WITH CONSTANT COLLABORATION and long hours on the road, playing in a rock band can become a personality pressure cooker—especially for duos. But Brooklyn two-piece PWR BTTM, who are currently victory-lapping their critically acclaimed 2015 debut, Ugly Cherries, embraces the tension.
"We don't work well creatively," Ben Hopkins (guitar/vocals) says, laughing. "We're sort of like high-fashion, high-glamor Spy vs. Spy. We're trying to kill each other with music."
Even over the phone, Hopkins and Liv Bruce (drums/vocals) share kinetic energy and biting wit. But for now, Bruce gets serious: "I think one reason we work together well is because we are very different people."
The self-described queer punk band met at Bard College in upstate New York. Hopkins studied theater and Bruce studied dance. They apply this passion for performance to an outlandish, full-throttle live act.
"Our shows are two people with performance backgrounds who, by some strange twist of fate, wound up being musicians," Bruce says. "We're not the kind of band that stands there and plays the songs and goes home."