Interview: PINS

Manchester five-piece PINS have been on my radar since 2015 when I caught them at Brighton’s Great Escape Festival. I remember being dazzled by their devious basslines, cool lyrics, and the way they easily commanded the attention of the crowd. Two years later, they’re still pros at all three; and their headline show at The Garage looked and sounded every inch as good as I remembered them to be.

I had a quick chat with Faith, Lois, Kyoko, Sophie & Anna backstage before their show, where we discussed touring with The Breeders, the anti-austerity march they recently participated in, and whether or not it’s acceptable to interrupt Queens of the Stone Ages’s Josh Homme when he’s backstage at a buffet…

 

Hello PINS! You’ve gone straight in to a UK headline tour off the back of supporting The Breeders on their European tour. That must’ve been something special? Was it as cool as it sounds?

Lois: It was as cool as it sounds. They’re a band I’ve listened to for years and years, so I feel like I’m still processing it. We played a few dates in Europe and the UK, so it’s like we’ve been on a holiday with The Breeders.

Sophie: It’s one of the nicest tours we’ve ever been on. Everything was really easy and the band and the crew were really nice.

Before that, you spent the summer touring and you also played the main stage at Reading on the Sunday. What was that like?

Anna: We played Reading & Leeds and it was really sunny and it was so much fun.

Kyoko: We made sure we stayed for the whole festival too, mainly because we really wanted to see Liam Gallagher…

Who else did you manage to catch?

Sophie: Giggs. He had a massive rottweiller back stage and a massive entourage too. I was expecting loads of people to be on stage with him, but it was just him and a DJ (laughs)

Lois: I saw a really good Australian band…

Tired Lion?

Lois: Yes!

I caught them too. They were great.

Faith: We missed Queens of the Stone Age because they performed a secret set. Our husbands and boyfriends went to see them, and missed some of our set because they were on.

Lois: We did see them backstage though.

Kyoko: Only from a distance. Josh Homme was at the buffet, so we just saw his back, and his general size. He is enormous.

Lois: We were like, “can we interrupt him? No, he’s getting his food…”

Another time maybe?

Last time we spoke you were headlining London’s Moth Club. During the show, you called the girls in the crowd to the front for ‘Girls Like Us’ for a stage invasion. Have you been to gigs as fans and taken part in something similar?

Lois: I have done at some point. Actually, I did about a thousand stage dives when I went to see The Oh Sees at SXSW.

Faith: I haven’t done it since I was a teenager. When I was about 17 I went to see The Melvins and everyone got on stage then.

Kyoko: I’ve crowd-surfed with the attempt to get on stages, but never actually got on them. I always get dragged away.

Sounds like you have good intentions, but security always thwarts them. It is hard to get on stage nowadays actually.

Other bands like Dream Wife and Dream Nails tend to call female fans to the front as a show of solidarity in the face of sexual assault at gigs. I was wondering if this was one of the reasons why you also encourage girls to come forward?

Kyoko: Although sexual assault at gigs is a really important issue, I don’t think that was our main reason. It’s kind of just to highlight the fact that as a fan “you’re here, make yourself known and enjoy yourself!”

Lois: Kind of a safe space.

Kyoko: Exactly.

Faith: For me, I find that there’s always a line of photographers at the front and behind them are a line of men who really stand their ground and prevent other people from coming to the front. Not just girls, everyone who wants to dance and have a good time. I don’t know why they put up such a weird barrier, but it seems to happen at every show I go to and at every show I play. So it’s just a way of breaking that down and asking them to make room for other people to come to the front and have a good time.

Sophie: It does affect the room too. Those two lines of people are standing and watching, and they might be having a great time, but you can’t tell. The minute that it breaks up the whole atmosphere changes.

Faith: Do you know what, sometimes it doesn’t actually create a safe space because when it kicks off and people start pushing each other, you feel responsible for people who fall down.

Sophie: We played a show in Brighton that was really rammed and some people were getting crushed against the barrier, and Faith was like “are you alright? Do you need to come over the barrier?” and they were like “no, we’re good!”

Your fans are such troopers. You’ve had some great female talent supporting you on previous tours and on this tour, including Sink Ya Teeth, Yassassin & Madonnatron. What is it that you like about these bands? 

Lois: The music… (laughs)

I guess that was an obvious answer to an obvious question.

Faith: With Madonnatron I literally just heard their song on the radio on 6 Music. I wasn’t sure what stage they were at as a band or where they were playing, so I thought what’s the harm in asking them to play with us?  Kyoko and I met Maria from Sink Ya Teeth last time we played in Norwich, and I think they put themselves forward to play with us on this tour, because we didn’t know they were playing. There have been a few bands who have opened for us who we didn’t know were on the line up, otherwise we would’ve put them on our posters! I take no responsibility for that though…

You’re in the clear.

Your video for latest single ‘Serve The Rich’ was filmed at the anti-conservative March in Manchester at the beginning of October. What kind of reaction did you receive from fellow activists as you were shooting the footage? 

Kyoko: It wasn’t like other people on the march were like “Oh Hey! You’re PINS!”, but we had painted signs with lyrics on – “save the kids” and “I’m only here to serve the rich” – and some photographers took a real interest in that.

Faith: They put us in the news…

Lois: It was the quality of the sign that got us the attention (laughs)

Sophie: Our housemate, who’s a graphic designer, painted the signs for us, so they were honestly exceptionally well made.

Lois: The whole march was really positive. Everybody was doing their own thing and they were there for their own reasons, which was really nice. It was good to see that other people share the same frustrations as you, and then to feel supported by them too. Half way along the march there was a band on the street playing to keep the people going as well.

Faith: It was really fun actually. Everyone was really happy and positive.

Sophie: Yeah, nothing felt shady or like anything was going to kick off. There were two marches going on at the same time that day, the anti-austerity march and the anti-brexit march, and despite the two marches not meeting there were so many people walking in both of them.

Faith: The police were on our side too.

It sounds like it was a great thing to be a part of.

So, Christmas is fast approaching… any plans for another festive single?

Sophie: We’re playing some shows in December with The Cribs, so that’s how we’re going to celebrate Christmas.

Faith: We probably won’t play our Christmas songs though. We’ve got two now, we can’t do another…

Lois: I suppose we could do one a year until we’ve got about 25 of them?

Then you could release a compilation album: PINS Best of Christmas…

Finally, what does 2018 hold for PINS?

Lois: (whispers) Everything…

Sophie: A new album hopefully.

Faith: And new outfits.

Anna: So many possibilities…

 

Huge thanks to Anna, Faith, Lois, Sophie & Kyoko for answering my questions. Follow PINS on Facebook for more updates.

Photo Credit: Kelly Chard

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Interview: Pale Honey

Gothenburg alternative duo Pale Honey returned to London on Tuesday night to play a free gig at Old Blue Last in celebration of the release of their second album, Devotion, and they disarmed the crowd with their modest, melodic sounds.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tuva (vocals/guitar) and Nelly (drums) backstage before the show, where we sat down to talk about devoted fans, their favourite tracks from their new record, and highlights from their current European tour…

How are you feeling about tonight’s gig?

Nelly: I think there’s going to be lots of people.

Tuva: Me too, I hope so.

Nelly: We have some friends coming and some people we’ve emailed with for a very long time who we’ll meet for the very first time – so that’s exciting!

Tuva: And a guy who came to see us in Malmo in Sweden last Friday, who actually lives here in London, but he didn’t know we were playing this gig so he flew all the way out to see us!

That’s true dedication. You’ve just played shows in Iceland & Sweden. What were the highlights from these gigs?

N: I liked all the drinks that we got – well – that I took…

‘Got’, ‘took’, ‘stole’ – I mean, what’s the difference?

N: Yeah, it doesn’t matter. ‘Tomato – Tomahto’ (laughs). I’m surprised that so many people came to the shows actually.

T: I think the highlights have been that people are singing along to the songs when we’re playing and some people even play air drums!

N: Yeah! here was one lady standing in the front row playing air drums and I was like “you go girl! I see you!”

That’s a genuine level of fandom! You recently released your second album Devotion. Can you tell us how it differs from your 2015 self-titled debut record?

N: Our debut album had songs on that we wrote when we’d just met, so there’s some really old songs and lyrics on them. We didn’t really have the courage back then to change anything. We didn’t want to change or touch anything.

T: We got signed on that album based on those songs, so we thought we couldn’t change them because this is what fans and our label like, you know?

N: So second time around, we just tried and re-tried things and we had a lot more courage, and we were a bit more spontaneous. I’d be like “Okay, I have an idea, it might be good, it might be bad – but lets try it anyway.”

Do you have a favourite track on the record? If so, why?

T: The fourth song ‘The Heaviest Of Storms’. It was very easy to write the song, it just came out…

N: Because you’re a genius…

T: It just felt so natural, and it’s also very fun to play live.

N: It’s not so good for my right arm when we play live though. I’m so small and fragile, I get tired easily. Mine is ‘Why Do I Always Feel This Way’. It’s quite an old release, but I remember listening to the demo and I could barely hear what Tuva was singing. I wasn’t sure if it was in Swedish or English, but I remember hearing it and thinking (sighs). My boyfriend was like “What song is that? Is it a famous song?” and I was like “Shut up! This is work!”

I also remember when we were recording it we tried to sing it in a different key and it changed the whole song. I was like “this is wrong, it sounds like a Disney song!” So we changed it back and I was happy again.

Great choices, my favourite is ‘Get These Things Out Of My Head’ by the way…

I’ve noticed there’s quite a lot of electronic/indie music coming out of Gothenburg and Sweden in general – including ShitKid. Would you say Gothenburg in particular is a hub for new music and musicians?

N: I think people are very welcome to play new music live there. Even as kids growing up, they were always like “If you want to play here when you turn 18, you can play at our place”. It’s always been a music city, lots of indie and metal kids.

It’s such a cool name for a city too, it sounds like it’s something out of a comic book. As a female-focused new music blog, we’re always keen to know what new music our favourite artists have been listening to. Any bands/artists you can recommend?

N: We always recommend Shitkid, so it’s good that you’ve already mentioned her. She’s very eccentric. She spilled blood on my drums, destroyed some things, but she was great to see live! Pink Milk are another Swedish band we like. They opened a couple of shows for us. They actually live near me, but I’ve never seen them out. I was like “What do you guys do?” and they were like “We just sit at home”…

Hibernating between shows?

T: Kind of like us really…

N: True. I just watch Netflix all day and pretend to be a musician sometimes.

If you had to describe your music in three words, what would they be?

N: Fun?

T: Minimalistic?

N: “Minimalistic”, really?

T: Yes…

N: There you go: Fun, Minimalistic, Yes! – actually, I would say we are more dynamic than minimalistic… so “Fun, Dynamic, Yes!”

Perfect choices. Finally, what does 2018 hold for Pale Honey?

T: Everything. We really hope for more recording and definitely some more shows here in the UK.

N: We’ve played here too many times to not have a full tour in the UK now!

Huge thanks to Tuva & Nelly for answering my questions. Follow Pale Honey on Facebook for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Introducing Interview: Slothrust

Having met at music college in New York, L.A based Slothrust released their third album earlier this year, and have just supported Manchester Orchestra on a number of UK dates.

With their unique brand of energy-fuelled scuzz rock, the band are now back with a mega exciting new release – a covers EP featuring the band’s take on tracks by Al Green, Black Sabbath and none other than Britney Spears.

We caught up with Leah from the band to find out more…

Hi Slothrust, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about the band?
We like to have a good time, and we leave it all on the stage.

How did you initially all get together and start creating music?
We met in college and played together in a bunch of blues and jazz bands. We vibed well creatively, and so we started playing original music as well.

Your new EP Show Me How You Want It To Be is out very soon – can you tell us what it’s all about? Are there any themes running throughout the EP?
The EP consists of songs of different genres that we thought would be fun to do interpretations of. More or less the only theme is that we dig all the songs and have fun playing them and putting our own spin on it.

And you’ve recently shared an awesome cover of Britney Spears’ ‘Baby One More Time’ – what inspired you to do this? 
Well, we love Britney Spears and ’90s pop and RnB. Kyle learned the bass line perfectly on his own, so we figured we might as well fill it out. It’s a favourite to play live.


You’ve been compared to the likes of Deerhunter, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
We all like lots of different types of music, but some artists I enjoy are Fiona Apple, John Fahey, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Fats Waller and Erykah Badu.

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
We used to live in New York, where there are tons of shows every night. We played out a lot and I went to plenty of shows. Many of my friends there are in a band. Now we live in LA, and are on the road a lot, so I like to favor quiet time these days unless there is a really special musician coming to town. Which there often are, so, I suppose yes – I still go to a decent amount of live shows.

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
An honest performance.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
I really like the new Big Thief record. I also dig Noname – she played at Lollapalooza with us this year and she is an amazing rapper.

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
Yes, it’s a really difficult industry to make a living in as an artist. It is very competitive and artists are overworked and underpaid. There isn’t any government funding in the United States for it, and I think that leads to a lot of struggle for musicians that manifests in a bunch of different ways. That being said, if you love something enough, you keep doing it. And we all truly love to play music.

Finally, what does the rest of 2017 have in store for Slothrust?
We are finishing up the music for our next record, which we will start recording next year. We are very excited to put some new material out into the world!

Huge thanks to Slothrust for answering our questions! Show Me How You Want It To Be is out 10th November, pre-order it here. 

Photo Credit:  Shervin Lainez

 

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Guest Blog: Dream Nails’ Janey – “What It Means To Be A Punk Witch”

From the very beginnings of Dream Nails in the summer of 2015, we identified as witches more than musicians. It was a special summer of sisterhood, feminism and direct action where the power of women and non-binary people coming together in spaces without men felt radical and insurmountable. 

Throughout history, the label “witch” was branded on a person (usually women) who transgressed gender or sexual norms, or who challenged traditional power and knowledge structures. But it’s not necessarily our queerness or curiosity in herbalism and natural healing that makes us embrace the identity of “witch” – it’s our ability to channel the instinctive, magic energy of womanhood together. 

To say that Dream Nails is more than the sum of its parts is an understatement. We are four women with instruments, but there’s something else: the magical, invisible power of combining four women’s anger, joy, trauma and love through the medium of music. Not only that, but using that music to build and hold spaces that welcome all the women in our audiences to bring their rage, joy, pain and emotion, and collectively pool it into a dancing, sweating tidal wave of release. The amount of women who come up to us after shows and thank us is testament to this. 

Our rehearsal room is a sacred space. When women come together in spaces to be vulnerable and to make something together, there’s a collective energy that you can almost taste. And we drink it with an unquenchable thirst. It’s thrilling. It bristles with potential and it’s addictive. It’s the liberating rush of knowing you are safe to be yourself, make mistakes, explore and be free from shame, competition and judgment. Maybe that’s the true definition of confidence? What’s more, it gives you a space to produce and create something honest and whole together that you’re proud of; to access this place as a woman is to be reborn. 

To scream about rape, the crushing weight of navigating violence and the confusion around coming out is only something that we could do in a safe space. Forget the instruments, this is an act that can only collectively be done with the full spiritual participation and shared vulnerability of people who have lived on the vicious side of patriarchy. 

And this is why we term our music “witch punk”. We’re on the periphery of two genres, in our self-defined space: too femme to fit into punk, too raw to be indie pop. Witch punk is as much about the final product as it is the process of creation and the feeling of the live performance – it’s about the shared energy that’s created when we give voice to our collective fears and traumas in safe spaces. It’s also about redefining punk and resisting against the traditional toxic masculinity that is synonymous with the genre. It’s to subvert not only gender norms but genre norms. This is something our second EP, Dare to Care, celebrates.


Two years and two EPs later, we now identify primarily as musicians, but being witches is integral to how and what we create as a band. With every musical release, we create a zine together which involves careful curation, planning and sitting in circles cutting and sticking. We share our thoughts, our advice, our humanity. It’s a thoughtful and introspective process – the flipside to the intuitive and immediate rage that fuels our live shows. But just as essential to our identity. 

Our stories are important and our voices need to be heard. If you need release, come together with your sisters and channel the ancient power of witches – it will unravel something within you and bind you together with something that can only be described as supernatural.

Huge thanks to Janey from Dream Nails! You can buy the band’s new Dare To Care EP here. 

Get In Her Ears1 Comment