Gay Against You (stylized as gay against you^[1] or GVsY) were an electronic music duo from Glasgow, Scotland, made up of high school friends Joseph Howe (aka Oats Soda)^[2] and Lachlann Rattray (aka Mr. Big Softie).^[2]

The band formed in 2005 after Howe and Rattray moved into a shared flat,^[3] having previously played together in various other bands.^[4] They self-released a mini-album,^[5] also named gay against you, in 2005. It became one of the most frequently downloaded records from the last.fm website.^[6] The following year their debut full-length album, Muscle Milk, was released by the Adaadat label.^[7]

The popularity of the band's first record on last.fm led to the group being asked to perform live at the Old Blue Last venue in Shoreditch for a last.fm/Presents event, which was recorded and released as a free downloadable album on the site.^[8] Their second full-length album, Righteous Signals, Sour Dudes, was released on CD in 2009 by Adaadat,^[1] with a vinyl version released by the Upset the Rhythm! label.^[9]

gay against you toured the United Kingdom several times, also touring Scandinavia^[10] and elsewhere in Europe.^[11] They played gigs with the likes of Lightning Bolt, Dan Deacon, Shitdisco, No Age, Cutting Pink With Knives, The Blow and Eats Tapes.^[6] They recorded radio sessions for Tom Ravenscroft's Channel 4 Radio show^[12] and for Vic Galloway's "BBC Introducing in Scotland" show on BBC Radio 1.^[13] They were also played by Radio 1's Rob da Bank and Steve Lamacq, and on Resonance FM.^[6]

A rumour spread in the Norwegian press that the NME had called gay against you "the new shit",^[14] leading to reporters unexpectedly attending their Norwegian shows requesting interviews; no-one knows where this rumour originated.

The band broke up in 2009 following the release of Righteous Signals, Sour Dudes. They issued a further EP posthumously, I Play Gay, consisting of covers of the band's songs by Dananananaykroyd, Dolby Anol, Agaskodo Teliverek and House Mouse.^[15]

Both members continued to perform separately and released solo records. Howe used the name Germlin^[1] for his solo work and has more recently performed and released skweee-influenced music as Ben Butler and Mousepad,^[16] sometimes accompanied by drummer Bastian Hagedorn. Rattray has also performed and released as Yoko, Oh No!,^[1][5][17] as well as playing in the band Neighbourhood Gout.^[3]

The band gained attention for their flamboyant^[3] and chaotic live shows^[10] (often played with Howe and Rattray dressed in PE kits^[9][18] and on the venue's dancefloor rather than the stage^[19][20]), prominent visual style,^[3][9] offbeat subject matter (with songs about unicorns,^[21] lactose intolerance,^[22] Lawrence of Arabia, breakfast cereal,^[1] Magic Eye puzzles,^[8] Jurassic Park and physicist Niels Bohr^[11]) and their diverse and experimental musical style. Their early work was noted as combining accessible pop melodies with unconventional, rapidly changing song structures^[2] and disorientating bursts of synthesizer or electric guitar.^[1] Later material was described as "slightly more... mature", with lush analogue-sounding synth and even psychedelic influences.^[9]

Stated influences included Magma, Minutemen,^[11] Devo, Cardiacs and BBC Radio 4.^[1] The band garnered comparisons to artists such as The Locust, Melt-Banana, Animal Collective,^[9] The Faint, Nintendo soundtrack music, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Atari Teenage Riot,^[2] The Mae Shi, Lightning Bolt^[17] and The Pastels.^[22] They were described by Terrorizer magazine as "[e]ither a council estate Butthole Surfers or just Japanese mimicry... odd and wrong",^[23] and by Drowned in Sound as "a chiptune-gabba aerobics class soundtrack".^[9] The Wire called them "prog, of a sort... though with manic impatience in place of pomposity",^[24] while Fused Magazine described them as "[t]wo subterranean creatures dressed in primary school P.E. kits, complete with charcoal-stained eyes and badly-concealed erections, howl[ing] unintelligibly over spaz-core electronics". The Daily Telegraph said they were "absurdly-named".^[25]

In an interview with Dazed & Confused magazine, the band characterised their own music as "filter pop", and "pop music with all the shit bits taken out: mostly no repetition, no wastage, and no fat".^[3]

• Joe Howe – vocals, programming, synthesizer
• Lachlann Rattray – vocals, MIDI, electric guitar