The UK-based ever-evolving music collective GNOD (currently run by the only constant members Paddy Shine and Chris Haslam) and MC Sissi (Cecilia de Fatima dos Santos, an extremist artist of the Portuguese underground) have released their collaborative album, Inner F.cking Peace. Shine and Dos Santos are now also a married couple connected by their mutual passion for art, namely their love for the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky. We caught up with this very interesting trio after their concert at Berlin Neue Zukunft -to engage in a chat so brief, yet positively chaotic.
I had all these questions written down, but now I want to improvise a little bit, because all that was before I witnessed your performance. Let’s start with this: What was the first anti-mainstream album or performance you witnessed that changed you somehow, and made you say, I want to do something a little bit more outside of the mainstream?
Paddy Shine: I was very young, probably about 11, 12. My best friend’s uncle gave us his record collection. He had loads of Crass Records, some good UK anarcho-punk. We were very young and we listened to these records and we were just like, “What the fuck.ng hell is this? Is this even music?” And it came with the artwork, the big posters, and all sorts of political slogans. We were just so young. We were captivated by it. It really made a massive, massive impression on me. Then I was aware that punk music could be quite strange, that it didn’t have to be three chords, like, bang, bang, bang. It could be like really strange shit.
What’s the main album though? It’s the one that’s a massive feminist record. It’s mostly the women in Crass that are doing all the vocals. Can’t remember the name of the record. Just hearing that at such a young age was just like, “Oh, wow.” It completely made me think about music totally differently.
MC Sissi: While Paddy was talking, I was thinking about how to answer that. For me, it was not a decision. It was natural because I’m naturally out of the mainstream. When I started to perform, it was in 2018. It was just a joke with a friend. We were playing a DJ set. I proposed to him, “Hey, let me do some crazy stuff. And from that night, which was Carnival In Portugal in 2018, we were invited for shows, but the main goal was not to do art, you know what I mean? It was not to perform. Then it started to be like a kind of business and work for me. I never made a decision to be out of mainstream or whatever. I’m this way. I always was the freaky in from the group. I still am. (laughs) It’s a natural way of being.
Here is a question that certainly interests both of you: What is your favorite Alejandro Jodorowsky film?
Paddy: Ooh!
MC Sissi: Well, I didn’t see all of his films.
Paddy: The most obvious one, the one that really f.cking blew my head off was Holy Mountain. But just recently, I saw one of his more recent films, and I can’t remember what it’s called.
MC Sissi: I think it’s the The Dance of Reality.
Paddy: The Dance of Reality. I just saw that and it was amazing. And I’m looking forward to his next film. Because at the moment, he’s doing new films, so the next one I can’t wait for. But The Dance of Reality, I really loved. It was beautiful. But Holy Mountain, when you first see it, if you’ve never been aware of Jodorowsky, it’s like entering a world that’s completely insane, but beautiful and also really connected.
MC Sissi: My favorite one is the one that I will be an actress in. (all laugh)
Paddy: When I met Cecilia, she introduced me to the tarot because she’s into Tarot de Marseille, specifically the Jodorowsky style of interpreting. And we were also both into his psychomagic stuff. His films are great, but what he does with helping people transform their fucking lives is what’s really amazing.
MC Sissi: Art therapy.
He’ll probably live up to 200 years or something. He looks very healthy.
MC Sissi: Yeah.
How does one achieve inner peace in their life?
MC Sissi: I just retreat. Dogs, nature, and some exercises to keep my body healthy so that I find some inner peace. It’s all about the body.
Paddy: I’ll let you know when it happens.
MC Sissi: I’m always alone when I retreat. (all laugh)
Obviously, you’ve had lots of collaborations in the past. I occasionally ask artists about their dream collaborations, but that’s too vague of a question sometimes. So here’s a twist to that question: What is one dream collab of yours that nobody would ever expect? For instance, when I interviewed Oliver from A Place to Bury Strangers, he chose Harry Styles just to shock people.
Paddy: Jesus. I don’t know. That’s a good question. There are so many people. I don’t know. (exits the room and gets back) I really don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that.
MC Sissi dancing among the audience. 
The dream team-up, right after the show.
Let’s imagine we’re at a Musicians Theme Park 100 years from now, where every artist or band featured has their own memorial stone with a certain lyric by them written on it. Which one of the lyrics would you like to see written on your stone?
Paddy: Oh my God, these are so tricky, these questions. It’s like, “Okay, how big is my ego?” (laughs)
Chris Haslam: (enters the room) Very big.
MC Sissi: Yeah.
Paddy: It’s not so much these days, but I can get it to be big.
Do you have an answer to this question, Chris? Have you heard the question?
Chris: What’s the question?
Let’s imagine we’re at a Musicians Theme Park 100 years from now, where every artist or band featured has their own memorial stone with a certain lyric by them written on it. Which one of the lyrics would you like to see written on your stone?
Paddy: I’m trying to think of a funny one.
Chris: Mine would be “I want to be a stick in the wheel, not a cog in the machine.”
Paddy: Mine will probably be “Paper Error”, or “Vanish vanish, pin messages on the wall, energy rolling uphill. You take on the form, you’re a bad apple.”
You can check out GNOD + MC Sissi’s Bandcamp profile here.
