Like their name suggests, Model/Actriz seek to channel raw emotions into striking new forms. The band’s surface glamour is supported by nerves of steel, leveraging their focus into moments of wild abandon. Their debut album, Dogsbody (2023), was dark and humid, full of eerie passages and veiled menace. Their sophomore LP, Pirouette, out today, swerves out of the maze and directly into the spotlight. It’s Dogsbody’s equally accomplished, but much more self-possessed sister record.
Hi, Cole and Ruben! Your new album, Pirouette, is out now. Are you nervous? They say the second one is the most important.
Cole: I think we killed it, so I’m not nervous anymore (laughs). You fear about sophomore slump, but you have to put that demon away.
Ruben: Yeah, we got our nerves out. Once recording started, I think these nerves disappeared because it was so much fun.
Ruben: Yeah, we got our nerves out. Once recording started, I think these nerves disappeared because it was so much fun.
First of all, congratulations because the LP is one of the best I’ve heard this year. I feel like it has a lot in common with your debut, but at the same time it’s a natural evolution. What do you think is the main difference between the two?
Cole: Lyrically, this album was written to be way more direct and transparent. I was kind of trying to step away from Dogsbody, which was highly poeticised and metaphorical. Doves is my coming-out mythology story basically, and then I realised that that was what the rest of the album would be about.
Ruben: Musically, I feel like the biggest difference is that Dogsbody felt like it was an energetically closed album, very claustrophobic, whereas Pirouette feels much more energetically open and expansive.
Ruben: Musically, I feel like the biggest difference is that Dogsbody felt like it was an energetically closed album, very claustrophobic, whereas Pirouette feels much more energetically open and expansive.
The opening track, Vespers, is one of your most straightforward pop songs, while still maintaining that characteristic dark vein. I do see that, in general, Pirouette is much more melodic than your previous work. What led you to that decision?
Cole: I was feeling much gentler with myself. Part of why the performance on Dogsbody is so anxious, yelled or shouted is because I was in a much harsher place internally. I wanted things to be more melodic because that just reflected my inner world this time.
If I’m not mistaken, Cole is a fan of great divas like Lady Gaga and Grace Jones. Is that influence transmitted into the studio, to the live performances, or both?
Cole: I think Lady Gaga on the page, Grace Jones on the stage (laughs). I’m not sure, I mean, I’ve seen limited stuff about how they work in the studio, but I know they’re both very involved in what they do.
Lady Gaga was all over the first album for me emotionally — that energy of Born This Way. For this one, we revisited the album Hurricane by Grace Jones, which is the last album she made fourteen or fifteen years ago. It was a very personal record to her, so I was taking inspiration from Grace this time.
Lady Gaga was all over the first album for me emotionally — that energy of Born This Way. For this one, we revisited the album Hurricane by Grace Jones, which is the last album she made fourteen or fifteen years ago. It was a very personal record to her, so I was taking inspiration from Grace this time.
Rock is one of the musical genres that traditionally had the least LGBTIQ+ representation, but this is changing thanks to groups like yours. Although they speak from personal experience, it’s easy to identify with the lyrics if you’re part of the collective. I’m curious to know what the audience at your concerts is like and how you see your fandom from your perspective.
Cole: Our crowds are very diverse. It depends on what festivals we are playing. Maybe at the beginning it was a very diverse looking crowd, but all fans of a very specific kind of music. Now, as we've grown over time and our music has changed, it's a room full of people who come from different angles of taste.
Ruben: It’s been really cool to see how in the past two years people outside of the heavy music universe come to our shows sort of appreciating some of the more pop or dance elements that we've been trying to introduce to that soundscape. I think that's been very gratifying for me to see — a more diverse genre crowd.
Cole: Our shows are meant to be consumed as dance music live, and dancing is for everybody!
Ruben: It’s been really cool to see how in the past two years people outside of the heavy music universe come to our shows sort of appreciating some of the more pop or dance elements that we've been trying to introduce to that soundscape. I think that's been very gratifying for me to see — a more diverse genre crowd.
Cole: Our shows are meant to be consumed as dance music live, and dancing is for everybody!
The lyrics of Cinderella, the first single, talk about opening up on a date and telling the other person about your regret of not having a Cinderella-inspired birthday party as a child out of fear. To be honest, I think it’s an incredible topic to cover in a song, and I'd like to know if writing about that childhood trauma has helped heal it in any way.
Cole: Cinderella specifically was about that kind of euphoria that comes from confessing something that you've been dying to confess that has felt like a bullet in your body from a former pain and you’re finally ripping it out and throwing it away. I guess it's weird that that’s the memory that came to mind when I was in that date. I hadn't realised that I was carrying it with me for so long. The whole album’s about finding those moments and liberating myself from them.
Ruben: I think it's really interesting as a dear friend of Cole for the last ten years that there are moments like that that I didn't know about until hearing them in the studio for the first time. This music brings out different intimate moments and it’s fun to see another side of Cole.
Ruben: I think it's really interesting as a dear friend of Cole for the last ten years that there are moments like that that I didn't know about until hearing them in the studio for the first time. This music brings out different intimate moments and it’s fun to see another side of Cole.
Overall, the album addresses past issues from a perspective of overcoming difficulties and embracing who you truly want to be, from the view of a gay man. There are many taboos, especially during adolescence, that cause people to isolate themselves regarding their sexuality and their behaviour, and I think it's nice to have a role model who's been through the same thing and can tell you that everything will be fine. Do you think listening to your own album as a teenager would’ve helped you during that time?
Cole: Yeah, I would hope so. When I was growing up, I didn’t have a lot of examples that I could directly relate to that felt like someone was speaking about the things that were going on in my life. When I discovered the Scissor Sisters, I was probably fifteen, but when I was coming to terms with my sexuality (when I was like twelve or thirteen), there wasn’t really any music that felt like it was speaking to me.
In this album, the thought in my brain was that I was speaking to my inner child and telling him that it gets better and that the pain that he’s feeling will be overcame and the life he’s going to live on the other side is going to be worth that effort. If I can do that for someone else, then that’s the best thing that could come from this.
In this album, the thought in my brain was that I was speaking to my inner child and telling him that it gets better and that the pain that he’s feeling will be overcame and the life he’s going to live on the other side is going to be worth that effort. If I can do that for someone else, then that’s the best thing that could come from this.
Yeah, I see what you mean. There aren’t many openly LGTBQI+ artists in mainstream music today, and even less ten or fifteen years ago.
Cole: I was seventeen when I found Perfume Genius, so I’m sure other people existed before. But the more things that are being made, the more chances that someone will find something in the right moment. If I had it at that point of my life, it would have been made things easier for me. Now we have people like Perfume Genius or Troye Sivan.
Headlights is another highlight of the album for me. It’s an interlude about your first encounters with a boy as a teenager and low self-esteem. Why did you feel this song needed to be spoken word rather than sung?
Cole: This was the last thing that was written for the album, and it was turned in probably thirty minutes before the door shut on the recording process. But I think it needed to be spoken because I wanted to say it as it was. I wanted to be as plain spoken as possible with this story, it just needed to be said.
“In this album, the thought in my brain was that I was speaking to my inner child and telling him that it gets better and that the pain that he’s feeling will be overcame.” Cole
Departures is a dance song built primarily on guitars instead of synthesizers, once again touching on the theme of self-esteem and beauty. Interestingly, it reminds me slightly of the aforementioned Lady Gaga, especially the spoken part at the end. I’d like to know if you see yourselves fully focusing on electronica and pop in the future, as these are musical genres that greatly influence you.
Ruben: I think it’s always been a really fun and necessary challenge to have our inspirations pretty much solely from synth pop, dance, techno or house, but yet limit our palette to bass, drums, guitars and vocals. It has led us to make more interesting sounds and choices because we've had to stretch ourselves to make those sorts of sounds and make it sound like it comes from that universe. Who knows what we'll do in the future, but definitely a lot of these songs came from us struggling to recreate something electronic with more acoustic elements.
Baton, the closing track on Pirouette, is a moment of calm after several more aggressive songs, and in that sense, it reminds me of the role Sun In played on Dogsbody. Do you like those kinds of contrasts and the ability to convey calm at the end of an album?
Cole: I like all kinds of endings on albums, but when we were sequencing this LP, that was the right place to put that song. Who knows, maybe on the next one we will have a The Edge of Glory-type anthem to end the album.
Although the staging was quite restrained in your first performances, there was a certain theatricality at the same time, especially in Cole's performance. Since I know you're about to start a new tour, I wanted to know if you want to continue along these lines or be riskier with the art direction, especially.
Cole: Yes, I think the goal is to be a mix of Diana Ross and Liberace, period. I mean, that's just a budget restraint. It’s dependent on what we can afford and what we're willing to carry. Those are two very real limitations.
You were at Primavera Sound last year, and now you will be at Kalorama Madrid on June 21st. Have you been to Madrid before? Did you enjoy your experience in Spain?
Cole: We have been to Madrid once. We haven't played in Madrid, but we hung out there.
Ruben: We studied abroad in Valencia, so we've been around Spain like eight or seven years ago. We spent a lot of time there and is a very dear country to us, so I'm always excited to go back. We’ve got some friends who we made when we were studying that are playing Kalorama too, La Plata. We became friends with them through Magazine, the club in Valencia, but I don't think that's around anymore.
Ruben: We studied abroad in Valencia, so we've been around Spain like eight or seven years ago. We spent a lot of time there and is a very dear country to us, so I'm always excited to go back. We’ve got some friends who we made when we were studying that are playing Kalorama too, La Plata. We became friends with them through Magazine, the club in Valencia, but I don't think that's around anymore.
Is there any musician or visual artist you would like to collaborate with in the future? What question would you ask that person if you were an interviewer?
Ruben: I'd love to cast Fred Durst in a music video. I think that would be a really fun and unexpected sort of synergy. It would have to be off the record, but I would ask him: where did the character end or where did the character begin with Limp Bizkit? You know, what level of irony or theatrics were there. I would just want to know about that process.
Cole: I'm gonna say Peaches. She does a one-woman show of Jesus Christ Superstar and I would like to ask her, will you do a two-person show of all the music from Cats the musical with me?
Cole: I'm gonna say Peaches. She does a one-woman show of Jesus Christ Superstar and I would like to ask her, will you do a two-person show of all the music from Cats the musical with me?
What are your plans for this year and next?
Ruben: We'll be doing a European tour in both summer and fall. We’ll be very around this year!
Cole: Come see us on the road, we want to say hi!
Cole: Come see us on the road, we want to say hi!
