“Boss up” is a bit of slang that’s worked its way into the music industry idiom, especially as it relates to determined, talented women. Maybe it didn’t start with DIY artists like Quinn the Brain’s Arta Black, but the guitarist and vocalist for the Houston grunge punk band embodies its notions of approaching something with focus and resolve. Black has been the steady force behind the band, which released new music last week.
The band’s new EP, Bleed Me, debuted on March 22. Black told us the album’s four songs were written around the same time as its 2020 EP Open Wide.
“In a perfect world, the two EPs would have been on one album. But, because of lineup changes and just life and things like that, it was broken up into two and done over a period of time,” Black said. “This new EP, every song was recorded at a different time in a different studio with a different lineup essentially. This one’s more, I wanna say, eclectic. I feel like the first one was very cohesive in its sound and this one is more compilation-style almost, but not exactly.
“It has kind of a different feel to it. But it’s cool, it’s just different. I like it in that way. For me, getting out this EP is like the final chapter of the old version of Quinn the Brain. And I’m more than ready to start the new version which will be new songs, new lineup – pretty much everything. I’m excited for it.”
Black and bassist Clint Rater are the key components to the band, its locked-in pieces. She said the band hasn’t had a dedicated drummer in its lineup for over a year now.
“It’s been really fun but it’s also been really challenging. You know, with a new drummer you’re always having to re-do things and teach them. On the very bright side, me and Clint know our songs, inside and out,” she said. “Outside of people from Houston, I would say most people would think these are all new. But for us, these are just our tried-and-true songs that have been working well, doing well.”
The band has been doing well, thanks in large part to Black’s focus. When the Houston Press interviewed Black in December 2021, she spoke about learning guitar and idolizing women players like the Distillers’ Brody Dalle. In a couple of short but busy years, Black has given women who follow her band someone new to admire.
“I guess when I first started the band, I definitely had the vision, right?” she said. “In time, I embodied that role of bandleader more and more and more. Everything you see, every video, every picture, every thing, I have touched.
“When we did our music video, I edited it. I might have had a person filming it, but it was my concept, my vision. Same thing with the music. Our EP, I produced the whole thing — not because I wanted to but because there was no option. We don’t have an endless fund of money so we just did the best we could with what we had,” she said. “So, I started learning things. I mean, honestly, the band has taught me so much. I know more about marketing and PR and videography, photography, lighting, producing – anything you can think of, I have learned just for the band. And in a weird way, it has helped my professional career as well. It’s very cyclical, it all works together.
“For me, it’s been a good thing. I’ve learned a lot, I’ve gained a lot and I feel very unstoppable, you know what I mean? Once you get all of these elements together, you’re kind of like, ‘Okay, what’s next?’”
What’s next is announcing a new band member soon, a full-time drummer to join her and Rater in building on Quinn the Brain’s foundation. Whatever is erected, it’ll be because of the efforts of its band members and Black’s leadership.
“You are expected to do everything, and I mean like everything,” she said. “We’re still in that phase where things are happening for us, but it’s all self-made. There’s nobody helping. All the tours we’ve done, for the most part, we either did for ourselves or we got asked on.
“It’s just a grind. Honestly, that’s just what’s expected nowadays and in a weird way I kind of like it,” Black admitted. “And I kind of don’t. I like it in the aspect that you spin your own story, you put out what you want people to see and I like that. You have the ultimate control of your vision, your band, what you want. I like that a lot. But the downside is it is all on you. That can be exhausting for a lot of people. It kind of weeds out the weekend warriors.”
Besides its hustle, Quinn the Brain has grown its audience by delivering energetic, inspired live sets and with songs, written by Black, that connect, particularly with its female fans.
“I think it’s our music that speaks to them. It’s angry but it’s also from a feminine point of view, like the feminine gaze, essentially,” Black said. “A lot of music, at least stuff when I was growing up, it was all on the male gaze, on the male perspective. There were a few female ones, but some of them would be kind of fun songs. After I kind of deep-dived into random ’90s and ’80s songs where people were really talking about their lives, for me, it grew from there.
“Everything I write is from my life, it’s things that have happened, so I think a lot of people just relate,” she said. “I think a lot of these young girls are feeling it. When I wrote these songs I was in a very dark point of my life. I was very unhappy with who I was. That’s kind of how I picked up the guitar. It was kind of a last resort.”
Those songs are showcased on Bleed Me. There was an album release show slated but a scheduling snafu with the venue meant the band would have had to delay the release date. Black wanted the songs heard and thought the EP needed to be released “especially for our fan base. We have this very small but extremely dedicated group of mainly women, and of course men too, who are just dying to hear it and I just didn’t want to make them wait anymore. I was like, ‘You know what? We don’t need this celebration. We celebrate every day. Let’s put it out and have fun.’”
Quinn the Brain’s Bleed Me is available now on all major steaming platforms.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
