She-Devils

She-Devils
From Montreal, She-Devils is a punk duo comprised of vocalist Audrey Ann Boucher and musician Kyle Jukka. Their eponymous album is out now via Secretly Canadian.

She-Devils vocalist Audrey Ann Boucher and bandmate Kyle Jukka met while living at a music rehearsal space in Montreal’s Mile-Ex neighborhood where they bonded over shared interests, including a penchant for the dreamy and the beautiful. The pair’s eponymous debut album, She-Devils, was inspired by an eclectic list of musicians from Iggy Pop to Madonna to T-Rex to Can, as well as ‘60s yé-yé. The punk duo also directs their own music videos, and Boucher creates the artwork with a style influenced by Disney, The Simpsons and The Powerpuff Girls. The two discuss how She-Devils came to be and how it feels to have put out their first album.

So where are you from?

Kyle Jukka: We’re from Montreal.

And when did you start making music?

KJ: I’ve been in music for as long as I can remember. But we started the band like—

Audrey Ann Boucher: Three years ago.

Who did you listen to growing up?
AAB: The Doors.

KJ: Simon and Garfunkel and Weezer.

Spacemen 3
Formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, Spacemen 3 is a British alternative rock band founded by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. In 1987, the band began landing chart hits, which garnered a cult following and increasing success towards the end of the decade, after which they disbanded, releasing their fourth and final studio album Recurring (1991) just after their split. Kember and Pierce were the only consistent members of Spacemen 3, and each went on to form successful bands such as Sonic Boom and Spiritualized.

Who influences you today?

KJ: A lot of stuff. It’s hard to know where to begin. Right now I like Spacemen 3.

How and when did you do decide this is what you wanted to do?

KJ: It definitely wasn’t like a moment or anything. For me, it’s just always what I’ve done.

“I feel freed from that body of work.
It’s not in me anymore, it’s just out there.
I can move onto the next thing.”
— Audrey Ann Boucher

How did you meet and get started with this collaboration?

KJ: Well, we were both living at a jam space.

AAB: We were kind of roommates.

KJ: It’s hard to tell a story because it was just kind of real life.

AAB: Yeah, it wasn’t like I put an ad on Craigslist like, “I want to be a singer.”

KJ: Yeah, it just naturally flowed. It was very gradual.

She-Devils On Wheels
Directed by “The Godfather of Gore,” Herschell Gordon Lewis, She-Devils On Wheels is a 1968 action thriller film about an all-female motorcycle gang. The gang, known as “The Maneaters” compete in motorcycle races, terrorize the residents of their small Florida town and clash with their rivals, an all-male gang of hot-riders.

So what’s the story behind the name She-Devils?

AAB: Well, we were kind of forced to find a name because we were going to play a show. And then we looked at a list of girl gangs in movies. There was a bunch of different ones, but we found “She-Devils on Wheels.” And it just kind of clicked.

KJ: Yeah. It hung well on the music.

How does it feel to have released your debut album?

KJ: I don’t really have a feeling about it, personally.

AAB: Yeah. It feels kind of freeing in a way. Like I feel freed from that body of work. It’s not in me anymore, it’s just out there. I feel like I can move onto the next thing.

KJ: Yeah totally.

What life event has impacted you the most, and what role has that played in your music?

AAB: I don’t know, it’s been a long life. It’s been hard. I just feel everything.

KJ: Everything is so vital to who you are and what you’re doing. As an artist, you always put your whole life into what you’re doing. I inadvertently made the decision to surround myself in my own work and live inside my work.

Gregg Araki
Gregg Araki is an American indie filmmaker and director whose work is known as part of the New Queer Cinema genre. In 2010, Araki’s film Kaboom was the first to win the Cannes Film Festival’s Queer Palm award.

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

KJ: I was thinking about this the other day. I’d really like to meet like Gregg Araki. He seems like a cool dude, and I really like his movies a lot. It would be really sweet to do something with him.

“It wasn’t like I put an ad on Craigslist like,
‘I want to be a singer.’”
— Audrey Ann Boucher

What are your interests and passions outside of music?

KJ: I’ve got a thing for botany and bugs.

AAB: You don’t even know enough plants.

KJ: That’s true. It’s more the language of nature. Not in practice, more in theory.

AAB: I like doing makeup.

Role Models
From the American film director, screenwriter, actor, author and comedian John Waters, Role Models is a self-portrait novel told through intimate profiles of Waters’ favorite personalities—from singer Johnny Mathis to Manson Family convict Leslie Van Houten.

The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a philosophical novel by renowned 19th century author and playwright Oscar Wilde. The book follows a young aristocrat, Dorian Gray, who exchanges his soul for ageless beauty and hedonism while his sins are recorded in the gradual deterioration of a portrait of himself.

Nowhere
Written and directed by Gregg Araki, Nowhere is a 1997 black comedy drama starring James Duval and Rachel True as a promiscuous, bisexual teen couple. The film follows the couple, Dark and Mel, and their friends as they navigate a surreal day filled with drug trips, suicides, sex, rape, mutilation and alien abductions.

What’s your favorite book, film and music right now?

AAB: I’m reading this John Waters book called Role Models. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite book, but it’s really good. I haven’t been watching movies lately. And music? I just recently got really into Travis Scott.

KJ: My favorite book would be The Picture of Dorian Gray because it had a really big impact on me when I read it, and I loved the story and the writing itself. Movie is hard to say. The last movie I can remember really well was Nowhere by Gregg Araki. That’s probably why I mentioned him earlier. It’s really inspiring because it deals so much with purely mood. I like when movies can shift away from having to tell a narrative and can just be about sensation, sound, image, characters. Gregg Araki does that really well, particularly in Nowhere. Music? right now I’m kind of obsessed with The Smiths, and it’s something that happens repeatedly. Maybe once a year I get obsessed with The Smiths. Right now is that time.

So what’s next for you guys?

AAB: In what sense?

KJ: I guess you could answer that anyway you want. I think it’s just the new vision, the new sound, the texture, the next world that we want to build. It’s what we did in our last album Isabelle. A world and trying to create that feeling. But now we have even more intention behind it. Hopefully it will lead to something that’s even stronger, more fully realized.