We got a chance to speak with Guelph, Ontario hell-raisers Bonnie Trash about their new album Mourning You, which is out now, its heavy themes of death, their unique melding of post-punk and goth rock, and more.
Bonnie Trash is the project of twin sisters Emmalia & Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor who took time out to talk with us.
First off, where are you all from? And how did you form as a band?
Emmalia (E): We are from Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Sarafina and I started the band in 2013 and became more active in 2015. We wanted to write and play music that felt more authentic to our roots of loving heavier music, horror, and post-punk. In addition to that, we wanted to bring in our nonna Maria as a collaborator. We wove our music around her horror stories. We started as a duo–Sarafina would sing and play electronic drums and I would double up on guitar and bass parts, often splitting my signal between two amps to fill in the sound.
Sarafina (S): Our early works, Ezzelini’s Dead and Malocchio, feature Emmalia and I recording all the instrumentation. As the primary composers, we hold a very specific vision for our music and art. Finding band members who respect this, and support it is a beautiful thing. We are very fortunate to have now expanded into a 4-piece with bandmates and close friends, Dana Bellamy (drums), and Emma Howarth-Withers (bass guitar), who support our vision, and bring the music to a whole new level. We also work in-studio with our co-producer/engineer, Josh Korody, who is an essential part of our team, and brings our compositions to life. Thank you, Josh!
Who were some of your musical influences?
S: Black Sabbath, John Carpenter, Refused, Judas Priest, Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, Deafheaven, The Smashing Pumpkins, Annie Lennox, Slowdive, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cure, BRMC, and of course: Emmalia’s guitar. Outside of music, horror and absurdist film and theatre are both big influences.
E: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Black Sabbath, Deafheaven, Nine Inch Nails, to add to the top here.
What are some of your favorite bands currently? Anyone doing things that leave you in awe?
S: Amyl and the Sniffers are absolutely brilliant. Ragana, Bria Salmena, and Backxwash are total faves making hard-hitting, authentic, and beautiful music. And I really love listening to local bands: absolute musts you have to check out are Slash Need, Burner, Gloin, Shiv and the Carvers, World Eaters, and Cease.
E: I am inspired by the guitar playing and creation of feedback that defines entire tones from Takiaya Reed on baritone (Divide and Dissolve); the dual-guitar playing between Robin Wattie and Mathieu Ball (Big Brave); and the physical technique and approach in the solo works of Mathieu Ball. Emma Ruth Rundle’s Electric Guitar One album has been in rotation for over 11 years now and I am still hearing new tones with each listen.
How would you describe your music and sound?
S: Cinematic, heavy, abrasive, and haunting.
What do you want listeners to take from your music?
E: We want listeners to find a catharsis, a resonance with the way that we make our music and tell our stories. There is no taking, there is only an invitation to sit in the space that we are sharing with you.
What’s your process when it comes to crafting music?
E: The process tends to change with each album / body of work. What does stay the same is holding space to be unbelievably honest in the collaboration process and not holding any grudges in that state of honesty. We try everything at least once and listen with openness.
S: It all starts with a story. Storytelling is at the heart of what we do. Sometimes writing music starts with Emmalia composing an instrumental piece, drone, or a series of riffs. Emmalia will send this to me, I’ll take it and write lyrics, and start crafting the song’s structure. Other times it starts with myself writing on piano, guitar, drums, or with a vocal melody. I’ll craft a loose structure and send it over to Emmalia. Once Emmalia’s guitar is on the song, that’s when it truly sounds like Bonnie Trash.
Congrats on your album Mourning You! How does it feel now that it’s done? How’s the response been so far?
E: Thank you! While the physical record part is done, we are on to part 2: booking and arranging shows. We love this album, it is special because it represents a deep love of someone we miss so dearly. We want to play it live wherever we can. I am overwhelmed and overjoyed by the messages that we receive from new listeners and peers. It is heart-warming to hear that this album is emotionally resonating with so many different people.
How’d the creative process come together for the album?
E: For Mourning You, Sarafina and I would create sessions in a DAW on a shared computer. We would take turns adding our ideas to form a printable demo. We each had our own ideas – so whomever had an idea first starts the session. The start could be anything: a lyric, a mumbled melody, some beat, or a riff on a guitar. We would then start playing the pieces together to see what was working and what needed to be tweaked. I think the nice part about this process is that we could print our sessions at different moments to listen back and really have the sounds sit with us both as individuals and together.
S: It all began with a story, a true story. The feelings and emotions of grief, anger, sadness, beauty, and love… this is what fueled the creative process, and allowed us to write music in a way that feels authentic to us.
The album deals with some heavy themes – death, loss, and grief, what made you want to tackle these topics? Was it difficult to approach? Any catharsis in penning and releasing these ideas?
Mourning You is about the horrors of grief. It’s the fear in the eyes of a loved one about to die, and the fear in your eyes staring back. The album is an embodiment of processing the death of our Nonna Maria. We are haunted by these lingering memories, both the pleasant and bitter spaces we found ourselves in. With that grief, we were anguished with the thought: how far would you go if you could get a ticket to see that person one more time? Each song is part of an internal dialogue, ruminations, remembrances, and processing the disappointments of being left to die.
For us, we worked with horror as the space for catharsis to happen. Horror is a genre that isn’t afraid to talk about grief and death. When we are scared, we are at our most vulnerable state, and open to all fear’s mysteries. Grief is a powerful and scary thing that every human experiences, and to mourn means to not only grieve but to continue living while carrying the beautiful memories of what or who was lost.
Is there an overarching message you want listeners to take from the album?
S: It is ok to grieve, to be sad, to be angry, and to mourn. Grieving can bring up beautiful memories and remind us of our loved ones. I hope people find a release when they listen to our album.
Your music is also very cinematic in nature, were there any influences from film?
S: You nailed it. When I write songs, it all starts with a story. I then think about how that story would play out visually and narratively on a film screen. What the characters would say or do, the location, whether it’s nighttime or daytime (it’s always nighttime by the way). This process helps me craft a song from beginning to end, just like a film. I am very inspired by the horror genre and horror movies, absurdity, humor, and the macabre. Dario Argento, David Lynch, John Carpeneter, Jennifer Kent are just some of my main influences among countless other filmmakers. This approach to songwriting also helps when it comes to our music videos that I love to direct and produce with my team of brilliant friends.
E: Under every song, I layer different guitar textures and drones to create almost a “room tone” of the space where the song lives. I want these tones to be part of a different universe to support the storytelling. There are countless films where the scoring establishes this alternate universe and when it clicks, it’s incredible.
Do you have a favorite track off the album, and why? “Veil of Greed” goes hard! That riff is too good.
S: Thank you! It’s hard to pick one song. I love them all. “Hellmouth” and “Haunt Me” are such a delight to perform live. But the one song that brings tears to my eyes, even when I merely think about it, is “Your Love is My Revenge.” I wrote that on Emmalia’s baritone guitar, and the lyrics came too easily. It’s about losing a loved one, wishing you knew more about them before they passed, and longing to see them again. You are not ready to accept that they are gone. Grief is hard and it’s something we all go through. “Your Love is My Revenge” is a reminder of the difficulty of accepting death and the hope for reconnection afterward. I am too afraid to visit your grave – so I leave you flowers instead.
E: “Your Love is My Revenge” was the last track for us to complete on the album. We transposed it three times before it started to sit well and when it did, I felt the catharsis needed in completing this album.
Besides music, do you all have any other passions?
S: Directing and making music videos with friends (fun fact: I direct most of our music videos), and community music education here in Guelph with GGRC+ (Guelph Girls Rock Camp+). My greatest passion is making music, but I think that’s quite obvious, no?
E: Music and art making takes up most aspects of my life and will direct where my life goes. If it is not being channeled into Bonnie Trash, it is channeled into community-based arts and alternative music education.
What can people expect from you in the future? Album? Tour?
More music, more shows, more everything. Whatever we do next musically, it’ll be heavier than ever.
We always say you have to be fearless to chase your dreams, do you agree?
You have to be, and you need to take risks. Do not let anyone tell you you can’t do something, or be who you are. They probably aren’t the right people to be around. They are the problem, you are not. Surround yourself with people who build you up, and who believe in you, and who you want to build up and believe in too.
Being fearless is also taking the responsibility in uplifting the voices of those who are in legitimate fear to express who they are–not because of their own selves, but because of a society that threatens their state of survival. Share that freedom to uplift. Use this freedom to resist and dismantle systems of oppression and supremacy.
Mourning You is streaming now!
