Category: GIHE Writers

Mari & I have shamelessly plugged our love of Copenhagen trio Baby In Vain via Get In Her Ears since 2016 when we saw them perform a free show at tiny Dalston venue Birthdays. There’s something about their heavy, corrosive sounds that keeps us both hypnotised, and we were more than happy to be swept back under their spell at Camden Assembly on Monday night.

We met Bene, Andrea & Lola backstage before their show to talk about their current UK tour, their favourite tracks on debut album More Nothing, and how tricky it is to shoot a music video on skateboards and mopeds when you’re hungover…

Hello girls, am I right when in saying you met and started playing music together whilst still at school?

Bene: Not entirely…

My bad! How did you initially meet? What was it that made you want to start a band together?

Andrea: Lola & Bene went to music school together and we had some mutual friends and we went to a lot of the same shows, so we just started talking and one night decided we should all jam together, and we’ve been doing that ever since.

Bene: Every Tuesday, always on a Tuesday.

Cool. You’re almost half way through your current UK tour. What have been the highlights so far? How do the UK crowds differ from your hometown crowds?

A: Glasgow and Edinburgh…

B: So, Scotland?.

Lola: Edinburgh has been the best so far, and tonight maybe?

A: We had two days off in Nottingham also, and went to see Ulrika Spacek and Gary Numan.

I love Gary Numan! I saw him live for the first time last year and I thought he was incredible.

A: That was definitely a highlight for us. When it comes to crowds it’s not really fair to compare because in Denmark we play larger venues, and people know who we are. When we play here we’re still very new to people. Most places have been alright, but we’ve played a couple of places where only a couple of people showed up. But for an unknown band, the crowds in the UK are a little bit better.

L: I think it’s the same. Remember when we played in Oxford? People bought all of our merchandise afterwards so they really enjoyed it, but while we were playing people were just stood completely still (laughs)

B: Scotland crowds though…

L: They were incredible.

Is there any particular reason why they were so good?

L: They were so drunk!

A: Actually, when we played here about three years ago with The Wytches in Hull, the crowd was insane. Even for the support bands. They were also drunk.

There’s a trend here, the drunker they are, the better the crowd. Cool.

You released your debut album More Nothing (through Partisan Records) earlier this year. It’s a follow-up to your 2016 EP For The Kids. Did you approach the album differently in terms of writing/recording/producing compared to the EP?

B: Very differently. You can’t really compare the two recordings at all. For The Kids was meant to be an album when we started recording it, but our label thought it would work well as an EP. We were in the studio for a very long time, a very long time (laughs), several years I think? But the album was recorded in two weeks.

A: When you don’t have a time limit you just don’t get stuff done. Once we had a deadline, things worked much better.

Do you have a favourite track on the album, and if so; why?

L: I think ‘One Feather’ is one of my favourite songs. I just think when we wrote it, you know, it was like… next level (laughs)

A: I really love ‘Transcendent’ as well.

I really like ‘Thank You’, just in case you were wondering…

B: That’s definitely a London thing! Something about Brits and that song…

It’s because the song name is really polite, but it sounds really aggressive. That’s the British way…

Your video for opening track ‘To Heaven & Back’ was shot in one take and looks extremely cool. Can you tell us about the shoot? Was miming on skateboards as easy as you made it look?

A: It was a very fun day. Me & Lola used to skate when we were younger, so it wasn’t that big of a challenge, but it was still a little nerve-racking because Bene was driving really fast, even if it doesn’t look like that in the video.

B: It was my first time riding a moped as well, I had to learn on the day.

This video sounds like a death trap.

A: It was really painful actually, the next day my thighs and my feet were killing me (laughs)

L: We shot the whole thing around 7 times. We didn’t really have a plan, we just met up and started shooting. There were no safety procedures, and we were all really hungover (laughs).

A: It was an old idea we had years ago, that Bene would be on the bike, we’d be skating, and we’d also have those little propeller caps on our heads.

L: Why didn’t have those in the video?!

I guess you’ll just have to do it again, re-shoot the whole thing.

You’ve also released a video for your latest single ‘Low Life’. I read your interview with Line Of Best Fit in which you describe this track as being “hard to complete” because you had several recordings of the song, so it took around 3 years to find a version you were happy with. Have you felt like this about other tracks?

L: ‘Low Life’ is definitely the song that we’ve worked on the longest, so we haven’t had that long a process with other tracks.

A: If you heard the old, old version of the song, it’s completely different to what it is now. We had to grow in to the song, we had to be better musicians and songwriters to write it properly. Half of the songs on the album were written pretty fast though, so we just worked really hard, kept playing at home…

L: ‘Thank You’ and ‘Pills’ were changed a lot for this recording. They’re still the same songs, but we just changed the song structures a bit.

As a blog centred around women in new music, we would love to know what female bands or what new music you’ve been listening too. What can you recommend?

B: Taylor Swift (laughs)

She’s great!

L: She’s not kidding (laughs)

Neither am I!

L: If we’re going with female bands, I love Mazzy Star.

A: Definitely, we love her.

L: She’s one of our favourite singers, and also a very beautiful woman. I’d also recommend Pure X, they’re a band we’ve been listening to a lot. They’re not girls, and they’re not new music (laughs) but they’re unknown to a lot of people and I want to spread the word about them!

They’ll be new to someone! We’ll have to have a listen.

Finally, what’s next for Baby In Vain? More recording? Touring? A holiday?

A: Holidays don’t exist (laughs), but more writing, recording, touring…

B: the same things we always do (laughs)

L: I’m really looking forward to writing songs again. You can’t really do it on the road.

A: We haven’t written a new song in over a year actually…

L: Woah, that’s insane. We need to focus man. That’s the best part of being in a band, writing songs…

…and we can’t wait to hear them. Huge thanks to Bene, Andrea & Lola for talking to us before their show. Follow Baby In Vain on Facebook for updates on future gigs and releases.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut