SPECIAL INTEREST

Emerging from the New Orleans DIY scene, Special Interest are an uncompromising band: in their adventurous sound, in their energetic live performances and in their convictions. Dance music and punk culture have flirted before, but Alli Logout, Maria Elena, Nathan Cassiani and Ruth Mascelli’s desire is to dismantle the genre.

Their acclaimed albums Spiraling (2018) and The Passion Of (2020) articulated the band’s style, driven as much by dance grooves and electronic textures as by hardcore riffs. A vision that Endure (2022), their latest album and their first on Rough Trade, expands upon. Inspired not only by the pandemic, but also by the riots of the summer of 2020, the band echoes the intensity of the moment in the dancefloor beat tackling the issues surrounding them, such as gentrification and the impending climate apocalypse. 

But Special Interest’s music is not just a call to action. Biting humour and irreverence are interspersed with rough edges of noise, and there’s always room to dance and sweat.