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WE ROCK LIKE GIRLS DON'T INTERVIEW - MAKING MUSIC
ALBUM INTERVIEW in CMU DAILY- on the inside
WE ROCK LIKE GIRLS DON`T
Female duo We Rock Like Girls Don`t have quite a self explanatory name, which is handy. Glaswegian guitarist/vocalist Ros Cairney recruited Greek drummer Vas Antoniadou through Loot, and after a period of what one might call `musical differences`, the pair are firmly together in their current incarnation, wowing all the right people.
The girls are now ready to unleash their debut album `How Did It Get To This` - available to download right now, and physically released on 6 Apr - on their own label, Distort. Here are Ros Cairney`s answers to our Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I started piano lessons at six years old and violin lessons at school when I was seven years old. Unfortunately, the violin teacher seemed very old with a red face, and he had hair coming out his nostrils and told me I had lovely eyelashes. I first played live in the school orchestra and remember turning the violin on its side like a guitar and playing riffs. After I heard The Beatles I knew I had to have a guitar. My parents bought a Spanish guitar to share with my brother who was having guitar lessons (to my great annoyance) and we both immediately started writing songs and playing them to each other. I saved up my school dinner money and bought a white Les Paul copy for 75. We discovered Boss Metalizer pedals, The Pixies and a love affair with distortion began. I formed a band with my brother and his school friends. Vas wasn`t allowed to play guitar by her Greek dad but rebelled and bought a drum kit with her grant money when she went to Uni and promptly joined about five bands to make up for lost time.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Our debut album is inspired by each other and our desire to leave a record of our songs and the great energy we always generate when we play music. It says "We Was Here!" It is also very much a reflection of our frustration, our fights as we turned on each other and our determination not to be defeated by circumstances. Our bassist left to reform a band with her brother, our original sessions were deleted by the first studio we recorded in, my JCM 800 Marshall Head amp was stolen from my flat. We traced it through eBay to a music shop in Islington, staked out the shop then grabbed it as the owner screamed he was getting the police and we screamed that we needed it to finish the album! Some bastard had nicked it and sold it cheap to get money for drugs. We have financed everything by credit cards, jobseekers allowance, private guitar tuition, and family donations. The album will be released on our own label. This is our resistance, our "little bit of creation" to quote the last song `Violence Is In The Air`. In a wider context it is how it felt to be living in London in 2007.
Q3 How do you go about creating a track?
I write songs at home on guitar and work on them further with Vas, we gig them and then four track our ideas in her attic. This album was recorded over the last two years as money allowed in Glasgow, London and Devon. We were keen to get live, raw recordings and the last sessions we did at the end of 2007 with Mark Freegard in his Glasgow studio were very organic. He is very quick to capture our drum, guitar and vocal sounds and that meant we didn`t overwork anything in the studio. Vas and I recorded the bass on much of the album ourselves after we had played live guitar and drum takes. We have half of our second album written and hope someone will give us a publishing deal to help us.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
PJ Harvey`s early albums, The Breeders` `Pod` album, The Pixies` `Surfer Rosa` album, Elastica live when they were a sleazy rock n roll band, John Lennon Plastic Ono Band. John Lennon`s direct words, grinding rhythm guitar playing and minimal melody with riff type songs (eg `Cold Turkey`, `I Found Out`) are a big influence.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Thanks for listening to us, hope the music makes you feel alive and powerful. That`s how it makes us feel.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Our ambition, now that we are finally releasing our debut album, is to play live every night for weeks like a mean rock n roll machine, to give up jobs which waste our time and to improve with the next album!
WE ROCK LIKE GIRLS DON`T
Female duo We Rock Like Girls Don`t have quite a self explanatory name, which is handy. Glaswegian guitarist/vocalist Ros Cairney recruited Greek drummer Vas Antoniadou through Loot, and after a period of what one might call `musical differences`, the pair are firmly together in their current incarnation, wowing all the right people.
The girls are now ready to unleash their debut album `How Did It Get To This` - available to download right now, and physically released on 6 Apr - on their own label, Distort. Here are Ros Cairney`s answers to our Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I started piano lessons at six years old and violin lessons at school when I was seven years old. Unfortunately, the violin teacher seemed very old with a red face, and he had hair coming out his nostrils and told me I had lovely eyelashes. I first played live in the school orchestra and remember turning the violin on its side like a guitar and playing riffs. After I heard The Beatles I knew I had to have a guitar. My parents bought a Spanish guitar to share with my brother who was having guitar lessons (to my great annoyance) and we both immediately started writing songs and playing them to each other. I saved up my school dinner money and bought a white Les Paul copy for 75. We discovered Boss Metalizer pedals, The Pixies and a love affair with distortion began. I formed a band with my brother and his school friends. Vas wasn`t allowed to play guitar by her Greek dad but rebelled and bought a drum kit with her grant money when she went to Uni and promptly joined about five bands to make up for lost time.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Our debut album is inspired by each other and our desire to leave a record of our songs and the great energy we always generate when we play music. It says "We Was Here!" It is also very much a reflection of our frustration, our fights as we turned on each other and our determination not to be defeated by circumstances. Our bassist left to reform a band with her brother, our original sessions were deleted by the first studio we recorded in, my JCM 800 Marshall Head amp was stolen from my flat. We traced it through eBay to a music shop in Islington, staked out the shop then grabbed it as the owner screamed he was getting the police and we screamed that we needed it to finish the album! Some bastard had nicked it and sold it cheap to get money for drugs. We have financed everything by credit cards, jobseekers allowance, private guitar tuition, and family donations. The album will be released on our own label. This is our resistance, our "little bit of creation" to quote the last song `Violence Is In The Air`. In a wider context it is how it felt to be living in London in 2007.
Q3 How do you go about creating a track?
I write songs at home on guitar and work on them further with Vas, we gig them and then four track our ideas in her attic. This album was recorded over the last two years as money allowed in Glasgow, London and Devon. We were keen to get live, raw recordings and the last sessions we did at the end of 2007 with Mark Freegard in his Glasgow studio were very organic. He is very quick to capture our drum, guitar and vocal sounds and that meant we didn`t overwork anything in the studio. Vas and I recorded the bass on much of the album ourselves after we had played live guitar and drum takes. We have half of our second album written and hope someone will give us a publishing deal to help us.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
PJ Harvey`s early albums, The Breeders` `Pod` album, The Pixies` `Surfer Rosa` album, Elastica live when they were a sleazy rock n roll band, John Lennon Plastic Ono Band. John Lennon`s direct words, grinding rhythm guitar playing and minimal melody with riff type songs (eg `Cold Turkey`, `I Found Out`) are a big influence.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Thanks for listening to us, hope the music makes you feel alive and powerful. That`s how it makes us feel.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Our ambition, now that we are finally releasing our debut album, is to play live every night for weeks like a mean rock n roll machine, to give up jobs which waste our time and to improve with the next album!
Tags: cmu, daily, did, don't, get, girls, how, interview, it, like
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