Sister Sarcophagus isn’t afraid to make noise and get in your face, in fact, they often embrace it. Singer Heather Macklem says she “[doesn’t] want to write love songs and [she doesn’t] particularly care about making something beautiful.” Macklem always wanted to be in a band and an upcoming festival motivated her to finally start one.
Sister Sarcophagus came together in time for Not Enough Fest just under a year ago; guitar player Amberlie Harsch was a friend from university, drummer Kelly Gates was a co-worker and keyboardist Karin Snyder was introduced by a mutual friend.
Macklem hates conforming to expectations and explains that “nobody likes to describe their own sound” but accepts the description “rock ’n’ roll with punk and grunge influences.”
She went on to explain that Sister Sarcophagus was kind of random; when they were making a list of potential names for their group, they thought it sounded cool and represented the power of death, sex and femininity.
Sister Sarcophagus, as one might guess from the name, is an all-girl band. However, they’re no Spice Girls. Their music is lyrically driven and they have stories to tell and lessons to teach. About one of their most well recognized songs, “You Asked For It”, Macklem says, “I was really angry when I wrote it. “I could just feel the song begging to be sung. I love taking a sensitive subject like murder or sexual assault and turning it into a song, a song that slaps you in the face and makes you think about the world! That is the power of music.”
Not all of their songs are angry responses to victim blaming but they definitely won’t be crooning any love ballads soon, they’ve “tried to write a few slow songs but they end up being fast songs.”
While they don’t have any gigs coming up until the spring, Karin is travelling to South Africa to study leopards and they do have a five-song EP coming. Feed the Fetus features “You Asked For It,” as well as “Empire,” “You’re Gonna Get Stung,” “Whiskey Cologne” and “Murder.” You can currently learn more about their music and watch for upcoming gigs on Facebook; they will be launching on SoundCloud or Bandcamp soon.
Danielle S. Fuechtmann
