Our favourite punk witches DreamNails are kicking off 2020 with their hotly-anticipated first studio release, ‘Text Me Back (Chirpse Degree Burns). And it’s sounds amazing! A perfectly captured punk parcel giving us a tantalising taste of what’s to come from their album this spring!
We caught up with the ‘Nails (Janey, Lucy, Mimi and Anya), on the road today heading off on tour …
We are mega-excited to hear your first studio-recorded release! Tell us more.
This summer we took a Dream Nails holiday up to Liverpool to sit in a hot studio with Tarek Musa from Spring King and lay down ten beautiful tracks for our first full-length LP. It was a magical, albeit intense, process and we’re really proud of what’s come out of it!
Congratulations on signing with Alcopop! Records. What made you feel they were the right match for you?
They really respect our DIY ethics, the importance of our connection with our fanbase and respect us having 100% creative control. We just clicked! We love some of the bands signed to Alcopop! like HappyAccidents, Peaness and Cheerbleederz so it’s nice to get an invite to the punk family dinner table.
So the hot gossip is that ‘Text Me Back’ was inspired by two of the Nails being ghosted by their Glastonbury festival crushes … what messages would you like to send those heartless ghosters now?
One says: “Thank you for being our completely oblivious romantic muses. What can we say, we’ve learned and grown but sometimes even now when our phone bleeps, we jump out of our skins.” The other says: “Mate you were off your nut.”
You’re off on a megatour with Anti-Flag, and have an album on the way … any more exciting plans for 2020 you can tell us about?
Antiflag is awesome, we’re currently in Lisbon about to go and sample some nata. Then we’re going to Madrid, Barcelona, Milan and some other cool spots. We will be embarking on a headline tour running up to our album launch show in London on April 23 at Oslo, Hackney! Catch us all around the UK!
Now you’re starting to break through the DIY ceiling and share your witchy pop with a wider audience – what advice would you give to fledgling DIY bands who want to follow in your footsteps?
When you commit to being in a band, commit to regular rehearsals. Once you unlock that magic, you’ve got to keep the momentum going! And get some merch as soon as you can. Our Hex the Patriarchy patches are pretty much the only way we can pay for our rehearsal studio in the first place!
Catch Dream Nails on tour:
JAN (supporting Anti-Flag) 08 Lisboa, Portugal – RCA Club 09 Madrid, Spain – Caracol 10 Vitoria, Spain – Kubik 11 Zaragoza, Spain – Sala López 12 Barcelona, Spain – Estraperio 14 Milan, Italy – HT Factory
APRIL
10 Cardiff, UK – Wales Goes Pop! 11 Leicester, UK – Shed 23 London, UK – Oslo – Album Release Show 24 Bristol, UK – Louisiana 25 Reading, UK – Are You Listening? Festival 26 Southampton, UK – Heartbreakers
From her first award wins back in Australia to her critically acclaimed ‘Where I Go To Disappear’—the introspective album we’ve all grown to know and love—Georgi Kay has only leapt from strength to strength. With a sound defined by her love for bass, synth, vocal chops and looping electronic beats, Georgi’s music takes negativity in the palm of its hand and moulds it into something fresh—something positive and new.
In the light of her recent release of ‘Lone Wolf – Reimagined’—a fresh take on the much-loved ‘Lone Wolf’ from her debut album and the spark of a chain of exciting things to come—we sat down with Georgi to discuss the importance of message, her new place at the heart of the LA creative hub and her never-ceasing gratitude to fans.
If we move straight in to discuss your latest release—after over a year since the release of ‘Lone Wolf’, can you tell us a little more about the creative process for your latest release, ‘Lone Wolf – Reimagined’?
I was looking for a new place to live and I came up with an idea—between my last album ‘Where I Go To Disappear’ and my next album, what could I do to give back to my fans for being super patient and loyal? What could I do in the interim? I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of being able to recreate something that moved you so deeply and I know that Lone Wolf in particular for a lot of my fans, family and friends was a song that really moved and resonated with them. So I thought, why not, instead of just producing a remix, branch out and try something new so it hardly sounds like the original at all—a completely new experience but holding onto all the same stems of the song, just manipulated and reconstructed.
Then a mutual friend put me in touch with CD Player who’s based in Brooklyn—a fantastic producer who works with a lot of analogue synths and looping sequences. He also travels a lot and collects field recordings of life happening around him wherever he is and weaves this into his music. We also found we are one of the same mind so it was really easy and fluid conversing and bringing the song into being. So it was really cool to hear the same song but with this new magic to it—like I was experiencing the song for the first time. There are three others in the works but I don’t want to give those away quite yet!
Can you tell us a little more about the narrative of the original track?
I’ve always been quite an independent, solitary individual and only child. I also have an extremely hyperactive and over-driven imagination so I’m able to build entire worlds in my head so I think that’s why I’m so attached to the creative realm of life—writing short stories or poems, gaming or working in film or music—anything you can create from scratch. So for music in particular, ‘Lone Wolf’ was the first song off the album that I felt—in a similar way to this landscape—was desolate and vast. What would loneliness feel like? What would it look like? How can I create this landscape and paint it with sound? No matter how many wonderful people we have in our lives, they will never fully understand where we sit, where we come from. Only we can 100% relate to ourselves. Everyone feels this way from time to time and I think it’s quite fascinating to realise we all feel that together.
You have spoken about the importance of message within your music. How does the message behind the music drive your tracks and how does this translate into live performance?
As ambiguous as I may be or symbolic in my writing, there’s also this distinct directness—like saying I’m a ‘Lone Wolf’ for example. Other songs have different messages, mostly introspective and using what we see as negativities to form something positive. They’re often subtle, unassuming messages pushing us to take what we perceive as negative, see it as a positive and don’t just wallow in it. Don’t keep it in, let it all out.
Live music is one of my many forms of therapy—it’s very cleansing as an actual ritual or practice to be able to go out and release any tension or build up emotion and allow the audience also to release. You’re basically using each other to expel the toxins and giving each other love back and forth. I think ultimately the goal through my music is to always feel like you can just ‘be’. Not be anything in particular—just be. We’re so focussed on trying to be something. I like for people who are hearing my music for the first time to feel understood, related to and empathised with—to feel comfortable and like they are in a safe space. In this day and age, there’s judgement on every corner you turn and it’s very quickly made without knowing the full context or story.
Image by ZB Images
Back to you as an artist, what is your driving force and what inspires you in everyday life?
To constantly create. Whether it’s music or art, that’s my drive. And not really planning where it’s going—just letting it fall into place, letting it flow naturally. While it can actually sometimes be a fantastic catalyst to create the unknown and unexpected, a lot of the time it’s best to let it just play out. To make room, make space for new ideas.
What influences your songwriting style and production process?
I don’t really listen to music that much. I don’t like to be influenced by external forces. Not because I don’t like it but because it’s only natural that once you listen to something so much it’ll start to bleed into you and you start to emulate something in a similar vein. That’s my fear I guess—to make something that’s already out there. When I was younger, my Dad was very much into music and he would play a completely eclectic blend of various artists from all different genres and different generations. He would play it during our family breakfasts on the weekends and I think that unknowingly influenced and inspired me a lot.
Florence and the Machine and Lorde are actually really good examples of artists who write in a modern, poetic way—everything is intentionally said and I think that’s a slightly more androgynous way of writing and one I relate to. It has no face—it’s just ambiguous and symbolic. When I was younger I listened to a vast array of artists but they all tended to roughly stick to similar pop constructs and I think that heavily influenced my writing at the start. Then when I went back to London when I was 19, and experienced Garage, Deep House, Tech House and an eclectic mix of electronic genres, that opened my mind a lot to all these new electronic textures and patterns. So when it came down to production I blended all of this. Sci-fi and horror films also play a huge part in my visual influences and sonically, very dystopian sounds with a pop element, a groove so it juxtaposes a darker lyric.
How did you find the community surrounding you as you emerged as a young artist onto the scene and how important have you found this as a female musician?
I don’t think I was every really perceived as a female—I’m not overtly feminine nor overtly masculine, hence the androgynous delivery of song. So I never found myself really treated as a woman—just an artist. An over in Australia, our performing rights association were a huge help and were with me from the very beginning of my career, ever since I won my first award (The Western Australia Music Industry Award for Song of the Year). I also met a lot of individuals who were wonderful in building me up. But overall, I’ve never really felt accepted in the music society and I can also get quite bored of the music community. A lot of it can be fickle so it’s why I’ve often kept myself quite hidden. I found it quite difficult to make genuine groups of friends—individuals, absolutely, because that’s where I thrive. I want to make sure everything I do is intentional, is genuine and sincere. There’s something very important in learning to say no in the musical community: in knowing what you like and don’t like and staying true to that. So I’ve tended to navigate the scene in the way I personally found I could thrive—in this comfortable loneliness, a solo strength.
Image by Lance Williams
How has moving to and establishing a solid, supportive community around you in LA affected you and your direction as an artist?
Just through playing shows and meeting other people. The community itself can be a little exhausting but individuals are most important. I’ve met some incredible people, all from different walks of creative life, but all from my kind of tribe and a lot of collaborations have happened or are in the process of happening. Collaborations with fashion or other kinds of visual art have also been really fun and rewarding. Because there are so many people here in LA in entertainment, it’s such a creative hub. You do have to sift through to find your people, but when you do it’s worth the journey.
From moving to LA to moving from the back to front seat in production, can you tell us a little more about your journey within the world of production? How did developing your production skills influence your sound and direction?
When I first started writing music I was just an acoustic singer songwriter and over the course of several years I met various producers who opened my musical eyes to more ambient, electronic and industrial sounds and I was really fascinated by that. I’d never tried that much production myself, being encouraged to work with a producer. Then when I moved to London, I signed with a major record label who I was with for 3 years and was put in hundreds of sessions. In these sessions I just got to back-seat drive a lot of the production. I always knew what I wanted—just not how to get it. So I just learned like that, watching these guys construct music out of zeros and ones. I learned my favourite sounds, my ways to start writing—often starting with a bass because I’m very bass driven—what DAWs and software I prefer.
Then when I moved to LA, I had this interim waiting for my visa where I was bursting at the seams with all this possibility and when this creativity was finally released it began to sound like what we hear on ‘Where I Go To Disappear’. Then I met who was to be my co-producer and mixer for the album (Steve Rusch) and he was the perfect creative individual to work with.
Image by ZB Images
Looking ahead, what can we expect from you in the months to come?
Firstly, there’s this reimagined EP I’m working on with CD Player which features Lone Wolf and three other fan favourites off the last album. That will be in 2020 and I’m very excited for that. It’s just a thank you to fans for all their support and patience. I’ve been doing a lot more merch too and I have some big things coming with that. I’m also working on my new album, also writing a sci-fi novel, also working on digital art in a dystopian realm. So working a lot in multi creative avenues and I’m having a lot of fun. I’m also planning a US tour for next year so a lot of good things to come!
An interview with artist Maedb, founder of $exquisite, by Ngaire Ruth – legendary feminist music journalist, and Maedb’s mum.
Working towards making the unconventional, conventional, the invisible, visible: Maedb. She’s a writer, poet, performer, curator and the producer of $exquisite events – a night of stigma-defying art, activism and glamour from artists, performers and comedians who work in the sex industry, which aims to bring the audience and artist closer through performance, debate and Q&A discussion. The next is on 15th November, at London’s Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.
Why did you decide to work with multidisciplinary arts and sex workers?
Well, I’m an artist – poet and theatre maker – and knew I wanted to curate a cross-arts night. It was only in discussion with a friend – a full-service sex worker and human rights law student – that I was informed of a law passed in the states, FOSTA-SESTA. This prohibits sex workers all around the world who work online, and the bill was passed with the view to stop sexual exploitation but has in turn prohibited sex workers working safely. It has shut down various sites sex workers use to work safely online and feeds into algorithms designed to silence sex workers on Tumblr, Instagram and other social platforms. This is really dangerous and prevents workers from screening their clients and could even potentially push sex work into the streets. I was shocked that no-one was talking about it, at least in my circle. So, I thought it would be really cool to create a celebratory space for sex worker artists, to build a community and have conversations.
You’ve pin pointed a feminists’ armour: female friendship and support – which seems especially key for isolated online sex workers. Events like $exquisite give sex workers an opportunity to share their art, but also where they can meet other sex workers, creatives and have some kind of camaraderie, fun and friendship. It’s really important; did you consider that at the time?
No, I didn’t. I do think it is important to mention that issues that exist within and for the sex worker community certainly expand that of those who work online – of which I am learning about now. But, in regard to camaraderie, fun and friendship – no I didn’t expect it. I really just was focused on creating my first event and set on getting to know the women first. I guess it is just an amazing by-product, and one I definitely want to build on. In the future I am planning to start a collective, so a community can exist beyond the events.
What was some of the feedback you got from the first event?
Many people approached me afterwards and presented good feedback. But I was most shocked by those of my university friends, who said that the event had opened their minds and changed their views on the industry. Some said it was a journey of education and were pleased that there was a space to speak on such ‘taboo’ topics. I think it’s really important that the night remains a space where people outside of the industry attend. I want creating conversations, with a view for it to continue beyond the event, to be a strong focus. That way we can make a ripple effect.
So, you have performances – what sort of things have you had before and what can we expect?
We try to have a consistent mix of different art forms, and primarily focus on poetry, theatre, dance and comedy. I think the event lends itself well to cabaret and burlesque so we will be seeing a bit more of that this time, alongside some drag.
So what about sexuality, are you an intersectional feminist? Do you believe that using your sexuality as an object is empowering?
Different things empower different women. I simply can’t say that it is empowering, or I would be speaking for everyone. I don’t think we have the agency to speak for every woman. The best I can do as a feminist is to support other women. Patriarchy has and will continue to divide us; I don’t believe you are a feminist if your feminism is exclusionary. And, furthermore, I don’t agree with the assumption that sexuality is an object. I’m not quite sure by what you mean, but if you mean to make money. I don’t think it is empowering, I don’t believe in a ‘happy hooker’ narrative to defy stigma. I think it is work, and sometimes it is shit, but having stigma and a society that isolates you is even shitter.
And, do you have men coming to your events?
Yeah.
And, do they behave themselves?
Yeah, and I think there’s nothing wrong if men want to come
and enjoy themselves. It’s a safe, powerful and feminine space. It’s always a
celebration and never an exploitation.
What do you think you’ll do next?
I would love to start a community where we will have monthly meet-ups. I think sex work can be really isolating – the stigma can destroy lives. Some people can’t even be open with their friends or family, as the judgement can often be so harsh. So, I really think it’s important that we have spaces where we can just make friends and form our own families and even debrief about our days. It’s just a job. Society makes it a label.
What about helping people develop their art?
Yes, I would love to eventually programme workshops where
people can develop their craft. I remain in contact with the artists throughout
the creation process in the lead up to events and am there if they ever want
feedback or a second eye.
Do you think you’ll come across stigma when applying for grants or rehearsal spaces? If so, what’s your argument? In the past, feminists have, for example, picketed Soho saying sex work is demeaning to women.
I think that type of feminism is very exclusionary. It’s one type of middle-class, white, feminism that cannot speak for everyone. A lot of women who enter sex work are generally working-class women and it’s a very small minority that enter it with a “Hey I wanna have sex and get paid for it” mentality. The bottom line is that people need to make money, pay their rent and we are all victims of capitalism. Survival sex work and sex work are two different things. But most people enter it with a view to make money and I don’t think you are a feminist if you put down another woman for doing things you wouldn’t do.
A lot of people fall victim to sex trafficking, or, begin sex work because of poverty or abuse. Arguably it’s not a choice, even when empowering as financial independence, or enabling the pursuit of further education, but a result of a patriarchal society in which women are de-humanised. Bringing it out into the open is a most brilliant way to make the invisible visible.
Yes! If we decimalise sex work, it will certainly cut down sexual exploitation. Decriminalisation equals regulation. The more something is pushed underground, the further room for misconduct. The more it is pushed into the darkness, the more room for those entering underage or trafficked. Currently the law in the UK states if two or more girls are working in a location, it is a brothel and therefore illegal. But if one works, it’s okay. Tell me how on earth can that be safe?! If it is legalised it allows for monitoring, screening and ultimately safety.
Have you considered giving money to any charities related to sex work?
Yeah, so at our next event we are hosting an ‘afterhours’
pop up strip club which will take place after the art section of our night from
11pm-2am. This is in collaboration with East London Strippers Collective to
raise money for United Strippers of the World and United Voices of the World
Union; who provide legal advice and action for sex workers.
Is there anything else you want us to know, is there any way we can get involved?
We would love to have your support, come and listen to what sex workers have to say and join the conversation. All the money raised will go back into $exquisite, we hope to eventually programme a sex worker festival where we can further support sex workers and sex worker artists. Share some love with us on Instagram, we just want to build an online platform and a real-life community.
You might know EilisFrawley as the drumming powerhouse behind our favourite Berlin indiepoppers PartyFears. It’s her flipside solo project which is making waves across Europe at the moment – ‘spoken word meets drumming’ is the vibe and you can catch her this very evening in fact at Earth, Hackney, London (it’s free too – go!) The tour continues in Sheffield, Manchester, Leicester and Leeds. All info on Facebook.
Eilis’ single ‘illusions’ is out now on Reckless Yes records – a beautiful ambient soundscape to dive into, with home-hitting lyrics:
Busyness will kill us …
In the meantime, we asked Eilis 5 pressing questions …
1. For people who’ve not seen you play solo before, what can they expect from you on this UK tour?
Strong and off kilter with stories about growing up, living abroad, the fluctuation in mental health and thoughts on discrimination, merged in a soundscape of drums, spoken word and synths. On stage I’m creating a dark atmosphere broken by catchy melodies, all held together by powerful and intricate drum beats. My live set is diverse, brutally honest and should encourage women* with similar experiences to speak up.
2. Fill in the blanks …
“My sound is like the lovechild of Battles and BrianEno with a bit on the side from CameraObscura”
3. Give us your artist manifesto in no more than 20 words.
DIY collective Loud Women has been championing women in music since 2015 and on Saturday 12th October will be celebrating their 4th birthday with a gig at legendary Islington punk venue The Hope & Anchor with sets from Hagar The Womb, Rabies Babies, The Menstrual Cramps, I, Doris, The Other Ones, Mindframe and Smalltown Tigers.
We got in touch with LW’s Cassie Fox to talk about the upcoming anniversary and why, four years on we still need promoters like Loud Women on the DIY scene.
When did the idea of Loud Women first arise and why? Was there a particular incident that sparked it?It started as a one-off gig in 2015. Having played on the gig circuit for a little while, I was feeling frustrated at the amount of ‘man-band’heavy’ lineups all the time, and macho crowds. I was particularly tired of my all-female band always being the token women on the bill, and wanted to put on a fundraising gig with my friends’ bands that could be relaxed and inclusive and fun … so I did! Since then, a whole heap of media activity and community has organically grown around the events, but that ethos is still at the heart of what we do – putting on events full of awesome music and a no-bullshit atmosphere with womxn and non-binary people at the heart.Have you noticed any change in the representation and treatment of female musicians in the four years since LW began?On a small scale, yes – a bit! Certainly in the cosy bubble of the London gig circuit there seem to be loads of new opportunities for “bands who are not cis het white dudes” to play, with seemingly new promoters springing up every day, which is brilliant. Outside of London though, I’m still often told by touring bands playing LW gigs that it’s the first time in ages that they’ve not been the only women on a lineup. And outside of DIY music… there’s plenty of conversations being had about major festivals supporting female artists, but still very little noticeable difference in the gender balance on bigger stages.Can you take us back to the very first Loud Women gig? Who played and what was it like?It was 3rd October 2015 at the (sadly now closed) Silver Bullet in Finsbury Park. The headliners were Blindness (featuring our awesome friend Debbie Smith), with my then-band The Wimmins’ Institute, Argonaut, and Dream Nails. I didn’t know what to expect, and feared we’d be playing to an empty room … but was delighted to find the room full for the first band, Dream Nails, who were playing their first ever gig and had brought all their friends! It was the first time I’d been at a gig with a majority-female crowd – and oh the luxury of being 5’3″ and able to actually see the stage! There was a really fun atmosphere, and we raised a decent amount of money for Women’s Aid too. So it was a no-brainer to keep the momentum going and put on more gigs … and here we are!There have been hundreds of bands playing countless Loud Women shows over the past four years, are there any nights that particularly stick in your memory?The Little LOUD WOMEN gigs we’ve done for families have been by far my favourite! I’m a mum of two, and also a big kid myself, so I love any excuse to get extra glittery, get the balloons out, and start a little toddler moshpit! I loved seeing the kids enjoying music up close, invading the stage, seeing what the instruments feel like, and what their voices sound like down a microphone. And parents really appreciated getting to see ‘proper music’ without having to pay out for a babysitter. At one gig there was a particularly humbling moment when a little girl of about 9 grabbed the mic and gave an impromtu speech about how important it was for everyone to be included – I can’t wait to see if she reappears fronting a punk band in a few years!Aside from the gigs, what else has Loud Women been involved in?Our music blog loudwomen.org and monthly ezine have really taken off in the last few years, I’m really proud of those – we have a lot of contributors, so a lot of different voices and opinions and experiences, and they really help spread the word to audiences and influencers. We’ve also released compilation records – the latest of course being LOUD WOMEN Volume Two! Between the two albums there’s over 40 different bands – all killer – £5 each to you! loudwomen.bandcamp.com
With four years under your belts, what does LW have in store for the future? More of the same I guess, until there’s no need for LOUD WOMEN any more! Keep an eye on the LOUD WOMEN socials for news of exciting 2020 events …Loud Women’s 4th Birthday Party takes place on Saturday 12th October at The Hope & Anchor. More information and tickets, priced £8 + booking fee, can be found here.Check out Cassie’s Loud Women playlist featuring 49 artists who’ve played LW shows over the past four years:
Delila Black came and played our Unplugged evening last week and treated us to a thoroughly captivating performance – her powerful voice and skilled songwriting were food for the ears and the soul. Scarcity of hours in the day meant I didn’t get to publish this 10 question interview before the gig, but here it is along with the strong recommendation to check out Delila Black’s music.
1. For people who’ve not heard you play live before, what can we expect from you?
As this will be an acoustic night you can expect a quieter version of my usual set. You’ll hear tales of love, betrayal and vengeance and you’ll get an atmosphere of Country-Noire.
It’ll be a mix of punk-country, rodeo-rock and good ol’ traditional.
2. Which is your favourite song to play and why? Tell us about it …
At the moment it’s Vanilla Ice Cream. I like creating the atmosphere and I like the story. I also like doing High On A Mountain because of the sentiment behind it. It’s simple and raw. Actually, I think the whole set is.
3. Do some super-lazy journalism on our behalf please, and fill in the blanks: “My sound is like …”
Imagine KD Lang, Grace Jones and Jack White at church, then imagine them at Fight Club.
4. What’s your proudest musical moment to date?
Actually there are 3.
1. I was invited to sing solo, a cappella at Westminster Abbey at “A Service For Haiti” a year after the earthquake. I sang a song in Kreyol, that I wrote with my dad . The acoustics were absolutely stunning. An incredible experience.
2. Tony Visconti said he likes my work and
3. the late, great Mr. Tom Paley played fiddle on some of my songs.
5. Recommend a record and a book that you think our readers might not have heard of.
Book: “”The Temple of My Familiar” by Alice Walker. You will not be able to put it down, or maybe that’s just me. I wasn’t able to put it down! It will take you on a journey you didn’t know you needed to take.
Record: Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers “End Of My Journey”. It’s pure and raw. Brilliant vocals from each singer and Sam Cooke of course sounds heavenly. Towards the end of the song, when it gets rough and loud, you can catch tiny, little bits of electric guitar -you can actually hear rock & roll being born.
6. One for the guitarists … bore us with the details of your set-up please.
Mr. Buckley will answer this one:
We’re using a Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin with a P90 pickup.The current signal path is typically split between a clean sound sent via DI to the FOH mixer (via an MXR 6-band EQ pedal, in case we need to fine-tune for various venues) and a dirty sound (via a couple of simple but very good overdrive/boost pedals – a Hot Cake and a Fulltone FatBoost) which, in large venues, might typically be sent to an amp onstage (a Laney VC30 or, where we are using other amps, something like a Vox AC30 or another similar valve-driven amp) but which can also all be sent inline via DI in acoustic shows.
7. Who inspires you?
People with no filter (probably for the wrong reasons)
8. What are your musical goals?
Short term: To finish recording my 3rd EP. Electro-Mountain and have it ready for promotion by December. Book some festivals for next year.
Long term: I’d love to get on Jools Holland. I’d also love to get my music in films or television shows (that I like)
9. What’s the most important thing we need to know about your music right now?
There are 2 ‘most important’ things you need to know about my music right now.
1. We will be playing at the Aktion4Prevention Festival at the Bedford, 12th September.
2. The EP Electro-Mountain will be ready in a couple of months!
10. Pass the mic – who are your top 5 contemporary bands/musicians.
I’ll keep this answer to unsigned artists that I’ve played with. No particular order. Hopefully people will check them out. Unsigned and emerging artists need your support.
Dan Caleb – fierce and captivating live performances
Hayley Solas – she sounds like a mixture of Angel Olsen and Stevie Nicks. (it’s a win win)
Juliet & Nanette – original well crafted songs (but don’t go see them if you’re depressed )
The Life & Death – well crafted, beautifully recorded. Great songs.
I can’t think of a 5th one. I’m sure I have one but I’m watching Schitt’s Creek on Netflix while I’m trying to do this and I can’t concentrate because Catherine O’Hara is so brilliant.
1. For people who’ve not heard you play live before, what can we expect from you at the LOUD WOMEN gig?
Dry & witty self penned acoustic new wave played on a parlour guitar and maybe with some random harmonica blasts!
2. Which is your favourite song to play and why? Tell us about it …
I have two : Elephant (which is on Spotify etc. via my band Sulk93). It’s a bit of a crowd pleasure and gets lots a great feedback whether played solo or with the band ! It’s cynical swipe at a horrible boss from my past!
Pants on Fire – it’s the most immature song I’ve written! So it makes me feel young again. I’ll be topping and tailing my set with these two songs.
3. Do some super-lazy journalism on our behalf please, and fill in the blanks:
“My sound is like the lovechild of Patti Smith and Siouxsie with a bit on the side from Lou Read!”
4. What’s your proudest musical moment to date?
Launching She17music over six years ago and in doing so gaining the confidence to start writing some good songs for my group Sulk93 and getting them distributed!
5. Recommend a record and a book.
Record: Sistahs by Big Joanie – it’s my heaviest rotation!
Book: To Throw Away Unopened – Viv Albertine. The best I’ve read in the last year.
6. One for the guitarists … bore us with the details of your set-up please.
You asked, so here goes:
My acoustic set-up is a Guild M-120E with Electro Harmonix Polara pedal (sometimes) and Lee Oskar harmonicas, usually through a Fishman Loudbox mini! Amp or the PA desk!
My eclectric set-up is a Fender Mustang or Gibson SG Special via a Marshall DFX amp with Fat Sandwich, Big Muff Nano, Vibra-trem and Polara pedals!
Still awake? …I also use a Fender Jazz or Mustang bass with the Big Muff + a Boss Bass Flanger & Fender Rumble 40 amp. when playing gigs with the band Ich Bin Finn!
7. Who inspires you?
All the women, girls and non-binary folk out there making music and those who support them with events like Loud Women! We’re a mass movement making a big difference!
8. What are your musical goals?
I’m 55 now so it’s all about having fun, exploring new music, enjoying what I do and inspiring the next generation to go for it!
9. What’s the most important thing we need to know about your music right now?
It’s out there! Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple etc. It’s an acquired taste! Im hoping to record an album in 2020!
10. Pass the mic – who are your top 5 contemporary bands/musicians.
Talking Heads – Tina Weymouth was why I took up bass! David Byrne is why I write and record songs and why I’m ok singing with a Marmite voice!
Courtney Barnett – A very honest, charismatic songwriter and a fearless guitarist!
The Slits – Because they were also fearless and did not give a fuck!
Big Joanie – so refreshing – just wow!
PattiSmith – For the best albumversary gig ever! (Horses at The Roundhouse)
