Out of Pride: The Unapologetic Story of Melting Pot Massacre

by Dedee W
Melting Pot Massacre were an Auckland-based Asian feminist punk band, active from 2011-2013.
Their documentary ‘Out of Pride’ was made after they disbanded, and tells their story on their own terms. Having not yet seen it, I imagine it will provide more insight into the message behind their music and where they were coming from as a band.
The band was made up of Shasha on vocals, Mengzhou (MZ) on guitar, Supii on bass, and Mai on drums. They were best known for their debut single Migrant and Refugee Solidarity Song a solid in-your-face anthem that got everyone’s attention when their Diaspora EP was released in 2013.
They used their music to speak out on issues like racism and gendered violence in New Zealand society for the POC (people of colour) and ethnic communities. They were also featured in New Zealand’s leading family violence campaign It’s Not OK, in the multilingual resource for Asian, African and Middle Eastern communities on family violence.
On 24 December 2013, Melting Pot Massacre announced their sudden disbandment “after three years of connecting audiences across various social justice movements through punk music.”
I spoke to former vocalist Shasha Ali before the premiere screening of ‘Out of Pride’, to find out more about what lead to the band’s break-up and the making of this film.

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DW: This documentary was a long time coming. Why did it take so long to surface?
SA: The filming and editing took about 6 – 8 months, as it took the band a few months to get things organised from our archives, and then everything was done in-kind and voluntarily by video producer Debbie Anderson.
I think after we disbanded, most of our band members moved on to do other things. A few of us moved out of Auckland for work too, so logistically it was difficult to get consensus on anything. Even amongst us in Auckland, it seemed like we were too busy to even sit down together.

But I think at the heart of it, for me instinctively, after our disbandment there was a grieving process. Melting Pot Massacre as a band was made up of very different individuals who were not always in agreement, especially politically. There were a few things that we talk about in our documentary that will give an insight into what those issues are. But essentially, some of those issues affected some of us more than others.
As one of the founding members of the band who initiated the disbandment, I think I grieved every day since. I felt obliged to make this documentary surface as soon as I found myself in a clearer head space.

DW: Your documentary “Out of Pride: The Unapologetic Story of Melting Pot Massacre” was documented as a final show and response to the final straw, witnessing white cis transphobia in the LBGQ community in the lead up to Auckland Pride Festival 2014.”
For those that aren’t familiar with these terms, talk me through this. What was happening in the lead up to Auckland Pride Festival 2014, and how does this relate to your documentary?

SA: When MPM disbanded in Dec 2013, a few of us, primarily the remaining three members of the band thought it’d still be a good idea to play a last show like a final goodbye for all our friends and fans who supported us. Coincidentally, we were approached by Heroes Out West organisers around the same time, who invited us to perform as part of their event under Auckland Pride Festival.
Some of us are involved in the LBGTQ community (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer) so we know that Heroes Out West has historically had a certain demographic of cis (born and assigned gender) white, lesbian, middle class dominance. We have never identified as all-female/women, so when we received communication that specifically outlined that the event does not include men, we took it that the organisers must have not known about us having a member who identifies as transgender, as well as our mixed gender identity politics. There was also some flak about funding and performance fees… it got messy.
In the end, communication soured and we were no longer wanted on the schedule. Instead they “warmly” invited us to attend the event “for free”. We didn’t take that well. I can kind of understand if the organisers were annoyed at our incessant challenges to their organising, but because we believed we were speaking to inform, and change how things can be done, that outcome simply didn’t resemble much of a compromise.
So “Out of Pride”, was [the phrase] I coined and proposed to the band as the name of our last gig, as we literally got taken out of the festival’s event, as well as the fact that we were going to do our last show anyway with or without external support. There were also a lot of other things that were going on with Pride Festival that year – if you’re interested, google ‘pinkwashing’ and ‘Israeli apartheid’.

“We didn’t do this to please anyone nor help anyone. We just wanted to express ourselves and if people found nuggets in what we were about, or what we did on stage, then hopefully it inspired them to get help.”

DW: Tell me more about the “emotional labour” that comes with speaking out on controversial issues. Did you feel like you’d got in over your heads, or that you weren’t prepared for the attention you were getting?

SA: When we first started out, I wasn’t sure how people would react to our music. But I knew that it had the potential of pissing some people off, and that’s okay if it made people sit up and think. I think speaking out on controversial issues like racism, gender-based violence, and animal rights has to come from enraged passion, and in its core some level of lived reality. And so when that passion is externalised, it can be laborious. And it can burn you up easy.
I think people also thought they could trust us. Some of us in the band were known for our direct action activism and as community workers in our paid work capacity.
We had people who had some horrible stories about their own personal experiences approach us after shows or privately email us. And then on the other hand, there were all these upset people who felt we were creating divisiveness in the social movements we were part of – with our critically-charged music and attitudes that may look like disrespect to people who perhaps have been around longer than our band has.
We didn’t do this to please anyone nor help anyone. We just wanted to express ourselves and if people found nuggets in what we were about, or what we did on stage, then hopefully it inspired them to get help. But it was just like boundaries were getting blurred and there was no rest for us! It felt like people wanted something – maybe a sense of justice? – from us, that we would say or do the politically correct thing all the time. I don’t know about the other band members but for me it was a bit too much – we were just a band and most importantly, we have lives of our own too!

DW: Regarding your view of the punk scene, I wanted to bring up this quote from the press release:
“If anyone out there reckons the punk music scene is all fun and brotherhood, they need to hear what we went through.”
Without giving too much away from the documentary, what negative experiences did you take from the punk scene that made you say this?

 

SA: When you’re a minority of a minority of a minority, everything can seem negative in some way or another. It should not be surprising to anyone that we had a lot to say and we needed to garner support to ensure our voices were heard. It was definitely challenging to try to navigate who’s who in Auckland’s punk music scene. I mean, no one would readily allude that there is elitism and hierarchy in the scene, but there is. Whether it’s based on gender, class or race – there are always going to be people who are better off, or know more, or can do more than others.
I still remember one horrible experience of staying up late at night with MZ and our friends trying to figure out responses to silly cyber trolls on our Melting Pot Massacre Facebook Page after Fang Fest – where amongst other things, MZ wore an “I see White People” t-shirt which is pretty funny, but somehow got us attacked for “reverse racism”. How exhausting! It was like 96 comments within an hour or something ridiculous like that. And the shit people say too!
We probably missed out on lots of gig opportunities because of our stance on things. Rarely did we get approached to be part of a gig where they had genuine interest in the messages behind our music or cared about the safety of the communities we spoke for.

DW: Would you say that the scene has improved or become more welcoming since MPM disbanded?

SA: I got the opportunity to talk to some of the people that we might’ve [had disagreements with] and there was a lot of aroha and forgiveness in spite of it all, which helped in the learning and healing process for us as people. I hope it improves things, but it really is up to everyone else to engage with the issues rather than just the few we reconciled our differences with. I hope the documentary will highlight that to people watching it.
I still want to see more people of colour or from diverse marginalised backgrounds in punk. I still don’t see many. Until that happens, then I’ll say things are slowly changing I think!

Event details:
Out of Pride: The Unapologetic Story of Melting Pot Massacre
https://www.facebook.com/events/712028598931658/
Sunday 20 December 2015
Whammy Bar, 183 Karangahape Rd, Auckland
3pm – 5pm
$10 or more entry
All entry proceeds go to Shakti Ethnic Women’s Refuge

http://meltingpotmassacre.bandcamp.com/

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