What happens when you give a high schooler a Le Butcherettes album, a guitar, music production software Logic Express, a cheap snowball mic, and a $20 Peavey amp? 

In the case of 18-year-old Duarte artist Marina Paiz, you get Queer Punk Trash. Duh.

At least, that's how Paiz describes Trends, her DIY bedroom recording project. More specifically, she refers to her self-created genre as “experimental shitcore/ space punk.”

We had to know more. 

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Paiz plays everything by ear, but isn't a newbie to making music. She's been playing classical piano since she was four, and will be featured on Manimal's Duran Duran tribute album, Making Patterns Rhyme, which also features Warpaint, Moby, and Little Dragon and will be out by the end of the summer.

Oh, and she's mixing Matt Lamkin of The Soft Pack's forthcoming debut solo EP. The two met 3 years ago when she gave Lamkin her demo tape.

That's all well and good. But what, exactly, is “Queer Punk Trash?” 


She's a bit coy when talking about it. “Bang,” Trends' latest single, contains lyrics about “the thrill of not having what you want.”

“It's about a girl,” she says shyly, divulging what seems to be a secret crush. “But I try to keep pronouns out because I hope everyone can relate.” 

“Music is a male dominated industry,” she continues, noting she is currently the only female enrolled in her department at the Los Angeles College of Music. “I'm just trying to fit in-between those lines, and write and sing about what I want to sing about.”

She adds, “I come from a Hispanic background where the female is supposed to be quiet and obedient. I don't know how to cook and I suck at cleaning. I've always been about breaking tradition. All I do is write music about girls, stomp on the distortion pedal, and play some nasty chords.” 

“Mind of Man” was the super lo-fi demo that first got Manimal's attention last year, that and the bio she sent them: “Trends is a band that loves garlic naan and reverb. Striving to become a hybrid of Ty Segall's 2nd cousin and Gary Numan. Thrash with me.”

But “Bang,” above, is a progression, the first song she's recorded in studio with a full band. With each of her songs, however, she records them in one straight shot. “If I extend it to a couple of days or a week, it's like I lose the original emotion. It has to be done on the spot. I won't accept anything else.”

Paiz feels her music has earned her respect, both as a female and a musician.

“I don't like fucking around,” she says. “I'm not about that life.”

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