Gretchen Steel and Beyonce Knowles don’t have much in common.
For one, Beyonce sings chart-topping pop and sultry R&B, while Steel is the lead singer of ZEX, an Ottawa-based punk band that’s never written a love song. At concerts, Beyonce often commands the stage in crystal-studded bodysuits, while Steel has been known to crawl through her audiences in a straightjacket as fake blood pours down her face.
“Men were running away, they were running out of the venue terrified,” Steel recalled of that particular show in Indonesia.
So it likely came as a bit of a shock for Beyonce fans who bought a vinyl edition of the artist’s album, “Lemonade,” and instead heard Steel’s voice coming through the record player.
It’s a mistake that Columbia Records has chalked up to a “human error” at a German plant, causing the misprint to be shipped across Europe and as far away as Australia.
For Steel and her bandmates, the mix-up has meant a surreal week filled with a flurry of international attention, including an interview with Vanity Fair and media outlets across the globe.
“I’ve been laughing for three straight days,” Steel told CTVNews.ca on Tuesday.
The band first learned about the mistake on Sunday when a record store owner in the U.K. reached out about a confused customer who heard the punk music on side A of “Lemonade.” Other perplexed fans used reverse search tools, such as Shazam, to find the source of the music and reach out over Facebook.
From a business standpoint, Steel says she’s equally confused about how the mistake could happen. For ZEX’s vinyl albums, which are produced on a much smaller scale, they order a test unit before ordering official copies.
“I’ve just been sitting here, like, how is this possible?” Steel said.
Steel admits that, on the surface, her band has little in common with the 22-time Grammy winner. But if you look closer, the two artists aren’t so different.
Beyonce is known for her alter-ego, Sasha Fierce, who she unleashes while on stage to tap into her inner diva. Steel says she has a similar stage persona.
“When I’m on stage, I embody something else,” she said. “There is a relationship there: we’re powerful, crazy women in charge of these bands … and we try to make people feel something when they watch us.”
“In that way, I find, we’re very similar.”
If Beyonce happens to listen to a misprinted vinyl and become a ZEX fan, Steel said the band would be down to collaborate.
“I think it would be super fun. It’s something she hasn’t done before, so it would be exciting for both sides.”
When asked if she’s a Beyonce fan, Steel simply replied: “I’m alive.”
