“Are you…are you gay yet!?...” Lead singer Lenni of the band Pink Suits belts into the microphone wearing nothing but a construction vest and tidy-widys.
Lyrically heavy and instrumentally light, Pink Suits is a duo that demands to be heard. Consisting of Lenni as the guitar player and Ray on drums, the two met at a party in London in 2014. While both come from backgrounds in dance, the political atmosphere of 2016 inspired an urge to change direction. Feeling like dance could not sufficiently convey their emotions, Lennie and Ray decided to learn guitar and drums as their messages began to flow.
“We did a lot of writing about things we wanted to say, observations of living in the UK as working-class queer people, and decided we should start a band in order to perform this work,” Ray said.
Transitioning into the world of the music industry came with its own set of difficulties. Lennie explained that because they only knew dance organizers, their first shows were all live art events and cabaret shows.
While crowds in queer spaces dug the spirit and showmanship that Pink Suits brought to shows, music venues didn’t always match this warmth. Lennie described a show where a woman called it “illegal” for Ray to drum topless and tried to report them. Other men even started filming Ray playing. This didn’t stop Pink Suits' momentum, Lennie concluded, “Some people just hate us.”
“We had one article written about us saying that no one in the room cared about our music so we felt like we had to take our clothes off to get attention,” Ray revealed.
These types of vulgar crowds only fuel the flame for Ray and Lennie. Playing many shows in matching pink boots or newspaper-covered “Dystopian Hellscape” pants, Pink Suits comes off like the type of band that would fly to your rescue in a superhero cartoon.
With music about the wealth gap, white supremacists, and LGBTQ+ rights, Pink Suits' mission is to create a space of liberation for those who feel enraged by the political system. Their shows exist as a protest and coping mechanism for like-minded individuals.
“For us music is a place to address society in all its horror and beauty,” Lennie said. “Everyone listens to music and it's a way to speak to people in an accessible way and share the experience you are having.”
Much like their song “We Can Shout,” Pink Suits talks about the lack of money in playing music. Mostly playing at grassroots and DIY spaces, Ray explained that venues cannot guarantee money at any given gig. If the audiences for these types of shows consist of working-class queer people, they can’t afford to constantly pay for tickets and this causes venues to lose money. With that, Ray stressed the importance of a rebalance of funding to support local venues and programmers. By doing so, this supports music from the bottom up.
Pink Suits provides a funny but on-the-nose examination of financial instability in their song “ A Comprehensive Breakdown of How Trickle Down Economics Works,” yelling “IT DOESN'T!”
The duo’s 2021 album “Political Child,” is equally dead on in addressing the 2016 election and Brexit, among other affairs. Lennie talks about how when they first started playing the album live they would preface how topical these issues felt, but sadly not much has changed. With this album including a song that calls all our world leaders racists, if Pink Suits represents anything, it’s honesty.
“It is important that we support and lift each other and keep pressuring larger institutions within the industry to value these things too” Ray exclaimed concerning their mission in music.
Pink Suits album “Dystopian Hellscape,” which hasn’t been released in its entirety quite yet, brings their latest attitude toward the government. This album addresses the weight that both Lennie and Ray feel in the government's attempt to limit democratic rights for protest. These restrictions also include the vilification of queer people and the emotional burden of the political terrain’s hateful direction.
“Living as queer people in a country that is increasingly hostile to queer people, people of colour, immigrants, and honestly anyone who isn’t rich and white, is just relentless,” Ray admitted. “I think for us our music is a chance to scream about it.”
To find out more information about Pink Suits, their music, and their mission, feel free to check out their website.
