You may well have heard of Wargasm by now. They're the spiky, genre-mashing Irish-English duo surfing along a sugar rush wave of nu metal, punk rock, hyper pop, edm and just about anything else they can shove into their sonic blender. They've collabed with the likes of Bad Omens, Pendulum and Scene Queen and have popped up on bills with everyone from Korn to Electric Callboy.
One listen to thoroughly decent 2023 debut album Venom will tell you that their roll call of influences is longer than an Avengers movie cast list, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that when we asked guitarist/vocalist Milkie Way to make us a playlist, she was packing bangers from all sorts of musical corners. What we didn't expect was stories about David Bowie's death ruining her day at school, Lady Gaga getting her drunk and comparisons between Tina Turner and Axl Rose. Here's what she made us, and here's what she had to say about her choices.
“[2005 game] Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland was my introduction to punk. They had BLACK FLAG's Rise Above alongside stuff like Dead Kennedys' California Uber Alles, even My Chemical Romance covering Misfits’ Astro Zombies. There was stuff on there that wasn’t punk I loved, too, like Scissor Sisters and The Doors. That’s basically the basis of my musical taste! Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, thank you!
"My mum heard me listening to Black Flag and was like, ‘You know there’s this band who sing about Irish shit in this style called STIFF LITTLE FINGERS’ and showed me Suspect Device, which I thought was brilliant. I came from a small town on the coast, so we only had one venue but whenever I go back now the Belfast scene is really thriving.
“I have this theory, that without TINA TURNER there would be no Axl Rose. Or at least, he’d be very different! His vocal overtones and the way he sings, it sounds like Tina! She’s a trailblazer and the definition of perseverance against all odds.There’s this live DVD of hers called Wild Lady Of Rock and one of the tracks is called Root, Toot Undisputable Rock ‘N Roller. She’s a force of nature, she just burns through the stage.
“The first band t-shirt I ever got was a THE CRAMPS T-shirt, which I think I got from the local HMV. Poison Ivy is the most underrated guitarist of all-time and I admire the enduring love story between Poison Ivy and Lux Interior. They were around in the 80s and it was kind of a rehash of 50s rockabilly but with 80s punk moulded into it,nstuff like All Women Are Bad. I watched a double-feature once at the Prince Charles [cinema] in London of The Cramps' Live At Napa State Mental Hospital and Fugazi’s This Is Not A Documentary. Watching that, I was like, ‘God I wish people still did crazy things like that.’
"BLACK SABBATH’s N.I.B. was one of the first songs I ever learned to play on bass. I first picked it up when I was like sixteen. That first record is untouchable perfection. I remember trying to play it – this adventurous bass solo – and it was the first time I’d heard anything like it. I tried guitar before but I couldn’t pick it up and it just didn’t feel like me. But playing bass to Sabbath and Smashing Pumpkins just felt right.
“PLASMATICS are underrated. Wendy O [Williams] is an icon in her own right and her relationship with Lemmy is inspiring – they were co-collaborators and best friends. I was blown away when I first watched one of their live performances of Path Of Glory. You’ve got Wendy chainsawing guitars and blowing up cars on-stage – I can’t imagine what people must’ve thought back then. Wendy is a good example of resilience and doing your own thing. She was a stripper first and then decided to form a metal band – which I think is a pipeline that kind of makes sense!
“DAVID BOWIE’s Ziggy Stardust changed my life. The guitar of Suffragette City comes in and I just felt instantly connected to this sound. Then Rebel, Rebel comes in with ‘I don’t know if you’re a boy or a girl’ and my androgynous little teenage self was like, ‘This is a thing other people talk about?!’ The day he died I was just in tears at school. The teachers were like, ‘It’s okay, just take it easy today.’ So I spent the whole day with my headphones in listening to Bowie before going home and getting drunk and dancing with glitter on my face all night, waking up the next day with a pile of sick by the bed. I blamed it on the dog!
“I was a teenage LADY GAGA superfan and I still am. She’s got this great track called Heavy Metal Lover which is very Nine Inch Nails-y. I went to see her in Dublin when I was 15, and camped out for two days to get to the barrier. I had this outfit I’d made with a wig which had lights in, a hand-studded denim jacke...she ended up pulling me on-stage and she asked if everyone was over 18 so I’m like, ‘Yep!’ So she passes this bottle of Jameson and it gets to me, I just tipped the whole bottle over my face in front of everyone. That was a formative moment for me.
“THE CLASH are the greatest band of all time. You can listen to their entire discography on shuffle and it’d take you about three hours to find a song that’s not a fucking hit. I only discovered them when I moved to London and met Sam [Matlock, Wargasm guitarist/vocalist]. They moulded the sounds of everything happening at the time – punk, reggae, two-tone and sang about political things in the exact right way. They went from a straight-up punk into a dance punk band. People give Turnstile shit for it, but The Clash did it first with songs like Guns Of Brixton.
“I know RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS are polarising now, but when I was a teenager I thought they were fucking cool and I still think they are now! I made a lot of good relationships through that band – my first boyfriend, some of my friends. We all just loved Turn it Again from Stadium Arcadium. It’s way too long a record, but it’s also so brilliant! It just takes you on a journey.”
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