WE ROCK LIKE GIRLS DON'T
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 9th April 2009.
We Rock Like Girls Don't are a duo, originally from London and Glasgow, who play a punk rock style music with more attitude than an elephant with a rhino stuck in its foot.
Guitarist/singer Ros answers questions...
How would you describe your musical style to the uninitiated?
Ros: Raw, cathartic, direct songs played with visceral ferocity by a drums and guitar duo.
Did you grow up in musical families?
Ros: I come from a musical family, always guitars, tin whistles, drums, piano at my gran's house when I was young. My dad loves to improvise jazz on the piano though he has no training, my mum learnt classical piano and can't improvise, my gran was a brilliant light opera singer, my aunts and uncle were in a folk group in the 60's in Glasgow and played at Murrayfield for the pope when he visited Scotland in the 80's. I learnt piano and violin before saving up my school dinner money to buy myself an electric guitar.
Vas's family enjoyed music, Greek music always playing an important part of social occasions but she was not encouraged to take up an instrument, taking up drums only when she went to uni.
You come from opposite ends of the UK. Have you based yourself somewhere in the middle or... well, how does it work?
Ros: I moved to London 5 years ago, although we did our first gig in Glasgow at Nice'N'Sleazy's and recorded most of the album in Glasgow. We love going to stay at my parents, who spoil us because they hate the fact that we do absolutely everything ourselves and are usually completely broke and exhausted.
How quickly did the album come together?
Ros: It was an almighty elemental struggle against the forces of evil. Our bassist left and we had no record label and no budget so we could only record as we found money. Our first attempt was accidentally deleted by a studio in London. Then my beloved JCM 800 Marshal head was stolen from my flat. We did it all again in Mark Freegard's (Breeders) studio in Glasgow and worked very quickly in order to complete it in the time we could afford. We had strong songs and ideas which we recorded live as a duo on guitar and drums. Many of the tracks have no guitar overdubs at all eg Violence, Don't Know What Love Is, and Queen Of Heavy Metal were recorded using my pedals as I play them live... which is not how engineers usually like to work but Mark is a mixing genius.
Which songs are you most proud of, or are they all the work of genius? :)
Ros: Violence, Don't Know What Love Is are really inventive and pared down sounding, we knew it was going to work as a duo when we arranged these songs. I'll Take What Comes is very optimistic despite everything that has happened to us and comes to a great manic end with layers of echoing vocals ringing into the unknown. Violence Is In The Air was the last song I wrote for the album and is about a physical fight we had in our rehearsal room at the point when things seemed impossible and we were blaming each other. That was our lowest point. You don't want to get in a fight with Vas, although she says it was her that ended up with the scar on her lip..! The opener Violence is about the failure of communication leading to violence, the song is not recommending violence as an option or suggesting we are coming to beat you up! The photo on the cover of the album is our smashed up equipment in our rehearsal room which we thought was apt.
Have you been surprised at the level of positive responses to the new album, or did you always know it was going to be awesome...?
Ros: We loved what we were doing and thought a few people might get it. I think the raw sound of it is refreshing to people and we didn't anticipate that. It's surprising to get great reviews and very gratifying but there are usually a few really nasty ones to bring you down. People sometimes misconstrue what we are saying and take issue with our name and lay in to us because they think we are asking for it and need to be taught a lesson, these are usually quite sexist and patronising and just fire us on.
Is there anyone out there you particularly fancy working with?
Ros: It was brilliant working with Head (PJ Harvey producer) on The Power Of Three, the last song we recorded with our bassist Jen and a desperate anthem to our band before we split up as a trio. We want to work with Mark Freegard more as he gets great raw sounds and is a superb mixer. He says we can push the sound further on the next album and cause more journalists to threaten more extreme forms of self mutilation!
Do you get p*ssed off that people focus on the fact WRLGD is an all female group, rather than just focusing on the music?
Ros: Yeah, but its getting better with the album, the focus is more on the music now. We're not about the clothes and haircuts. But we are proud of the fact that our album is entirely female musicians playing. Usually there is a female front woman and guys doing the clever stuff on guitar and drums. The writing, arranging, recording and artwork is by us and we have released the album on our own label Distort with a distribution deal.
What was your favourite live gig – both from the stage, and from the audience?
Ros: My favourite gig to play was White Trash in Berlin in 2007, packed gig, the band sounded fantastic and I loved singing, we had mohito cocktails before and the best steak ever. Favourite gig from the audience - King Tuts in Glasgow watching PJ Harvey play her guitar and sing the songs from Dry with a shit hot rhythm section. With The White Stripes at King Tuts a close second, loudest guitar sound I've ever heard in such a small venue.
If you were stuck on a remote Pacific atoll with a solar powered CD player, what 5 albums would you like there with you?
Ros:
John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band
PJ Harvey - Dry
Elastica - Elastica
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Psychocandy
If you were stranded with one other person, who would it be?
Ros: Vas
What’s the best/worst thing you’ve ever done when drunk?
Ros: Kissed a girl on the middle of a roundabout at 2am as we drank a bottle of cider / Throwing my guitar through the window of my flat then smashing it repeatedly against the stone pillar next to the steps. It was fine but I was cold for weeks in my room!
What are your opinions on the X-Factor/Pop Idol programmes? Were you even vaguely tempted to enter one yourself...?
Ros: Never been remotely tempted! Watch them with fascination but it's got little to do with being a musician.
Does the music industry reinforce or destroy your faith in humanity?
Ros: It destroys it, but we refuse to go away because some jumped up twat at a record company thinks we are not worth investment or don't fit easily into any of the available boxes. We're happy to confound stereotypes and give it one on the eye for the girls. We play music because we love to create something of our own and share it with people and we're very lucky to be still doing that. I think this album has surprised a few people in the music industry. They presumed that we had split up when we got no financial investment whatsoever after our first two self released singles despite great reviews at the time.
What are your plans for the future, or do you take each day as it comes...?
Ros: We wanna survive as a band..we need to turn this current attention into something sustainable. We have sold out our merchandise with no means of buying more stock, we have new songs to demo, we need an agent - we can't get on any festivals, we are still doing part time work..
And, finally, what are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
Ros: Going out into the sun and away from this computer! Thanks for the opportunity to explain more about who we are and what we're trying to do.
The debut album of We Rock Like Girls Don't, 'How Did It Get To This' is out now. Check out the Rock Realms review of the album here, and keep an eye on the WRLGD MySpace page for tour details and other news.
