The world is opening up, we’ve had some sunshine and
Keen to know more about the transition from engineer
we are oh so close to the ‘real deal’ of a live spectacle.
to artists, we sent over some Q’s. On the south coast,
The cover of Issue Thirty-Two features Chubby and the
Brighton’s Lime Garden have just released their new
Gang, a London band who have their sights set on every
single ‘Sick & Tired’. Keen to ask about their rise through
stage possible in the UK and beyond. A band born in the
lockdown, we gave them a Zoom call to discuss just that.
Hardcore scene and now bringing their take on punk to
Heading north to Leeds, we find newbies, English Teacher.
the forefront of the alternative world, we caught up with
Named in part due to a family history of educators, we
the band in a Camden pub to discuss their new album ‘The
get to know them a little better. Staying in Yorkshire,
Mutt’s Nuts’.
L’objectif are another new name on the scene. Barely old enough to taste the city’s hot spots, we chat about what
One album further down the track are Wolf Alice. Four
they plan to do now that the school shackles are off and
years on since the release of ‘Visions Of A Life’, the
how they find the balance between jazz and post punk.
band have released their third album ‘Blue Weekend’
Switching roses and heading to Lancashire, Manchester
and we gave them a call to chat country walks, braver
specifically, The Goa Express have released one of the
lyrics and looking forward to the return of audiences.
songs of the year in ‘Second Time’. We fire over some
Leaving London down the M3, somewhere in Fleet are
questions to dig the details on their work with Ride’s Mark
Drug Store Romeos. The three piece have been honing
Gardener plus how shared experiences are key to their
their dreamscape sound on the London circuit for some
sound.
time. With the help of Fiction Records, the band are about to release their debut album and we get deep with them
In Glasgow, art punks, Kaputt, have recently shared new
on language and communal exploration. Responsible for
single ‘Movement Now’, a track that confirms their status
some of the most exciting artists starting to surface are
as something to be very excited about. Being inspired
untitled (recs). Intrigued to know more about their process
by Downtown Boys and the importance of The Old
and what they aim to achieve, we got in touch.
Hairdressers were on the agenda of our call. To finish we head to the states, and in Chicago we find Horsegirl.
In London via the North East is Hussy. Following a
Recently signed to their dream label Matador, we squeeze
few teasing moments of brilliance in 2018, the multi
them for details on what’s to come and the programmes
instrumentalist is gearing up to release her debut EP.
that helped them come to be. From degree show to being our first So Young Records collaborator, we also get to
3 Lime Garden Sick & Tired
know illustrator and animator, Daisy Link.
8 Chubby and the Gang The Mutt’s Nuts
32 Kaputt Carnage Hall
12 English Teacher R&B
35 Daisy Link Stickheads
15 Wolf Alice Blue Weekend
37 Drug Store Romeos The World Within Our Bedrooms
20 Hussy Slayer/Playtime
42 The Umlauts Energy Plan
24 The Goa Express Second Time
45 L’objectif Drive in Mind
29 untitled (recs) All over the place
50 Horsegirl Ballroom Dance Scene Opposite, Molly Harman
The term art-punk springs to mind.
You can kind of tell in the lyrics that everything on the EP was produced in lockdown. They’re quite self-referential
For sure. I think a lot of our songs vary, some are very
so you can probably tell that it’s all connected.
punky and some are far from it. How did you sign to the indie label Chess Club Records Let’s get to the nitty and gritty of your forthcoming
(Sinead O’Brien, Alfie Templeman)? What’re they like
debut EP ‘Have It Your Way’. There appear to be
to work with?
contrasting moments of brain bashing one minute and getting into a funk-led groove the next. What should we
It was initially quite a sick way to get signed to be fair. We
expect from the EP?
were on twitter and BBC Introducing have a ‘Feedback Friday’ where bands can upload their tracks. I think
All the tracks were written around the same time, but
we uploaded for every session because they allocated
you’re right I don’t think that they all sound the same.
different people from the music industry with separate
It was definitely inspired by loads of different things.
times to give feedback. Will Street (co-founder of CCR)
There’s the obvious jazz and post-punk influences in each
said we were one of the first bands that kept popping up
song, but also lots of funk in there as well. Each track is
on his feed - Louis had his finger poised and ready to send
like a different reflection of our overarching influences.
each time. We snuck our age in there too to maybe grab
I’ll be honest, when I’m writing music it’s mostly about
their attention a bit and they said something along the
the sad times. I think that, lyrically at least, I’ve never
lines of “this sounds great, I can’t believe you’re only 16”
written a happy song. There are loads of great upbeat
and it all went from there really.
tunes out there, that’s just not really my thing (haha). I like to pour my brain onto the paper and think, ‘ok that’s
You mentioned that you’ve only had one gigging
rubbish, that’s rubbish’ and then clean it all up afterwards.
experience to date but now it seems you’ve already sold out your first headline show in Leeds and announced
A bit like a brain vomit where you see flashes of the
that you’re playing Liverpool Sound City - congrats!
delicious cheese sandwich you had earlier?
How keen are you to get back to the live stuff?
That’s exactly it!
I’m so excited! I think we’ve got a lot to add into our live performance that people haven’t seen or heard yet.
How did you go about recording in lockdown?
We’re definitely all performers so we can’t wait. Not being able to play a gig in over a year has been terrible, so
Everything on the EP was pretty much recorded in
we’re all so ready to get out there and play anywhere and
lockdown. We’d been writing music for so long that the
everywhere.
main question was - how do we get it out there? We didn’t know what to do. Then once lockdown hit, I thought I
Has the underground alternative scene in Leeds played
might as well just try to record and produce some music
a part in your rise over the past year?
myself. I spent days on end learning about production, trying to get some average production down so that we
To be honest we’ve not been able to properly experience
could finally get someone to listen to us. It was quite
the Leeds gig scene ‘cause we’re too young. The last time
difficult, because it was at the time when you couldn’t see
that we were properly gigging was when we were 14 and
any of your friends so there was literally nothing else to
we weren’t allowed to go into any of the main venues, so I
do. I love making music so that’s just what I did all day
don’t think we’ve had much interaction with the scene yet.
every day. A definite lowlight was getting too bogged
I’m sure it’s amazing! L’objectif all started with bedroom
down when I didn’t really know what I was doing. When
recording so we haven’t had a chance to be around any of
you’re just starting out, you find yourself in a bit of a
the live stuff which is annoying – but I’m sure we will!
rabbit hole sometimes.
47
L’objectif
I feel like local authorities all over should be trying to
But it’s kind of just like, once you get into a room, once
offer young people these safe spaces to try something
you get into like, this sort of groove, you’re kind of in
scary and new. How important do you think this was
sync, and then it seems that songs can build off of that.
for the formation of Horsegirl? GR: It does rely a lot on what we were talking about with GR: Specifically, the programme we met each other and
being able to play with other people and forming that
became friends in, was really focused on live performance
connection is like, basically, that foundation of learning.
as well as learning your songs by just listening by ear.
That is the best way that we work, when we’re together
Which is a really important skill, I think, is to be able to
and able to feed off of each other’s ideas.
like, listen to a song and pick out the parts. PL: I think that we kind of write on the fly, I don’t really PL: We were at a programme where we learned how to
know how else to say it. Like, we’ll just be together,
play with other people and that was so valuable because I
someone will bring a small part and then we’ll just flesh
think learning an instrument on your own is a different art
everything out. And it’s like working with Nora as co-
form than it is to learn how to communicate with others
guitarists, it’s like we’re almost writing parts for each
and how to improvise with other people. So I think that’s
other.
like a really valuable skill. The existence of Horsegirl has largely coincided with When you’re young and into music, it’s like, so hard to
a global pandemic - I’d imagine then that you haven’t
find kids to play with or talk with. At my high school, I
toured much so far. Is touring something that you’re
never really met kids who have the same music taste as
looking forward to being able to do?
me. But in this music programme; we met each other, we’ve met kids to go to shows with, like a whole scene
GR: We fantasise about tour. And obviously, every artist
kind of started brewing. That was really wonderful.
ever says that touring is so tiring, and you get sick and it’s
Also, in Chicago there are a lot of youth run shows and
awful and I’m tired.
collectives and we met a lot of people that way. And I feel like it’s also really important for young people to
PL: They’re like, “You guys gonna fight with each other.”
organise their own shows. And because we’re under age we couldn’t go to adult shows. So like, we had a place to
GR: Yeah, but we’re just like, so pumped to get mad at
go, we had a place to meet other kids and be inspired. It’s
each other and sleep in a van. (laughs)
so cool to see young people doing cool stuff here. What can we look forward to with your first record? GR: Yeah, we’ve just got to have the people that’ll take that initiative.
PL: We are so bad at describing it to people, every time we try, it’s like they don’t understand what we’re talking
You all share vocal duties with passages of spoken
about. I think we’re trying to have a punk rock energy or
word poetry at times overlapping singing parts that
punk rock...
altogether can create a quality of hypnosis in your music - could you tell me a little bit about your writing
NC: Although it’s not..
process? PL: It is not punk. It will not be overproduced. We’re not NC: It’s hard to describe how the process works because
going to make a polished…
there have been times when we’ve reworked songs, like we’ve reworked multiple songs, and they’ve taken
GR: We like to say we are sticking to our DIY roots, even
completely different routes. And you can’t really retrace
though we are certainly not doing it all ourselves..(all
exactly how it happens.
laugh)
51
Horsegirl
Artists
Josh Whettingsteel Molly Harman
Editors Sam Ford
Josh Whettingsteel
Writers Sam Ford Al Mills
Dan Pare
Emma Flynn
Rhys Buchanan Brad Sked
Reuben Cross Dirk Baart
Josh Whettingsteel
Jolanda Kerttuli Marco Quadri Neethi
Sun Bai
Amyisla Mccombie Sammi Lynch Daisy Link Amy Moss Anna Beil REN
Jazmin Key
Cover Photo
Jordan Hemingway
Matt Bisgrove
Photos for Collage
Sammy Clarke
Jordan Hemingway
Laura Pegler
Printed By Ex Why Zed
info@soyoungmagazine.com
Website
Sirus F Gahan
Neelam Khan Vela
Percy Walker-Smith Sara Carpentieri Louis Butler
Art Direction
www.joshwhettingsteel.com
www.soyoungmagazine.com
Special Thanks
News
Harley Cassidy
@soyoungmagazine (Twitter)
SoYoungMagazine (Facebook) soyoungmagazine (Instagram)
Jack Reynolds Jamie Ford Dan Pare
Cameron JL West