Concrete Bones! You formed at a Women Rock London camp, a year ago. Give us a brief precis of your journey as a band over that year.
After the Women’s Rock Camp last year we were all sure we wanted to continue playing as a band, although we weren’t quite sure how this would be manageable since one of our guitarists, Jeanette, was living in Germany and had only come over for the weekend! Luckily we convinced Jeanette to move to London two months later. In the beginning everyone had such a packed schedule that it was quite difficult to find a time when everyone was free for rehearsal… But, in September last year we started renting a rehearsal space out at Tigersonic Studios and were able to play together more regularly, which was great! Having a regular 5 hour practice every Sunday made it a bit easier. We wrote more songs and started gigging around London in the Autumn. After a little winter break we played some more gigs and started planning the recording of our debut EP! We crowdfunded the money through Kickstarter and had some absolute great people supporting us, which was amazing and we are so grateful! We recorded our EP in May at Marketstall Studios and finished mixing and mastering just recently. It was an amazing experience for all of us and we are very excited to share it with the world!
Talk us through the writing process for Concrete Bones songs…
We usually write all our songs together…deciding on a topic or theme that everyone writes some lyrics about to share at the next rehearsal. We’re still using these little songwriting games we learned at the GRL camp! Everyone underlines their favourite parts and the most underlined lyrics are used in the song. We then fill in some additional lines and rhymes. Once we’re happy with the lyrics, we jam and try to find melody, harmony and rhythm until we find something everyone is happy with. We don’t stick to this technique all the time… sometimes if everyone isn’t at practise the rest of us will start jamming together and our singer Maya will think up some lyrics later on… we try and keep the process as natural, fun and inclusive as possible!
What are you goals for the band?
We want to share our music with as many people as possible.! We want to play as many gigs as possible in as many places as possible and be able to make a livelihood from our passion…the ultimate dream of most musicians! But making it more than a hobby is definitely hard work! So we’re starting with the little steps: releasing our EP, writing more songs, hopefully supporting a big act on their tour and making an album. The main goal for us is keeping the joy and passion for it.
Who would win a fight between a rhinoceros and a Stegosaurus? (Fan question submitted by 5-year-old Griff Fox)
Some of us think the Rhinoceros would win a fight with a Stegosaurus since they would be small enough to escape the Stegosaurus tail by running underneath it… but some of us say the Stegosaurus… couldn’t they just sit on the Rhinoceros and squash it? Although we hope that they wouldn’t fight at all because both are herbivores and should be plant loving friends!
