By Daisy Spinelli
After nearly a decade in the making, Wheelchair Sports Camp released their highly anticipated album, “Oh Imperfecta” on Alternative Tentacles last Friday, May 15. Self-described as a “collage of sound,” the new album is political without being preachy, hilarious without losing emotional weight, and cohesively genre-diverse.
Ahead of their Wax Trax early listening party a couple weeks ago, I sat down with Kalyn Heffernan and Greg Ziemba from Wheelchair Sports Camp to discuss perfectionism, punk lineage, physical media, Denver’s DIY scene, and the accidental moments that helped define the record.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity, and to cut out the several friends & fans who interrupted to pay respects to the iconic Denver band.
Daisy: First of all, congrats on the new album. I’ve been obsessed with the singles, “EAT MEAT!” “Make it make SENSE,” and “DEAD.” Specifically the first one is a real ear worm, my girlfriend’s been walking around the house yelling “Eat meat, eat meat, eat meat!” ever since it came out.
Kalyn: Haha, thank you. Sorry.
D: You’ve mentioned a few times that you got behind the drum kit for the first time with “EAT MEAT!” The song seems like a turning point in how the album came together, how did that song unlock the rest of the record creatively?
K: Yeah, it really was the turning point.
Greg: We were just kind of messing around. With Kalyn, it was like, “fuck it, I’ll play guitar. You play drums,” and it just kinda opened up something in us. I think the freedom of Kalyn to be able to use her voice in a thinner setup with just simple drums, simple guitar, really let her words that are so powerful like, pop out.
K: We wrote it so quick, and once the album was coming to a complete end, we landed on Oh Imperfecta for the title. I’ve been exploring my relationship to perfectionism for a while, and, like, Greg is much better at letting things go and moving on than me. And it’s just like and then we spend two hours on [“EAT MEAT!”], and it’s now our smash hit single.
D: I’m curious about that relationship with perfectionism and how it’s kind of reflected in this album. Is there a moment on the record where you kind of, like, consciously left something imperfect that the old version of you would have overworked?
G: A lot of times in the past, Kalyn would find a beat that she liked that someone made, and then we’d kind of rework the beat, and then do things with it. So it was kind of cool to hit it from a different angle.
K: And also as a rapper, as a tiny, white, queer, very othered rapper, there’s the culture to be the best. Can’t be a good rapper unless you think you’re the best rapper. And then me being so me, like, I have to flex all the time. There’s a lot of pressure on myself. But there’s juxtaposition, like the opposite of “EAT MEAT!” is the song “On Hold,” which took forever to finish.
On Hold is an example of just crazy things. Like, I made a beat, and there were parts of it that I really liked. Greg played drums on it. I ended up sampling him dropping his stick. So the sample is like an accident that I loved, especially on loop, and it actually changes the timing a lot… it was probably an eight year song.
D: Since it’s been about a decade since there’s been a full album from you guys, how has the music evolved? When you hear those old songs that you’ve been working on for so long, do you hear the evolution in the album?
K: Totally. We had all these really good songs that deserved to live on a record, but then we were also in this new energy of like, let’s try some new shit, and let’s just move on faster and get this done so we can work on the next one kinda vibe.
G: I think it’s almost like you don’t have to like beat yourself up to do something great. You don’t have to be like, “Oh, I spent 10 years on this. That’s why this is good.” It doesn’t really work like that.
K: True. And I’m the fucking queen of working harder, but also smarter. It’s part of my process.
G: And getting signed to Alternative Tentacles honestly was a big transition.
D: Let’s talk more about Alternative Tentacles. How would you say that just being on that label and working with Jello and the team influenced how bold, or weird, you went with the direction of the album?
K: We just feel so at home with those guys. It definitely feels like a lot of meant-to-be’s with their catalog and their history, like they really embrace fucking weirdos. So being on the label of Wesley Willis and, you know, even political shit, like they’ve put out records of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Angela Davis, and Howard Zinn. Those were people that shaped my politics. And some of the legendary bands shaped Greg’s upbringing.
G: A lot of the punk I grew up on was what Jello was doing, and what Alternative Tentacles were doing. It’s been fun to explore their catalog and see the music I was listening to in middle school and early high school days, you know?
D: Because you’ve kind of gone in a more punk direction with this record, what does punk mean to you guys, at this point in your career?
K: I think it’s really embracing letting go. It’s a genre way less focused on production and quality. It’s more about feeling. Spiritually, I think I’ve always been a little punk, but genre-wise I was so obsessed with hip-hop. I feel like I’m late to the party.
G: And punk and hip-hop have such a cool symbiotic relationship. It seems like they came around the same kind of eras. What we’ve been doing is almost the opposite of, like, the Beastie Boys. They were a punk band and then transitioned to doing hip-hop. And we were doing hip-hop, and transitioning to doing punk, you know? We’re going full circle.
D: A lot of your music is political, and obviously funny at the same time. Do you ever feel tension in creating something really fun versus something, like, politically sharp?
K: Yeah, the tension is what we’re going for. My mom is standing over there, but this bitch is funny as fuck, plus she’s all over the record. She’s got this very dark humor. She cares about a lot of things but is also unfiltered and offensive.
My life is so politicised that I am political. My existence is political. But the humor piece is so important, and I think the further I get into politics, it becomes so mundane or dry that we all burn out. And humor in music is a relief, to get through the real shit, you know?
G: I think Kalyn’s sense of humor really brings that discourse. You know, just like “let’s have a conversation about this.”
D: You guys have both been a part of the Denver scene for so long. I mean, what feels different in the community now versus when you were coming up in it?
G: My first shows in the Denver scene were probably in like, the late ‘90s/early ‘00s. And it was a more desolate place. Like, you could play Larimer Lounge and they’d give you tickets to give away, and would pay you like, a dollar for every ticket that came in. And you could go on stage and do weird noise music and it wasn’t a big deal. But now, those kinda places feel way more corporate and more money-making driven.
K: Even planning for our album release, I used to have these ways of doing things, and we took a really long time to learn, like how to send a press release, how to book shows, how to do these regular things. That infrastructure isn’t there in the same way, and the internet ans social media has changed all that.
But yeah, it feels like you’re battling with more corporate entities, but there is still cool shit happening. I do know that a lot of cool DIY spots with a lot of youth we’re both connected to are doing really cool shit.
G: I think it’ll always be the same, but where it is and how it is will be kind of unique to the eras.
D: I’d love to talk about the “Oh Imperfecta” album artwork. Winston Smith created it, the iconic punk collage artist. Can you share a little about the artwork and how you feel like it reflects the music?
K: It was so perfect because Greg had brought up what collage of sound the album was gonna be. And I think my mom’s interludes was, like, another way to bring all the randomness together in a cohesive way. And then having Winston do the cover was like, you couldn’t ask for more. Getting connected to him and, like, obviously Jello, like, yeah, it’s just so fucking cool.
G: When I was a kid I bought that Green Day “Insomniac” album right when it came out, and that was my favorite album when I was little. And Winston did that cover, you know? It’s amazing to be able to become part of a lineage of something that you were so excited about.
D: Love that. So what does it mean to you two to have a physical release out in the world when everything is so digital?
K: Well, it’s so cool ’cause we’re on a label that is so analog. For them it’s way more about the vinyl, and for us, you know, we’ve always wanted to press more vinyl. It’s just so expensive and l takes up a lot of space in my apartment. And having a label press 1,500 and believe in us… that alone is a huge investment, and I’m so honored.
G: I feel like every time I’m in Wax Trax lately, there’s so many more people in there than there used to be. I think people are wanting to own their own media again, which is so exciting to see. We’ve kind of figured out a way to survive as a band selling those, because we make barely any money off of streaming and then, but like, a pretty decent amount selling physical media, so it helps us too.
K: To conceptualize the album as a vinyl was cool, and we were really intentional about thinking about side A and side B. Digitally it’s like a super short record, but on vinyl, it’s a very full record. And if we had gone much longer, the quality of the vinyl, you know, would deteriorate, so this is a vinyl-ass record.
D: So without spoiling anything for the Meow Wolf show on May 23, what can people expect?
G: Let’s spoil some shit. Why not?
K: So we can spoil the fact that Jello is coming. Even though he just survived a fucking stroke and canceled everything, the fool is coming. He’s walking. He’s excited, too.
G: I think the fact that we’re very sensitive to, obviously, disability and everything, makes this the perfect comeback for him. I think it’ll be a cool moment for everybody.
K: And we’re also gonna have some special guests with us. We’re always doing that, bringing our friends on stage with us as well, particularly the people that helped us make the record are gonna play with us, which is really special.
D: Can’t wait. Before that, any requests for how someone listens to “Oh Imperfecta” for the first time?
G: In full. Front-to-back. I bought this Gil Scott-Heron album at Wax Trax, and there’s a thing in it when you pull it out, it says ‘you spent your money on this. You worked hard for that money. Sit down and listen to this album in full and don’t like, be distracted.’ I love that idea, you know?
K: Yeah, if you buy the physical, pull out the liner notes. I grew up loving to read lyrics, and we don’t usually get to put lyrics ‘cause there’s too many in rap songs. But this has the lyrics. And the credits. You’re not really gonna know how great the record is until you read all the credits.
G: When you put on the record, you know, treat it like a sacred thing. Give yourself a little time to breathe.
D: And listen.
G: And listen.
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