ALICE GLASS: Hi, Nika! Nice to meet you.

ZOLA JESUS: Nice to meet you, too. It’s crazy that we don’t already know each other.

GLASS: I know. Are you living in Los Angeles?

JESUS: No, I live in Wisconsin. I built a house near where I grew up. I lived in L.A. for a couple of years, but that was a while ago. Do you live there?

GLASS: I’ve been here for, like, five years. I like it, but I miss seasons as a passage of time.

JESUS: I needed snow, which you must have seen a lot of growing up in Toronto. You were in a punk band from the age of, like, 13?

GLASS: The first band I was in was almost a Green Day cover band. [laughs] I was always writing music and trying to start a girl band like Bratmobile or Sleater Kinney. But it was hard to put together; we didn’t really have a place to practice. We’d practice at this place called Cactus. The guy who ran it was sort of creepy, but he would let us play there for free. I was into late- ’70s punk rock bands—female-fronted bands like LiLiPUT. I’d save up money to buy new releases on Kill Rock Stars and stuff like that.

JESUS: I was the same in my early teens—super into punk, especially riot grrrl.

GLASS: Either you could go with the more riot grrrl scene or the hardcore or metal scenes. But it all felt kind of homogenized and macho, and I’m not good at air-punching.

JESUS: [laughs] Were you the singer or guitarist?

GLASS: I always played guitar and wrote songs. I never thought that I would be a singer. I was insecure about my voice.

JESUS: It wasn’t until Crystal Castles that you began singing?

GLASS: Well, a band I was in played for a pitcher of beer at this place that would serve us when we were underage. My friend who was the singer was embarrassed and left the stage, so I was forced to sing.

JESUS: After that, were you like, “Oh, I can do this”?

GLASS: I was living on my own around then; it was hard to go to school regularly. I wrote poetry, and I was trying to write guitar songs and record them on a little tape recorder. Then I was asked to write for Crystal Castles. I remember being insecure about it. I remember reading out my lyrics to Care Failure, who was in an all-girl punk band called Bloody Mannequin at the time. She was incredible— powerful, sort of like Courtney Love. I was too nervous to sing in front of her. And she was like, “You write great melodies.” She was the most talented person I’d ever seen, so it was really nice to get her support.