We are FUSION BABIES, a femme hardcore punk band from Long Beach, California, formed in 2021 from little pieces of glitter. A shiny group of rebirths & deaths wrapped up in flesh & bones (humans), Valentine (bassist) went around Long Beach collecting the shine they found along their journey into the music scene. They reached out to me (Sandra, screamer), Summer (guitarist), and Tate, our former drummer (now Lorenzo). We had a show lined up instantly (thanks to our musician friends) and practiced almost every day together for a month prior until we finished tracking our first tape.
Honorary members consist of our bunny crew: SafeKidz, Alex, and Berlin.
When we first formed the band, we agreed to use our music to speak on the issues important to us individually and collectively – our original motivation was to heal our childhood wounds through sacred anger. The individual and global state of the world definitely impacts our writing.
Every song we write begins as a poem. I write after meditation sessions, during long cries, after I wake up, on the bus – anywhere there’s a good moment for a song to crawl its way into my brain. I start with a single word or phrase and let it grow from there. The lyrics are usually inspired by our experiences with the outside world; a reactive compulsion to vent about the basic respect we demand as humans. Valentine and I have written a few tracks together by frankensteining our original poems together.
The femme scene has been growing fast and it’s been beautiful to watch. I do get the occasional “pfft” from men at venues but we pay that no mind. As femmes we’ve encountered the same issues since we were children except now we take up space and we’re loud about it – WE ARE HERE TO STAY! The love we’ve received has been so amazing, to look out and see all these femmes screaming along pouring their insides out makes it all worth it. We have the cutest, sweetest, most wholesome fans.
The Long Beach music scene has shifted so much throughout the years. It’s become more diverse and trans-inclusive. We’re so grateful to our friends and community for believing in us.
Touring has also been amazing, many ups and downs of course. No one tells you touring feels like you’re moving in with 10+ people for 3 months… You get to learn everyone’s insides and outs, strengths and weaknesses. It’s made our bond stronger, we’re more than family now. Meeting new people is my favorite part of traveling, every little section of the US has its own unique set of insanely talented people. We’re very grateful to the locals in the cities we’ve played in for the after-hour tours <haha>. But we’ve also seen the sadness in some places, the poverty that parallels our own, the lack of diversity…
From our performances, I hope people take away that it’s okay to be angry. It’s okay to be sad. I hope people can think and rethink the things we need to do to make the world a better place for all of us. Free Palestine, BlackLivesMatter, Land Back.
-Sandra. (Vox) for FUSION BABIES.
