Seattle punk rock icons The Gits, pictured circa 1993. By Alex Simon
The Seattle, Washington music scene in the early 1990s was, arguably, as important an artistic movement as the British Invasion of the 1960s in forming the cultural, and sub-cultural voice of a decade. Bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and dozens of others, helped form the "grunge" sound that was distinct to the Pacific Northwest, and soon had scores of imitators the world over. There was no band that had quite as fervent a following, or engendered such high hopes from fans, critics and fellow musicians alike, than The Gits. Formed by a group of friends (Matt Dresdner, Andy Kessler, Steve Moriarity, and Mia Zapata) at Ohio's Antioch College in 1986, The Gits remained true to the roots of old school punk, rather than adapting the more understated (some would say "dreary") sound of the grunge movement, infusing their sound with aggressive guitar and percussion work, and a dynamic lead singer in Mia Zapata, who literally owned the stage, and was dubbed by many as a punk rock Janis Joplin.
Named after a famous Monty Python sketch (the "Sniveling Little Rat-Faced Gits"), The Gits launched a highly successful European tour in 1991, and continued to tour the States through '92 and '93, gathering a loyal fanbase in their native Seattle where, as one fan put it "People went to see The Gits live, because the band lifted people up out of their own hells." The Gits were being courted by Atlantic Records, and were in the middle of recording their second album, "Enter: The Conquering Chicken," when Mia Zapata was found beaten, raped and murdered on July 7, 1993. She was 28 years-old, and The Gits died along with her.
Kerri O'Kane's documentary The Gits takes an intimate look into the lives of the band's members, their passionate fanbase, and the mystery surrounding Mia Zapata's murder, which went unsolved for nearly a decade. It also beautifully captures a specific time and place in musical and pop cultural history when, for a brief moment, anything seemed possible. Kerri, a Los Angeles native who studied film at San Francisco State, spoke to us recently about her six year journey to bring The Gits' story to the screen.
Director Kerri O'Kane. How did you discover the music of The Gits?
Kerri O'Kane: I had ovarian cancer back in 2000, and I was doing a documentary at the time about my cancer. I picked up a book called "Manifesta," because I was bed-ridden and this book had all these websites in the back, one of which was Home Alive. That was the organization that described itself as "A self-defense organization by and for young women, which was created in response to the murder of Mia Zapata, lead singer of The Gits, who was murdered while walking home late one night." After reading that, I was really struck by it, and I really wanted to see a film that was made on her, then discovered that there hadn't been one made yet! Then I discovered that Doug Pray did the film Hype, about the Seattle music scene in the early '90s. The Gits were in that and when I saw the film, I thought they just kicked ass. So from the moment I found out about her death, I was just obsessed. I got up the next morning, went to Tower Records, and picked up a Gits CD.
The person I kept thinking of when I watched the film of Mia on stage was Janis Joplin.
Exactly! She was an old soul, and wasn't the typical punk rocker like Darby Crash from The Germs or Exene Cervenka from X. There was a specific element that Mia had. She was so charismatic and fiery and I was really drawn to that. I never knew her, of course, but yes, I've heard that comparison a lot.
Flyer for a Gits show in Seattle.She was also like Janis in the sense that she transformed on stage. Off-stage, she was apparently very introverted and was someone you really wouldn't have noticed. Then on-stage she became this incredible creature.
Yeah, and a lot of her close friends would say that about her, too. And that's how I got to know Mia, through her friends, and their describing the antics of Mia Zapata. She was a unique individual was very introverted off-stage, who liked to sit by herself and write her poetry and lyrics, and then when she was on-stage, like her father says, she was just magnetic.
What were some of the challenges getting this made, especially since this is your feature directing debut?
Well, it took over six years to get made since I first had the idea, but eight months or so once my producer, Jessica Bender, and I started working on it. I had been buying all this Gits merchandise off of Ebay, and it turns out the person I'd been getting it from was Steve Moriarity, the drummer! It was very difficult at first convincing (the surviving band members) to commit to participating, and that I wasn't going to exploit them, or the death of their best friend. My goal was to get their music out there. It was also hard because at the time we'd started filming, the killer had not been caught. During that year, we had to be hand-led to each person in that circle of friends and family, and then they caught the killer. But until that time, people were hesitant to talk, because they really didn't know if it was one of them, a deranged fan, or who it was. There was so little physical evidence to go on, initially.
And a lot of those suspicions made no sense to me because from what I could tell, this was a woman who had no enemies, only friends.
Exactly. There was speculation because many of her songs were really dark, in fact she made references in a couple songs to serial killing and rape, so the foreshadowing of her own death was there. The theory of the deranged fan was the one that I think really stuck with a lot of people.
Yeah, that was the only plausible explanation, particularly in light of what's happened with other celebrities, like John Lennon.
Right, right. And even when I started doing the film, I remember thinking "God, this must have been a crazy son of a bitch who did this, and was just obsessed with Mia and her lyrics." The way she seemed to predict her own death was just incredible. So no, she didn't have any enemies per se, but she was also somebody who wouldn't take shit, either. If you pushed her too far, she could unleash. Not in a sadistic way, but in a sticking up for herself kind of way. She was very savvy and street smart. Valerie Agnew and Celine, two of the members of the band Seven Year Bitch, were the last people to see her alive when she left The Comet Tavern. It was just another night. Mia was tough, but there was more to her than just that. She was also sweet and sensitive and had a very unique sensibility about her.
The Gits' lead singer, Mia Zapata, 1965-1993. And it turned out her death was literally a random act of violence, like she was swimming along and bumped into a shark.
Yes, exactly, which made it even scarier. She actually had headphones on, which is why police think she didn't hear him coming up behind her. I think he just tackled her and threw her in the car. And in the film you see what a giant, what a beast this guy is, just huge. So Mia had no chance, even though she fought back. I mean, he actually had to almost duck down to enter the courtroom, which was full of people who wanted to kill him. If every one of those people had jumped him at once, he still would've been able to toss them off! That's how enormous this guy is. So no, Mia had no chance.
Let's talk about some positive things, like the impact The Gits had on that amazing music scene in Seattle during the early '90s.
Well, The Gits really considered themselves to have a do-it-yourself punk ethic, and as someone who grew up with bands like Suicidal Tendencies, X, The Germs, they were really more akin to that sensibility than the other bands that were profiled in Doug Pray's film Hype, like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It kind of seemed like, I don't want to be crude, but a bit of a clusterfuck, because there was a time where, if you were perceived as being part of this scene, you would get signed. I'm not dissing the aforementioned groups, because I love Nirvana and Pearl Jam and lots of the other so-called "grunge" bands of that era, but it just seems like The Gits stayed under the radar, very deliberately I think. From what I understand, they really became a band of the people, and avoided the hype. They weren't interested in fame or fortune. They just wanted to make great music and have a good time. They were a close-knit family, and they foresaw that fame and fortune could destroy their friendship, which it has done to so many other bands.
A live performance of "Seaweed" by The Gits.
What do you think Mia and The Gits would be doing now if she were still here?Well, obviously I'm speculating, but Mia was a gifted artist and writer, and poet, so maybe she'd be concentrating on that if they weren't performing anymore. I think for sure they'd all still be very close friends. I do think she'd be perceived as a great artist with lots of people waiting to see what she would do next.
It also struck me that, unlike a lot of bands during that time, The Gits seemed to live a pretty healthy lifestyle, and loved life. There was no overt self-destruction going on, the sort that claimed the lives of so many members of the Seattle scene. Yeah, I mean they liked to drink sometimes, but they also realized that they found gold in one another, and they had a real opportunity to create something special. Each one of them brought something to the table. Matt Dresdner was the taskmaster, the responsible one. He owned the house and kept things in order. Steve was the vocal one, the one who did the advertising and perpetuated The Gits movement, if you will. And Andy and Mia were more the introverted artists that worked together, the core of the band, that helped get their music to a level that was really unique. What I tried to accomplish in this film, was to present them as a family, and the loss that they suffered when one of them got taken out so violently.
And it's not like Mia was replaceable.
Right, she wasn't.
I don't know if you saw the interview with Keith Richards a couple months ago in Rolling Stone, but Keith was asked where'd he'd be today without Mick Jagger, and vice-versa, and Keith said something to the effect that they'd both be selling insurance somewhere in suburban London. "Either one of us without the other would be nothing.".
Absolutely right. Each one of them created this unique chemistry that is The Rolling Stones.
Plus let's face it: you lose your lead singer, that's it. Van Halen was never the same without David Lee Roth, even though Sammy Haggar is an amazing talent.
Yeah, exactly. That is the band. And Mia was absolutely unique. She would be like someone like Linda Perry, who went from being a successful recording artist to producing for other people. God knows what Mia could have been doing.
You had a near-death experience. How does being a survivor change your outlook?
I have to say that Mia Zapata saved my life. The music of The Gits changed my life. I was down in the dumps, really messed up, just mentally over it all, because my life had changed in such a horrible way. I know this isn't an uncommon story, but what is unique is that I found somebody who got me out of that place, and it was someone who, unfortunately, had been murdered. So I couldn't shake her hand, and thank her. So pouring my heart into this film, this six and-a-half year labor of love, was the next best thing for me: my way of saying thank you to Mia and her bandmates for all they did for me.
The Gits will be released on DVD July 8 from Liberation Entertainment. For other info, visit The Gits websites at www.thegits.com and www.thegitsmovie.com
Also check out the Home Alive site at www.homealive.org
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