Deli Girls

by Austin Carbone, Contributor

Photo by, Yulissa Benitez

Deli Girls

This hardcore techno-punk duo does not hold back when it comes to conjuring the primordial NYC mosh pit. Reigning from Brooklyn, Deli Girls finds themselves in the perfect pocket of history, being one of the many talented artists carrying the torch of the (currently suspended) rave underground. Covering any stage floor with signal chained 90's breakbeat drum machines and analog samplers, adding one microphone is all it takes for Tommi Kelly and Danny Orlowski to create a rush of ethereal, sonic bombardments that confront authoritarianism, tackle gatekeepers, and define the queer experience. Their latest LP release BOSS surfaced this past August, and has proven their commitment to catching listeners off guard. From twitch streams to avatar-based virtual shows, Deli Girls can not be stopped.

With their press reaching the likes of Xtra Magazine, The Fader, and Vice, there’s no reason Deli Girls shouldn’t be a familiar name already in the eyes of any East Coast, underground, local music scene-head. From here we take a more communal approach to the private interview tradition by opening up the questions to the fans. This special edition long-format interview features everything Deli Girls: from upcoming projects, A2B2, hair routines, gear, and gender studies.

Starting from the top: Names, pronouns, and any relevant background information?

Danny: Danny, they/them. God. I don't know.

Ray: I can answer one, like, Ray.

How have you been?

Danny: I've been better lately but obviously it’s just like, totally crazy times. I’ve been working the whole time so it's been different.

Ray: I’ve been better.

What *is* Deli Girls?

Danny: We just make music you know, or just a band, but I feel like there's like infinite ways to approach that obviously.

What are Deli Girls up to now?

Ray: We're recording, and we probably have some stuff coming out next year. Made a bunch of hats and stuff recently that are really cool. Working on my game. I mean more or less the answer to that question is probably the same with every band right now, which is just figuring out how to do stuff when you can't play shows. We're doing all the things that we have to because it's now. I think everyone's in that same position.

Where did your Instagram profile names come from / does one refer to either of you as, respectively, Shitney Queers or Ray Toyota?

Ray: I think initially no, but now the answer is yes. Or at least Ray. I don’t want to get overtly personal or anything but that happens to coincide pretty conveniently with some other stuff going on in my life. And so I'm into people calling me Ray. Ray Toyota is based on one of my favorite actor’s names recently, Ray Liotta. I do a show called New York's Best Cars on there. Been doing it for two years.

Danny: I mean I hope nobody calls me Shitney Queers although they do sometimes [in a laugh]. I mean whatever, it's cute, but it's just been my Instagram name for like forever and it's good so I'm not going to change it. But the reason it came about was because I used to do photo touching full-time when I was fresh out of art school. It was at this ad-agency and it was all these like, Boomer dudes and then me in the studio. We would edit Britney Spears photos and other regular assignments, perfume ads, random crap all the time. We would just do that and make up stupid names for people. Just ended up always referring to her as like Shitney Queers. I just thought that one was really funny, like that's gonna be my handle now. They were low-key trying to make an insensitive joke, but I was like I'm gonna use that. Most things in my life have gone that way.

Anything interesting that you’d want to make as a statement to your fans?

Danny: The video game is definitely like the-thing we're most excited about. It's a longer term thing we're working on.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the A2B2 set.

Ray: It was almost made in real time, because we agreed to do it some time ago and then it started approaching. Like f*ck you know, we had a few ideas but it was getting down to the wire and we just had to do it. Made a few phone calls, made our way into a place to shoot it, and got a friend to help. Another willing friend who had been wanting to do this slime thing for a long time and it all kind of just came together in like two days. And then Danny and I edited it. The funniest thing I thought about that was that we actually had to make a censored cut of it because Twitch initally wouldn't run it. Then there was another part of their guidelines where it could be considered body painting and they can run it, but they had all these specific things. So you could imagine having to censor our own video like, this really f*cking sucks. I had to get in touch with the people who were running the thing and I just sent both versions. You guys decide. And they ran the uncensored.

Danny: It was us, Sally who's in the video, and our friends Micah and Ariel all watching it together and then it was like AHH!! They played the uncensored one!! It was like the closest to being at one of our shows. It was cool to see everybody’s take on that and what they did with that prompt. You know, seeing all your friends and favorite artists do that. Definitely the most fun one that we've gotten to do yet. We have another one coming up. Yeah, excited about that.

What about the virtual show style i.e. IMVU and Minecraft? Do you enjoy it and see it as an avenue that you’d continue after the pandemic?

Ray: I think the A2B2 style is way more in our interest and wheelhouse. I admin a Minecraft server, I love online communities, but I think some of those aren't super well equipped to handle like, live music or musical performances because that's not really what they're about. They’re like chat platforms etc., and that's cool, but the A2B2 one was sick because everyone made a 10-minute short and they're all different. Everyone had a different concept of what [the A2B2 prompt] meant. Not to say that it can't work though. I’ve definitely had fun Second Life shows.

Danny: I think the avatar-based internet shows are obviously best suited for like DJ sets and that's cool. But it's definitely a way more passive listening experience. So it just doesn't work well when you’re pretending you're doing a live set. Trying to be something it's not. [A2B2] was fun and definitely opened up some new possibilities. Everybody just really killed it.

Photo by, Yulissa Benitez

Fan Submitted Questions

@cindercore asks: “What's your favorite soup?”

Danny: Hmm, I went through a long period of eating Green Pea soup like everyday, but I don't know if it's my fave. 

Ray: I mean, definitely Manhattan Clam Chowder, big fan.

@goodsongeveryday asks: “Danny how / when did you find out you had such a good aggressive screaming voice?” / @chanticanfly asks: “Danny how did you get so good at screaming? (P.S. inspo forever, much love from Bed-Stuy)”

Danny: Aw that’s sweet. We literally one day practiced in Tommi's room with one amp and one drum machine. That was the first time I did it and it wasn't so far off. And then doing it so much over time, but I feel like, I just, I don't know. I feel like I grew up in a very loud family and yeah, realistically domestic violence is probably the reason. I don't know, I grew up and realized not everyone was so loud. And probably all my high school music shit, listening to mad Emo music. Screams I like and whatever. But yeah, definitely mad hardcore dudes tried to tell me how to scream “the right way” or whatever. I think there's just, you know, many different ways to scream and for me I'm just in the camp of it just has to be real. I have to feel it, it has to be a real emotion. As long as it's real, it's gonna sound good.

@josh.b.keller asks: “Who are some artists you admire?”

Ray: Right now I've been really into listening back to my favorite video game composers. There's a few people I’m thinking of. Alexander Brandon, he did the soundtrack for Deus Ex. A bunch of people who did the soundtrack for Thief. I really like the way that it’s sort of made economically. Like it has to fit into these games where it has to be kind of light but has to also convey a ton of information, emotion, and atmosphere. The artists that inspire me a lot are video game composers. Anyone from Looking Glass software. Obviously f*ckin’ Trent Reznor. He did the Quake soundtrack. Which was like an early way that I got into Nine Inch Nails. I also just love pop music.

Danny: I'm overthinking this question, like damn there's so many ways to admire artists. I feel like literally just Megan Thee Stallion. Recently I watched all of her videos just to make sure I'd seen them all, just to double-check. There's no like, you know, woman rapper before this who really commands everybody's attention in a song, in a video, in a room. When there's a guy featured on one of her songs or she's on a guy's song, there's no part of it where they're controlling her or demeaning her to be this or that. I just f*ck with her so much. Also I went through a phase recently where I got really into Raga music, just watching these old dudes play big auditorium type things. I'm really into that one-person one-instrument thing where they're just f*cking killing it and you're like whaaattt. I'm so impressed with that shit and anyone who’s got that in them. Also any vocalist who uses their voice like an instrument is for me. That's Diamanda Galás. That’s T-Pain. That's like Lil Wayne. That's ODB. Amy Winehouse. I've always just been inspired by those people, there's a little something extra there.

@goodsongeveryday asks: “What's some really calm music you guys like? (P.S. I wear my Deli Girls hat every day)”

Ray: Oh man, the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto of course. Scott Joplin is really good. I listen to mad Ragtime music. That shit's great. It's f*cking amazing too especially if you’re a piano player. I don't know just like, I'll literally listen to anything sometimes, like I’ll actually search ‘new age music’ and just listen to them, long playlist, pretty good. Also ‘dark music’ is a really really good YouTube search. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines soundtrack is also a great calming one that's been hitting the rotational.

Danny: We keep watching all these Tiny Desk Concerts [in a laugh]. Which is like so funny, but like a lot of them are so f*cking good and it’s so cool to see people at intimate live shows. Relevant for now I guess. Seeing that different side of an artist is kind of relaxing in a way. Also I've been listening to a lot of weird orchestras with rappers over them type performances. Roddy Ricch has one, I like it, just like so good. I think that type of shit really hits home for me.

@excruxiatingdeth asks: “What are your hair routines? And do you have any advice on pegging?”

Ray: One of them is super relevant right now, I‘ll let you take a guess which. D’s actually just about to do my hair after this.

Danny: Gotta hit those roots. 

Ray: Danny’s an expert.

Danny: I’ve just been doing my own hair for a long time and uh, I think it's best that way. It's like a more fun, more personal relationship. But yeah, I have so much experience in the red and orange hair dye area, which would be tricky. What was the one about pegging? Oh, yeah. I do have one very big piece of advice. Which is do not, do not touch your eyes after pegging someone. It's something people do not think about but pink eye is really not cool especially as an adult and especially if you have a bunch of polyamorous partners with other partners. That was an experience of mine years ago, and I hope that no one ever makes that same mistake. That is a very real, practical and kind of funny bit of advice I would have. Other than that stay safe and I don’t know man, have fun.

@thebotchman asks: “About that article with the story behind Evidence. I went through that as well. Stay strong y'all”

Danny: Thank you. So sweet.

@bobertdepet asks: “What software / instruments do you use? / @egg_rat asks: “What equipment, instruments, or programs, do y’all use?” / @coledflowers asks: “What DAW does Tommi use?”

Ray: Wow that's- okay I can answer all these questions. The gear that we use (or at least used when we were playing live) is two Alesis sequencers, an Alesis drum machine, a Yamaha sampler, three Electribes (the sampler, the synth, and the groovebox one). All that stuff was MIDI linked together so it all kind of runs on the same block and it becomes one big instrument. It fills up a huge Pelican case. From a software point of view (and I hope that this will get some people to buy this) Renoise is a really sick program. In a bigger sense trackers are just really cool. I love [the gear] and I've sampled all the f*cking sounds off of it, but I don't know, some of this stuff is over 20 years old, some cases over 30 years old. It has this sort of like life to it, which is really cool. But it also sucks when your shit’s breaking all the time, so I don't know. Any DAW is cool, I've been meaning to get this message out that I was thinking about recently: Dude, you do not have to have Ableton or Logic to make music. You really don't have to pay at all and maybe you shouldn't if you're learning how to make music. I just see this Ableton bar-of-entry for a lot of people and I'm like you just don't have to use that. [Making music] is supposed to be cheap. It's supposed to be something that's accessible to people. There's a reason a lot of music sounds like Ableton right now.

@smokoby asks: “Would you f*ck God if you could?

Danny: Already have.

@x_gabriela_g asks: “What makes a vehicle 4/4 wheels in the eyes of Ray Toyota? Is there a rubric?”

Danny: It’s a rule book of exceptions from what I've observed.

Ray: Exactly. So I've seen every car on every block for like hundreds of blocks. Like there are areas I know well enough where I just know the cars in the neighborhoods, see em’ all the time. If cars want to get the 4/4 wheels, they gotta have a lot of gas, two doors is okay, four doors a little bit better, steering wheel (that's the 5th wheel actually) you know, there's like a lot of criteria that go into it. You just got to watch New York’s Best Cars to find out.

@burton4th asks: “I love y’all. I wanted to know if you had any advice for readings or books that have to do with androgyny.”

Danny: I feel like some of my favorite ones, or at least gender studies type books, definitely Cruising Utopia I feel like is a real standard. Just about queerness in general. There was one called Female Masculinity by Jack Halberstam, I feel like all AFABs need to read that one. There's Testo Junkie. Again, really important for AFABs, but also just really interesting and I think important for everyone to read as far as the medical and pharmacy, just the whole system we live in and what types of drugs are available to who, and like it's a whole, it's a whole thing.

@bl00dbi4ch asks: “What city do you enjoy most playing in?

Danny: I don’t know if there can be just one. Seoul is amazing. Philly is always so f*cking fun. The people in Philly are f*cking sick like what a great group, that's like off the top of the dome but there's so many. Obviously New York is where we played the most and it's like all of our loved ones, but as far as traveling, I mean what makes the hit list. Mexico City-

Ray: Mexico City, absolutely one of my favorite places to play a show ever. Czech Republic, one of my favorite shows ever. Atlanta rules. I think every city definitely can have, and does have, really cool shit to do in it. But I think what's cool about that too is like dude New York is not a dancin’ town compared to the rest of the world at all, we got something to learn perhaps. 

@https.carson asks: “How much swag you got?”

Danny: Probably not as much as them. Swag is one of those things where it only exists if you're not aware of it. So it's difficult to answer. 

Ray: You can't observe it. Otherwise it disappears.