Words and photos by Keira Anee

Holy shit fuck my fuck actual panties; the frustration and wit of a lifetime into a single show. If you haven’t already, please worship CLT DRP.  I just don’t know how else to say, WOW!

Before all of this rambled out, I was able to sit and chat with them before their London gig at Signature Brew, last Thursday 27 May. I was a little more coherent than in the aftermath of the live show, which blew me away completely.

Immediately, it felt so comfortable, and they were wonderful to talk to! 

CLT DRP are a three piece: with collaborators that will make your playlist jealous. Including an album of remixes by other bands and, as we discuss, visual artists that work on videos and artwork. The band consists of vocalist and insane get-up-and-go-enhancer, Annie; drummer and guns of steel wit, Daphne; and token boy Scott, (who plays the guitar, and is very nice). 

How does it feel playing gigs again after so long, is it weird or like riding a bike?

Daphne: Weird, but in a good way. We’ve been out of it for so long, then the first show back was Southampton (this week). We actually had two shows in one day! Which was the first time we’d ever done that. It was GREAT playing to actual people. We’ve done a couple of live stream gigs and they are just straight up weird. You play and then … just quiet! You finish a livestream and you’re like, are we live still? What are we doing??

I was just happy to hear applause after each song really.

What Annie was saying, it’s really nice to see that people actually still like our music. I didn’t just make this up for the last year!

Scott: Just going to gigs in general has made me realise just how much people have missed that. It’s one of those things where you don’t realise how much you miss it until it comes back. It feels quite special.

On that note! Are they any new songs in your set, and what has the reaction been like?

Lots of laughter..

Annie: At the minute we’re just playing the album because we didn’t really get a chance to! The last two shows we played a new song on an encore, but… It’s a little scrappy so we might not do it tonight (laughs).

Scott: I don’t mind, it just feels a bit naughty ending on such a shambles of a song!

Annie: I think people get excited pretty quickly about new stuff. Also I can’t fucking remember the old stuff anyway (all laugh)

Where The Boys Are … that video …

Annie: To be honest with you….I had nothing to do with it! It was all these guys! 

It’s so funny though because I work with the girl that acted in it, Kristen, who also kind of named our album. Well she gave us the idea for it. And everyone comes into the bar and says to her, “CLT DRP, love your band maaaaan!” and Kristen’s like, ‘Thankyouuu…..’ and I’m just there like, ‘That’s really cool, dude.’

It was the first proper video that we came out with, so everyone thought that Kristen was the one in the band. 

Scott: Yeah, he (the director) came up with the idea, the concept. 

Annie: We just wanted to see what he would come up with, cos it’s such a wild song. 

Scott: So yeah, Jay came up with the concept of it all. But yeah it was funny being in it because I don’t think I really knew Kristen that well at that point, and the next thing, she’s on top of me, killing me… So that was really fun. We were super happy when that came out!

Annie: I watched it for the first time in a long time the other day and was just like: this is fucking awesome.

The name, CLT DRP. Have you had anyone mispronounce it, or maybe too shy to say it?

Annie: It’s always just the same stuff, but it’s always wrong! 

Scott: “Clot Drop”

Annie: Or CONTROL Drop! Control Delete Drop..

Daphne: And the other one; ‘Cunt Drip’

Annie: My parents might not have forgiven me for that. They can deal with ‘Clit Drip’ but ‘Cunt Drip’, my mom would have had a word.

Daphne: Some people do ask us how to pronounce it, scared almost.

Annie: I don’t know if this is obvious because it took me a while when Kristen suggested it, but the album is CLT DRP – Without The Eyes – as in, without the i’s…

OH I SEE! [sound of Cassie falling off her chair as she edits this]

Annie: Yeah, we didn’t come up with it! But it’s good.

How would you recommend I introduce CLT DRP to my nan?

Annie: I’d be like nan, this is all the shit you never got to say back in the day. You might like this, boo boo!!

If you had a shot named after the band, what would it taste like? (three CLT DRP’s, please…)

Annie: Woooahhh (stops). Wow, I just sounded like Owen Wilson there. (Edit; I am listening back and typing this up, and yes, she really did). I feel like it would be similar to a fireball? That’s where I was going. I don’t like cinnamon though.

Scott: I was just thinking something silly like Jaffa Cakes. I was thinking something nice.

Annie: Something nice??

Scott: Are you thinking you would want it to be, spikey?

Annie: You know, just a little bit spicy. Like a chilli sambuca, that’s what I would say. I kinda like Jaffa Cake to be honest, maybe like, Chilli Cake?

Daphne: Chilli Cake! I’d fuck with that.

Scott: Like a spicy pumpkin…cake.

Annie: Okay, I can deal with that. A rim of Jaffa Cake. Nice!

What interview question would you love to be asked?

*SILENCE*

Annie: I wish someone would ask about my lyrics sometimes. Like I wish someone had dug, dug, dug. Someone really asked what ‘Like Father’ was about. I shite my pants, but I was quite happy to talk about it. I think when you write things like that, that are actually very personal, it’s quite nice to talk about it and explain, almost. It’s hard sometimes, but I do like to. I wouldn’t write stuff like that if i wasn’t going to talk about it.

Scott: I suppose probably for the three of us, it’s nice when someone asks a specific question for each of us like, how did you approach this. It shows it’s had an effect on them and feels quite nice. Same with drumming as well, “Hey, that’s a weird time signature thing!” (Laughs)

Daphne: I guess it’s that question of how did you approach writing that part, and why. It’s easy to say it’s just a groove for a song, but it does go deeper than that for me specifically, and how I write. But it’s questions that only a drummer would ask!

Scott: Or even just, how do you look so good all the time? Which no-one ever says!

Annie: Awwww, they dooooo! Don’t even.

I didn’t really discover feminism until ten years ago, and have in that time seen a lot of friends slowly come on board. I think it’s bands like CLT DRP that really help to do this by having a playful if serious message, and it really pushes the frustration of being out there and dealing with even polite sexism.

Annie: It’s a weird one, because I know with the album I’m very guilty of it, especially when I was a teenager, of being very ‘I’m not like one of the other girls’. It’s just internalised misogyny but it is ingrained into us. I think with this album and the stuff we try to talk about; it’s not supposed to be preachy. It’s supposed to be playful and fun. And you know, I am ANGRY, a lot of it is angry, but it’s more of like a – we’re all guilty of this – let’s just try and point out the irony, the soft spots. And go on a journey together, I guess. That sounds cheesy, but you know what I mean. It is a very long, long process of learning and unlearning things. It’s not like, ‘I’m a feminist now’. 

Scott: It doesn’t stop either, it’s a constant as you said, journey. 

Annie: It’s not an excluding kind of feminism. It’s intersectional.

Scott: I think holistically just in general – this is probably a bit too vague – but just to be a good person just takes effort, doesn’t it? Always reflecting on your actions, you need to be having these conversations all the time. 

Annie: The way I write and the way lyrics come out, has changed so much in the past year. There were points when I first found feminism where I felt like, I just want to kick everyone’s teeth in. Now I’m coming from a place where I’m a little bit more empathetic, which has come from being very much more self reflective. 

Is there a band you’d recommend to LOUD WOMEN who might not be getting the attention they deserve?

Scott: I was thinking, Grove?

Annie: Oh I love Grove! I feel like LOUD WOMEN will know them already but I LOVE ARXX, and they’re from Brighton. They’re doing really well at the minute and they’re such nice people. They’re killing it. [Oh yes we know and love them too and they are playing LOUD WOMEN Fest dontchaknow! – Cx]

Is there a song you wish you’d written?

Annie: I was gonna say WAP! I know there are a lot of songs before that time with the same message, but I think it did something for this generation that I feel it would have been cool to have been part of. 

Scott: It’s a new favourite I’ve just stumbled across, by Moses Sumney. He’s got a track called ‘Lonely World’ and if I could ever write something of that caliber, I would die happy. 

Daphne: I think music wise, or even just the vibe; I think Teardrop, by Massive Attack. That song just makes me feel something that I can’t quite…It’s so simple. 

Scott: It’s powerful though isn’t it.

Daphne: If you take it bit by bit, like the drums, it’s just playing one groove throughout the whole song, but it’s like the intensity of the way everything is linked together that is just incredible. 

What is your favorite song to play live?

Daphne: I think it’s different for each of us, isn’t it?

Scott: Ooooooh, Oooooh…. Skin Remover. Or the drop in ‘Mother’ is pretty..

Annie: You LOVE that! You love that. He loves it!

Daphne: I mean, ‘Where the boys…’ is pretty cool, but sometimes I have to focus on the click, or look at Scott’s pedals to make sure it’s all in time. But See Saw is just there, I can just let go, it just feels good playing it. 

Annie: I think I’d say Where The Boys Are. When it kicks in, it’s just fun. 

Scott: I think as a collective, we’d say “Where The Boys Are’.

The album photography, I love it. For me it sort of represents feeling uncomfortable with myself but not accepting that. How frustrating it feels sometimes that it’s not always easy to love yourself, and wondering how the fuck that ever came to be a thing! Who is the photographer?

Annie: The woman I asked to do the album cover is a girl called Ace. She runs a ‘Zine called Unpretty, she works near me in Brighton and is just this wonderful woman. So intuitive and understanding, really kind. 

And her photography is really great. We all just said, you know what; we all agree we really like your style. We’d like you to do this, just come up with whatever you want! She sent us a few things, we picked that one out. I think it was her partner that took that photo of her, but it was her concept and idea. The same with Jay (video director,) if we like someone, we trust them to be able to do what they wanna do. She just friggin nailed it on the head! *loud agreement*

It was, I think, that feeling of frustration, but also the beauty in it. Having that little bit of pube on there that made some people the slightest bit uncomfortable. It really, really did wonders for that album. 

Scott: I remember being in Rough Trade in London and the album had just come out. I went in to see if they actually had physical copies in there, and it was right by the checkout! It was such a good moment, seeing that vinyl and that picture right there.

Annie: It was nuts seeing people for the first time take it in their hands. In Rough Trade or Resident in Brighton, too.

Is your stage presence inspired or influenced by any other front person, or is it something that has just developed naturally? 

Annie: I mean, I really don’t like saying no, because I don’t think… I didn’t go to a lot of gigs when I was a kid. And I didn’t actually go to that many gigs when I was a teenager either. I did musical theatre and I really love performing. I love performing more than I love writing, in a weird sense. But yeah, I think it is quite a natural thing. A mixed combo of putting on the thing I like to do in real life but also a very big part of myself that is quite cathartic. It’s definitely influenced stylistically, maybe not the performance aspect of it, the sound aspect; I had a lot of influences growing up. 

Daphne: I think for me, it’s developed naturally. Just, I can’t control what happens! Maybe subconsciously, because the same as Annie, I didn’t really go to many gigs. Obviously coming to England, I’ve been to a lot more gigs, smaller gigs.