Sateen aren’t finished just yet. The glamorous duo, who previously dominated NYC nightlife for several pre-pandemic years, are back today with a lovesick, new single “Doctor Doctor” off their forthcoming — and final — album together.
Queenie and Ruby were married before ending their romantic relationship two years ago and embarking on their own creative journeys: Queenie as a top adult entertainer and Ruby as a celebrated painter. Prior to splitting up, they became known in the scene for their nostalgic blend of disco-pop and matching looks among an audience of predominantly queer club kids. Songs like “Gotta Gimme Your Love” became underground hits, written and produced entirely by Sateen as independent artists.
This closing project will be comprised of material that Sateen worked on between their “most productive” years 2016 and 2022, with “Doctor Doctor” leading the final lap. It’s glittery and campy, “quintessential Sateen,” as they describe, with Queenie begging for the doctor because she’s in love. “My innermost desires are leading me astray,” she sings over production that evokes the best of ’70s Donna Summer. “At night I think about her, I never get a break.”
For the music video, premiering on PAPER, Sateen imagined an absurdist world where everyone has extreme plastic surgery and Queenie’s the odd one out with a natural face. She calls up Ruby, who plays a “botched bimbo nurse,” and then visits the hospital as things quickly descend into chaos under the knife. After a horrific, albeit fabulously choreographed dance in a medical gown, Queenie emerges triumphantly with a face full of filler.
Below, we caught up with Queenie and Ruby to talk about the inspirations behind “Doctor Doctor,” getting into prosthetics for the video and deciding to “give the girlies and the gays all of it” before officially retiring Sateen forever.
What was the collaborative process like this time around, having spent some time away from making music as Sateen?
Queenie: So much has happened since we ended our romantic relationship two years ago. Ruby is painting and I have been working in the adult world, as well as working on a solo music project. So it felt so good and nostalgic to be able to come together and work on one last special project for all of the babes who have loved Sateen over the years. We wrote and recorded this song in 2021 and I’ve always loved it, so I’m so happy to finally put it out into the world. For music videos in the past, it was very democratic and everything was very egalitarian in the creative process. For this music video, I kind of dommed Ruby [laughs]. She slayed as the botched bimbo nurse, though.
Ruby: Yes, most of the video was actually done by Queenie. I had some input on the narrative and a few key things, but overall I didn’t do too much other than appearing in it. It was incredible to watch Queenie bring all of her newly acquired film knowledge into the project. Even the crew came from the adult film world and were Queenie’s work connections. It was incredibly professional and I’m really impressed with her and the video.
That said, as to the song, it was made the way we make pretty much all of our music. I wrote and produced all of the music, while Queenie was on lyrics and vocals. It’s always been really important to us to keep Sateen as an entirely independent project. When you listen to Sateen, you know it really is a true collaboration between just the two of us.
How have your experiences separate from each other informed this final album?
Queenie: It was time and space that made us both feel ready to release all of the things that we have been holding hostage in the archives. Everything we both have done outside of making music has just made us miss it all the more. We both loved being in Sateen and working together on music, but we just needed some time to be like, It’s time… Let’s give the girlies and the gays all of it. The album is a lot of the songs we worked on throughout our most productive years, from 2016-2022. I think the most surprising thing about the album is the last songs we had worked on. We started going in a really different direction.
Ruby: We were about to embark on a totally new sound and chapter in Sateen when we stopped. Our marriage was really falling apart, but our creative collaboration never did. Unfortunately, it became impossible to work together with our relationship in such a bad state. Hopefully as time heals our friendship we can maybe someday resume some kind of collaboration. But for now, I am just excited for Queenie’s new solo music. I am so proud of her and hopefully this is a precursor to giving Sateen fans new material via Queenie. I think she will also gain a lot of new fans with her solo project. I’m really looking forward to it and wish her the best of luck.
How do you feel like “Doctor Doctor” reflects where you both are, creatively, in this moment?
Queenie: “Doctor Doctor” is quintessential Sateen. The disco vibes, very gay, very dancy, with a dose of camp. I think it’s a vibe that we will always feel at home in. It’s what we like to listen to and it’s fun. I feel like both of us are in a different place than we were when we made it though. We are both spreading our wings in different ways. Personally, I’m making a departure from this kind of vibe in the solo music I have been working on. When we broke up and made the announcement, it was definitely a goodbye. But it has felt like we have unfinished business, since we have been sitting on this song and honestly tons of others. So we are doing this one last single and one last album with all the songs we never released.
Ruby: It’s funny because right before we went on hiatus, we actually pivoted our sound into a more guitar-driven, dreampop vibe. So actually “Doctor Doctor” is less indicative of where Sateen was when we stopped making music in 2021. Those dreamier songs will be on the album, though, so fans can see where we last were before taking a break from Sateen. Hopefully we can get back to it someday and make more of that type of music. I have been saying that the last thing we kind of did was invent this Sapphic pop sound that is kind of becoming more prevalent now. Ironically, nobody even knows, because we didn’t release it.
What inspired the lyrics? What does this say about your experiences with love?
Queenie: I feel like it’s a song about gay girl infatuation. Ruby has made this beat with the infectious string sample and the first thing when I started writing to it that came out of my mouth was, “Doctor Doctor tell me.” From there it kind of wrote itself. I remember I had just watched Benedetta and that’s where, “Sister, Sister tell me,” came from. I guess I was picturing a lesbian nun having hot flashes and wet dreams about another nun girlie because she was so pent up with desire.
Ruby: Yeah, it’s definitely a lesbian love anthem.
Talk through some of the references behind the video concept. It’s equal parts glamorous and creepy.
Queenie: Being married to a doll for a decade definitely made a huge impression on me. Lots of nursing Ruby through surgeries and lots of pondering like, Hm, could this be me? Could I be a surged boots bimbo? This video was me processing that for sure. The concept was based on this Twilight Zone episode where everyone in the world has a pig face. Basically this girl that looks like a natural classic beauty is so self-conscious and everyone thinks she is hideous because she doesn’t have the pig face. I wanted it to be just like this, where it’s a world where everyone looks naturally very plastic fantastic and plumped and pulled, and I was the one on the fringes of society because I looked different. So I go under the knife and get cut up and transformed.
Ruby: It definitely has a horror element to it, which is new for Sateen. I also think it is incredibly campy and has our typical John Waters humor and sensibility. We thought it’d be amazing to have Queenie doing the choreography in prosthetics, and I think that scene at the end is hilarious. She is great at hamming it up on camera. So there is this great balance of glam, horror and humor.
What was it like getting into prosthetics for this?
Queenie: It was my first time using prosthetics and it was so strange, like having a foreign skin on yours. It was not uncomfortable at all, just a sensation of something on your face, a heaviness. We were so lucky to be able to get Malina Stearns [Melanie Martinez, Doja Cat, Doechii] on prosthetics. She is incredible, a true genius with that shit.
Ruby: I have to admit that I really loved it. The original premise for the video had more of a reveal in the prosthetics for both of us. But I was like, “Fuck that, I wanna wear them for the whole thing. Everybody should be in prosthetics.” So we actually changed the narrative basically to cater to my own selfish desire to be an over-surged bimbo.
What’re your own relationships with plastic surgery and how did that inspire this?
Queenie: One of my earliest memories as a child growing up in South Florida was my mom and two of my friends’ moms lifting up their tops and comparing their boob jobs. My grandma worked for a plastic surgeon for like 30 years, too. [Plastic surgery] has always been very normalized in my life, so I guess I’ve always been plastic positive. I think it’s fab if you are doing it for yourself and to feel good in your own skin. It starts getting iffy when you are doing it to please someone else. I’m so transparent about the work I’ve gotten done. I had my fat sucked out of my stomach and put back in my ass, and have had my fair share of juvederm and botox, sculptra, cool sculpting, kybella. I was also Ruby’s nurse and cheerleader through all of her dollification, which was intense and cunt. She looks sickening. I love this bitch, just like a sister now.
Ruby: I certainly have had a lot of gender affirming procedures. The list is pretty long, so let’s just say I’m well-acquainted. One of the initial ideas for the video was to actually start in prosthetics and have surgery to “undo” our overly surged faces. I was like, “No, that sends the complete wrong message.” I wanted the video to capture the idea that plastic surgery is a good thing! Because my relationship to cosmetic procedures, although it has been hard, is a very positive one. I don’t think surgery is necessary for everyone, including trans people; but for me, it was super important in feeling comfortable in my skin. I really encourage people to take the leap, even if they’re on the fence about it. Start with some lip fillers or botox. Pretty soon you’ll be on the surgeon’s table getting sliced and diced.
Let’s give the girlies and the gays all of it.
Photography: Siren Obscura
Leave a Reply