“Well we all love pop music, I think we’ve all grown up appreciating melodic music and it’s something we enjoy doing as a band. We all listen to a lot of different stuff but when we’re all together, like when we’re on tour we pretty much just listen to pop. It’s common ground”.
Golden Grrrls make pop songs which don’t sound like pop songs. Instead of the old verse-chorus-verse routine the band’s ‘songs’ – if you want to restrict their sound nuggets with a name – veer off in a dozen different directions. Like journal entries building up into some over-arching text, Golden Grrrls seem to be able to collate a thousand little ideas into one big formula.
Formed in Glasgow, the trio are named Ruari, Lorna and Eilidh. Ruari does the talking (which happens via email) but that isn’t to suggest that he’s the sole creative force. “Everyone contributes” he says. “Generally I’ll bring a finished idea, or one that’s almost finished to practice then we play around with it and Lorna and Eilidh add their parts, sometimes the finished song sounds the same as the original idea, sometimes it’s completely unrecognisable.”
LSSN005: Golden Grrrls “New Pops / Red Sea” by NightSchool
Tatty, fucked up missiles of noise and melody each Golden Grrls track remains rough around the edges. Starting with some home recording, the band allowed a naivety to linger in their music that would be extinguished in a professional set up. “The only plan was to write poppier stuff than I’d done in previous bands, I guess maybe with some classic American indie stuff in mind, and also a lot of Flying Nun/Kiwi pop stuff. There was obviously a lo-fi aspect to it but that was purely down to not having access to recording facilities and as a way of disguising a lack of technical competence.”
The band’s recording history is a classic tale of poverty fuelling some unexpected choices. “When Lorna had been playing in the band for a while and we’d written some songs we recorded in Eilidh’s flat with the really basic equipment we have. It really is basic, mics from the pound shop etc. But then we recorded with our friend Richie last year, although we didn’t go into a studio or anything but Richie really knows his stuff, that’s when we recorded our 7″ and some other songs. Then we did more recording on our own for the tape we put out recently but we borrowed some better equipment thankfully.”
Now with two singles and a cassette release under their belt, Golden Grrrls are fast developing a burgeoning reputation. Lumped in with the indie pop scene, the reality is that the band have no real scene to align themselves with. Keeping things DIY – “almost entirely circumstance, I mean no one else is going to do it” – the band seem to encapsulate some of the spirit running through elements of British guitar music right now. Shunted to the sidelines, a new vein of guitar music is emerging which has no place in the mainstream and no recognised underground to plug into. “I definitely think there’s a lot of good bands in the UK at the moment and some of them we definitely feel a connection with but I think that’s mainly down to getting on with people on a personal level rather than because we play the same sort of music, bands like Palms in Glasgow, Former Bullies, Waiters and Irma Vep in Manchester, and Veronica Falls, Please and Trash Kit in London. I don’t really think we sound like any of those guys but we like them and like playing with them.”
Golden Grrrls new single ‘New Pops’ / ‘The Red Sea’ is out now on Night School.
