Chastity Belt Bask In the Moment

Chastity Belt began as a drunken inside joke. Vocalist and guitarist Julia Shapiro recalls, “Before we were a band, I think our sophomore year of college, Lydia [Lund] and I had this drunken night where we came up with the name—and we would just jokingly tell everyone that we were in a band called Chastity Belt and we’d be chanting ‘Chastity Belt!’ at house shows and stuff.” The booze-fueled gag soon grew into a reality when drummer Gretchen Grimm and bassist Annie Truscott joined Lund and Shapiro to play their first show: a local battle of the bands at Whitman College, where the members attended university. “We had one song that was like five minutes long and, from there, we won,” Shapiro continues.

The win encouraged the members to continue performing together, diving headfirst into the vibrant Washington DIY scene and immersing themselves in the creative culture of the community. Lund recollects over email, “It truly feels like a magical time to reflect on, spending three to four nights of the week in dingy basements and DIY spaces jostling around in a crowd of friends while other friends performed, sharing something vulnerable, other times hiding behind coolness. It felt like a community that regularly worshiped self-expression and encouraged exploration.” “A couple of times, like a band would play a house show and after they were done, we got on their instruments and started playing ‘Photograph’ by Nickelback,” adds Grimm.

At the time, they were just four college kids having fun with music and enjoying the newness of their joint creativity through writing and performance. The idea of putting out an album didn’t occur to them until it was presented by some friends who were starting a new label called Help Yourself Records. After three days of recording at a DIY space in Seattle, the band’s delightfully raunchy first album, No Regerts, was born. “I always feel a certain sweetness when I reflect on No Regerts. We were doing it for the absolute pure fun and release of playing music. Not that it isn’t fun anymore – it was just different! No expectations! We didn’t really know anything about the industry side of things and there is a certain innocence that comes with that. Every now and then, we listen back to those songs and reflect on that time. And honestly those songs still really hit,” explains Truscott. “We were so young, in a good way,” Grimm recounts. “I barely knew how to play the drums and listening back even still, like, I wouldn’t change any of the parts.”

It’s been just over 10 years since the release of No Regerts, and Chastity Belt has blossomed into a skilled, cohesive force of songwriting set on continually refining their sound with each release. The group’s new album, Live Laugh Love, showcases the band’s seamless music chemistry that has only grown stronger with more than a decade of experience and friendship. “We’ve all become better musicians through playing with each other and I feel like we can intuit what the others are going to play before they even play it,” Truscott says. The group’s communication often feels effortless when writing together. “There’s so many songs we play together where we didn’t even discuss a change from one part to the next part. Like we all just know that’s when you change and all of us just naturally shifted and there’s not much discussion,” Grimm adds.

A strong fluidity in the band’s songwriting fostered an environment of creative experimentation in which members got to switch instruments and try various roles in the group. Shapiro describes the openness of the process, stating that “[‘Live Laugh Love’] is even more dynamic than it’s ever been. We’ll be jamming and maybe I’m like, ‘I’m sick of playing guitar, let’s switch it up,’ and we all just end up on different instruments and then something comes together.” With the band living in separate cities nowadays, they are only granted a few times a year to see each other and work on music. The groups’ songwriting ‘retreats’ often double as heartwarming reunions and vacations for the band members who relish the opportunity to get together for a few days with some of their closest friends and write.

“Since we don’t all live in the same place, and don’t get the chance to practice together regularly, most of our songwriting happens at what we like to call ‘retreats,’” Lund reflects about the separation. “My family owns a cabin in rural Washington state where we drive all our gear out to for a few days and spend the days playing music and evenings eating our signature dish Lavasta. Often we’ll have a batch of songs we know we’re going to work on. As we’re working through those, we’ll take turns sharing other songs we’ve been working on lately on our own to see if anything clicks with the band. When we’re sick of playing our primary instrument, we’ll see who wants to trade. It feels really special that we each continue to devote a chunk of time once or twice a year to get together and play. I think the vacation vibes contribute to the fluidity of our songwriting process.”

The band’s retreats brought them to different corners of the world where they could create limitlessly. In Joshua Tree, the group stayed at a friend’s house (affectionately called “Little Joshua Tree”) and wrote songs beneath the blistering desert sun. Lund describes the experience as “incredibly hot during the days, and I would wake up before sunrise for a walk every morning to get some alone time. I really appreciated what a quiet place it was. I remember how loud the crunch of sand was under my feet walking the desert neighborhoods, trucks in the distance sounded like thunder as they rolled across the sand. A curious space and experience to make music into all that silence.” Truscott fondly reflects on the retreat in Joshua Tree, too. “That time was great! We got to do some hiking and cool tub soaking and a lot of jamming in straw hats,” they say. “We jammed on a few but the two I remember coming together out of there were ‘Hollow’ and ‘Chemtrails.’ It’s always nice to write music somewhere where we can take breaks and get outside.”

Chastity Belt met in Los Angeles during the week of Thanksgiving two years in a row when they finally began recording Live Laugh Love, as Truscott had time off from school—giving the group an opportunity to convene at Seahorse Studios to work with engineer Samur Khouja. With limited time to work together, though, the band learned to trust their first instinct when making creative decisions. “We have to wait six months ‘til we’re all free to record the songs or to play again, it can slow things down a little bit. But I think it just forces us to be very in the moment, we just have to make decisions more quickly,” says Grimm. Shapiro furthers, “Yeah, there’s not much time to second guess things. You gotta make decisions quick. It’s like ‘This is my first idea so it’s probably the best way.’”

Even with tight time restrictions, the group took a day to celebrate Thanksgiving each year with festivities and silly dances. “[We] had a lot of laughs since we did two sessions over Thanksgiving. Each time, we had a Thanksgiving feast. We all wore paper bag hats and played charades and did a couple Irish jigs,” Shapiro notes. A loving warmth is exuded from the members as they recall memories made together, each statement wrapped in affection and humor. And likewise, Live Laugh Love presents itself as the band’s most realized album to date. Textured guitar and bass passages stretch and grow with ease like the sun leisurely filling a darkened crevice, all rooted in the steady foundation of Grimm’s drumming. The tracks carry themselves with a measured restraint, building up to moments of blustery catharsis. The album explores some of the quiet tragedies of life, reflecting upon loneliness, guilt and regret with cutting honesty and grace. Yet, there’s a lightness to the sound that immerses you in its breezy indie rock instrumentation, with each song taking a sonic plunge into the pure blueness of the sky.

“It was such a joyful experience,” Lund says of writing their first album. “I remember that we weren’t particularly vocal in telling each other how much we appreciated each person’s part, but the feeling was so palpable it wasn’t necessary.” The camaraderie and feeling of family that exists within the band has fostered a daring creative environment that encourages growth and risk. As listeners, we can’t know the feeling personally but we must understand that it has guided each song and album the band has released over the last decade. Chastity Belt has come a long way since its Nickelback cover days, but its members are still tied together by the same thing that brought them together in the first place: a one-in-a-million, magnetic friendship.

Read our recent review of Live Laugh Love here.