Born the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Teresa Suárez Cosío aka Teri Gender Bender is a riot grrrl for the big stage with an exuberant personality, spectacular shows, and thoughtful lyrics. She’s known as the frontwoman of Guadalajara garage punk band Le Butcherettes, but now finds herself concentrating her efforts as a solo artist and sharing her hyper-fixated avant-garde pop rock songs with the masses – which is great news for the world we live in, and for those of us crying out for authentic personalities who are proudly, eccentrically, individual.
Teri is the definition of prolific having released 12 highly eclectic EPs in 2022 alone, while her latest single and video, is out today.‘You Won The Man’ features on Teri’s upcoming OUTSIDERS EP, which will be released on 7 July via Clouds Hill and can be pre-ordered here.
She released her CATSPEAK EP last month, which includes the singles ‘Like No One Else’ and ‘Nicole Speaks Out’. The multi-instrumentalist took on guitar, bass and drum duties for these EPs. She wrote this collection of songs when she was 19 years old, but – just like the love she sings about – she lost them. . . and then found them again! A musical move inspired by Violeta Félix gives these songs a whole ton of the frenetic energy of growing-up and an innocence that we all lose when we get older. The lyrics may be dark but they also glow with rediscovered light and love.
We wanted to find out more about Teri and what makes her tick, so we asked her to choose four records that had heavily influenced her in her teens when she wrote the first drafts of her new collections. Teri writes:
These were the some of records that I listened to on a heavy rotation on a daily basis during the writing process of both EP’s (I was 17 circa 2007 through 19 years old) and til this day I still listen to them of course. The music immediately transports me to my past and brings me heavy emotions of when I was living in Guadalajara.
Beck – ‘Think I’m In Love’ from The Information
Such a juicy song. Earworm all the way. Stadium arena material here.
BELLE AND SEBASTIAN – ‘White Collar Boy’ from The Life Pursuit
I love how sexy this song feels yet the lyrics are telling a story that is anything but sexy but perverse and cold than anything. Love it. Their latest release (Late Developers) is currently inspiring my writing process as well.
Interpol – ‘The Heinrich Maneuver’ from Our Love to Admire
Paul Banks’ voice and lyrics, instrumentals, everything. What a record, song. Think this is sexy music too, but that in reality is a hint demonic and heavy than just plain horn dog on fire. Their latest release (The Other Side of Make-Believe) is currently inspiring my writing process as well.
The Kills – ‘I Hate The Way You Love, Pt 2′ from No Wow
I am beginning to see that the overall feel of the music here, is that it is all swagger with sexy feels but the lyrics are dark and leave you feeling wanting more. I love lyrics that long for you to decipher them to your own projection. And this song does the trick. Also, love the warm rawness to the production.
In support of her new EP’s. Teri is about to take the stage across the UK and Europe with long-time friends The Mars Volta.
June 14 – Antwerp, OLT* (BE) • June 16th – Glasgow, Barrowland (UK)* • June 17 – Manchester, O2 Apollo Manchester (UK)* • June 18 – London, Troxy (UK)* • June 20 – Hamburg, Nochtspeicher (DE) • June 23 – Prague, Café v Lese (CZ) • June 24 – Berlin, Verti Music Hall (DE)* • June 25 – Cologne, Blue Shell (DE)
*opening for The Mars Volta
