Ōtepoti punk musician El Checketts wants to disrupt your comfortable existence.

Vagina Dry. Some people find the name of my feminist punk band uncomfortable or confronting. To them I’d say… yeah, you have the right idea. It is. Like my band, the songs I write are uncomfortable and confronting: they take on systemic racism, genocide, and alarming rates of violence towards women and trans people.  

I find it difficult not to be outrageous and outspoken. The importance of venting anger and pain on to paper and into art, outweighs the negative reactions of strangers I have encountered. People have heckled me, scoffed at me, or said horrible things about me which, I won’t lie, has shaken my confidence a few times. But my desire to create and inspire is greater than empty threats and sexist judgements.   

My Voice My Choice is the first single I wrote, and it was released by Vagina Dry in 2024. This song is about my experience growing up in a patriarchal society as a nonbinary woman. At the time of writing this song, I had been made to feel as though what I had to say was not important.  I felt like my voice was discarded, shattered in a million pieces on the floor and that my thoughts, ideas, and concerns were being constantly ignored. My consent and bodily autonomy were taken from me on multiple occasions   

Through listening to Feminist Punk/Riot Grrrl music, I learnt I could take these feelings and experiences and turn them into a myriad of powerful lyrics that could be pulled together with an equally outraged arrangement of power chords. Writing this song helped me pick up the broken shards of my voice and delicately put them back together piece by piece, show by show, song by song.   

Every time someone came up to me after our set and told me that they felt inspired, powerful, or heard, the glue became solidified. Even the smallest most fragile fragments of glass began to neatly fit back into place. I am always ecstatic to see people of all backgrounds screaming the lyrics: “I say no, you take it away” and “where is my voice? Where is my choice?” in the pit of our shows. I create physical art with my lyrics too and make lyrical zines in which I use mixed media to showcase the heavy themes of the songs.   

I write songs from the deepest pit in my stomach, fuelled by anger at injustice I am forced to swallow. All the words come together in song through loud distorted guitar and meaningful lyrics. My voice is amplified by the microphone and whether or not people listen to me, I am the loudest in the room. To have this outlet is a privilege that I am so grateful for.   

My advice for any young, queer person who feels like their voice is stifled: start a band, write a song, learn an instrument. Use your unique outlook on life to create. Your voice is important. The world needs more passionate people who break societal norms, unapologetically. 

*title quote from Cesar A. Cruz, author & human rights activist.