LISTEN: GIHE on Soho Radio with Charlotte Adigéry 09.03.22

Tash & Kate were back on the Soho Radio airwaves playing loads of new music from some of their favourite female, non-binary and LGBTQ+ artists. Sadly Mari couldn’t make it into the studio, but offered some of her “musical musings” too.

French-born, Belgian-Caribbean musician Charlotte Adigéry also joined them to talk about her debut album Topical Dancer, which she worked on with Bolis Pupul, and the power of joy and laughter when it comes to making art about your own life experiences. Baby Rocco also had his say!

Listen back below:

Tracklist
Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin – Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves
Adrianne Lenker – Symbol
Julia-Sophie – Dial Your Number
t l k – IWNU
Fraulein – Drag Behind
A.A. Williams – Melt
PET Wife – Alone
Ailsa Tully – Salt Glaze
Tomberlin – happy accident
ROBYN & Neneh Cherry ft. Mapei – Buffalo Stance
Pongo – Doudou
My Idea – Crutch
CMAT – Every Bottle Is My Boyfriend
After London – Here, Tonite
Charlotte Adigéry x Bolis Pupul – Ceci n’est pas un cliché
**Interview with Charlotte Adigéry**
Tirzah – Tectonic
Hannah Schneider – Mirror Sphere
Big Thief – Little Things
Muna Ileiwat – Stuck
Petrol Girls – Baby, I Had An Abortion
SASAMI & No Home – Squeeze
KIN – Cosmos
Amaroun – Brown Skin Beauty
Cate Le Bon – Remembering Me
Queen Latifah ft. Monie Love – Ladies First

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LISTEN: GIHE on Soho Radio with Prima Queen (12.01.22)

Tash, Kate & Mari were back on the Soho Radio airwaves playing loads of new music from some of their favourite female, non-binary and LGBTQ+ artists.

London-based band Prima Queen joined them to talk about their latest single ‘Chew My Cheeks’, what it was like working alongside The Big Moon who were on production duties for the release, and how everyone seemed to re-watch The Matrix during Lockdown in 2020…

Listen back below:

Tracklist
Big Joanie – New Year
ML Buch – I’m a Girl You can Hold IRL
Babeheaven – Don’t Wake Me
Let’s Eat Grandma – Happy New Year
Midwife – 2020
Girl Ray – Murder on the Dance Floor
Catherine Moan – Soda Pop
KEYAH/BLU – Til Bliss
Novaa – You Can F With Me
Skylu – Foreign Concept
Zannie – Mechanical Bull
Softcult – Gaslight
Dakota Jones – Blacklight
Prima Queen – Chew My Cheeks
**Prima Queen Interview**
Rosie Alena – God’s Garden
Worse Off – You Belong Here
Petty Phase – Made To Order
HALINA RICE – Sunken Suns
MAITA – Honey, Have I Lost It All?
Bitch – Hello Meadow
Low – I Can Wait
Lucy Barton – Starlight
Carmel Smickersgill – Questioning
FKA Twigs ft. The Weeknd – Tears In The Club

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GIHE: Personal Highlights Of 2021

2021 has been another strange year. Live music tentatively returned after multiple Covid-19 lockdowns, which meant the GIHE team were finally able to see some of our favourite bands in the flesh. The easing of restrictions also meant we were able to physically get into a studio to record our monthly Soho Radio show together! More than ever, we were grateful to feel connected – either through the internet or in real life – to our friends and followers, and that’s what our Personal Highlights of 2021 reflect.

Read below for a recap of some of our Personal Highlights of the year. Huge thanks to everyone who has supported GIHE. Love & solidarity. x

 

Team Highlight: Moving to Soho Radio

After six years of presenting our new music show on Hoxton Radio, the GIHE team were invited to move over to Soho Radio’s airwaves. They say a change is as good as a rest, and this change certainly helped to re-energise us to get back into doing what we love: fan-girling on air about our favourite music and talking to the bands and artists who create it. Noga Erez helped us launch our debut show in May, and since then we’ve spoken to BISHI, Bitch Hunt, Fears, BLAB, Maria Uzor, Grandmas House & The Log Books’ Shivani Dave. It’s a privilege to have this platform on Soho to promote women & non-binary artists, and we’re excited to bring you more radio shows with them problem pain 2022!

 

Mari Lane (Co-Founder & Managing Editor)

Interviewing Sleigh Bells

With the release of their sixth album Texis this year, genre-defying duo Sleigh Bells have been firm favourites of mine over the last decade, and have provided many personal musical memories. From dancing the night away to the immense energy of the likes of ‘Rill Rill’ or ‘Infinity Guitars’ throughout my 20s, to watching that scene of Jessica Jones on repeat, purely because of the incredible power that ‘Demons’ adds to the narrative. It was such an honour to speak to vocalist and songwriter Alexis Krauss in September about the album, her collaborative process with producer/guitarist Derek Miller, the formation of Sleigh Bells, being a woman in the industry, and her involvement with Young Women Who Crush – an amazing sounding organisation for young women and gender expansive youth from New York City public schools, inspiring them to discover the outdoors and develop their leadership skills. You can read the full interview here.

GIHE Live at The Shacklewell Arms with Problem Patterns, pink suits & GUTTS

Hosting our first gig at The Shacklewell Arms was such a joyous experience in every way. Not only was it an honour to be able to organise an event at such an esteemed venue at which I’ve spent many a night enjoying some of the best live music at, but everyone who works there was so lovely and helpful, that it made the whole experience completely stress-free. Massive shout-out to sound engineer Sofia, a total pro who is amazing at what she does!

And of course, what made the night particularly special was the bands. With GIHE having been mega fans of Northern Irish punks Problem Patterns for some time now, it was such a privilege to be able to host their first London gig. With each poignant, raging offering, the band filled the venue with their swirling, empowering energy and fierce, infectious passion, uniting the crowd with both their righteous anger and vibrant, joyous sense of fun. With the captivating, riotous force of queer Margate duo pink suits, and the angst-driven ‘sax punk’ of opening band GUTTS too, it really was a dream of a night and I’m so grateful it was able to go ahead. You can check out pics of the event here.

Talking to The Independent about Women’s Safety at Gigs & Festivals

Kate and I spoke to Elizabeth Aubrey for a feature in The Independent about the need to make music events safer spaces for women, girls and the LGBTQ+ community. A topic we feel extremely strongly about. We discussed our zero tolerance policy to sexual assault and harassment at our events, and measures we put in place at our gigs to try and ensure the safest possible environment for all. It was also the first time I’ve really properly talked about the experience of having my drink spiked whilst at university in Leeds – the issue of women and girls being spiked sadly being something that seems particularly prevalent at the moment.

I was really grateful to be given the opportunity to speak to Elizabeth about such an important issue and hope that, with an increased awareness in the public eye, more ‘active bystanders’ and with more women, girls and LGBTQIA+ folk feeling safe enough to speak out, more can start being done by the industry as a whole to put a stop to instances of abuse or harassment, and to provide the safest possible spaces. You can read the full feature here.

Interviewing Celeste Bell (Poly Styrene’s daughter)

With the release of the documentary Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché this year, we were lucky enough to talk to Celeste Bell – Poly’s daughter and co-director of the film, along with Paul Sng – about the inspirations behind the film, her relationship with her mother and the sexism that still prevails in the music industry. Based around a wonderful book by Zoë Howe, Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story, the film chronicles Poly’s remarkable and often troubled life, including never-seen-before footage of her, telling her moving story predominantly through the eyes of her daughter.

In addition to discussing the film, it was interesting to speak to Celeste about how far the industry and society’s attitudes towards women still have to go, and the urgent need to revive some of Poly’s punk spirit. To unite, overcome adversity and bring about change, we could all do with being a bit more like her, to start to undo the bondage that binds us into this patriarchal society. As Poly says: “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!”. Read the full interview with Celeste here.

Honourable Mention: Ezra Furman

I thought I’d also give an honourable mention to Ezra Furman, who came out as a Transgender woman earlier this year and shared beautiful images of herself with her child. As Furman poignantly states in her coming out message: “I’m telling you I’m a mom now for a specific reason. Because one problem with being trans is that we have so few visions of what it can look like to have an adult life, to grow up and be happy and not die young. When our baby was born I had approximately zero examples that I had seen of trans women raising children. So here’s one for anyone who wants to see one. I’m a trans woman and a mom. This is possible.”

 

Kate Crudgington (Co-Founder & Features Editor)

Chatting to Cool Thing Records on Soho Radio about GIHE

I’ve been following Southend indie label Cool Thing Records since my Gigslutz days, so when Luke invited me on to their Soho Radio show (Cool Thing Presents) to chat about my experience as a DIY music journalist, I was genuinely chuffed. I loved reminiscing with him about landmark musical moments in my life and how we came to launch GIHE. I also managed to wedge in an impersonation of Eastenders’ Nick Cotton into our chat, which you can listen to in full here.

The Cool Thing team have supported GIHE in everything we do, and we naturally support them back. Their roster is bursting with talent – from BLAB, Mai and Beckie Margaret, to Asylums, Suspects, BAIT and The Horse Heads – I’m constantly impressed and excited to hear their new releases. There’s an immense amount of passion, commitment and empathy behind everything they do, and I look forward to working with them throughout 2022.

My first gig after Covid-19 & our first GIHE gig of 2021

When I walked in to Electrowerkz to see DROWND – aka my brother Joe – play his first gig of 2021 in August, I was tanked up on Gin & Tonic because I was nervous to be doing something “normal” for the first time in over a year. Despite my anxieties, within minutes of the gig starting, my mind blocked out any Covid-19 paraphernalia; it just let the intense, heavy sounds blasting out of the speakers spread through my cells. It was fucking brilliant. I didn’t want the night to end.

I had a similar sensation watching Schande and CURRLS perform at our first GIHE gig of 2021 at The Victoria a few months later in November. I watched from a distance as Mari worked the room, ensuring the bands and everyone who was attending felt safe and valued. 2022 is looking like another dodgy year for live music, but I hope we’ll get to attend and organise more gigs like this at some point soon.

Talking to NME about Women’s Safety at Gigs

With the return of live music, unfortunately, came the return of the all-to-familiar reports of sexual harassment and assault at gigs and festivals. It’s something we have experienced first hand at GIHE, and we know many of our friends and followers have also lived through these grim and debilitating experiences. That’s why we feel it’s important to push forward with our own policies at events to keep women & non-binary people safe, and to keep the conversations about women’s safety in the public eye.

Mari & I spoke to NME journalist Charlotte Krol about this and how we think things can be improved earlier this year. You can read the full feature here.

Favourite Interviews of 2021

One of the main things that’s kept me going this year are the conversations I’ve had with bands and artists about the music they make. It’s such a privilege to have access to someone’s creative processes, and I am humbled every time an artist shares their own thoughts and influences with me. I also love it when bands consistently crack jokes about how bored they are of hearing their own music, like Cork art-punks Pretty Happy did when I spoke to them back in September.

My conversations with Circe, Nadia Javed, Breakup Haircut, Sian O’Gorman (NYX Choir), Lilith AI, Softcult, Nova Twins, Bleach Lab and Divide & Dissolve all left a lasting impression on me in 2021.

 

Victoria Conway (GIHE Contributor)

Helen Love @ Sheffield Pop Weekender Sidney and Matilda (first gig after lockdown)

I’m not sure if this was my first gig after lockdown, but, woah, it was the most memorable. After over 18 months without live music, Helen Love took me back, headfirst and in glorious technicolour. They fired up the drum machine and powered through a set of glitter-fuelled bubblegum punk pop with swagger and smiles. The legendary Ms. Love, still looking badass after fronting the band for almost 30 years, stood in front of a dizzying video collage and blasted out the hits to a crowd who roared their appreciation by shouting along to every word. ‘Does your heart go booooom?’ was a standout; it was the musical equivalent of someone shaking up a can of Monster Energy and letting it spray absolutely everywhere. I’m talking pure, giddy caffeinated joy! It was beautiful to reunite with a band I’ve loved for over half my life, and to do it on a dancefloor packed with much-missed gig buddies.

Thanks for everything folks. We’ll see you in 2022!

 

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INTERVIEW: Bleach Lab

Full of bittersweet reflections on romantic burnout, grief and hard won emotional resilience, Bleach Lab‘s second EP, Nothing Feels Real, is an emotive, fluid record that continues to soften the sharpness of their collective pain. Following on from their debut EP, A Calm Sense Of Surrounding, The South London based four piece haven been busy refining their song-writing processes and preparing to headline The Lexington in London on the 20th October.

We caught up with vocalist Jenna Kyle and guitarist Frank Wates to talk about Bleach Lab’s new EP, how it differs from their debut and their anticipations for their upcoming gig…

Hello Jenna and Frank! Can you remember who or what first inspired you to start making your own music?

Jenna: My Mum bought me Singstar when I was about 9 or 10 and I used to come home from school every single day and just whack it out, so she asked me if I wanted to take real singing lessons. Singing has been my main passion through school and up until now. I started playing instruments too, I tried clarinet and I played the harp for a while as well which, was really amazing.

Frank: Conversely, I remember playing on Singstar and it was the thing which made me realise that I could not sing. My personal experience of getting into music has been really backwards and forwards, it took me quite a long time. My Dad is a musician, he performs jazz and it didn’t exactly establish a career in music as a particularly glamorous or easy thing to do. I knew a lot of people who kept telling me not to do it, but I remember I picked up a guitar for the first time when I was 10 and the feeling of wanting to do music would always come back. I’ve gone through a couple of periods where I’ve completely walked away from music entirely and they were definitely the periods that were the worst for me in terms of creativity and just general happiness. It was when I realised that I needed to go head first into it really.

Singstar also made me realise I couldn’t sing.. So how did Bleach Lab come together?

Frank: It’s quite a long story, which goes back until the beginning of 2017. It was a very gradual thing. I met Josh, who is our bassist and he also does the the lyric writing with Jenna, because we got brought together in a music project which we found online. It was a band that we really didn’t like at all, we didn’t agree creatively with the person who was orchestrating it and it all fell apart one afternoon. At the time, I’d only known Josh for about two months, but we were at my house with the drummer who we were working with and we just thought “while we’re here, should we just do a rehearsal anyway?” and it just sort of snowballed from that.

Jenna: Josh and I also studied music together at college and we stayed friends when I went off to uni to do music again. He just messaged me one day asking if I wanted to come down and give the band a go and I said yes and that was five year ago now…

Frank: We’ve gone through the classic situation of having a couple of line-up changes during that time. We had another drummer called Sean previously and he performed on our early singles and our first EP, A Calm Sense Of Surrounding. Then we put in Kieran who is our drummer now and he had a really big effect on how we’ve basically been doing everything since then. So the band has changed quite significantly just within the last year. It’s been quite gradual drawn out process, which has been hampered partly by COVID and other stuff as well.

Do you think COVID and the following lockdowns gave you a chance as a band to take a step back and really think about what you wanted to do next?

Jenna: Yeah, that’s exactly the way that we felt during lockdown. Obviously, there was quite a lot of uncertainty and we didn’t know when we’d be able to get back out on stage and what music venues would even still be around, but it was a lot of downtime to be able to reflect on what we actually wanted to be putting out there. It just gave us a of bit of breathing space, I think.

Frank: It also helped to refine – well, I say “refine,” I think we’re still working it out – but it helped to refine what our song-writing process actually is. The thing I’ve learned over the last year or so, is it’s just so important for any artist or band to have a process when it comes to song-writing because without one, it’s actually a really difficult thing to just get done. I think we’ve always had to deal with logistics within this band because Jenna lives in Brighton and the rest of us live in London, and we don’t live nearby each other in London either. So whenever we rehearse it, it takes quite a few hours to get us all in the same room. I think we are always going to be a band that needs to be able to rely on writing music remotely and I think having something as extreme as a country-wide lockdown forced us to realise that was actually the way that was best suited to us. It’s funny, really, we’re in the process of writing at the moment and I think we’re realising that we don’t get as much done when we’re all in the room together.

I guess it’s good to know you can keep writing even with these obstacles in the way.

You released your debut EP, A Calm Sense Of Surrounding, earlier this year. I know it was informed by very personal situations; the breakdown of a romantic relationship for you Jenna and for your bassist Josh, who was coming to terms with losing his father. Without probing too much, did you find it useful to write this EP as a way of coping with and confronting these very intense emotions?

Jenna: I can’t really speak for Josh, but we do write together, so we do relate a lot to each other and it is a very cathartic way of dealing with the things that we’ve both been through, and which everyone has been through on some level as well. Having a creative outlet and being able to write about things in such a way can really help you understand more about the situation yourself as well. You learn things about yourself that you didn’t necessarily know were there because they’re coming from really deep down emotionally. Sometimes I realise things long after I’ve written about them. What we write about is very personal and it’s quite daunting to be that open about things, but I think the new EP is an extension of similar experiences for me and Josh. It’s an extension of the story-telling.

Do you have a favourite song on your first EP, and on your new EP Nothing Feels Real?

Jenna: I think ‘Never Be’ has got to be my favourite, I just love it. I still look forward to playing it the most when we play live.

Frank: I think an important distinction to make for me is between the song and the recording, because it’s so often the case that the recording comes out nothing like you imagined it would based on the song. I like ‘Old Ways’ a lot from the first EP, primarily because it was kind of an afterthought track that we decided to include quite late. ‘Never Be’ is also one of my favourites, as I think the recording of that track came together really, really well. There’s a song on the second EP called ‘Inside My Mind’ which I want to say all of us had as our favourite song? But I think ‘Real Thing’ is mine.

Jenna: I think lyrically for me, ‘Real Thing’ is one of my favourite songs that I’ve written. Lyric writing doesn’t come very easy for me and I think that’s the one I’m most happiest with.

Frank: I think I think it’s very difficult for us to give a cogent, succinct answer to this question because we consistently disagree on what songs we prefer and don’t prefer, which is good! It’s nice to choose between songs that you all like for different reasons, so you’d probably get different answers from us all on different days…

Jenna, you mentioned that Nothing Feels Real feels like an extension of your debut EP, can you elaborate on that?

Jenna: Sure. Sonically, it’s not very different but I think it’s more cohesive. Lyrically, this EP is possibly a more in depth exploration of both mine and Josh’s experiences that we’ve already touched on. We’ve been able to dig a bit deeper and I think we’re both becoming better writers as well, creating our own processes which I’m getting more comfortable with as we progress.

Frank: Yeah, I think it has more cohesion in terms of how it sounds purely because it was written over a shorter period of time. I think the whole process behind it was very different because we were listening to more specific music in the build-up to recording it. We were bringing in Steven Street to produce it and he has a prolific discography associated with certain sounds in certain areas. I think that informed the overall sound of the EP very strongly, and as a result it has more of a case of identity to it than our first EP does, which is a nice thing to feel, because once you start trying to do four or five songs and have them have some kind of collective identity together, it’s actually really hard to make them any good.

You mentioned producer Steven Street who’s worked with like The Cranberries and The Smiths. What was it like working with him? What do you think he brings to your overall sound on this EP?

Frank: There was a big contrast between recording our first EP and recording this one with the Steven. That’s no discredit to Max who we worked with on our first EP. We knew we only had a set amount of time working with Steven and that we had to get it done. The urgency that came with that actually really helped with the process, it was all really efficient, which is not usually a word that I would use to describe recording an album or a song in a positive way, but it was! I think it helped because we didn’t overthink things, which is something that I’m very much guilty of doing. He made it really easy. He was very easy to bounce ideas off of when it came to production ideas and it just made the whole thing a lot easier.

You’re going to be headlining the Lexington on the 20th of October. What are your anticipations for this gig? How are you feeling about headlining such a great venue?

Jenna: I’ve never been to The Lexington! I’ve heard everyone just telling me how great it is so I’m very excited. We’ve been looking forward to it and working towards it for so long. I think the crowd will be a nice mix of family and friends, but also new people as well, which is always nice to see.

Frank: I remember when our manager told us that we were playing The Lexington and we were delighted. It’s one of many very, very pleasant things that have happened to us this year. It’s one of my favourite venues, I’ve seen some great gigs there. It’s nice because it’s still relatively intimate. I mean, we’ve already been kind of blown away with some of the venues that we’ve been getting to play because again, with the whole intervention of COVID, we kind of leapfrogged to playing all these venues that I thought it would take years for us to play.

I’m sure you’ll all have a great gig. As we’re a new music blog, we always ask what new music or new bands are you listening to at the moment. Is there anyone you want to recommend to us or give a shout out to?

Jenna: I’ve been listening to a lot of Bess Atwell lately.

Frank: Yeah me too, I saw her on the overground the other day. I think she had been doing an in-store show because her album’s just come out. I was with my girlfriend and we walked past her and got on the train and I was like “That was Bess Atwell!” and my girlfriend said “why didn’t you stop and speak to her?” and I thought “Yeah, why didn’t I stop? I’m legit really into her music. It could very easily have talked to her about how much I like her track ‘Co-Op’. One album that I’ve been listening to a lot at the moment, and I was really gutted because they played in London and I couldn’t go because we were hard rehearsing for our shows – which is definitely the right thing to be doing – is the Art School Girlfriend album. I’m really, really into it.

Jenna: I also have my comfort zone with my music and what I listen to. I have my list of songs on Spotify that I just play over and over again. Sharon Van Etten, Phoebe Bridgers, Angel Olsen, Julia Jacklin. There’s a lot of nice female vocal stuff on there…

Thanks to Jenna & Frank for the chat!

Follow Bleach Lab on bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook

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