Photo by Josh Sisk.

Local trio The Gift isn’t afraid to get heavy. Many of the songs on the aptly named Mostly in Sickness stick to the minor keys and singer/guitarist Beck Levy isn’t afraid to open up her throat and scream along to those dark riffs. It’s as if she’s reliving the loss and grief of her music as the rhythm section of Henry Mesias and Mikey T plod heavily behind her.

However, for writing such unrelentingly dark music, all three members of the trio have wholesome jobs and a visible sense of humor. We talked to Levy about the band’s cover band beginnings, their love of Fort Reno and why they still have a LiveJournal page.

Find them online: Facebook and LiveJournal

Buy their album: At their bandcamp site

See them next: Monday at Fort Reno

It sounds like the three of you in the band have been friends for awhile. How long have you actually known each other?

I’d say that I’ve known Mike and Henry since about 2004, and they’ve probably known each other for several years before that.

It also sounds like you came from separate bands. Had you played together before The Gift?

They were in a band together called Anchors and before that they had been in bands that had played together, Tradition Dies Here and Exosus. My only experience playing music with any of them before this band was Mike and I used to play around for fun, and one time we played a Halloween cover band together. It felt very natural to begin playing music together.

A Halloween cover band?

Mikey and I were in a robot-themed cover band one Halloween and it actually was a pretty transformative experience. I mean, it was so silly and yet I ended up starting my first real band with two of the people in that band and it really got me playing guitar again. And now I’m in a band with Mikey, so it was humble beginnings, but super fun.

What are you accomplishing with The Gift that’s different than with the previous bands you’ve been in?

Hmm. That’s a good question. And a challenging one. I think that the band is for me about really intentional songwriting and my old band was a lot more about letting the emotion of a song dictate the direction that it and the band went in. My old band was also a lot about grappling with issues of gender and gender performance and I don’t think that this is as visible a component in my new band. That’s not to say that that’s gone away at all. The experience of being a woman musician is an inherently complicated one.

There are still feminists who point to The Gift as a must-see band.

That’s great! I must be doing something right, then. I think that you definitely can’t — and it’s probably a good thing — separate your personal politics from the art that you create. Even if the music that I’m making right now isn’t about gender roles, it’s still very much a part of who I am: a person who thinks about and struggles with those things.

One thing that I have noticed about your music is that it’s very dark.

Yes. That’s true.

Is there anything specific that appeals about writing dark music?

It’s not something that we try to do. It just sort of comes out that way. I think that’s natural. I think it gives a constructive outlet for some of the darker reactions that we have to our lives and experiences.

That makes sense. I don’t get the impression that you three as a band are all gloomy individuals. Didn’t one of your bandmates get a tattoo of the other’s face?

Yeah, that’s true. I would totally agree that we’re not all doom and gloom. When I think about us as a band and when I describe us, it sounds, to me, like we’re a really wholesome bunch of contributing citizens. I’ll start with Mikey. Mikey got Henry’s face tattooed on him as a tribute to his bro. It’s a beautiful tribute and a tasteful tribute. But, Mikey is a vegan chef and a friend to animals. Henry is a bicycle safety advocate and I am a screen printer. I feel like those are wholesome trades that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from folks playing darker music.

On a completely different note, I see that you all got stuck in the Atlanta ice storm earlier this year?

Yeah. I have never missed a show due to weather before in my recent largely unsuccessful career as a touring musician.

What happened that night when it became apparent that the show wasn’t going to happen? How long did you hold out?

When you’re playing these punk tours, sometimes you’ll have the address of the venue and the promoter will send you these e-mail that says, “OKW” instead of a venue name or the time the bands are playing. And this was one of those shows where not only was the highway icy but we had no concrete information from the promoter. We were beginning to suspect that they might be slacking on their communication skills. So, going toward that end was not worth risking our lives. I still have never played in Atlanta. I’ve played in Athens. I would love to play in Atlanta.

How long has this career as a touring musician been?

Well, The Gift has been a band since 2009 and my previous band was the first band that I was in. That band played its first show in 2007, I believe. So, that is as long as I have been a touring musician.

What inspired you to start playing in bands four years ago?

I play guitar and I’m from a musical family. I’ve played guitar since I was about twelve. It doesn’t feel like a choice, playing music. There have definitely been times where I’ve had my gear repeatedly stolen or stuff like that where I really wanted to just stop, but I don’t have a choice. I don’t think I could stop playing music.

Is your promo photo from the Black Cat’s Red Room?

Yeah, it is! Both of my bandmates are former employees of the Black Cat and they have indulged us time and time again — silly, silly stuff like taking a formal promo photo.

A lot of bands use many forms of social media to promote themselves, but I think you’re the first band I’ve talked to who has their own Livejournal.

I will take that honor! Thank you. We have a Livejournal and a Make Out Club profile. I think that even if you don’t agree with the critique of social networking, you can imagine what one might be. When we first started the band we didn’t feel like we wanted to spend a lot of time making social friends, although we do have a Facebook page now. I didn’t feel like reteaching myself HTML, so that was the best and oldest Internet communication platform that I personally have used.

How long did it take to record the album that you just put out?

We recorded with our friend Nick who lives in Baltimore and we went up a couple of times. It’s nice to be able to stay semi-local and not have to drive too far to record.

Are you excited about playing Fort Reno on Monday?

I absolutely am. We’re all originally from the D.C. area. Fort Reno is personally, one of my favorite things about D.C. It’s totally an honor to play and really humbling to play because the younger bands just kick so much butt and so many bands have shared that space before. It takes a lot of hard work to make it happen and I’m super appreciative of it. I love Fort Reno. My partner lives in North Carolina and I was really proud to share Fort Reno and it was something that I was proud to share about D.C. It’s a good thing to show to folks from out of town so that they can actually get a taste of what it’s like to live in D.C. I think that it can be hard for people who aren’t from here to get a feel of what D.C. is actually like because so much of it is the unrelenting death grip of the Federal Government. But, Fort Reno is, to me, the finest that D.C. has to offer.