Putting the Ass in Brass

A 20-year coming-out story: four songs, scary soap ladies, and an ass-to-brass portrayal of toxic power stations, and bands in the digital revolution.

Set between the 1970s industrial clatter and the digital shift, Putting the Ass in Brass is a semi-autobiographical musical comedy about a queer protagonist navigating the worlds of bands and engineering. The trumpet-playing Narrator guides us from the ages of 13 to 33—from scary soap factory ladies to the toxic abuses of power in the landscape of carbon-demonised power stations. While trying to define his sexuality, the only constant was the cornet and trumpet playing in brass, dance, and pop bands via a changing technological landscape, with the narrator sounding a "Last Post" for the systems that divide us.