The Gits’ Matt Dresdner and Andy Kessler revisit their music from their earliest recordings to the new remasters

Transmission 168: Interview with The Gits

The Gits formed in 1986 at Antioch College in Ohio, later relocating to Seattle, where they became part of the city’s underground music scene. The band consisted of Mia Zapata (vocals), Andy Kessler (guitar), Matt Dresdner (bass), and Steve Moriarty (drums). Their music combined punk energy with blues-influenced vocal delivery, creating a raw and direct sound. They independently released several singles and two studio albums before Zapata’s murder in 1993.

Title: Frenching the Bully
Artist: The Gits
Release Date: 2025-01-31
Genres: Alternative Rock, Post-punk, Punk Rock
Label: Sub Pop Records
Description: The Gits discuss their full career, from their early days to the upcoming Sub Pop reissues, as their entire catalog is remastered for release.

The case remained unsolved for a decade until forensic advancements led to an arrest in 2003. In 2025, Sub Pop Records is releasing newly remastered editions of the band’s entire discography, including Frenching the Bully (1992), Enter: The Conquering Chicken (1994), Kings & Queens (1996), and Seafish Louisville (2000), with Jack Endino overseeing the remastering process.

This interview is also published in issue no. 01 of our free digital magazine Retrofuturista.

How did you first meet while attending Antioch College, and what prompted you to form a punk-focused group rather than pursuing other musical directions?

Matt Dresdner: I found punk when I was in junior high in suburban New Jersey. It was the perfect salve for my angsty teenage self and I pretty much lost interest in other genres for a few years. During college, I had an opportunity to work as a stage manager at a unique venue in San Francisco called The Farm where I was able to interact with a bunch of the punk bands I had idolized as a kid, like Social Distortion, Circle Jerks, DRI, Fang, MDC, etc. Despite my relative inability to play bass, that experience inspired me to start a band when I got back to campus in the Fall of 1986. I knew I wanted Mia to be the singer after hearing her perform solo at an open mic, and she and I had become close friends. I asked Andy if he’d play guitar mostly because he looked pretty punk and I had seen him play in another punkish band. I had no idea how good he really was! We heard about a new student named Bob Lee who played drums so we recruited him to play with us. There was an immediate natural chemistry and the music sounded great from the start. Steve eventually took over Bob’s spot on drums. 

Andy Kessler: We met and pursued punk music because we loved it.

Can you describe the environment in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where The Gits originally formed, and how it influenced your earliest punk and rock ideas?

Matt Dresdner: Yellow Springs was/is a hippyish progressive academic bastion surrounded by farms in southwest Ohio. Most of what was going on there revolved around the college and the very small student community, which included quite a few musicians and generally creative people. As Andy said, none of that influenced our music, but it did create an environment in which we could find time and space to practice, borrow gear, set up concerts ourselves, and explore what we wanted to do musically relatively unimpeded by the pressures post-college life.  

Andy Kessler: It didn’t really influence it at all.

Which bands or musicians did you listen to in those initial years that influenced your earliest ideas about stage presence and punk attitude?

Matt Dresdner: Most of the bands I listened to in high school were from the New York hardcore scene like Agnostic Front, Murphy’s Law, Misfits. I loved that energy and angst but eventually found inspiration in more melodic bands like Minor Threat, Descendants, and some more established punkish bands like The Replacements, Husker Du, and The Clash. In college, Mia turned me on to The Stooges, Patti Smith, and some old blues singers like Bessie Smith and Nina Simone, all of which blew my mind. Andy later introduced me to artists like Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls, Dead Boys, and Minutemen. Together these influences became part of the music soundtrack surrounding the music we were making. 

Andy Kessler: I listened to all the old punk bands, underground rock, and lots of hardcore groups. I could list Johnny Thunders, Cro-Mags, Bad Brains, Minutemen, Birthday Party, Misfits, Black Flag, Poison Idea.

What were the circumstances that led you to move from Ohio to Seattle, and how did that shift affect your rehearsal routines and song structures?

Matt Dresdner: As Andy, Mia, and I were all leaving Yellow Springs for good in the Spring/Summer of 1989, we committed to try to make the Gits a real band in the real world. We had to find a mutually agreeable place to move to and we looked West. The three of us had spent a little time together as a band in San Francisco, Mia had lived in Portland for a bit, and we heard decent things about Seattle, mostly that it was pretty affordable, which is largely why we chose it. (Which sounds ridiculous now.) A bunch of other friends and musicians moved from Yellow Springs to Seattle at about the same time, including Steve, so we were able to continue on as The Gits with him on drums. 

The move didn’t change anything about our music or song structures, but it did change our routines since we had to find jobs, places to live, and space and time to rehearse. The band was our focus and we put a ton of energy into making all that happen, trying to get gigs, buying a shitty old van so we could tour, and practicing as much as we could because it was how we had fun. 

Andy Kessler: We chose to move to a city where rent was inexpensive and we thought there would be more opportunities to do what we wanted to do. It didn’t influence things at all except in the sense we could practice car more often. I wrote most of the music for our songs, so moving did not affect how the songs were written.

How did that initial “Snivelling Little Rat Faced Gits” Monty Python reference end up as your band name?

Andy Kessler: It was chosen as a thoughtless joke.

Matt Dresdner: As Andy said, we just thought it was kinda funny, never considering how it would be perceived beyond the flyer we made for our first show. 

Were there any direct challenges you faced while establishing yourselves in Capitol Hill, considering the dominant focus on grunge at the time?

Matt Dresdner: There was a lot of camaraderie and support in the local scene when we first got to Seattle. And there was definitely a dominant regional sound, which was later referred to as “grunge,” but we were steadfast on our musical path and didn’t think much about what other bands were doing. Our distinct sound may have initially made it challenging for the local music press and promoters to figure out where we fit in, but we just kept at it and eventually found our place. 

Andy Kessler: No. Capitol Hill was a very nice place back then. I scarcely paid grunge any mind.

Was there a moment when you realized the Seattle scene was becoming something bigger than just a local movement?

Andy Kessler: Sure.

Matt Dresdner: Around 1990, attention on the Seattle scene really began to grow. There was a lot of national media attention on some of the bigger Seattle bands like Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, and Pearl Jam. I thought it was all quite strange and totally unrelated to The Gits. But in September of 1991, when we arrived in Amsterdam to kick off our first and only European tour, we were surprised to hear the familiar punkish sound of Nirvana emanating from bars as we waked around the city. Their new album, Nevermind, had just been released and we realized it was going to be big. Really big. It didn’t hurt turnout on our tour that promoters added “From Seattle” to some of the posters for gigs we played in Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, and Denmark. 

Were there notable differences between recording your early demos (later released as Kings & Queens) and tackling your official debut, Frenching the Bully?

Matt Dresdner: Kings & Queens was recorded on a shoestring budget live to 2-track in a few hours at a tiny studio in Yellow Springs, Ohio. There was never an intention to release it as anything other than the cassette tape we kept for ourselves and dubbed for some of our college friends. After Mia died we eventually decided to put it out because it includes some good songs we thought some people would appreciate, despite the sound quality. Fortunately, Jack Endino was able to clean up the audio substantially when he remastered that and our other records for the Sub Pop rereleases. I think Kings & Queens stands as an interesting documentation of our early days as a band. 

Frenching the Bully was also recorded on a tiny budget. We saved money from shows to book studio time when we could afford it, and chipped away at recording enough songs for a full album. Shifting from 2-track to 16-track gave us a lot more ability to control the sound, but we still had to pretty much record all the parts simultaneously with minimal overdubs because we couldn’t afford the studio time or the magnetic audio tape. And we didn’t know much about the recording process or how to do it well, but we learned as we went with the help of some good friends. It’s difficult now not to think about how we could have recorded those songs much better. 

Andy Kessler: We recorded Frenching in a better studio on 16 track.

Once Frenching the Bully was released, did you sense any shift in how labels or promoters approached you, and how did you handle that attention?

Matt Dresdner: Frenching the Bully didn’t make much of a difference with how promoters or labels dealt with us (they still largely ignored us). Over time our shows built a small but mighty following, but I think that was more due to the response to our live performances than our recordings. And the local music press never paid much attention to our band so we were largely on our own to make any waves. 

Andy Kessler: Not really. What actually caused more of a shift was after we returned from our Europe Tour in 1991. 

Many recall Mia Zapata as a powerful frontwoman. How did you support her creative input, and did you adjust arrangements to fit her approach?

Matt Dresdner: Mia was indeed a powerful frontwoman, and she was a critical part of a powerful band. As Andy stated, he wrote most of the music and Mia wrote most of the lyrics. From there we all supported and riffed and built off one another. Mia could write and adapt to the song structures we were developing and vice-versa. Her voice and lyrics were completely integrated with every other element. The process was organic and seamless and the most fun creative collaboration I’ve ever experienced.

Andy Kessler: If you’re asking how the songs came together, almost always I would write the songs completely or else have the parts which we would order. In a few songs Matt wrote some main parts. Mia would record us playing the music, and would work on the vocals, which were almost always perfect. 

Can you speak on how Jack Endino’s involvement in the remastering process influenced your view of the early mixes and recordings?

Matt Dresdner: I’m amazed at what Jack was able to do to improve the sound of the original recordings. The remastered versions have far greater separation, clarity, and balance. Jack recorded some of our earliest songs when we first got to Seattle, and he knows us well so I’m thrilled he was onboard all these years later to clean up our catalog and make it all sound so good! 

Andy Kessler: It hasn’t influenced my view, but has made the records sound better.

Looking ahead, are there further releases or archival materials you hope to make available through your connection with Sub Pop, and what might listeners expect from those endeavors?

Andy Kessler: Yes, there is more ahead so stay tuned…

Photos courtesy of The Gits

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others