Turn Down for What, with Coco Roy
Coco Roy is an artist, musician, and filmmaker based in Somerville, MA. If you put Fred Schneider, Poly Styrene, and the city of Worcester in a blender, you kinda get a sense of the energy she’s bringing. Hands down one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet at a dive bar, in a parking lot, on set, or at an Institute of Contemporary Art.
The Well (TW): Hi Coco! Can we start with the Gone Bad in Hollywood story?
Coco Roy (CR): My old band Gone Bad was on a big North American tour and we were playing in this record store in Hollywood. I was ready for the glitz and glamor, but had a more than upset stomach. After relentlessly searching for a bathroom, someone at Walgreens finally let me use theirs and what followed can only be described as…harrowing. Anyhoo, then it was showtime, I had eaten a bunch of Pepto-Bismol tablets and was ready to sing my heart out. I jump around a lot on stage and since it was a million degrees, I also had shorts on—which is rare. Mid set, a giant cockroach fell from somewhere into my hair and I was trying to shake it out without missing a beat. Later on I rolled on the ground, squishing the bug all on my leg. My bandmate saw this giant smear down my leg and started laughing, but also looking at me in horror. I was confused but kept going. She later revealed that my earlier stomach issues lead her to believe the squashed cockroach was actually me shitting my pants while playing. We were listening to a bunch of GG Allin on tour so it seemed fitting.
TW: Disgusting. Gone Bad released live recordings from some of the most beloved dive bars and DIY spots around. What stands out?
CR: The Church [First Church of the Buzzard] in Oakland was really fun. For Brooklyn, hands down it’s Tommy’s Tavern. I haven’t played there in years but Gone Bad played there all the time. Anytime I asked if there was a date available, the owner would say yes because I was the only one contacting him! They had a smoke machine and you knew you were doing a really good set if Jay the sound guy kicked the smoke machine on while you were playing. That and flicking the lights. I could go on and on about that place. Cake Shop (NYC) was another place I really loved, so many fun shows! There’s DAAC in Grand Rapids, and The Crooked I in Eerie, PA, too.
TW: No Providence?!
CR: First off I love Providence! I explored it a little as a teenager (what’s up, Club Hell!) but didn't really fall in love with it until I was 20, when I started playing roller derby. The girls in the Providence roller derby league were a mix of queers, artists, activists, and musicians who really introduced me to the city I began to love. Over the years I was in multiple bands that would play down there a bunch and it was something I always looked forward to. I've also worked on a bunch of movies shot down here which I'm always psyched about because I just really dig it. I'm quite the fan.
Coco with the Devil Honeys: Kayla Reed, Jimmy Luc, Ali Chedekel, Chey Harvey, Jake Lutter, and Kylie Paul
TW: How’d you get into roller derby?
CR: So, I skated as a kid and then at some point when I was 19 or 20, my friend gave me her mom’s old roller skates to mess around with. One of my roommates saw an article about roller derby and was like, “This seems like something you’d like.” So, I looked it up and there was a Providence team. There was no website or social media, but I got an email address and contacted them and then the next thing I knew, I was taking the train to carpool with a stranger to a rink in Taunton. I got hooked immediately and just met some really great people and was having a ton of fun. There wasn’t a league in Boston yet but a couple women were trying to start one—I was their first recruit! You had to be 21 to skate and I wasn’t, so I lied because I wanted to skate so bad and I figured I’d turn 21 by the time we actually had a bout.
That summer I’d skate in Providence with the more established league, and then in Boston where we were slowly getting people to show up. I’m a founding member of the Boston league and those early days were so fun! Looking back, it's really cool to have been part of something from the ground up. It was a lot of my life for years and I made so many friendships through it. For someone that has never had a lot of confidence it made me feel really confident and good in my own body. I would never wear shorts, and next thing I know I’m skating in front of hundreds of people in my underwear, ha! I still hang with a lot of people I skated with and am still an avid skater today. I have nothing to do with the league now, but my love for rollerskating never died.
TW: Let’s go back to before your derby days. Who was Coco the kid?
CR: I loved the ocean and the beach. I loved movies and music from an early age. Some of my earliest memories are listening to music in the car with my dad. My obsessions were Pee-wee, Jacques Cousteau, and The B-52's. I hated school and was in my own head a lot of the day, dreaming of not being there. My best friend Brooks and I were inseparable. We lived in record stores and haunted the local video store trying to see every weird movie we could. We both worked at Friendly’s together—which was horrible but has provided a lifetime of stories. I'd blast Venus in Furs in my room while applying ten pounds of eyeliner like, “Someday I'm gonna be an artist in New York! Ha!”
TW: Was your first band around this time? Like a garage punk band or something?
CR: When I was really young—like before school—I had a band called Loving Hearts Band which consisted of me banging on my uncle's guitar to a prerecorded beat on a keyboard. Who the hell knows if I was singing or what I was saying!? I just remember being at my grandparent’s house and they had people over, and I thought It would be a perfect opportunity to premiere the Loving Hearts Band. I told everyone I was in the band; I remember really liking saying "I'm in a band". I also just really liked performing and being a weirdo. My Auntie even later made me a sweatshirt with the band name on it, which solidified the idea. I realized I loved performing and just making some kinda sound.
TW: What made school a bad experience?
CR: I think it's a mixed bag of things. I’ve always been really self motivated and driven, especially when I’m doing my own projects. When I was young I couldn’t really read, not until second grade. I got made fun of for that and just always felt really stupid. Math just didn’t make sense, and over the years I’d have multiple teachers be visibly and verbally frustrated with me. I didn’t really know what to tell them, it just didn’t make sense to me. Art class and any type of writing is what I enjoyed. I never felt like I quite fit in and would just day dream a lot. My best friend said before we became friends she would watch me knit secretly under my desk, and that sums up how I was. It's not that I hated learning, I just think traditional school or whatever was how my brain worked.
TW: Well that sucks, but, let’s talk about how your brain does work. What are you most proud o?
CR: My friend and I would always joke about showing “our work” in museums—but usually only in reference to, like, a bad photo our phones took in our pocket or something. But then I actually showed in a museum! Ha! My short film Sogno Blu showed at the ICA (Boston) this fall, and was also screened in London and Berlin. It's part one of a trilogy; the second part, Sogno Rosso is something I've been working on for a while and am really proud of. It's all shot and edited and is currently being scored by my dear friend and collaborator Renato Montenegro. I shot on film at the beach, in the ocean, sewed the costumes, built the sets, and edited—so a lot of heart and soul went into it. I can't wait to see it come to life with Renato's score.
A young Coco appearing as her childhood hero, Jacques Cousteau
TW: Your practice is super DIY—is that paying the bills? Or are you freelancing on the side? What’s Coco’s financial picture?
CR: My Dad always worked a million jobs growing up and I definitely learned to hustle from him. It's a very important skill as an artist—that and budgeting. I have paid my rent and bills through art a handful of times but it always feels fleeting. Career wise I am in IATSE and work mainly in the prop department on movies. When I'm on a movie gig and working like a maniac, I can afford to live and I try to squirrel money away. When I'm not, I'm doing everything to hustle—cleaning basements, running my online store, learning to be a sound sister at Myrtle. Over the years I've worked as a film worker, a hairdresser, a bartender, a barista, receptionist, florist, door gal at a tattoo shop, shop girl, on film projection teams, and helped my friend Hilken teach aerobics. The list goes on. Trying to live as an artist has always been extremely important to me so I've always hustled to make it work. That being said, the ever soaring rent is always fucking stressful.
TW: What helps with the stress? Besides art.
CR: I'd say reading tarot and exercise. Both kinda help me out mentally. Skating really brings me a lot of joy and clears my head. I also love walking around the city. I put on music and walk, and walk, and look at all the buildings. If I'm working on a film I'll listen to the score I'm working with over and over, walking around to kinda work out my ideas. Reading tarot cards is kinda like a mental reset. Sometimes I'll just pull a card for the day and meditate on that.
TW: So your day jobs, hobbies, and personal art practice—there’s not a lot of separation.
CR: I feel like everything I do is interconnected. Take film for example. So, if I’m working on a short film I’m writing, directing and editing, and sometimes also doing the sound. So that's where sound and film intertwine. When I do 2D work, I primarily work in felt—making giant backdrops or tapestry type things which I then use for my films. Sometimes I make a whole backdrop out of felt. I’m shifting mediums but often for the same project. If I need a break from felt, I switch to music, or editing or whatever. It's kinda nuts to do all that on your own stuff but when it's my own art I'm a control freak. There's my current band, Electric Street Queens—I love playing music but also painting, so I’ll make the flyers or album art. I’ve shot and edited a few of our music videos. So, everythings connected.
TW: On that, how does your work intersect with activism, or any social causes?
CR: Over the years I've been a part of a bunch of different fundraisers, whether it be music comps, live shows, film screenings, or selling my own art to raise money for various causes. Things like abortion funds, Project Restore Us, Rosie’s Place, NAIM, and the Marsha P. Johnson Institute. I'm currently booking a show where we're collecting non perishables and menstrual products for community fridges. I like playing shows to raise money for certain causes, you feel like you're all chippin’ in. I could always be doing more.
On a personal level, just being a woman on stage feels like its own thing. I've been told I'm too aggressive or too sexual a performer, too loud etc—but nothing like that has ever been said to the men I've played with, at least not in front of me. I've been told to not focus on my art; told to have a baby. I was told in my late 20's / early 30's to enjoy jumping around now cause I'm not gonna do it in my 40's. I turn 40 this summer and have no intention of stopping. I've always looked up to female musicians that just keep going—who don't stop creating even though they've been told to turn down.
TW: Early on, you mentioned Club Hell. Care to elaborate on those nights?
CR: Not really, ha. I guess there’s dancing with my best friend and peeing between parked cars—but that's not exactly something for the memoirs. I just love dancing, and now that I think of it, it may have been the first real club I danced at.
TW: Too late now; the people know. What’s coming up for you?
CR: My band Electric Street Queens is playing a show June 8th at Ralph's in Worcester with Gossip Collar, Orange Whip and Cigarette Camp! Electric Street Queens play Myrtle on August 11th and Devil Honey—me, my bass, and drum machine—is there July 20th.
