Having been big fans of Oxford’s grunge-pop faves Junk Whale since first hearing their 2022 debut (and fantastically named), Caught In The Act Of Looking Weird, we were super excited when they released a gorgeous new EP back in May. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been pretty much listening to See You Around, I guess? non-stop, unable to get enough of its scuzzy raw emotion and lilting indie-pop energy. Despite covering poignant themes such as grief and mental illness, the EP as a whole oozes an uplifting effervescent spirit, each track offering an instantly catchy jangly earworm (and not a repeating chorus in sight!). The band expand: “Lyrically, this might be our darkest release yet, written under the cloud of lockdown malaise and personal setbacks. But musically, it’s probably our most upbeat and energetic.”
To celebrate the EP’s release, and ahead of them playing live for us on 10th October at New River Studios supporting Belfast queer punks Strange New Places, we caught up with Junk Whale to find out more about the EP, their inspirations and the joy of playing gigs with plenty of non-men. Have a read, listen to the EP, and nab a ticket for 10th October now!
Hi Junk Whale! Welcome to Get In Her Ears! How are you all doing today?
We’re doing great, excited to be asked to do this!
Are you able to tell us a bit about what initially inspired you to start creating music and how you all came together as a band?
Hannah and I (Josie) have known each other since we were teenagers and played in a band together before Junk Whale called Four Thousand Dollar Ham Napkin. After that, ended we decided to challenge ourselves by writing, recording and releasing a brand new song every week for a year. It was a mad thing to do, no one was forcing us to do it and pretty much no one listened to the results! But that project was the start of Junk Whale. We met Jenny and Ali through the Oxford music scene and as soon as the four of us were together it stopped being this silly little recording project and started feeling like a really special band that we were all creatively involved in.
I love your scuzzy, emotion-filled indie-pop songs – who or what generally inspires your distinctive sound?
We all love bands who mix noisy guitars with melodic hooks, bands like Dinosaur Jr., Sunny Day Real Estate, Sleater-Kinney, so naturally we’ve taken a lot of inspiration from those types of bands. Also, we’ve been really inspired by the local Oxford DIY music scene and all the weird and wonderful bands we’ve seen or played gigs with here. When we were starting out, Smash Disco were putting on these great punk and hardcore shows, and we’ve all played in bands doing that kind of music, so I think that’s where some of the emotional intensity and the rougher edges of the music come from. And then there’s Divine Schism, who put on a ton of really varied shows, but especially the more indie-rock-type stuff that we naturally slot in with really comfortably. When there’s a good local scene it really pushes you creatively to try to keep up with your friends’ bands.
You’ve just released your awesome new EP See You Around, I Guess which you’ve described as, lyrically, your “darkest release yet” – are you able to tell me a bit more about the writing of the album and the themes running through it?
A lot of the songs on the EP were written during lockdown, and as well as the obvious massive cloud of doom hanging over everything, we all had our own personal stuff going on that coloured the lyrics. Jenny, Hannah and I all contributed lyrics to the songs on this EP – we tend to write about topics that are personal to us, so grief, mental illness and friendship break-ups were some of the things we wrote about this time.
And how would you say the whole recording process has differed from your 2019 eponymous album and 2022’s amazingly named EP Caught In The Act Of Being Weird?
The recording process for both EPs was pretty similar, Ali did the bulk of the engineering himself and we recorded each instrument separately. The album was a little different, we smashed through the whole thing in a couple days, mostly recording live with our pal Luke to help us. I think that probably gave the album a slightly different energy – we played everything about twice as fast because we were all on an adrenaline/sugar rush -, but it has been nice to be able to take our time with these recordings. I think it especially shows in the arrangements on things like vocal harmonies, that’s something we really pride ourselves on. And we’re very lucky to have such a talented sound engineer like Ali in the band! Junk Whale recording mostly consists of consuming a frankly irresponsible amount of snacks and fizzy drinks. One of my favourite memories of recording the new EP was when Ali, Hannah and I took a break to play football in a field near where we were recording – Jenny filmed us playing and used it for the ‘Bleeding Out’ video.
You’ve played loads of great gigs over the years, including supporting DIY heroes Martha and recently playing with GIHE fave Ray Aggs, but is there a particular show that stands out as a highlight for you?
A stand out show for me was with Doe and Milk Crimes in 2019. Doe were (and are still) a band I really looked up to and who influenced my songwriting immensely, so playing with them was kind of a dream come true. Turns out they’re absolutely lovely humans too – sometimes you should meet your heroes! It was an also an emotional night for me because I’d only recently come out as trans to my bandmates and a few other close friends, and it was the first time I’d worn femme clothes and presented myself in public as ‘not-a-man’, so it’ll always be a special one for me.
And, sadly I have yet to manage to see you live (!) – for others who’ve not had the chance, what can fans expect from your live shows?
We love to rock out – sometimes this means going too hard too early and leaving myself out of breath by about the third song! We just like having fun, playing the music we love with our pals, and hopefully that results in a good time for the audience. Also, expect endearingly awkward stage banter, we really haven’t mastered that yet.
When you’re out on the road / playing gigs, are there any particular essentials you like to have with you to keep you going?
On our recent weekender with Nathy SG, we mostly survived on protein bars, Candy Kittens and fizzy drinks in only weird flavours. Ali’s puzzle books, Hannah’s Star Trek eps and my enormous collection of car CDs kept us going too!
As we’re an organisation focused on supporting new music by people of marginalised genders, I just wanted to ask how you feel the industry is for these communities at the moment? Do you feel that much has changed over the years in its treatment of women and queer artists?
We’ve not really involved ourselves with the ‘industry’, whatever that means. We only want to play gigs with bands and promoters who share our values and support women and queer artists. I don’t remember the last time we played a gig where we were the only band featuring non-men. In fact, the last few gigs we’ve played we haven’t even been the only band with a non-cis member – I don’t know if this is a sign of progress in general or just a sign that we’re choosing the right gigs to play, and maybe we’re just lucky that Oxford has such a diverse and inclusive music scene, but I think it goes to show that you don’t have to settle for shitty treatment if you don’t want to.
And are there any other bands / artists that you’d recommend we check out at the moment?
Top Shortage! They are one of the best bands in Oxford at the moment – they’re an amazing live band, especially their front-woman Noa who is just a mesmerising performer. They don’t have any recordings yet but hopefully some are on the way. And Leibniz from Brighton, they sound like all the grungey, heavy bands we loved when we were teenagers and they go HARD live. Also Fashion Tips from Newcastle & Leeds, who play very loud and danceable electro punk.
Finally, following your lovely EP, what does the rest of 2025 have in store for Junk Whale?
We’re working on lots of new material and might even have some new recordings in the works. And we had so much fun on our weekend tour with Nathy SG and we’d love to do more gigging this year, there are so many places we haven’t played yet. Book us to play in your city!
Huge thanks to Junk Whale for answering our questions!
Make sure you check out Junk Whale’s gorgeous new EP, See You Around, I Guess? on bandcamp now, and also come along to catch their energetic and “endearingly awkward” live show supporting Belfast queer punks Strange New Places at New River Studios, along with Breakup Haircut, on 10th October. Tickets on Dice now!
Photo Credit: Ian Hanham
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