my teeth a lot. It’s a hobby. It’s like a stress thing. I get the picks. They’re hard to find but sometimes you can go to Target and get the flosser pics and they have two strings. Kate was really sick and on her period and I saw her shaking out the toothpaste and grabbing them and I was like, “oh no” and she gets like a floss face too and she puts the toothpaste on it. I get really bad cavities. I think you have wonderful teeth. One of them died. We need to go to the dentist really bad. I gotta get it taken out. Yeah, we’re gonna take care of all our health problems after this tour with the money that we made. Look at my fucking legs. I need blood work done.

Ooo! It’s been a rough tour, ay?

Die Spitz: No. I’ve been sober and tame as hell honestly. Can you do one of those like big quotes that stands out and it says “I need blood work done. Look at my fucking leg” and also “I’ve been sober and tame as hell [grabs beer]”? Anyways…

Let’s talk about flossing some more. I hate flossing. I only do it twice a year right before the dentist to try to trick them into thinking I’ve been flossing.

Die Spitz: Get into it! You have milder gums than I do though. I got some red ass gums. You got really nice teeth. Keep it up. I can’t floss, they put a permanent retainer in my teeth. Didn’t it fall out while we were in New York? The glue is still there. I can’t get in.

Kind of related but how about your worst food experience on tour?

Die Spitz: It’s been better this time around. Dallas Asian food. Oh god. It was this noodle place and I got like peanut noodles and it was just like peanut butter with some tiny soggy noodles. It was supposed to be spicy. There was no spice. It was terrible. We also got Mediterranean food in New York a while ago and they gave us ketchup for hot sauce. That was disappointing. I got like Norovirus or something from somewhere in LA. Yakkin’. Wisconsin had a great breakfast. Oh yeah. It was so good. Look at that squirrel! Got two big ass pecans in its mouth and two big ass balls. One of the biggest balls I’ve ever seen!

Do you get to catch some other shows while you’re here or are y’all pretty busy and then you’re back on the road?

Die Spitz: We leave tomorrow. We get to see Militarie Gun open tonight. Militarie Gun? Yeah, it’s written right there. Militarie Gun. They spelled it wrong.

All right. Awesome. Well, that’s pretty much it. Any final words for readers of Psychedelic Baby magazine.

Die Spitz: I love Psychedelic Baby Magazine! Oh, speaking of babies, we can’t wait to have them. Touring gives us baby fever. We love babies [banging on table and chanting] Babies, Babies, Babies, Babies, Babies, Babies, Babies, Babies! My final word is someone needs to do a psychological study on why women on tour get baby fever. I’ve never wanted children in my whole life and then I was just driving, like, “having a baby sounds really nice right now.” Only a girl though. Yeah, I have no interest in having sons but those are our final words. Put that in bold.