Coup Sauvage and the Snips: L-R, Raina Sauvage, Jason Sauvage, Maegan Sauvage, Kristina Sauvage, Elizabeth Sauvage, Crystal Sauvage. Photo by Robert M. Golightly, Jr.

During our interview with Coup Sauvage and the Snips, Jason Sauvage, the six-piece ensemble’s keyboardist, revealed that they’ve written a song about some people trying to jack their style. This is particularly surprising considering that nobody in the city really sounds like Coup Sauvage, and any imitators would be immediately recognized. For starters, the make-up of Coup Sauvage and the Snips contains neither guitar nor drums. Singer Kristina Sauvage and the Snips, Crystal Sauvage and Raina Sauvage sing over the sound of Jason’s keyboards, Elizabeth Sauvage’s bass and Maegan Sauvage’s beats. This works well as the songs themselves are soulful and sassy, throwing down the gauntlet against mean women, hollering men and the city’s gentrifiers…often right in front of them. They sound like an updated ’60s girl group that discovered disco, ball culture, En Vogue and recent DJ dance nights. There really is no mistaking them for anyone else.

We talked to five of the six members of Coup Sauvage (Crystal Sauvage was not present) about their Kiss-Off Trilogy, their belief in confrontational art and their goals for expanding their empire.

Find Them Online: http://www.facebook.com/hausofsauvage

See Them Live: Tonight at Comet Ping Pong with Mykki Blanco and Dope Body.

What is the delineation between Coup Sauvage and the Haus of Sauvage? What is what?

Kristina: There really is no delineation between Coup Sauvage in a sense and the Haus of Sauvage. The Haus of Sauvage is what Coup Sauvage falls under, though. So, the Haus is sort of like a family. It’s the overarching group and eventually the Haus of Sauvage will have other members.

Maegan: Proteges.

Kristina: Yeah, youth proteges. We call them Children of the Haus of Sauvage.

Elizabeth: You know, like Prince had Wendy & Lisa. We have our own plans for expanding our empire.

Kristina: Eventually we want our own Carmen Electra* and Appolonia.* So, the Haus is the group and the friends of the group.

I had put you all as one of the best up-and-coming bands in D.C…

Everyone: Thank you!

You’re welcome. Although, Jason, when I saw you, you mentioned that you were the portion of the article that was already legendary.

Elizabeth: Yeah, well there’s a distinction between legendary children and up-and-coming children, so we would consider ourselves already legendary. We’ve already upped and come.

How did you all start playing music together?

Elizabeth: There’s some confusion about this as to when we decided that we were actually going to do it. We’ve been talking about it for a long time because we’ve known each other—most of us have known each other for awhile. And we met through Ladyfest, which was so long ago now. 2002? Then people were DJing—just kind of that whole scene that came around after that. We knew each other from there and we always wanted to do a project that kind of combined ‘80s excitement, ‘90s high energy, ‘70s glamour, ‘80s beats and we finally all just came to the same spot. We didn’t talk about it, we just went to a location and did it.

Jason: The first practice was at [Elizabeth]’s house in Garrett Park.

Elizabeth: But we’re much more a Brentwood band.

In one of your songs I know that you talk about Laurel.

Jason: Yes.

Kristina: We love Laurel. It’s one of our favorite places in Maryland and in Ward 9 as we like to call it. It’s just a really crazy place. There’s something strange that’s always happening in Laurel and so we wanted to write a song that was an homage to one of our favorite cities. That song is based on a true story inspired by one of our — we like to call her a spirit guide — who was in a band and who has played in bands with Coup Sauvage members. She grew up in Laurel and we were very much inspired by her experiences growing up. Finding dead bodies on the train tracks in Laurel—that all happened. That’s true. There’s a line in the song that isn’t specific to Laurel, but to PG County in general about Jack Johnson getting arrested by the Feds while his wife tries to flush all the money down the toilet. So, it’s all based on a true story. We like a lot of gritty realism in our songs.

It seems like a lot of your songs are based on true stories.

Elizabeth: Yeah, a lot of our inspiration comes from overhearing things on the Circulator, so it’s true—based in truth—radical truth.

Kristina: We see ourselves as radical truth tellers. Speaking truth to power. I think a lot of the songs are based on true stories. “Sneaks,” which we like to say is the first in our Kiss-Off Trilogy…

Elizabeth: There’s more than three.

Kristina: I know, it’s more than a trilogy, but that was inspired by some people that we thought were sneaky bitches and we’re all about the lady love. We want to support other women, but that song was about somebody who was a real bitch.

What are the other two songs in the Kiss-Off Trilogy?

Kristina: “Sneaks” was definitely one of the first songs that was a part of the kiss-off trilogy.

Jason: “Freak of the Week,” I would say.

Kristina: “Freak of the Week” is a kiss-off to people who want to stop and holler at you on the street and you just want to tell them to get out your face.

Jason: We have one that’s waiting in the wings, “Designer Imposters” that’s about people who try to jack our style. So, I think that would be part of the trilogy.

That’s so strange. You seem like such a unique band. Who would try to jack your style?

Jason: We don’t want to give them any publicity but they’re out there.

Elizabeth: They’re working hard, but they’re not going to get it. They don’t have that special something. But also, “Heir to Nothing” is a kiss-off.

Kristina: That’s a kiss-off to all of the so-called urban pioneers that want to come into the city and take over. And it’s like, “Congratulations. You’re from D.C. Who did you push out?”


Elizabeth: People are so proud of living in D.C., but a lot of people that live in D.C. live there because a lot of people don’t live there anymore. And as Kristina likes to say, “How many yoga studios do you need in a two block radius?” And we’re also locals, so most of us grew up around here. So, that’s a lot of our inspiration, too.

Jason: Yeah, the four of us were born in D.C. and Raina’s from Baltimore.

Kristina: And our other Snip, she’s been living here for over 10 years so we really do see ourselves as a truly local band.

Elizabeth: We’re not moving to Brooklyn.

Kristina: If anything, we’d just all move to Laurel.

Elizabeth: That’s a good idea. Maybe we could have Biz Markie’s old house if he really is moving.

Kristina: Yeah, that’s another reason that we love Laurel is that we found out that Biz Markie moved there. Apparently one of our friends saw him down at the Red Lobster on coupon night.

Elizabeth: More than once! He frequents it.

Kristina: I mean, who doesn’t love cheddar biscuits? I’d move to Laurel for the cheddar biscuits.

When did you all start playing out? I feel like the live show is a very integral part of the Coup Sauvage experience.

Jason: We started practicing in April of 2011 and our first show was February 15th of 2012, so we actually practiced for almost a year before our first show. So, we are pretty perfectionistic about everything—every single lyric, every note, every dance move. So, it took a lot of preparation, so that’s why I think our live show was so strong when we finally brought it out.

Was that intentional that your first show was the day after Valentine’s Day?

Kristina: No. I think that totally happened.

Jason: We booked that show basically to force ourselves to finish the songs because it was taking so long that we were like, “We just need to book a show so that we’ll have a set and we’ll actually bring this to people because we’ve been working on it for so long.” Giving ourselves a deadline really helped to solidify everything.

In fact, someone told me that your live show reminds them of Paris is Burning.

Elizabeth: Well, obviously we love Paris is Burning and I think what we like about it is that we’re all about performance, too. I mean, our show is a performance and the idea of serving something—we like that idea of serving something. But, at the same time, Paris is Burning is part of this 20-year cycle of nostalgia, so there are way more influences to us than Paris is Burning but, who doesn’ love Paris is Burning?

Kristina: There’s something wrong with you if you don’t love Paris is Burning. We deeply, deeply, deeply honor and respect the ball culture scene and Paris is Burning certainly is influence but we also have tons of weird influences that…

Elizabeth: …people might not even know!

What are some of the weird ones?

Kristina: We do love a lot of films. So, we’re not just influenced by a lot of musical artists but we’re influenced by everything from the Emerald City scene in The Wiz to John Waters films to…

Elizabeth: …any ‘70s variety show.

Kristina: Yes, we’re hugely influenced by all the variety shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s. So everything from the long-haired dancer on Solid Gold to the old variety show Midnight Special.

Elizabeth: 1979, only. But we’re inspired by a lot of Europop shows from the ‘70s where you’re watching the band give their all and people are just not moving or sitting quietly clapping. We like to imagine that we’re there and that people can’t help themselves. They have to get up from the table and start dancing.

Kristina: We’re definitely influenced by a lot of old soul music, Motown, ‘60s girl groups when people actually put a lot of effort into their look and into their stage show. They gave you a performance and we are all about bringing back that spectacle because a lot of bands just get lazy. And that’s part of that whole idea of serving realness. When you’re going up onstage, even if you’re just a guy with a guitar, you’re not just a guy with a guitar. That’s as much an illusion as us doing a song called “Heir to Nothing” and me jumping off the stage and choking somebody. That’s part of our show! It’s all a performance.

You’ve gotten offstage and choked somebody?

Elizabeth: She was flying through the air. It was insane. But, he was asking for it.

Kristina: Yeah. He knows what he did.

This is somebody you knew?

Elizabeth: Yeah. It’s not going to be a GG Alin show. If you’re known to us, you’re not in any danger. You’re not going to get hurt.

Kristina: It’s a little like Gallagher in the sense that if you’re in the front row, be prepared, but if we don’t know you personally, we won’t drag you up to do anything that you feel uncomfortable with. That said, we like an element of making the audience feel some discomfort. We believe that art should implicate and you should feel confronted and forced to confront things. We used to make people confront their fear of dancing at shows when we would have a segment called Maegan’s jam. That was total production of Maegan, aka, Executive Realness and it would be kind of a cross between a Soul Train Line and a Ball where people have to walk in the runway. D.C.’s still not ready. They’re still not ready to get off the wall and lift their damn shoegaze heads up off the floor and dance and just work it out. There are a few brave souls and there’s always somebody that will surprise us and get out there and just flip their shit but people still have a hard time with just letting loose like that at a show. So, that’s one of our goals. We want to make sure that people know how to let loose.

Elizabeth: I don’t know about that in D.C. That’s like trying to win a war in Afghanistan. People have been trying for centuries. People will dance but the soul train line, spotlight on individuals? People aren’t ready. We’ll help them.

Kristina: We’re all about helping the children!

Elizabeth: And making them feel uncomfortable.

How was opening for the Make-Up?

Raina: It was great. It was exciting. The DJ warmed the crowd up for us and the crowd just welcomed us with open arms. It was a great show. I really enjoyed it.

Kristina: We were honored to be asked and we appreciate that we were considered for this momentous occasion that made all of D.C.’s indie rock cognoscenti cream their jeans. We were excited of all the bands that we got to open up for them. But I think that we actually probably have some things in common. I think that there is a shared love of performance, over-the-top performance, which made it really good fit.

Jason: It was nice being on the Mainstage. That’s really where we should be. It was very comfortable.

I imagine with six people, small stages probably get pretty cramped.

Jason: Definitely.

Kristina: And that was the first time we debuted “Heir to Nothing,” so it couldn’t have been for a better night, a better show, a better crowd and they were eating out of our hands! Even as they were being implicated. Making fun of people in the audience who were the same consumers of $5 artisanal sodas who lived in fancy condos. And for some reason, they just like the abuse! People seem to love when we abuse them. People say they want to hear more of us between songs just letting them have it.

I suppose it’s the way it’s packaged. It’s real.

Elizabeth: Well, they can’t argue with it. They are drinking $5 sodas from food trucks after.

So, one of your goals is to get D.C. to dance. What are some of your other goals for the band?

Jason: In the short term, we’ve been recording our songs so we want to get maybe enough songs written for an album eventually. In the short term we hope to have a music video and a single.

Elizabeth: And we want to play Hamburg. The city. We want to play our song “Hamburg” in Hamburg.

Kristina: That’s another one of our favorite cities next to Laurel.

Elizabeth: Maybe we can start a Kickstarter to get us to Hamburg. Just kidding, no Kickstarters.

Not a fan?

Elizabeth: Not particularly. I’ll bet we could get a lot of money, though. People love to be abused and they love to give me money to do it.

Kristina: Maybe, to help us raise money to go to Hamburg, we can sell $5 artisinal sodas after the show.

Maegan: We’ll write a bit about you. We’ll abuse you personally. That’s the highest bidding point.

Elizabeth: I think if people donate money to send us to Hamburg, we should send them a CD of Amanda Palmer songs.

Kristina: All I know is that Coup Sauvage will never have a bogus Kickstarter and then go on to do a TED talk where you talk about how you basically ran your own Ponzi scheme getting money from the Kickstarter and you don’t pay your own musicians. We won’t do that. That’s not a goal.