Interview with Sweeping Exits vocalist/guitarist Mira Glitterhound | By Kelley O’Death
“My first serious love affair with horror was in seventh grade, watching movies with punk friends who were into [directors Dario] Argento and [David] Cronenberg,” says Mira Glitterhound, vocalist, guitarist, and arranger for Portland’s Sweeping Exits. “I also saw The Cramps around this time, which planted a seed in my mind of what a live show could be. Horror’s importance in my life resurfaced in my early 20s as a coping mechanism for a number of things I was going through at the time.”
“Horror wasn’t present in my music until around four years ago, when I had an office job working for an internet scam,” she continues. “I spent 40 hours a week on the phone getting yelled at by lawyers that our company had sold faulty [search engine optimization] packages to. I also had a severe back injury, which is how I ended up in an office job in the first place. I was desperate for a deeper form of escapism than simply writing songs about my thoughts and feelings.”
“I started writing surrealist pieces about my body being mutilated, which sounds dark but felt incredibly liberating,” Glitterhound recalls. “I studied Dada and Surrealism, feeling that these artists were seeking the same thing that I was. I would sit with my sketchbook, drawing characters, storyboarding, and writing while I listened to Mozart. It was the perfect escape. Then, as I came out as trans and encountered a new slew of traumatic experiences, horror and Surrealism gave voice to my desire to be free of oppression.”
Those early musings have now blossomed into the glam punk sounds of Sweeping Exits, a group of five queer vampires—Glitterhound, vocalist and keyboardist Myrrh Crow, string player Shanley Narens, bassist Nia Fae Loy, and drummer Logan White—seeking liberation from daily injustices through a horror-infused universe of their own creation. Their debut full-length, Glitter & Blood—released June 9 via Matriarch Queen Records—offers the first peek into their world of darkness, opulence, and queer power.
Horror has long been a way for societies to confront their collective fears and experience catharsis in a safe environment. While most movie monsters have represented perceived menaces to the mainstream status quo, vampires specifically have been used as a symbol of “aberrant sexuality,” a threat to heteronormative standards and gender conformity. Sweeping Exits subvert this trope, using horror to offer catharsis to the people it once targeted as “dangerous.”
“I think, in a way, we take the tradition and turn it on its head,” Glitterhound explains. “The ‘monsters’ are the protagonists in our stories, and the humans represent oppression and submission to a banal existence. As a queer person, I feel much more connected to the demonized ‘other’ than I do to the guy with nice teeth who kills the monster. So, rather than saving the town from the monster, I’m saving the monster from the town.”
On Glitter & Blood, that “monster” is the queer vampire Desmond, “who becomes a rock star and, eventually, Queen of the Vampires,” Glitterhound shares. “Thematically, it’s a reflection on my experience as a queer person, as well as my personal ambitions. It’s set in the 1970s and seeks to blend glam with first wave punk.” The record is the first installment of a four-LP series. “Each record will have a vastly different sound and be set in a different time [and] place within the same storyline,” she says. “I’d love to lay out the whole arc for you, but I feel nervous letting copycats know what’s in store.”
Sweeping Exits offer this fictional world in which queer people have the power to their listeners—especially queer youth—as a form of respite from real world subjugation, but their commanding message has practical applications as well. “I would love if young queer people could take something from our work out into the world,” Glitterhound says. “I want the art to act as a salve to ease their pain, but also an inspiration to take action. I want to convey that the war against queer people’s lives and bodies will never succeed, because there’s just too many of us. I think what it will look like long term is future generations refusing to be oppressed because they grew up seeing trans celebrities and trans [artists] in the mainstream. I also want to convey that every queer person is OK wherever they’re at and not shame anyone who isn’t out or who can’t ‘take a stand’ at this time.”
While their themes and narrative are essential to Sweeping Exits’ musical identity, all glam bands worth their salt recognize the importance of aesthetics. “Theatricality and performance have always been integral to my art, and the aesthetics are a consequence of that,” Glitterhound says. “Honestly, the root of this for me was Jimi Hendrix. I was obsessed with him as a kid, and felt he was superhuman. I would watch videos of him performing and think, ‘This is magic. He’s creating real life magic, and the people watching don’t know what to make of it.’ His clothes, his movements, his sounds—it was all part of him choosing to be more than human. I wanted that—really badly.”
“I’m not someone who cares about looking a certain way when I go to the grocery store,” she notes, “but with the band, I focus on maintaining a consistent look and feel. This aids the narratives within the music, and helps the audience ‘fall into’ the experience of our live show. I want people to be able to run away into our world; I want them to live the fantasy we’re creating in that moment.”
Fans got the opportunity to feel the fantasy at Sweeping Exits’ release show on June 9 at Black Water Bar in Portland. After that, the band plan to do an in-studio set for KEXP, then take their live show up and down the West Coast with Babe Waves from Bellingham, Washington.
While they’re still based in the City of Roses, this ability to pull up roots and explore other venues seems a welcome opportunity for Glitterhound. “Portland’s punk scene was crucial to my formation as a musician,” she reflects. “I started going to shows around age 12, when the scene was bands that sounded like early Dischord [Records] and L.A. hardcore. Then, I dove into powerviolence and all the Hellshock [and] His Hero Is Gone bands. The energy at all of those shows was immense—something I’ve never forgotten. My sense of connection to the scene has diminished continually since that time. At present, I feel almost no connection to what’s happening Portland.”
Portlanders can only hope that Sweeping Exits won’t stray too far from home, as their visceral aggression and supernatural allure have the potential to revitalize the city’s rapidly evolving music scene. Glitterhound says attendees of their shows can “expect lots of blood, lingerie, and Myrrh Crow looking you in the eyes as ze sings the words, ‘No one can hear you scream…’” Pitchfork-wielding townsfolk need not apply.
Purchase Glitter & Blood here: Bandcamp
Tour Dates:
06/08 Seattle, WA – The Wormhole
06/09 Portland, OR – Blackwater Bar
06/10 Bellingham, WA – Karate Church
06/23 Oakland, CA – House Show
06/24 Los Angeles, CA – Bridgetown
06/25 San Diego, CA – Title TK
06/26 San Francisco, CA – EL RIO
06/29 San Jose, CA – Salon SJ
06/30 Arcata, CA – House Show
07/01 Eugene, OR – The Boreal
