Sassyhiya are releasing their new single ‘Boat Called Predator‘ today. We are honoured to be sharing the video below.
‘Boat Called Predator ‘ is the opening track on their forthcoming album Take You Somewhere out on the 8th of November through Skep Wax. Its a great way to start, inviting you to roam; insistent, almost ominous, with a carousel of glistening guitar riffs and upbeat percussion. While the hook laden, ping pong of Kathy and Helen’s melodies meditate on a yearning to escape, with a siren call of a chorus that means you can’t go back. It’s a rollicking, and tuneful ride.
About the new single, Kathy from Sassyhiya says: “This song was written while travelling through Scotland, near Skye. In the car we were passed by someone towing a boat with the name ‘Predator’. A lot of the woodland there is dominated by rhododendrons, an invasive species. It was weirdly jarring to see something so ornamental and domestic running rampant in the wild. I was thinking about living away from civilisation, living an itinerant life, and how that can be very freeing in a way because it makes you anonymous.”
Sassyhiya (pronounced “Sassy Hi Ya”) were formed when Helen and Kathy, real-life partners and co-songwriters, joined up with Pablo and Neil (drums and guitar). Helen had previously been in Boys Forever and Basic Plumbing, collaborating with much-missed Veronica Falls musician Patrick Doyle. She and Kathy then formed Barry, a stripped-down queercore outfit, with Bart McDonagh (The Male Gays) and Mark Amura (My Executive Dysfunction). Sassyhiya feels like a culmination of all these elements, hitting the sweet spot between post-punk and indie pop. They know their way around a melody but still keep it wonky, with influences ranging from the Breeders and Broadcast to Dolly Parton.
Sassyhiya want to take you somewhere. The journey starts in Kathy and Helen’s flat in South London. Sit down, close your eyes, and immerse yourself. You are on your way to a musical rainforest a long way from Camberwell.
Explore your new surroundings, and you will find beautiful pop blooms like Let’s See What We Can Find, as bright and vibrant as The Sundays, thrusting their colourful faces up from the forest floor. You’ll find tangles of sharp-edged guitar, as if Swiss she-punks Kleenex had been left to evolve here in the rich fertile soil (I Had A Thought). You’ll find dark pools full of lyrical complexity, deceptively deep and immersive, with shimmering reflections of The Go-Betweens (Perennial). And you’ll come across delicate love songs, creeping up the trunks and branches of the bass and drums, displaying their fragile beauty (Thank You And Goodbye). And what’s that exotic striped animal prowling through the undergrowth? Actually, it’s Crayon Potato, Sassyhiya’s pet cat, the other resident of their flat in South London, taking up her role as the feline star of a lilting, singalong anthem written in her honour.
That’s what is so great about this album. You are somehow, simultaneously, exploring the most exotic forest in the world while also sitting in a flat in an ordinary, familiar English street with Sassyhiya and their cat. This album transports you without pretending the real world doesn’t exist: it doesn’t get all mystical on you (Take You Somewhere is as unlike Enya as anything you’ve heard). Sometimes you might be reminded of Girls At Our Best, and then Delta 5. You might even, on occasion, think of Echo and the Bunnymen.
The first single, Kristen Stewart, is here too: a bold love song to a queer icon, affirming Sassyhiya’s status as the queens (and kings) of a thriving queer indiepop scene. It’s joyous and it’s life-affirming. There are other love songs here too, like the jokey, wonkily flirtatious Puppet Museum. The album ends with You Can Give It (But You Can’t Take It) – a proper anthem of defiance, gently but insistently taking down the bullies and reactionaries who trample over beauty and diversity: the kind of people you might, unfortunately, bump into as you make your way back onto the streets of South London.
As Sassyhiya, they released an EP in January 2022 (Gum Demos), which was written, played, recorded, and mixed at home in South London over lockdown. A second EP (Live at Paper Dress Vintage) followed in November 2022, showcasing the band’s newline up featuring Pablo Paganotto (of Punching Swans) on drums and Neiloy Mookherjee on guitar. They have recorded a live session for Resonance FM and were featured on an episode of cult YouTube music programme Cutscene TV. They have also been included on compilations for Loud Women and Related Records. They have shared bills with the likes of Fat White Family’s Brian Destiny, Big Joanie, Mr Ben and the Bens, Cable Ties, Fightmilk, Breakup Haircut, Lande Hekt and Snoozers.
They will also be playing a number of shows in the Autumn, including an album release party at The Cavendish Arms, London, on 8th November:
1 Oct 2024: London, Moth Club
8 Nov 2024: London, Cavendish Arms (album release)
23 Nov 2024: Oxford, Jericho Tavern
2 Dec 2024: Leeds, New Headingley Club
14 Dec 2024: Rainham, Oast
22 Dec 2024: London, Lexington
24 Jan 2025: Sheffield, Hallamshire Hotel
