Our interview with Leah Hennessey of Pornography

I just killed a mosquito

Tim Baker | April 19, 2013

Remember that very awesome band MAKE OUT that I was drooling over about a year ago?

‘MEMBER?

Well Leah Hennessey, the band's front woman, is about to Fuck up your shit mega hard tomorrow with a special project she is working on with Ryan Adams.

Remember Ryan Adams? That feller whose music used to make me cry a bit when I got hella drunk and my life was in the shitter bro?

‘MEMBER?

Well these adorable bags of fuckery formed a band called Pornography and are dropping an exclusive 7 inch for record store day title 7 Minutes in Heaven. So in that spirit I recently sat down with Leah Hennessey and hit her up with 7 questions (with some subquestions – stop being such a stickler bro, you ain’t my principal) so we can both pay our annual tribute to the seminal Stryper album 777: To Hell With The Devil.

Our interview with Leah Hennessey of Pornography starts now!


SYFFAL: Most of our readers should know you from my continued gushing about your band MAKE OUT, but you have this new project Pornography, outside of making you impossible to find on google, what's up with this fucker?

Leah Hennessey: #ungoogleable is the new #googleable btw. This is a new band I'm in- I'm writing most of the songs now so they are very angry and babyish.

SYFFAL: You are dropping the 7 inch - 7 Minute in Heaven - for record store day. It's a pretty brolic piece of punky goodness. Tell us what inspired the project?

Leah Hennessey: Pornography is kind of like if humans with human feelings had the lifespans of insects: the love, the loss, the rage, the climax, the shoe coming down on your face, the reincarnation.

SYFFAL: Speaking of 7, one of my favorite hobbies is listening to the early Wu Tang records for their amazing skits, which are jam packed with 5 precenter slang. Did you know they consider 7 to be the number for god? So using this logic you are dropping a god inch album titled god minutes to heaven. Do you think god's inches are more grithy or lengthy inches?

Leah Hennessey: There is an old folk song about a trickster hero named Anele who lived a life of debauchery and got into heaven by sucking an angel's dick.

Whether or not they exist, we're slaves to the gods.

SYFFAL: I saw a movie called Sucking Angel's Dick, whole different story bro. Time for the Quick fire round:

Would you rather sing for Iron Maiden or Judas Priest?

Leah Hennessey: What makes you think I'm a singer?

SYFFAL: Don’t sass me bro. Which is a better fake band name Bonnie Hunt's Balloon Knot or Donnie James and the Sarsaparilla Milkshakes?

Leah Hennessey: Don Knots

SYFFAL: Howsabout we split the diff and go with Don Knots Balloon Knot. Do theses boxer briefs make my junk look exotic?

Leah Hennessey: Just because I'm a genius doesn't mean I'm psychic or have x-ray vision, Tim. Sorry.

SYFFAL: The answer is yes, they do, because they are jungle themed. More pretentious, the person who "doesn't own a TV" or the person who uses a kindle for book reading.

Leah Hennessey: I don't know what that word means.

SYFFAL: TV? It’s a box that Americans use to sedate their pain while their dreams of an interesting life slowly die. Olde New York or new New York?

Leah Hennessey: Ye Olde New York; flirting with Herman Melville while he's on duty as the desk clerk at the Ye Olde Jane Hotel, distracting him from finishing Moby Dick, chewing on his pencils.

SYFFAL: Is that code? Would you rather be friends with fab five Freddie or Freddie mercury?

Leah Hennessey: Freddie. I went into a Freddie Mercury wikihole recently after seeing the video for The Great Pretender. Do you know about his girlfriend Mary Austin? They were totally in love even though he was "homosexual" and they were partners until he died. I cannot begin to tell you how into that I am. Please, 2013 Freddie Mercury, get at me, let's make it work!

SYFFAL: That is semi-righteous, though it sounds eerily similar to many a sexless marriage aka mid-west marriage. (JOEL EDIT: NO BRO. I HAVE MANY SEXES PER YEAR BRO.) (Tim Sub-Edit: I meant Tom)

In the spirit of Fake Snake, Real Pony who exactly is the most boring person in the whole wide world? (There are 75 Syffal-bucks in it for you if you answer Tom Dozois and an extra 25 if you call him a shit face in your answer)

Leah Hennessey: I don't know any boring people - I am blind to them.

SYFFAL: You are such a show off. So you worked with Ryan Adams on this fucker huh? He is a long time Syffal-favsie. What is your favorite Ryan Adams song? Mine is either this or this, but I am the kind of asshole who likes to cry when I drink.

Leah Hennessey: My favorite Ryan Adams song is Kathy, but it's not released yet. Mostly I'm a fan of his 2008 (?) era video art- so ahead of his time.

SYFFAL: So I was semi disappointed that Cats and Dogs wasn't a cover of the Gorilla Biscuits song that shares its title. Luckily the song was banging as Fuck. In the spirit of loving the Gorilla Biscuits like all good Americans should. What are you top three punk groups everz?

Leah Hennessey:

  1. The Buzzcocks
  2. That band that's like duh duh duh duh duh
  3. The one with the hot girl that doesn't give a shit

I just killed a mosquito. I'm going to go dance now, people are going crazy I wish you could see it.

SYFFAL: I have their whole collection, even the rare imports. Finally why is record day important bro?

Leah Hennessey: People love vinyl!

SYFFAL: Yet they hate vinyl siding.

Everyone should stop being assholes, go to the fucking record store and throw down some coin for this fucker. It's amazing.