CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE ISSUE 2: PLATFORM

KERMES
late to doing just that.
“With about 90 % of our gigs,
there will be a point in the evening
where someone will come up to
you and they’ve obviously really
vibed with what you’re doing,”
guitarist Tom says. “They’ve obviously
really connected with it on an
emotional level, an almost primal
level where they’ve just gotten really
involved in it.” Whether that
be with the music, with the atmosphere
they create, the acceptance,
it doesn’t matter so much; where
that feeling can’t be explained by
rational or critical reasoning, it’s
just important to them that the audience
feels something.
Even barring their insistence that,
as small of a band as they are, they
don’t truly have a platform (at least
in the sense of how some musicians
do), the stage gives them a
certain “hierarchy of power,” putting
them in the forefront of everyone’s
eyes for twenty to forty-five
minutes of a set. Even something
as simple as “oh, yeah, the trans
woman can do a cool thing that I’m
on board with and respect,” says
Cass, “it can change their mindset
about how they see trans women.
If it’s just something as basic as, I
really liked the guitar or the bass,
saying that was cool, just reshuffle
my head about just how the representation
is.”
“Most people are nice and most
people are well-intentioned,” Emily
points out, “but they don’t understand
stuff because they have
never been presented with it.” And
with the high concentration of
middle-aged dads at rock shows,
it’s important to have this sort of
information to be accessible to the
demographic who might not have
been privy to it previously.
“That’s the thing about platforms,
though, as well,” Cass says, “about
palatable platforms.” Bringing
up these issues and speaking out
about the marginalization of queer
and trans people is important in
any form, but putting it in a pleasingly
consumable form attracts an
even wider audience. “When I just
sat down and read all the lyrics on
the Kermes vinyl, it just hits home;
it’s really powerful. I think it’s just
better for being put over a groovy
thing,” Cass explains. “It almost
sticks in your mind better, as well,
the important stuff.”
As many people come to Kermes
shows for the serious and the sad,
drummer Jordy points out, just as