RIOTNINE, Milwaukee punk band shares their frustration with trans rights through their music

MILWAUKEE — A young Milwaukee band plays a bold and brash sound that expresses their feelings about transgender rights uncompromisingly.

“I think we’re just telling a story of what it is like to exist as a trans person in 2023,” Danny Calderon, the bassist and vocalist for RIOTNINE, said.

RIOTNINE is a skramz band. Skramz is a type of emo and screamo music that is an offshoot of punk.

Song topics included under-representation, mental health, and defiance. Their music reflects how they feel frustrated with trans rights.

“You might think it’s uncompromising, but at the end of the day it’s authentic,” Cleo Jackowick, the band’s guitarist, said.

While RIOTNINE shares many traits similar to other local bands, one differentiates them from the rest. Calderon identifies as a transgender man and Jackowick identifies as a transgender woman. The last member, Ian Dutter, is a drummer and is a cisgender male.

They released their debut EP Death Before Detransition in June. Song topics included under-representation, mental health, and defiance. They aren’t bashful about who they are or their identity. Their music reflects how they feel frustrated with trans rights.

“This is a part of my identity that’s completely inseparable from my personhood, and there’s a lot of people that want to separate my personhood from my identity, and that’s not really something you can do,” Jackowick said.

This passion helped inspire the band’s debut EP.

“It’s our version of give me liberty or death. Allow me to live the way I’m going to live, or I’d rather not be here at all,” Calderon said.

Death Before Detransition includes three other original songs, “Isolated, Exiled,” “Eliza,” and “Skramzgender.” The last of which is a play on words – combining their Transgender identity and genre of music.

The band had a release party at the Cactus Club in Bayview. According to the band’s Instagram page, they raised $2,300. That money will be split between the LGBT Community Center of Milwaukee and the ACLU of Florida.

“We had a lot of people who were people in the scene that, you know, maybe feel underrepresented as trans people or as queer people that were really sharing the crap out of this EP,” Jackowick said.

While resistance, anger, and defiance characterize much of their sound and music, the band also wants to celebrate queer expression to create a community where people are loved.

“I’m hoping that just one more trans person can see that there is a community here for you in Milwaukee, and there are people saying the things you are going to bed thinking about every single night,” Calderon said.

Their album can be streamed on Apple Music and Spotify. For now, the band said they are not actively working on a new album, but rather “going with the flow.”

RIOTNINE intends to continue being unapologetically themselves, queer, and openly expressive.

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