Cheap Perfume is here to have fun and scream about late-stage capitalism along the way. With their new album, Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask, the Colorado quartet, somehow makes anti-fascist revolution sound like the wildest night out you’ve ever been to. It’s loud, it’s queer, it’s furious, and honestly? It kinda slaps. I caught up with Jane No and Stephanie Byrne to talk about their new album, humour as a coping method, and flipping right-wing rhetoric on its head.
JG: Congrats on the new album! That’s exciting. Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask is both a title and a rallying cry, an unapologetic refusal to play nice in a world demanding complacency. What was the spark that lit this direction for the record, and how did you decide on that title?
Jane No: One time, Stephanie described it as, “Don’t read the comments.” So it’s kinda like that, but it’s also everything you said. Not worrying about what other people say or think, because you’re always gonna have haters and you just have to share your voice, speak your mind, and not worry what other people are gonna say about it. Because it doesn’t matter what you say, somebody is always going to be criticizing it. So, just believing in what you say and sharing it.
Stephanie Byrne: Yeah. I agree. Even further, there’s a lot of being told how you should be, especially as a female-presenting person in the world. In the music sphere, and doing what we’ve done for 10 years and having faced that misogyny even within the scene and being told, “You’re not supposed to do punk like that.” And it’s very much like, uh, we never asked you how we were supposed to do this. Thank you.
JG: I love that! Cheap Perfume has always balanced sharp political critique with humour, catharsis, and melody. How do you approach writing songs that can make someone both want to smash the system and also sing along and want to return to those songs?
Stephanie Byrne: Very good question. We’ve actually spoken about this quite a bit as a group, and how humour is such a regular coping tool for so many folks, and how satire helps us to deliver hard messages. I don’t know if you have any more to expound upon that, Jane.
Jane No: It also shows that there’s always that duality. Yes, things are very dismal right now in the United States and around the world. It’s very easy to feel hopeless. And I think it is important to have moments of levity, especially with your community and your friends, and just having fun. We can lament and we can rage, but don’t forget to find the beauty in that too.
Stephanie Byrne: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Joy is resistance.
JG: One of those sort of moments of levity that really stood out to me was your new single “Okay Party,” which is this frantic, tongue-in-cheek look at life in a band, from broken-down vans to homicidal thoughts about each other. After 10 years together, what do you think keeps you from actually killing each other and instead keeps you going and creating new stuff?
Stephanie Byrne: I think one of the first things is love. And acceptance and learning how to be in a relationship with each other. It’s almost like having three partners, um, but they’re your band, so…
Jane No: Mm-hmm.
Stephanie Byrne: Um, it’s a lot of, like, loving people for who they are. And taking care of ourselves.
Jane No: Yeah. Forgiveness of self and others. At this point, we all feel like siblings. With your siblings, you love each other even if you might bicker. You might need to have your personal space, for sure. We definitely all need that. But then you’re coming back because you’re working toward a common goal, and you have a shared vision and a shared desire to share your art.
Stephanie Byrne: I think those are all wonderful points. We also have shared values. Even in 10 years, you’re gonna change a lot as a person, but we’ve never strayed or gone off-path from who we all are, which is good for us.
Jane No: ‘Cause we’ve learned a lot over the last decade, and we’ve changed a lot. I feel like we all kinda changed in the same way. There’s always that fear that, especially being a band that sings a lot about politics, like, “Oh, what if so-and-so doesn’t agree with this and I do?” We’ve all changed and evolved in the same way in our viewpoints in a way that works together.
JG: That makes sense. The album rages against capitalism, oppression, and fascism, topics that have only intensified since your debut. With the current political moment, do you feel punk is in a unique position right now to rally people against authoritarian creep, or has the genre become more of an underground resistance thing?
Stephanie Byrne: There’s a lot of gatekeeping in life in general, which is strange, because if you love something, you should want to share it with people. It’s not to say that I love Green Day or I’m their biggest fan, but I am actually pretty consistently grateful for their virality and for them being as mainstream as they are and holding the platform that they do. Again, I’m not standing up for Green Day, but they’re still very vocal about their politics. We’re all in a very unique space where we are being silenced. I don’t think that punk is anywhere near as underground or anything. Punk is where it’s always been, but also bigger and better than it has been. A lot of people are trying really hard and using their platform in good ways.
Jane No: Yeah. I would agree. I think punk is the perfect vehicle to deliver this message of anti-authoritarianism, anti-fascism, anti-patriarchy, and anti-capitalism. And, like any kind of railing against the harmful systems, I think punk is perfect for that for a few reasons. Not just because it’s loud and angry and fast, but also because it’s an equalizer. Anyone, in theory, and I hope that this is true in your scenes, is welcome there. It should be a scene that welcomes anyone who might be considered misfits or deviants in mainstream culture. Be it queer people or people of colour. I know that that’s not always the case in the punk scene. I recognize that that’s not always the case. But hopefully.
Stephanie Byrne: Mm-hmm.
Jane No: I also think the fact that you don’t really have to be an amazing musician to play punk. Like, we don’t have to be at the top of our game. We didn’t go to Juilliard or anything, and we’re not the best at our instruments, but we have something to say. We also wanna have fun together, and so we just do it. We just make it happen, and punk allows us to do that.
JG: A track like “Woke Mind Virus” takes language weaponized by the far right and flips it back with biting wit. How important is it to Cheap Perfume to reclaim or reframe the language of the culture war in your art?
Jane No: Ooh, I think we reframe and reclaim a lot. One example that I think of is a song on our first album, Nailed It, called “Slut Game Strong,” where we’re just reclaiming the word “slut,” because we’ve all been called it as an insult. For me, since I was probably in elementary school, right? Before I even knew what sex was, I was getting called a slut by the boys. And so it’s meant to harm and hurt, and so we’re like, “Let’s reclaim this,” and, like, it’s not shameful to want to use your body for pleasure. I think with “Woke Mind Virus,” it’s really important because the right has taken that word and made it bad to be woke and made it bad to just be civil to your neighbour. These are the same people saying that they’re Christians, and so the hypocrisy just drives me insane as a former Christian, and someone who grew up in that world. It just drives me insane. It’s really important for me to just express that this is insane. No matter how much they want to flip the script to further their agenda. We’re not gonna let that happen if we have anything to say about it.
Stephanie Byrne: I think that was so well put and well said. We recorded this and wrote that song, in what January or February?
Jane No: Yeah.
Stephanie Byrne: Maybe even pre-this administration. A lot of these terms or a lot of the things that we’re saying in that song are only now being radicalized in the last week or two, though. It’s also important to understand that anybody who was looking saw Project 2025 coming. I became a four-level terrorist, like, just this week alone. I’m very accomplished this week. So, I don’t know. This is a fascist regime. Like, they’re actually doing it.
JG: It’s unfortunate, but you’re right. The message is sadly very timely, but you’re meeting the moment, though, which is what Cheap Perfume and, I guess, punk as a whole is all about.
Stephanie Byrne: We talk a lot about “It’s Okay to Punch Nazis” being a hit. We’re always grateful for it, but we wrote that song eight years ago. We’re glad that people still enjoy listening to it and find sources of power within it, but I would rather there not be any Nazis.
JG: From “It’s Okay (To Punch Nazis)” to “Down to Riot,” your catalogue has become a soundtrack for people resisting oppression in real time. When listeners blast this new record, what do you hope they walk away ready to do or to feel?
Jane No: Hmm. I keep saying I hope it’s part of the soundtrack to the revolution, because I think we really need to realize that at the core of everything happening right now is capitalism. That’s a huge theme on the album. The first song is called “Probably It’s Capitalism” because most of your problems in your life can be traced back to capitalism. The reason Donald Trump is our president is because of capitalism, and the reason that the right has the power they have is because of capitalism.
I want people to unite as the working class and as the 99% because growing up, they’ve told us all that socialism is going to take away what we have. Like, the fruits of our labour will be taken away. And that’s exactly what’s happening because of capitalists. They’re the ones taking it away from us. I want everybody to realize that they try to make it a liberals versus conservative thing. I definitely am not saying that I share any conservative ideals at all, but I’m just saying, they are keeping us fighting with each other instead of looking at what they’re doing as the ruling class, and that’s part of their plan. Let’s stop fighting with each other and start realizing that we should be going after them. Take to the streets, participate in direct action, break some laws, make people uncomfortable, and really invest in your community. You know, just be there for your neighbours.
Stephanie Byrne: It’s important to note, too, that there are different support needs that can make people feel unable to be involved in traditional ways. Jane makes really wonderful points, but, additionally, you can take to your phone. You can write letters, you can show up and make meals. There are a lot of ways to serve your community. If you can’t do one thing, don’t feel like that makes you bad because everybody has a job in the revolution, and it’s just important to remember that.
Jane No: Mm-hmm. You don’t have to be out protesting in the streets all the time. It could be just making or consuming art. We consider our music to be part of our resistance. It’s different for everybody. I love that.
JG: Oh, 100%. To end things on a lighter note, I haven’t had the pleasure of attending one of your live shows yet, but from asking around and doing a bit of reading, it sounds like they are pretty legendary.
Stephanie Byrne: Legendary?
JG: Yeah, I would say so from the people I’ve talked to. How would you two describe the live Cheap Perfume experience?
Jane No: It’s energetic, it’s chaotic, it’s loud. I always tell people, “Even if you don’t like punk music, and you come to our show, you’re gonna be entertained.” A lot of that has to do with the endless energy that Stephanie has, jumping around and going out into the crowd, engaging them.
Stephanie Byrne: This is not a self-critique, just like a note, I am way less versed in music theory than my fellow bandmates. They’re all so talented, and it’s taken us 10 years. They’ve learned to support me, and that’s a balance. I can go out and be crazy and be wild, and we can all learn or feed off of each other. And if I’m off beat or Jane’s off beat, there’s that eye contact. Or Dave, you know? There’s eye contact. There’s movement even up there. You learn to communicate like you never would with anybody else in your life. Even a friend that I’ve had for 20 years, I haven’t had this experience with, you know? Being able to know things about the environment or what’s going on around me, like I do with my band. I think that’s a cool thing that we’ve all been mastering for a really long time. That’s to the credit of maybe me being a little insane and then these really talented musicians. This is all such a big love note from us to everybody, but also to ourselves. I’m very sappy, if you can’t tell.+
Jane No: I think it’s such an energy exchange, so it’s not just what we’re putting out there. We are also getting back what the audience is giving, and their energy.
Stephanie Byrne: It’s a banter. It really is.
Jane No: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Stephanie Byrne: That is what’s fun about our shows. I think that we’ve all listened to bands and, maybe enjoyed them, their message and their sound, but then seen them live and had a very different understanding. A lot of bands are better live. And I think that we are like that. It’s not to down our own music, but, like, that is literally the game. We’re all coming here to play the game, and I like that. We’re all coming here to rage with each other.
Cheap Perfume’s new album Don’t Care. Didn’t Ask is out now. LP, cassette, and CD available here.
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