CHRISTEENE – Universal Mother Fucker
The untamed force of queer punk, CHRISTEENE, has been hiding in a wooden shack in upstate New York. Queer DJ Cormac tracked her down for an exclusive interview on Zoom. We find out about their connection to Sinéad, marriage in a basement in Dalston and why we don’t go to clubs to cuddle, or do we?
Interview Cormac Photography Christian Trippe
Kaftan by Rick Owens
Cormac: I think you're here, CHRISTEENE.
CHRISTEENE: Can you see my face?
Cormac: Beautiful.
CHRISTEENE: Oh, wait! I can't see my face. I don't. Oh shit, there I am!
Cormac: CHRISTEENE!
CHRISTEENE: How is it going?
Cormac: It's going good. Were you taking the time to douche for me?
CHRISTEENE: I was. Yeah, I was doing a lot. I'm in the woods right now. As you can see, I'm in a wooden shack.
Cormac: Dirty. Are you having some time out?
CHRISTEENE: No, I don't have time out. Everyone's like, “I gonna take off for six months. I'm exhausted.” I'm like, fuck you, Mary, like I don't have the luxury to take off six months, because if I do, my cat will die.
Cormac: I love the pictures you took. I saw a few and they're so beautiful.
CHRISTEENE: Yeah, they're really nice. We worked really hard. And I like working with people like Christian because we are in it to win it and I love that. So yeah, a good thing always comes from that.
Cormac: It's funny when I saw them, because I'm Irish, the first thing I thought was like, “Wow, CHRISTEENE is like a postmodern Banshee”. And it was a funny thought, because when Sinéad died a year ago I also had the same thought. Like Sinéad was kind of a Banshee. She was kind of singing for our troubles, for the suffering of people, and kind of like trying to speak up for people, and I saw a similarity between your pictures and Sinéad actually.
CHRISTEENE: Well, the thing about a Banshee is that nobody wants to hear a Banshee. Banshees are like loud but annoying. Very greedy, and men really hate them.
When Sinéad was alive, many, many people were just like “Shut up, lady”. “Oh, there she goes again!” That old bat is talking loud about bullshit, and now everyone's like, “Oh, we love her so much! She's our patron saint, blah blah blah”, and it's like, “No!” don't play that game. If she’d be alive today, she’d punch the people who made that wax sculpture of her.
Cormac: I think people just weren't ready for it, you know. I think cause Ireland was just in denial about the child abuse and it was still so catholic and shit that, like she was way ahead of it and calling it out and Ireland just couldn't hear it. So I think the easiest thing was like, “Oh, the crazy woman in the corner!” But what she said became evident.
CHRISTEENE: Nobody wanted to hear that shit. That the thing they've been worshipping and following and putting their money towards is abusing children and fucking little boys. No.
Cormac: Yeah, they're all a bit like a week late, and 10 bucks short with the love, though.
CHRISTEENE: That's why I am bringing the show back. They can get another chance to give a little love.
Top by Rick Owens
“It does take a lot out of me, and I have to honestly say, I have not figured out where to go to refill that fuck up. And I think many of us artists, creative people don't know where to go. Many of us go to alcohol, cigarettes, sex.”
Cormac: Nice. I have some questions for you, CHRISTEENE. Can I ask you them?
CHRISTEENE: You may.
Cormac: Sinéad was a protest singer and she sometimes said that the pop career kind of derailed her as a protest singer, and she was speaking up on causes way ahead of the curve and your work, your music, your performance, is also calling on people to stand up against injustices, and the hypocrisies of things, at least as I see it.
And that requires a lot of strength. I wanted to ask you where CHRISTEENE goes to find strength?
CHRISTEENE: Hmm! I mean, thank you for those nice words. I think my live shows speak a lot more than the music itself, because I'm live, and I'm tapped into what's going on, and I have people in front of me to talk to and engage with.
It does take a lot out of me, and I have to honestly say, I have not figured out where to go to refill that fuck up. And I think many of us artists, creative people don't know where to go. Many of us go to alcohol, cigarettes, sex. Especially on the road.
And I think that is one of the most challenging things I have encountered it in my time on this earth, in my 15 years – I'm very young.
I go very dark sometimes. I need care, because it really squeezes my sponge and there's nothing to collect after that. I don't have a lover. I got a cat. And there's no one waiting in bed to cuddle me up and tell me I did a good job that day, except the cat. He don't talk – well, he talks, but not my language.
I believe that intimacy is really important and it’s a wonderful way to fill yourself back up. I don't mean fucking, I mean intimacy. Hugging, kissing, cradling, loving, letting someone know that they're okay, that they've done all right, that they can keep on going. I have very close friends who can help me and do that with me, and then I got cool people out there who show up at my shows and get excited, and you forget how big the world is. And sometimes I have to just get a little Joan Crawford and tap into that fucking shit and be like, “Wow!” There's actually people out there who give a fuck or who want more.
And then the people who are in my family, who can give me a little cradle or a cuddle when I need it. But I don't know how to do it, and I don't think many people know how to do it.
Cormac: It's so beautiful to hear you say that, because with the visual show and the performance, it's easy for people to think that, you know, because it's so strong and it's so powerful. And when we do that sometimes people can think that we're never vulnerable or something, or that we don't need to be taken care of. And just being in this fucking world, we all need to be taken care of.
CHRISTEENE: Exactly.
Cormac: I'm in Berlin at the moment, and there's a club here where you can get pissed on, and there's a club where you can get fisted, and there's a club where you can do like many, many different things, and all of those things are great. But there's no club, where you can go for a cuddle.
CHRISTEENE: You don't go to clubs for cuddles.
Cormac: Well, there's no place, you know, no specific night for that.
CHRISTEENE: I wouldn’t go there – that's some sticky, hippy club.
Cormac: I think I gave you a hug when I saw you in a club, so I cuddled you.
CHRISTEENE: I don't think clubs offer intimacy, but they offer hunting. And finding someone to be intimate with.
Cormac: That’s nice.
CHRISTEENE: All those things you said are fun – fisting and peeing, and all that, and Berlin's famous for having play rooms like that, and I think those things are important, because that allows us to get out of these really boring structures that the heteros have put us in. Church, and shit. Not all heteros but you know what I mean.
Kaftan by Rick Owens
“I live in a metaphorical, fantastical realm, and I like it that way. It makes life a lot more interesting than sitting on your knees praying to a plaster statue.”
Cormac: I hear you. You mentioned religion, and you know it's kind of impossible to mention Sinéad without mentioning religion. Cause she was born into very tough Catholicism and she died a Muslim, and I wondered like what role religion, if any, plays in CHRISTEENE’s work.
CHRISTEENE: Well, religion plays in my work as a target to push on. In a way Sinéad did about the injustices as a main, primarily the Catholic faith. There's a lot of that where I come from and where she came from, and there's just something that really fucking pissed me off about it. You know that many men with that much power, mostly gay men. Sadly. I always say the Catholic Church is what happens when gays get power, back in the day. Now we're just seeing the results.
But personally, me, I'm more of a naturalist. I just talk to shit. I talk to the fucking drawer. I talk to the fucking tree. I always have a very steady, honest, direct channel conversation with something that's there. I don't pray to it. I don't wish to it. I converse with it. I say, “Hey, this shit's gonna be real tough. Hold my hand, let's get through this shit.”
And I have very strange rituals. They're almost superstitions, like throwing salts and I come up with routines for myself that I try not to break that are moments of conversation or channels that open where I can directly connect.
I live in a metaphorical, fantastical realm, and I like it that way. It makes life a lot more interesting than sitting on your knees praying to a plaster statue.
“If there’s any ritual that I can suggest it would be, fucking start with 30 min of your fucking morning alone, and don't play music just fucking hang out with yourself. Try that. Just try that and see what the fuck your brain does.”
Cormac: 100%. Do you have any rituals that you might recommend for the readers of the interview or other queer people out there to help to get through these times?
CHRISTEENE: No, mine are personal. Mine aren't going to help you out at all. The only thing I can tell you is spend some fucking time alone with yourself during the day. That is something that boggles my little brain. And how much time I can look at this machine we are on right now. In this day and age it's very loud. The young kids are like programmed for that shit like they got a machine in their brain. They're just plugged into this shit and it works. I see babies on the train playing with phones. I don't know where this is going except Blade Runner.
But I do know that if there’s any ritual that I can suggest so that it would be, fucking start with 30 min of your fucking morning alone, and don't play music just fucking hang out with yourself. Try that. Just try that and see what the fuck your brain does. You probably jump out of your fucking window because you won't be able to handle it. I'll be holding your hand through the sky.
Cormac: My rituals are kind of spontaneous, but I love it when I find something that just really empowers me as a faggot, you know, because, like just being out there in the world and getting this great affirmation. And I got that from your show, actually just being there and watching your show, and just feeling the kind of punk, queer terrorism of you I just wanted to run around screaming afterwards. I loved it.
CHRISTEENE: Well, you've got community. It's like that. That was generated in you because of a room of people who are collectively, hopefully, feeling something. And it does make one want to run around in the streets like a pony. And I always say that, find your pony, I've been saying that a long time. It’s a beautiful feeling, and the world and the media outlets controlled by psychos like Murdoch. I hope his whole family eats him to death, and then they eat each other.
You know the media and the people in power don't want us to know that there's other people like us out there, and they don't want us to gather, and they want to make it illegal for us to even peacefully gather on the streets. Because of what you just said – you felt energised. You wanted to run around. You felt great. So keep going out. Keep going to your stinky fisting poo-poo bars and find intimacy and community.
Cormac: It is community. You're right, but it's also, you know, the center vortex of that night was you so you have to keep doing what you are doing.
CHRISTEENE: Yeah, I love being a conduct. I will gladly put myself in the very dangerous center point of the room and be the conductor of the energy. I will take it. I will leave with bruises, but, like I said, I got my friends, and I got my cat, and I can sit alone for one hour in the morning, so fuck it all.
“You don't go to clubs for cuddles.”
“I go very dark sometimes. I need care, because it really squeezes my sponge and there's nothing to collect after that. I don't have a lover. I got a cat. And there's no one waiting in bed to cuddle me up and tell me I did a good job that day.”
Cormac: Okay. What does CHRISTEENE’s personal utopia look like in terms of society, culture, and daily life?
CHRISTEENE: I'll just say, like matriarchy. I want women and, or mostly people who have no gender and do not conform to gender in power. And by power I don't mean a fist on top of my fucking head. I mean in a harmonious fucking place where there's not a bunch of rich pigs, about five of them, controlling us. Which is a lot to ask of the human race. I don't have much faith in the human race. I'm waiting for outer space people. Or basically, I'm waiting for all of our community who have said, “Fuck you!” to gender and all of our dolls and all of our family to just fucking get old enough to take over.
I'm very calmed by what I see – the tsunami coming. You can't turn that off. I'm very sorry to tell the conservatives of the world, you can't stop a tsunami, and it's so big and so beautiful, and it's so inspiring even to my crusty 15-year-old ass.
Cormac: Yeah, 100%. I have another question for you.
CHRISTEENE: No shit.
Cormac: I loved your show in Berlin, as I mentioned in true punk style. You inspire people to transcend their norms. What's the most unexpected reaction you've ever had from an audience member?
CHRISTEENE: Well, I guess there's two. Once a girl came to a show, I think it was in Texas, and had her hand up in the air offering me something,… and it was a big old dead fish. And she handed me that dead fish into my microphone hand, which is my left hand. So then everything stunk. She was so happy and so excited to give me a dead fish, and I was like “What the fuck!”, and then you could see her get sad, and I was like, “No, no!” I was like, I'm just concerned. It's 100 degrees outside and you're carrying a fish in your purse. Like what the fuck is going on. I will never forget her face of excitement, sadness and then joy that I had accepted the fish.
Cormac: Lovely.
CHRISTEENE: And then the other funny one was when I was touring with Peaches, and this weirdo got in the front row into the press box, and he was taking photos. And as I do I kind of smacked around at the people in the front row, and then he called the police on me after the show for assault.
I was like, “I'll go talk to this asshole.” He was this older dude, faked his photography pass to get in. Him and the police are there, and Cindy, Peaches’ manager, and we're sitting there talking. And he's just pissed off, and I'm like, “What do you want me to do?” And he's like, “I want you to go on social media, and I want you to tell your followers that you are putting your hands in your butt and touching people with it.” I was like, “Okay, can I tag you in that as well?” and he's like “Ugghhhh!”, and he got really mad because I was like cool. And he just kept trying to get the police to arrest me. Then I said, “It's been a delight to meet you. Goodbye!” And then I went backstage again. So two extremes on the cross.
Cormac: Well, we knew you were sticking your hands up your butt and touching us.
CHRISTEENE: I’ve been doing that since day one!
Cormac: We're here for that.
CHRISTEENE: That’s my calling card.
Sunglasses by Rick Owens Silver Jacket by Coofandy
“Once a girl came to a show, I think it was in Texas, and had her hand up in the air offering me something,… and it was a big old dead fish.”
Cormac: You mentioned Peaches, who I love. I interviewed her a while ago, and I read that David Hoyle will be joining you. I'm a big fan of David as well. I used to live in London, and I've been following him since, like the Divine David days, and I wanted to ask you for the readers in CHRISTEENE’s eyes, “Who is David Hoyle?”
CHRISTEENE: Well, David and I are married.
Cormac: Oh!
CHRISTEENE: We, were, ‘theatrically married’ in Vogue Fabrics in Dalston.
Cormac: Oh, I love Vogue Fabrics.
CHRISTEENE: Yeah, that's where a lot of people first saw me in London, where it really popped. We did shows in that fucking basement, me and my dancers.
Cormac: I remember, I was there for some. For some reason I didn't connect that, but I remember those moments.
CHRISTEENE: It was crazy. So David and I met and quick as a flash, I was flabbergasted. I love David. I am just heartfully and mentally, soulfully and sexually destroyed by David Hoyle – in the best way. And we were like, “Let's get married!”. So we had a ceremony at Vogue Fabrics. We played the theme song from Rosemary's Baby. I came down the aisle and then at the end of the ceremony, we said, “You may rim the bride”, and we both get on the floor in a 69 position, and madly ate each other's butts out. I've never forgotten that. And then we have renewed our vows, I think at least 3 times at Royal Vauxhall Tavern. David and I keep in touch, all the time, on the machines of the devil.
I am just awe of, and utterly fascinated by, and inspired by, that beautiful, unstable creature. So much of the world has not seen David. This was a no-brainer for the show, I just couldn't be happier.
Cormac: You two are definitely kindred spirits, 100%.
CHRISTEENE: Yeah, it’s forever.
Cormac: You're performing soon in Ireland and in Berlin, and the venue in Berlin is incredible – the Volksbühne.
CHRISTEENE: Yeah, and we're also doing Vienna between those two. We're doing Dublin on the 27th, Vienna on the 29th and then Halloween, on the 31st in Berlin. And then there's more coming. There's more stuff coming, and I'm slowly releasing it.
Cormac: Oh, cool. That was all of my questions, CHRISTEENE. Thank you. It's been an honour to have a one-on-one with you.
CHRISTEENE: Yeah, it's very nice to talk to you, too Cormac. I'm very excited. I'm glad you've been in the room with me and given me a hug. Keep doing that.
Cormac: Keep inspiring us, because, you know, we need our witches, even if our witches don't think they have the answers they're still giving us knowledge. And you're doing that. So don't stop it.
CHRISTEENE: Those are kind words. I'll take them with me, and I'll hold on to those till I see your fucking face.
Team Credits
Interview Cormac
Photography Christian Trippe
Videographer Michael Young
PR Girlie Action
Follow CHRISTEENE on Instagram or check out her website for tour details and exclusive merch
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