Five Favourites: Fightmilk


We make no secret of our super fandom of Fightmilk here at Get In Her Ears. We’ve been following them since they first played live for us back in 2018, and now – after having had the honour of them headlining many more of our gigs, and being obsessed with their albums Not With That Attitude and Contender, our fandom has only continued to grow with the recent release of their new album No Souvenirs. Reflecting on themes of getting older, particularly as a woman in music, the album exquisitely showcases Fightmilk’s ability to hone their sound, creating perfect punk-pop; angsty and uplifting in equal measure. Instantly catchy singalong anthems, combining the band’s trademark tongue-in-cheek wit with a swirling energy and gritty raw emotion. From fuzzy sentimentality to fierce tirades against patriarchal society, No Souvenirs is a perfect culmination of how Fightmilk have continued to refine their sound. With shades of noughties punk-pop, combined with an injection of fresh queer joy and raging emotion, it’s at once cathartic, validating and empowering. But, most importantly, fun. A sound that’s uniquely Fightmilk; truly distinctive in its colourful charisma, but consistently evolving into something more. 

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the release of No Souvenirs, we caught up with Lily, Nick, Alex and Healey to find out about the five albums that inspired the writing of the new album the most. Read about their five favourites, listen to the No Souvenirs on repeat, get tickets to see them live and watch the wonderfully DIY new video for latest single ‘Yearning and Pining‘ below:

Band pick:

Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American
We all collectively, coincidentally, fell back in love with this album HARD at around the same time. It’s such a perfect cocktail of anger, positivity, self-reflection and FUN. It’s obviously also catchy as hell. The timing of our obsession coincided with Lily sending us a demo of the song ‘No Souvenirs’, which we definitely made a conscious effort of melding into something that could sit alongside those J.E.W songs. By the time we’d recorded the title track, we even learned ‘A Praise Chorus’ for a couple of shows in 2023, though damned if we can remember how to play it now.

Lily:

Olivia Rodrigo – Sour / GUTS
My name is Lily and I’m a sucker for a Gen-Z Disney star. Olivia Rodrigo’s songwriting is phenomenal. She is so self-aware, so funny, and so brutally (ha) honest – a lot of comparable artists who write music on themes of anxiety and awkwardness feel focus-grouped to death by people who haven’t been teenagers for a long time, or they bottle a feeling at the last minute and turn it into self-deprecation, but her songs feel like they’ve come straight from her diary. Lines like “I hope you’re happy, but don’t be happier” are such an economical, Ronseal way of articulating such a big, messy feeling – it’s such a skill to reduce all those complex emotions into one line. It’s very much the Kirsty MacColl/Alanis Morrissette school of ‘stuff I wish I’d said’. Sour was my big album for No Souvenirs, but I’m so glad we got GUTS halfway through recording too. I wrote ‘Summer Bodies’ before I’d heard ‘Pretty Isn’t Pretty’, which is one of my favourite songs on GUTS, and felt so much that it was written with the same exhaustion. I felt very seen: “I could change up my body and change up my face/I could try every lipstick in every shade”. I also love that during a time where guitar music is incredibly uncool, Olivia Rodrigo has released two big grungy rock albums. We have so much in common…


Nick:

Press Club – Late Teens
I absolutely love everything about this album. The aggression, speed & ferocity of it; the blown out vocals and the sparing way it was recorded, which is really no frills and designed to capture the rawness of a live show (I read somewhere that Nat does her vocals in the booth DURING the instrument takes, which is insane to me), and of course Frank’s drumming, which is fast and nuanced without being overtly flashy. There’s always a danger in this genre that you’re going to over-complicate stuff and have one instrument’s role overshadow the others, but the balance is right on this, and it was a wake up call to keep things simple – both in terms of our individual roles, and production, with No Souvenirs.


Alex:

Eiko Ishibashi – Drive My Car (Original Soundtrack)
The words and music on No Souvenirs are as accurate as you can get to the constant screaming static in our heads, as the four of us left the lockdown era, and tried to remember how to exist in the world, let alone be a band again. In the face of that chaos, the delicate arrangements and kinetic calm of Eiko Ishibashi’s Drive My Car score were my actual soundtrack to the period – a 45 minute gap in time where I could shut out the outside world and pretend it wasn’t going to come roaring back at me once the album finished. If you can’t hear that influence on our record, fair enough! But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t find a way in there somewhere.


Healey:

Lucy Dacus – Home Video
The early summer of 2021 was a super strange time, we were coming out of lockdown and all COVID restrictions were being removed but everything still felt scary and weird. Like Lucy Dacus we’d just put out an album, but we had no way of touring it yet and had sat on the songs for longer than expected. I went for lots of contemplative walks by myself round Peckham and I’d mainly just listen to Home Video and voice note demos Lily had sent to the band group chat. I got obsessed with this one early demo called ‘Swimming Pool’ – it’s a quiet song with just an acoustic guitar and double tracked vocals. It’s sparse, vulnerable and reflective. It caused the same gut reaction I get when I listen to Dacus’ music, a homesick nostalgic pang mixed with a dose of teenage embarrassment. While the title and some of its lyrics have changed, the core emotion is still there and I think Home Video was a huge influence on letting that track gently build to an eruption of fireworks at the end.


Massive thanks to Lily, Nick, Alex and Healey for sharing their favourite album choices with us! Watch the gloriously DIY video for ‘Yearning and Pining’ here:


No Souvenirs, the new album from Fightmilk, is out now via Fika Recordings and INH Records. They’re currently out on tour – very limited tickets left, but you may be able to find some here.

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LIVE: Kae Tempest – Pitchfork Festival, KOKO Camden (05.11.2024)

Whilst other people were out in the cold watching explosions in the sky, on the evening of Tuesday 5th November I was lucky enough to be inside the warmth of legendary Camden venue KOKO having my mind blown and my heart set alight by the incredible Kae Tempest, who delivered a performance that was brighter and more powerful than any firework. 

A night of live music forming part of London’s Pitchfork Music Festival, I arrive in time to catch an uplifting set from Sam Morton. Oozing a soulful ethereal splendour, the actress-turned-musician delivers stirring genre-defying soundscapes, fusing together elements of jazz, reggae and electro, each rippling with a glitchy immersive allure.

Sharing that the last time they were here was fifteen years ago on their dad’s 60th birthday, Kae Tempest takes to the stage and instantly I sense a shift in their presence, a change from the other times I’ve seen them live over the years; a subtle, genuine joy and sense of ease emanates. And, before they have even said any more, it’s clear how much it means to them to be able to be here, to be able to be truly themselves, and share that with us. “This feels really special”, they say before they give a short introduction to the set, explaining that they’re going to be performing songs from the last ten years, and not be talking between songs “because that cringes me out.” Beaming as the crowd laughs and cheers, Tempest seems to be soaking up every moment: “Nothing stays still, it’s always in transition. But I still have the same feeling in my heart to connect.” And so begins 75 of the most fiercely moving, cathartic and joyous minutes; every single second pulsating with resonance and pride.  

Kicking off with ‘Tunnel Vision’, the closing track from 2016’s Let Them Eat Chaos, Tempest immediately casts their immersive spell over a completely captivated audience; the poignant and stirring social commentary of their poetic lyricism hitting more profoundly than ever before. As the glitchy energy of The Line Is A Curve’s ‘Salt Coast’ is accompanied by glistening visuals, it’s hard not to fall into a strangely comforting hypnotic state, transfixed by the sparkling resonance of the subtle emotive power rippling from the stage, which is only further amplified by the fierce joy that radiates throughout 2023’s ‘Love Harder’ – “… Correcting my pronouns to they/them, but he/him is also pretty fucking cool!” 

This powerful euphoria fizzes throughout the whole performance; the immense cathartic sense of relief Tempest feels at being able to be themselves and the resulting heightened confidence is so wonderfully evident, and the happiness they feel resonates into the crowd, creating a unified queer joy and empowering sense of hope. 

Flowing through a couple more tracks from their 2022 album, Kae Tempest’s glaringly honest and completely relevant social commentary is showcased with heartwarming clarity as the prowess of their band provides a beautifully enchanting musical backdrop for their stirring narratives. Then, following the sparkling romanticism and raw emotion of 2019’s ‘Firesmoke’, we’re lucky enough to be treated to two brand new songs. With one song featuring a recording of Tempest at 17, and another with an all-too poignant refrain – “… They used to tell their children not to stare, but when I’m dead they’ll put my statue in the square…”  – a stark awareness of the injustices of society and the struggles that they have dealt with throughout their life simmers under the surface of their fierce empowering energy and gloriously discernible love for themselves. 

And I feel honoured to be here, to be sharing this experience with Kae Tempest; for them to feel able to be so open and honest with us. Going on to explain how they have always had a complex relationship with the stage, and how they used to feel deeply uncomfortable, it really is wonderful to hear that it doesn’t feel like that anymore. To see it too; the exuberant, blissful trans joy that shimmers without hesitation. 

Tempest closes the set with ‘People’s Faces’. A track I’ve seen live many times before, its hopeful celebration of the happiness and comfort that can be found in others has brought me to tears every time, but it seems more exquisitely on-point than ever tonight; the line “there is so much peace to be found in people’s faces” striking with a new-found optimism, as there really does seem to have been such a warm sense of peace emanating from Kae’s face throughout the whole performance. 

Despite assuring us that they think that “false exits are manipulative”, Tempest returns for a little encore, much to the ecstatic relief of the crowd. After a moment of vulnerable reflection sharing their poem ‘Hold Your Own’, they leave us with the uplifting message “If you take away one feeling from tonight, let it be delight”, urging us to focus on the ways that we’re all connected. And that is certainly what I come away feeling; a sheer sense of delight at the joy I have witnessed. An empowering and unifying queer energy and subtle sense of hope that through coming together as a community we can find happiness and strength. Thank you Kae Tempest for sharing your journey with us; for being you, and for giving us this hope that is so needed right now. 

Mari Lane / @mari_getinherears

Photo Credit: Kimberley Ross

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INTERVIEW: Softcult

It was 2021 the last time that we caught up with Softcult‘s guitarist and vocalist Mercedes Arn-Horn. A lot has happened for Canadian twin sibling shoegaze duo since then. Together, Mercedes and Phoenix have released four EPs – Year Of The Rat (2021), Year Of The Snake (2022), See You In The Dark (2023) and Heaven (2024) – supported the likes of Muse, Movemements and Incubus on tour and they’ve played headline shows across the USA, Canada and the UK. They’re currently back in the UK and preparing to play to a nearly sold out crowd at The Underworld in Camden tonight (12th November), with support from dream pop four piece Bleach Lab (ticket link here)

Dressed in her Softcult trademark ‘Gloomy Girl’ hoodie, when we spoke with Mercedes via Zoom a few weeks ago, she was excited to be returning to England and ready to bring the swirling, heavy sounds of their recent EP to the stage for fans to enjoy live. We discussed the evolution in Softcult’s sound, the band’s plans for a full length album, and we also touched upon the importance of being open about mental health issues and practicing self-care…

It’s been a few months now since Softcult released the Heaven EP. what are you most proud of about this record?

It’s the last EP we’ll put out for a while, because we’re working on a full length album. With this one we tried to get a little more conceptual with it as a whole body of work. I think sonically and musically we pushed ourselves to go into some different directions and really lean into the more obscure parts of our sound. There’s definitely still bops and stuff on the EP, but we really tried to lean heavily into the shoegaze element and also lean heavily into the Riot Grrrl, punk element. I think we were pushing ourselves sonically to try new things and I’m happy with how it turned out.

What has the reaction to it been like from your fans?

If you listen from this EP to the first one, you can definitely hear how things have grown. So I really appreciate it when we hear that from our fans and the people that like our music. It’s nice when they recognise and can see the work and the musicianship that we’ve put into our newer stuff. It never feels like a jarring change from EP to EP musically, but it’s still evolving.

There’s definitely a heavier shoegaze quality to the tracks on Heaven, even in the way that the songs transition into each other. Was this intentional when you were writing it?

A lot of what you’re describing has to do with the fact that the first and second EPs were released those during lockdown, so we weren’t able to tour. Now, fast forward to the Heaven EP, we’re 4 EPs deep and we’ve got a lot of touring under our belts, so I think that we were able to play around with interludes live, that we don’t do on the record with our earlier works. It’s really cool to see how audiences react when you’re jamming on stage. It gets really mesmerizing, it’s almost hypnotising sometimes. With the song ‘Haunt You Still’, for example, that’s one of my favourite ones on the EP because we took the time to do a whole instrumental section that really builds and there’s no vocals until the end. I think we learned some of those tricks from being on the road and playing live.

Speaking of playing live, you’re going to be back in the UK in November playing a headline tour with Bleach Lab. What are your anticipations for these shows? 

We love the UK. I really feel like that’s where Softcult got our start, even though we’re Canadian, our first ever tour was in the UK and I felt so much support from the fanbase and the music scene there. I feel really lucky that we get to be a part of it in some way. It’s one of the best scenes globally, in my opinion. I love it. Especially coming over at this time of the year when things are really gloomy and gothy, it’s such a vibe.

I’ve been a fan of Bleach Lab for a really long time. They’re putting out new music too so it just feels like a good time for us to come together and share the stage. I am really excited to play these new songs live. This particular set that we’ve been working on, we’ve had the chance to play on other tours, it’s probably the last tour that we’re gonna do with this particular live set. I’m really happy with the way it flows, there’s a lot of live interludes and extended parts of songs. Songs that kind of flow one into the other in a really intentional way. I’m excited to bring it to the UK.

As well as your own EP this year, you released a collaborative track with Bristol-based heavy band Split Chain titled ‘(Re)-Extract’. Tell me more about that. It’s such a HUGE sound that you’ve both created together.

It just worked out so well. The song gives me Deftones and Nirvana vibes. We were honoured to be asked to do it. I love collaborating with people when I can hear that there’s something we could add to the track. We just tried to add really spooky vocals, I was definitely trying to live my Amy Lee fantasy on that one for sure. I’m glad that we got to be part of the visual too. Who knows, one day maybe we’ll be able to go on tour with them.

It has that Southern California nu-metal sound, but I will say though, as someone who isn’t from the UK, but who is obsessed with UK music, the UK just has something in the sound that is different from anywhere else. I hear it in Split Chain’s sound. There’s just this nuanced intelligence about the music in the UK. There’s something about it that’s really compelling.

As well as playing live, another way that you interact with your fans is through your zine called SCripture. In the most recent edition, you penned a really compelling personal essay about mental health and the impact of stress on the body. Can you tell us more about what inspired you to share this story with your fans?

The SCripture zine is definitely all about fostering a community around social issues, political issues, and now I think it’s a good time to talk about mental health too. That was the reason we started the zine. We like to tie topics of the zine together with songs that we’ve written and that’s what inspired me to write that particular zine issue. Some of our songs, ‘Spiralling Out’ for example, in retrospect, when I hear that song, I’m recognising more what it’s about now than I did at the time when I wrote it. Then when I was thinking about it, I was like “this is definitely something more people should be talking about” in general. Get more awareness of it and more educated on it too. I do think knowledge is power. You feel less afraid when you’re not ignorant to certain situations.

When we are open about those things it takes away the taboo about talking about mental health and especially talking about women’s health in general. It was a real eye opener for me how stress manifests in so many different ways physically in the body. It’s kind of something I’m a little embarrassed to say I didn’t really know how much of an impact stress can have on you on a physical level until recently, and I think that’s because I was ignoring it for a very long time. So, I think the best thing that you can do is really own it and be transparent about it with people, and you’ll see how many other people have had similar experiences and gotten through it.

That’s the reason why I wanted to be very candid about it in that particular zine. Because when I started opening up to my female friends about what I was going through, I was shocked at how many other women had very similar experiences. It did make me feel less alone and less afraid in that situation. Also, I think a lot of the time when you acknowledge those things, it helps your mind process what’s going on and that helps your body too, so there’s a lot of reasons to talk about it.

Women’s health, our bodies and in our minds, it’s all so tied together. I think a lot of the time Women’s health can be something that’s swept under the rug. It’s very reductive and I am aware of that through not only my experience, but other women in my life who have had to deal with stuff. You end up having to do a lot of your own research and you’re lucky if a doctor is in tune with that and sensitive to those things. With my particular issues, I never thought it was stress, but it definitely was. So dealing with that helped me on the physical side of things too. But my mind was going in a completely different directions and that definitely doesn’t help.

Being a touring musician can also bring its own unique set of stresses and mental and physical health challenges. What advice would you give to other musicians who might be struggling?

For me, I know that my thing is I don’t know when to slow down. That feels like something really difficult to do on tour. But some good advice that I got was just do one thing for yourself everyday that has no other motive, other than it’s just something that you want to do. So on tour for me, that could be going for a walk, getting a coffee, taking a nice long shower at the end of the day. Those are things that seem very luxurious or frivolous, but if you deny yourself these things that centre you and ground you, after a while you’re gonna notice that the stress just keeps building up and the anxiety builds up and there’s no outlet for it. Luckily for me, being on stage and performing is an outlet for me. Being on tour, while certain parts of it can be stressful, the good news is at least once a day you do have that cathartic moment where you can let things out. Strangely I don’t feel that stressed on tour. I think I get more stressed out when I’m at home.

I think everyone’s different, and different things stress you out in different ways, but for me, I love having creative outlets like writing music, performing music, writing the zine – those are all really good outlets for me. So I’d say take time for yourself, even if it’s just a couple of minutes a day to ground yourself and do something that brings you peace and makes you feel calm. You’re doing it just for yourself. It sounds small, but it does have a very big impact.

It can be difficult to ask for that space can’t it? Sometimes it can be perceived in a negative way, like you’re being “difficult”…

Not so much now, because we’re evolving as a society and as a scene, but there have been so many times when you’re made to feel like you’re being a diva if you need to set a boundary as a female artist. People can be so ignorant about that. I often see my male counterparts setting very similar boundaries with people – even with fans for example – if you feel like someone is taking up a lot of your space and making you feel uncomfortable – I feel like the second you say that as a woman, it’s suddenly like “oh she’s a diva” and you just don’t see that same kind of energy with our male counterparts. My advice to female artists out there would be don’t listen to that noise. Just stand your ground, do what’s right for you. You don’t owe anyone anything, but you owe yourself everything.

This will be your last tour for a while, as you’re in the process of recording your debut album. What can you tell us about the record?

We’re in the middle of recording it right now and we’re about half way done. We’re going to finish it before the end of the year and then release it next year. It’s really exciting. We just got our concept figured out and we chose a title and a rough track-listing in the past two weeks. It’s cool because we’ve been releasing EPs for the entire life of this band, but now we finally get to do a full length album. In some ways I love just putting out singles and having a way shorter timeline between releases so that you can keep creating. But in other ways, I do really love the idea of this body of work that’s just a whole concept, a whole era of music that’s laid out and a story that’s being told, and an opportunity to really world-build with the band. That’s the mindset we’re going into with this. Taking our time and really doing it right, since it’s our first actual full length. We’re really trying to sink our teeth into the creative aspect of things. I’m really excited about it because it is coming together. It’s almost like a blurry photo coming into focus and I can finally see what the photo is.

Thanks to Mercedes for taking the time to speak with us!

Follow Softcult on bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Facebook & X

Photo Credit: Kaylene Widdoes

Kate Crudgington
@kate_crudge

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Five Favourites: Umarells

Having just shared their debut EP, One More Day, Manchester-based dream-pop group Umarells create lush, glistening soundscapes, fizzing with a rippling raw emotion. Combining elements of shoegaze, grunge and indie-pop, they offer heartfelt reflections on themes such as grief and failed relationships, each song offering their own unique sparkling musicality.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the release of their debut EP, we caught up with Imogen, Josh, Ryan Sarah and Fuchsia to find out about the five albums that inspire them the most. Read about their five favourites, and watch the beautiful video for stirring single ‘June‘, below…

Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising
I first heard Natalie of Weyes Blood’s gorgeous Carpenter-esque voice on Drugdealer’s 2016 album The End Of  Comedy. When Titanic Rising was released in 2019 it resonated as the theme of an era of my life. Blending ‘70s pop vocals with romantic space age synth cynicism I was hooked from my first listen and rushed to see the masterpiece live in Manchester venue Yes’ pink room. ‘Picture Me Better’ – a song written about the loss of a friend – perfectly encapsulates heart wrenching grief and the hope to hear the impossible “call from beyond”. A song that inspired me to pour my own grief into our song ‘One More Day’.

Burial – Untrue
I vividly remember the first time I stumbled upon this album while exploring a friend’s CD collection. It was a revelation – nothing I had ever heard compared to its dark, gritty sound, interwoven with ethereal melodies and harmony. So melancholic. I often listened to it on my bike rides home through the city centre at 5am, after finishing my shift at a nightclub; feeling as though I was the only soul awake in the world. It’s perfect for those late nights when you’re caught between the desire to drift off and the inability to do so. The sampling on this album is incredible; the original sources are so cleverly transformed that I found myself spending hours online trying to uncover their origins. It’s a remarkable masterclass in genre-bending and structure, carving out its own distinct niche within the electronic scene. Its sound remains refreshingly futuristic, even today.

Pixies – Doolittle 
All amazing tracks and completely seminal. I became obsessed with Pixies when I was fifteen, after loading up my mp3 player for a school trip to Sorrento. I’d heard that Nirvana’s loud-quiet-loud structures were ripping off Pixies, so I downloaded some songs from Limewire. Listening to them on a coach driving along the West coast of Italy really cemented the tracks for me and I was kind of blown away by it. The guitar work is just perfect to me – simple driving bass lines, and Joey’s surf inspired riffs and bends are just amazing. The range of sounds in Frank’s voice means the album never gets boring and it contrasts with Kim’s vocals so well. To top it off, ‘Gouge Away’ is just the best final track on an album for me.

The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
My favourite album changes constantly, but if I had to choose one right now I’d pick Siamese Dream. My first introduction to Smashing Pumpkins was at about seven or eight years old hearing them on The Simpsons episode ‘Homerpalooza’. A few years later when I hit my full-on emo phase I delved into their back catalogue and Siamese Dream was the album that stuck out to me. I’ve never got sick of listening to it. Billy and James’ guitar playing on this record is just insane to me. The dynamics of the album too are just so great, the fact you’ve got heavy songs like ‘Geek USA’ but the softer songs like ‘Luna’ and ‘Disarm’ but they work perfectly together when listening to the album in full. Billy’s lyrics as well – “Fool enough to almost be it, cool enough to not quite see it. Doomed.” on ‘Mayonaise’, incredible. Whenever I’m writing new music I find this is the album I reference the most.

Big Thief – Two Hands
This is such a beautiful album – the lyrics are so raw and heartfelt – it’s such incredible story telling. The album flows from really soft gentle tracks to heavy gritty ones so effortlessly, and everything about the way it’s recorded sounds so natural. It came out when I first got back into playing music after a really long break and I would just listen to it on repeat. The whole album reminds me of a time when I really started to feel comfortable with myself and listening to it still reminds me of that. Seeing them live at the Apollo last year was an awesome experience!

Huge thanks to Umarells for sharing their five favourites with us! Watch the beautiful new video for stirring single ‘June’ here:

One More Day, the debut album from Umarells, is out now via Fear Of Missing Out Records.

Photo Credit: Kitty Handley

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