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Photo by Remi Frogo

The moment pop-rock trio Kid Sistr entered the building, their camaraderie immediately created a sense of excitement. The three girls, Sabel on guitar, Sara on bass, and Becca on drums, support each other like puzzle pieces, which is what American Teenage Prophecy feels like; one of the first completed puzzles in a long future of elaborate tapestries that just click right into place. Their last EP was self-titled and came out almost 6 years ago. Ever since, they’ve been dedicated to honing in on their sound, playing songs live to test if they’re worth pursuing, and remaining endlessly silly as they navigate the music industry as a unit. We chatted about balancing their “dumb” humor with the emotional themes of the EP, which of course could not exist without the other: 

OnesToWatch: It's been a while since you've released a project. What was the biggest difference making American Teenage Prophecy?

Sabel: This project was about making a commitment to the band's identity and sound. There was a time where we were inundated with a lot of different influences and possibilities for our music, but this record is us coming out of that and making a commitment to rock and roll. 

What was the process of that like?

Becca: Literally years of trial and error. Writing something and then years later being like, “hate that” or “that's actually cool, let’s bring it back.” Seeing what we naturally gravitated towards and what really felt like us. Also, the kinds of music we’re actually listening to, being honest with ourselves about what we would want to listen to. Who we are versus getting swept up in the producer dating scene and what we thought people wanted to hear. 

Sabel: What really brought it together was sticking with one producer, Suzy Shinn. She spearheaded us, helping us figure out what sound we wanted. She went through every song we had and picked out her favorites. We reworked a bunch of them over the span of 2 years. 

How many songs were there for her to look through? 

Sabel: They were around 30. Our first EP represented us well, because we wrote it in college and produced it with our friends. So, we were searching for something that felt as singular as that. 

Did you connect with Suzy right away? 

Sara: We spent a long time developing that relationship before we knew that we're gonna make a project together.

Sabel: Becoming friends was so important. 

And I love that it's a female producer too. 

Sabel: Yeah. This was our first time [working with a female producer], which is crazy.

You can hear how much you honed in, especially hearing the singles over the years.

Sabel: It's also us really playing [the instruments] on this one! 

Oh, you can tell. 

Sabel: The previous singles were more computer beeps and boops. This one has so much love. 

You needed that to get to this place. Tell me about each of your own artistic journeys. Have you been writing songs your whole life?

Becca: I have not been writing songs my whole life. I grew up just knowing I wanted to play the drums. I wanted to tour and record as a session player. But, I did play with Sara a lot in my youth. We met when I was 10 and grew up playing together. We tried to start bands, but I definitely wasn't involved in any of the writing until these two held my hand and encouraged me. 

Sabel: Well, you were such a fan of songs. That's what has set you apart in terms of the writing.

Sara: I've been writing songs for a long time. I used to write nonsense lyrics to melodies that already existed. I started writing my own songs around 11 years old. They were not good. 

Sabel: I think it's impressive that you even knew what songwriting was, because I didn't. I was always a big music fan, that was what my life centered around. But, I didn't know that you could write songs. I thought they always existed. 

Sara: Girl Discovers Songwriting.

I'm the same way. I always assumed they just channeled through someone. 

Sara: When I was a little kid, I thought that songs were nonfiction. I was like, this happened. “Eleanor Rigby” is a real person. I didn't understand people were just making stuff up. 

Sabel: I thought Avril Lavigne was on the streets. The “Nobody's Home” music video, I was like, “Oh my god, I hope she's okay.” [Laughs] I'm glad that CDs are coming back because I would sit on my floor and listen to my boom box looking through the booklets and reading the lyrics. 

Tell me about how you narrowed the songs down to the ones that tell the story. 

Becca: Something that was really helpful for us was testing them out in live settings. The ones we chose as singles felt really good to play and elicited a cool reaction from the audience where we really felt like we're connecting with people. Suzy [our producer] also prompted us to get in a room and actually play the songs live in a trio setting. That really helped narrow it down. Suzy’s thought process was if you can't play it, maybe it's not for you.

Sabel: “Boys in Skirts” has been a crazy rollercoaster. It was one of the first songs we finished in LA and we went through a bunch of different versions of it. We tried to play it live, but it didn't really connect with people the way we were hoping. It did not click for years. We brought it back working with Suzy and wrote whole new lyrics, trashed them, came back to the originals, wrote new, etc. Now, we play it live and it really feels comfortable. 

Sara: Our A&R Nate is a genius. He was like, “This is the one.” He gave us some strong references. Our management team was so patient with us. We kept being like, “It's not right, it's not right.” And they were like, “Okay, well, you gotta get it right because it's gonna hit if you do.” 

Becca: That's why it was the last song we finished, you know? We literally finished it last week. Making the project was really informative in terms of what that song needed to be.

What were the biggest inspirations for this project? 

Sara: The 3 of us will probably have different answers of what was fueling us individually. Then there's overlap between us and Suzy. Nate was also putting us onto stuff like the Pixies and Elastica. He put us on a new wave journey. Personally, I’m always listening to pretty heavy music. My comfort music is System of a Down, Kittie, Die Spitz, etc. Even though the music does not sound like that, I am interested in the impact of it. When I listen to that music, I'm engaged. Nothing can distract me from it. How do I translate that [into our music]?

Sabel: We [points to Becca] share a Wolf Alice inspo. Vocally, she's just so amazing. Hayley Williams is always a big inspiration. She's so emotive. I'm always listening to Radiohead. While making the EP, I was listening to Dookie by Green Day a lot.

Becca: I was having a Nirvana resurgence as well. One of the most transformative albums of my last year was Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville. That was pretty life-changing for me. I was in Europe a month ago and I walked for an hour listening to that album on loop. I was literally ascending.

Sara: What's cool about that album is that the production is sparse and the writing is so smart.

Sabel: The sparseness is inspiring to us. We learned to start from nothing and build it piece by piece, that's what makes the best production. 

Who are some of your favorite trios?

All: Green Day. The Police. blink-182. They're not a trio, but Zeppelin has three instrumentalists. 

With this EP, the visuals are so important. What was the process there?

Sabel: All of the covers are by Tanner Deutsch, who we met a few years ago. We did all of that and the “Maniac” music video in two days. We're such Pinterest whores, like most people. 

Sara: Tanner had a lot of great references. He's very well read. He brought us this book called Girl Pictures by Justine Kurland. It’s a photo book of girls in natural settings. 

Sabel: We ended up sending him a bunch of photographs like that, of girls running and falling over each other. Lots of movement and happiness.

How did the storyline in the “American Teenage Prophecy” music video come about?

Becca: We were having these visions of…

Sara: I said we should get throuple married. 

Sabel: We had done the “Shitshow” video already and it was so goofy. We wanted to keep it us, but “American Teenage Prophecy” is a very emotional song. 

Sara: I just made up a plot for them to have to make out with me. That was the only agenda. [All laugh] 

Becca: The initial concept was, what if these people grew up in a world where they could fall in love completely freely? The two people being Joan Jett and Cherie Currie from The Runaways. We took that and extended it to a bunch of different settings and time periods. 

Sara: Another thing I love so much about that video is it turned out to be much more political. On its face, it's beautiful, but I do think it's also political without being overly political. We were thinking about imagery in this country that is the most conservative: the nuclear family, the pregnant wife, the Revolutionary War, MAGA girlies with the 1776 necklaces. How can we take conservative imagery and put lesbian in it? 

Sabel: Also, they [lesbians] existed during that time. They didn’t just pop up from the ground. [Laughs] At first we were laughing, like “Oh it would be so funny if we were in these settings.” But, the more we were thinking about it, it was very emotional. 

Becca: I want to say one more thing about the “Shitshow” music video. Obviously, the three of us are extremely stupid and dumb. We have a ridiculous sense of humor. We were thinking a lot about boy bands who have a really easy time showcasing that. They’re allowed to do the poop, fart, dick joke “thing” and still be taken extremely seriously. We wanted to create our own version of that. One of my favorite movies is Booksmart, which is like the girl version of Superbad. I feel like this is our Superbad.

This EP really does an amazing job doing both. It makes you think about things, but also keeps it fun and silly. I’m excited to see the video for “Boys in Skirts.” 

Sabel: We’re so excited. It ties together the themes of the other videos, which is just queer joy and a love letter to queer community. 

Who are your OnesToWatch? 

Sara: Um Jennifer?, a New York punk duo who makes trans slut rock. They have influenced me so much and I just think they're complete geniuses. 

Becca: ggwendolyn is amazing. Her music is really special to me and I've been listening to it for years. I just think she's gonna be massive. 

Sara: She's so stylish.

Becca: And has such an interesting story.

Sabel: I’ll go with a writer and say Maddy Davis. She co-wrote “Maniac” and she's just awesome. We love working with her. I want her to write the biggest hit of all time.

Listen to 'American Teenage Prophecy' below: