A CONVERSATION WITH... ARTIO
Rae (they/them) and Ieuan (he/him) dive deep into the band behind the bunny ears and Babyface: Artio.
Band pronunciation guide: Artio is pronounced R-T-O. Rae explains that it comes from the Celtic goddess of death and bears. “It’s not a commonly known goddess name, and I thought it sounded cool. I’m genetically Scottish, so I thought having a Celtic connection would be great. Plus, having a name that begins with an A is great for alphabetical line-ups!”
Square One: So when did you fall in love with music?
Rae: I’ll go with the moment I knew I had to be, I must be, a musician. I was in Manchester in 2015 and I saw PVRIS do their White Noise tour with my best friend at the time. It was in the middle of ‘My House’ with an ad-lib that Lynn [Gunn] did, which altered my brain chemistry. I was already a massive fan of that band but never believed in myself enough to be a musician. I left that show and a month later, I created my first high school band with the person I went to the show with. It was so cute. She learned how to play bass to be in the band with me.
Square One: Are there any other formative moments like that that stick out to you?
Rae: The biggest one is me and Ieuan bumping into each other at the Slam Dunk queue for the Mallory Knox signing in 2016. Back when Slam Dunk North was still in Millennium Square. We didn’t know each other that well beyond going to school near each other, but we recognised each other and kept bumping into each other that day.
Ieuan: Then a couple of weeks later, I got a text from them inviting me to see another show with them and then another. We started getting closer and in 2018 we started Artio. If it wasn’t for Slam Dunk and a queue, we wouldn’t be here.
Square One: And now you guys have played at Slam Dunk, the same year that Mallory Knox reunited.
Ieuan: We’re just waiting for someone to cut the cameras and everyone to jump out and tell us this was all a joke.
Square One: Speaking of all of you, how would you describe each other?
Ieuan: I think we all play to our strengths, what we want to do, and how we want to be part of the project. Rae’s an incredible lyricist and creative visionary with all these great ideas. I’m okay with all the technical stuff and pulling out the parts. Rob (he/him) and Jai (they/them) are some of the greatest songwriters I know on the planet, so between the four of us, we cover all the ground.
Rae: It helps that we were all friends first. We found each other at the right time when we all were doing music on our own. So we thought, why not do it together? We’ve all loved music since we were kids, and it’s been a lifelong thing for us at this point. This has to work, there’s no other option. We’ve all had our moments of ‘this is what I will do forever’. It’s not a want, it’s a will. We have this ‘who gave you the audacity’ drive to just do it. We didn’t let a pandemic stop us and we won’t let anything stop us.
Square One: You’ve talked about your backgrounds a bit, but is there anything from your identities, your roots, your communities that you see influence your art and how you create it?
Rae: One I don’t get to talk about a lot is my class background. I come from a working-class family. My life has always been political in one way or another which means my music is very politically driven. Even before I came out as queer or non-binary and had surgery, I always had issues with class and the government. You grow up seeing friends of yours in primary school at food banks or not eating and it forms this insane sense of justice and right and wrong. Anger at the government is engrained in my body so that influences what I choose to say and stand up for. Of course my — and our — identities as queer people in the community are important too. But I like to say that the least interesting part about me is the people I sleep with. Like people in the media love to say ‘You’re just a gay band’ but that’s the last thing you need to think about. The queer community has rallied around us and it is so important to us — it is beautiful to see that support. And it’s incredible for trans kids to see that trans people are allowed to grow up, they’re allowed to age, and they’re allowed to be who they want to be.
Square One: Is there anything you want to say to fans or people in similar situations as any of you?
Rae: The overarching point is that things are going to be hard. They’re going to cost you emotionally, physically, and monetarily, and they will cost you so much more than someone who’s in an easier position than you. But I promise you that you are allowed to be here and that there is a space for you. You just have to fight. You’ve already fought so much already so why not go for it? If it doesn’t work out, at least you gave it your everything and you can find your purpose in another way. But you have to try.
Square One: Speaking of music, your releases, like previous EPs and your debut album Babyface, have been separated into eras with colours. You had green with the ‘Shapeshifter: So Below’ EP, pink with ‘Pyrokid’ and now you’re returning to red with Babyface. Why those colours and why the return to red from ‘Stand Alone and Do Your Dance’?
Rae: The big thing for Babyface was a return to my roots as a person and realising who I was. The namesake of the album explains it because ‘Babyface’ is how I see the person I was as a kid in the mirror rather than the person that was hyper-feminine and was forced into these boxes they didn’t want to be in. Now I finally see who I was as a kid, and it’s a ‘Nice to see you again’ moment. Having the red, white, and black and going back to our first release also ties into the gangster aesthetic. When I think of Babyface, it reminds me of Bugsy Malone and Scarface. Like we have Scarface parody shirts as merch and the music videos are all like gangster shootouts. I also managed to tell the story of transitioning and who I was before and now in a mafia storyline because that’s also easier to digest up front. Anyone can watch it and think it’s fun, it’s a great video. But if you dig deeper, you see the story about identity, growing up, and your past self dying. The red of the blood, the black of the shadow, the white of the light and rebirth all worked together for that. It wasn’t one specific choice to have those colours. It just happened to work together.
Square One: What’s something you learned from making the album itself that you’d wanna share too?
Rae: I wrote this for me. The tagline for the album is “You are babyface” and it’s handwritten on the merch, but I really did make it for me. I want people to enjoy it, but going forward, I want to get more self-indulgent with my metaphors. I want to make music where it’s okay if you don’t understand it, now or ever. You’ve already heard my story. I made it catchy. Now you just need to follow along for the ride.
Square One: Any part of the album that solidified the decision to make your music more for you?
Rae: “Wisdom Teeth”, the ending song. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s not meant to be. It’s my favourite song by miles because it’s so different from what I normally write. Every line is a double entendre, and it means something different depending on how you’re listening to it. It’s asking is it the end of the world? Is it the end of society and life as we know it? Is it the start of another one? Is this the end of me feeling happy or the start? It’s not the ‘normal Artio’ song, but that’s why it’s my favourite. Lyrically that’s the direction I want to go in. Our next releases are experimenting with metal, electronica, and rock. It’s us to a T, but in a way that you wouldn’t expect. It opened me up to understanding that not every song has to be relatable and digestible. Some can be, especially in the age of social media and viral short-form content. I think that when people write songs that are super relatable yet super vulnerable, it can make people subconsciously feel quite entitled to you. They want to know what you were thinking for each line, but that’s not why I’m writing. I’m writing to express myself, not to make my life everyone’s problem. That’s why I’m going down the abstract and theatrical route. Then people can put their own identities on it and interpret it how they want. I’m not putting myself on blast, I’m just giving what I want to give of myself.
Square One: And to end this with a little more personal, but joyful moment: what’s a moment of joy you want to share?
Rae: Seeing our vinyl get pressed and then being able to hold it. Looking at the rest of my band members and thinking that this vinyl is kind of our kid. It’s the best parts of us and it’s everything that we’ve worked for. All the bands we were in as kids, all the music we listen to, and the product of our surroundings… it’s led to this moment. This vinyl will outlive me, and it’s a constant reminder of everything that we’ve done.