If you’re wondering why headphone sales have boosted in 2025, it’s because Girl Pusher’s new album, gatekeep gaslight girlpusher, just dropped. Marking the end of a seven-year hiatus, the highly anticipated album, teased for months on Girl Pusher’s social media, fell as promised on the band’s 10-year anniversary: Jan. 1, 2025.
The anti-genre duo’s album was made in three days, for no one’s approval in particular except their own. With this record, producer Resign and vocalist Gabby, returned to their roots, using bone-scratching vocals to marry metal to electronic, and poking holes in the rules of cohesion and technical snobbery.
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As a rare treat, the adamantly anti-press pair agreed to an interview in conversation with the producer and malevolent AI construct, wallh4x. The tone between the trio of old friends ebbed in and out of hilarity and complete sincerity as Girl Pusher discuss their new work, growing up (and apart), the benefits of breaking edge, and what meeting people online is doing to the future of music.
Girl Pusher/Collage by Mizu Matsuura
WALLH4X: It’s been seven long years, Girl Pusher. Last time you released music, I think some college student tried to write a paper about “girl-core,” whatever the hell that means.
RESIGN: Oh yeah! They tried to label all these bands with “girl” in their name as “girl-core.” I forgot about that.
WALLH4X: Thank God your fans can’t achieve a degree. Otherwise, we’d have to deal with that dissertation. Anyway, why seven years? What created this informal hiatus?
RESIGN: Well, definitely COVID because we had to stop playing shows, and then I got depressed and wasn’t able to do anything. Though, I did put, like, 4,000 into Escape from Tarkov and GTA 5 roleplay, which probably didn’t help.
WALLH4X: Ah, Escape from Tarkov, GTA roleplay, depression, and some mysterious virus… the four main culprits. Gabby, you had to fly into California to make the record?
GABBY: Yeah, I live in Nevada now, and I love it. There’s more freedom here; I have a beautiful house and animals, and a really supportive partner. Actually, the album partially came out of my boyfriend saying, “I think you really need to be with Jarrod for a few days and just make this album,” so he bought my ticket and I flew to California, and we did it in three days. We were holed up in Jarrod’s tiny living space wearing the same dirty clothes and being gross.
RESIGN: Yeah. Gabby didn’t shower at all the entire time.
GABBY: Depression is a big reason we took a hiatus, but mainly our lives were growing in different directions. We both started our side projects; I’ve been delving into a more niche genre of music that’s heavier, even more analog, because I’m playing bass, and there are instruments. We’ve always been able to do Girl Pusher because everything we’ve made in our entire history has been long distance. It’s all been emails and files sent.
WALLH4X: Do you think this is unique to you guys, or a product of the world we live in?
GABBY: I mean, we live in a digital world. We met on Tumblr in the 10th grade. Finding each other, we were like, “Wow, I can finally figure myself out, and this person is on the very same ride.” Now that the internet is so powerful, musicians are meeting each other and starting projects all the time. Brutalismus 3000 and Snow Strippers are both bands that met each other on Tinder. I am so stoked on it; I clap my hands and I cheer that other people are having the same lucky experience as me and Jarrod.
RESIGN: Also, Radiohead hasn’t released music in a while because they’re on a hiatus and working on their side projects. People are always asking us where we practice, and I’m like, “Practice? Gabby knows the vocals. I know the drums. We show up and perform.” That’s pretty much how we’ve done everything. We’re really lucky, though, because with our side projects, you actually have to go meet up and bring instruments and go through this whole pain-in-the-ass process before you even start making the music. It makes Girl Pusher feel so easy.
WALLH4X: Is it easy?
RESIGN: It can be.
GABBY: Yeah. What we make is really dictated by Jarrod’s capacity — how “on” he is and what riff he has in his mind. My boyfriend said it’s so effortless how easily me and Jarrod make music that it’s punishing how long it took us to make this album. My best friend and her twin believe that there’s a vortex in all of us, which either traps energy or helps it cycle, and they said me and Jarrod’s vortex must have been trapping things for a long time to make something this powerful in three days. It’s such an accurate description of this album; the range is probably the most insane thing we’ve ever put out collectively.
Girl Pusher/Collage by Mizu Matsuura
WALLH4X: What’s insane about it?
Resign: I know I’ve become a way better producer in those seven years. When I listen to the first three records, they sound like shit to me. The songs are great, but the mixing sucks. You even introduced me to trackers, which is this really old-school way of programming music instead of producing it. Two of the songs on this album were done with trackers, either a handheld device or a DAW-like renoise.
WALLH4X: The technical skill level has increased — do you think you know how to make a banger song better too?
RESIGN: I can’t speak for Gabby and her lyrics, but in my case no. It’s the same formula. I can just make it hit harder now.
GABBY: I would argue that we’re the same genre of psycho. The track happens, he puts his crazy into it, I put my crazy into it, and when it’s all said and done, that light bulb moment happens, and we realize, “Oh shit! This is a banger!”
WALLH4X: That’s the thing when you’re making music for yourself versus making it for others…
GABBY: A huge thing for the both of us was dealing with our impostor syndrome, which was pretty overwhelming at some points. There was always something in the back of my mind that cared about being “cool.” As soon as I turned 30, I realized, “I am fucking cool, and everyone else is, too.” It just exists in so many different strains and mediums and ways and experiences. Also, Girl Pusher is really emotional. I completely understand if people think that it’s cringe and it’s shit, but I truly don’t care anymore.
RESIGN: Yeah, I don’t give a fuck.
GABBY: I care about being with the people that I love and doing shit that I love. That means doing shit that feels good, and sometimes doing shit that I don’t love, but that I have to do to maintain the equilibrium. I really think that’s why we were able to shit this album out, because we didn’t fucking care. And now we have nine tracks! That’s fucking crazy!
Girl Pusher/Collage by Mizu Matsuura
RESIGN: From the first day, we said we’ll have enough to put out an EP, even if we make a couple new songs, but then we ended up just shitting out four new original tracks on top of what we had, and it all just came together. I remixed the songs we had previously released, took all the effects off, turned everything to zero, and mixed it all over again. Except for the last two tracks, which sound drastically different on purpose. Even the last song is super overcompressed and limited to the point where you can barely hear the drums but…
GABBY: It’s supposed to be that way!
RESIGN: We were both like, “This sounds fucking cool. Who cares if it’s technically incorrect?”
WALLH4X: Girl Pusher has always made music for your own enjoyment, and to impress each other. That happened to click with some other artists and bands doing similar things at the time, and then there’s your genre, your scene. What do you think of the music scene right now?
RESIGN: I’m in a metal band, but I don’t like the metal scene at all, nor do I really care about it. I don’t go to shows. When I was a teenager, I was very connected to the hardcore punk scene. Now, I have no scene allegiance, and this music is not aimed at one.
WALLH4X: I think there are a lot more people today who are either trying to escape from a scene or create something that doesn’t look like the scenes from a decade ago.
RESIGN: Obviously, there are other closely related artists making extreme electronic music, but we were gone for so long that I’m not actively part of that scene, you know? I’m not invested in it. I went to a Machine Girl show because they guest-listed me, and that was awesome, but I’m not going to go and see some band. I actually have a hard time listening to music in general.
GABBY: Jarrod is also introverted as fuck.
RESIGN: Yeah, I don’t like people and doing stuff that much.
WALLH4X: That’s going to be really great for your career, Jarrod. So you guys are anti-press?
RESIGN: Yeah, I had to be persuaded to do this interview. I’m doing it because I want people to hear the album. Press for me is associated with a lot of other things I don’t care about; I don’t want it to blow up. I don’t want to make a million dollars. I don’t want to get famous. I just want people to listen to this album because I think it’s cool.
GABBY: I feel unwilling to want to do press because our project is what it means to you and what you make of it. We don’t have any intention to be this thinkpiece or be activists of anything, but we land there because of how we feel and how we carry ourselves and how we present the project. When you do press and you answer all the questions, you end up defining it when that could be defined by someone else. It’s weird because typically, I do really enjoy interviews and learning more about artists’ lore, but I think when too much is defined, it takes away the charm.
RESIGN: On the other hand, people are often wrong about us. We get DMs all the time from actual crackheads thinking we’re like that.
GABBY: We do get a lot of presumptuous messages; a lot of my family doesn’t even talk to me because they just think I’m on drugs. They also think Marcy, our go-to sample, is me. That part is hard. There’s an equal opposite balance where I have really beautiful interactions with fucking amazing strangers. All of my favorite people in my life are due to this project; so it is what it is.
Girl Pusher/Collage by Mizu Matsuura
WALLH4X: What is the coolest thing that has ever happened to you guys as a direct consequence of Girl Pusher?
RESIGN: Skrillex and Tyler, the Creator both came to see us at The Smell. That’s the nastiest little venue of all time. I was shocked.
GABBY: My Skrillex/Tyler, the Creator moment was when Jordan Blilie and Nick Zinner came to see us.
RESIGN: Oh, that was fucking crazy! I was setting up my drums at this venue called the Hi-Hat, and the lights were in my face because I’m up on the stage and I’m like, “That guy looks familiar as fuck,” and it’s Nick Zinner, the guitarist from Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I fucking grew up on Yeah Yeah Yeahs. When I was 13, Fever to Tell was our album. We would scream it in the car as teenagers; me and the first love of my life, type shit. I put drum covers to some of those songs on YouTube! That was the most nervous I’d ever fucking been at a show.
WALLH4X: Is there a story that people don’t know about your origins?
RESIGN: I don’t think we’ve explained the reasoning behind the Jan. 1 album drop.
GABBY: I feel like we have.
RESIGN: I’m down to rehash it.
GABBY: So I had just broken edge on my birthday a week before we formed Girl Pusher, with mushrooms. The whole plan for New Year’s 2015 was to go to this party, but it fell through because the homegirl was zonked out. We don’t know what else to do with our time, so we’re smoking weed and doing mushrooms, and I had my first beer. Jarrod was going to audio engineering school and had some avant-garde beats…
RESIGN: I had seen you screaming in videos, and it was so crazy. I think I commented on a Facebook post, “YOU HAVE TO BE IN A BAND,” in all caps. So when the plans fell through, it was like, “OK, we’re fucked up. I got these beats. Do you wanna record three songs?” We threw them on Bandcamp, thinking nothing of it. Two weeks later, our friend Franz Murder booked us for our first show, with Riot Grrrl.
WALLH4X: I think that’s an amazing story, I think it’s really appropriate that it’s coming out on Jan. 1, 2025, marking 10 years as a band. For your younger fans it also has a really great moral: because you’ve shown that if you break edge and you do a bunch of mushrooms and you drink beer…
GABBY: The moral of this story is “you cannot restrict yourself to the confines of your own mind.” I thought I needed complete control of myself because I’m a control freak. That’s why I broke it, because I wanted to finally accept myself in any way, shape, or form that comes. You know what? You’re going to make shitty mistakes, you’re gonna fuck up, you’re a human; it’s what we do. It’s OK to learn the hard way. Obviously, don’t try to do that on purpose, but accept that it’s inevitable and it will probably happen. The whole thing is your choice. What are you gonna do?
Girl Pusher/Collage by Mizu Matsuura
WALLH4X: We’re nearing the end of the interview now. I’m going to give you an opportunity to give some hot takes. New York City.
RESIGN: Oh, I hate that place. We played one show there.
GABBY: Can’t go to Taco Bell at 2 o’clock in the morning.
RESIGN: Bunch of shit talkers. Touching our merch. Selling our merch!
GABBY: Can’t get in your car and smoke an angry spliff.
WALLH4X: Indie sleaze
RESIGN: I don’t know what that is.
GABBY: I like the Dare.
WALLH4X: I think that’s a hot take by itself.
RESIGN: I’m Googling indie sleaze.
WALLH4X: I’m going to give my own hot take on the Dare here: OK, that’s great… but where’s The Truth?
GABBY: The truth is they’re a modernized version of LCD Soundsystem, and you can enjoy things.
WALLH4X: That’s true, you can enjoy things, but LCD Soundsystem played like three weeks ago! Has enough time actually passed to be nostalgic about this? That’s like someone claiming to be a modernized Girl Pusher today, which by the way for anyone reading this: You can do that.
GABBY: You can do that. Good luck!
RESIGN: Stop making hyperpop. Do something different.
WALLH4X: There we go. That’s the hot take I was waiting for. Last hot take: fame.
RESIGN: I just want to make money, and not live in a garage, but I don’t care about fame. I’d rather just be able to support myself with music, and the fame part is totally irrelevant.