Boring Girls are the most visceral Cambs proposition since Bomb Factory. I spoke to Maxwell and Ollie from the band about lo-fi, their fantastic debut LP and the future.
Boring Girls, at what point in life do we find you?
M: At college, exam season. I would find that awful, but we have study leave in a couple of weeks so it doesn't seem that bad. Probably not the best attitude to have in the world though. I'd rather be focusing on music stuff.
O: I'm going to university in September, assuming I get the grades. I want to go out in a blaze of glory, and Boring Girls is the obvious way to chart success, and tons of drugz and bitchez.
M: Hasn't worked yet.
For those uninformed readers of Mane Shakin' Folk, please give us some idea of the music you create.
For those uninformed readers of Mane Shakin' Folk, please give us some idea of the music you create.
O: We want to be like Wavves but aren't.
M: Because we aren't American.
O: We want to be like Odd Future but don't have enough swag. So we made some white boy music.
M: We wanted to sound like Pissed Jeans but didn't have the balls so we sorta tried to sound like Cloud Nothings but failed that too.
O: And we're too southern to sound like The Cribs.
M: Yeah I don't know... we just make loud, simple music that we like and have fun playing, and hopefully people with similar taste will like it too.
Why 'Boring Girls'?
Why 'Boring Girls'?
O: It's a song by Pissed Jeans.
How on earth did you go about writing and recording the tunes on the 'Boring Girls' LP so quickly?
How on earth did you go about writing and recording the tunes on the 'Boring Girls' LP so quickly?
O: Maxwell has a lovely shed and neighbours who didn't follow through with threats of violence when we were recording, so we managed to record everything in the easter holidays and still have time to, er, revise.
M: Yeah I dont really know how. I only got an electric guitar and properly learned guitar at christmas (I'm a drummer), so its not like i've been stockpiling crappy songs since I was twelve or something like most musicians. I think it's too much free time really.
Favourite tune on the record?
Favourite tune on the record?
O: 'Ocean Dragon Fridays', personally.
M: Because I sing I find it pretty hard to enjoy hearing my own voice, which is the reason why I like 'Bambinos', because it doesnt really sound like me, it sounds like a crazy tramp or something. But I think im most proud of 'Revolving Doors' because it was the first song I really wrote and it's so simple that it just manages to work for me
I can hear slight resemblances of a bewildering range of groups in your sound (be they recalling Royal Trux, Los Campesinos!, Bo Ningen, No Age, whoever...) But the question is where do your influences actually lie?
I can hear slight resemblances of a bewildering range of groups in your sound (be they recalling Royal Trux, Los Campesinos!, Bo Ningen, No Age, whoever...) But the question is where do your influences actually lie?
M: We could list bands forever here really, it'd probably get boring. I'd say like Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon mostly, not really as an influence but as an inspiration, then like Wavves, No Age, The Cribs, Deerhunter, White Denim, The Replacements and bands like that are all influences. It makes me sad how few of those are British.
0: Pissed Jeans, Wavves, Cloud Nothings, Black Flag, Times New Viking, Eat Skull, Male Bonding, Sonic Youth and loads of other bands we listen to but don't really sound like.
You certainly experiment with a DIY aesthetic on the record. What do you use (or not use) to give your music this effect?
You certainly experiment with a DIY aesthetic on the record. What do you use (or not use) to give your music this effect?
O: We don't use money.
M: I don't know if you can call it experimenting; it's recorded with a bass drum mic I got for £30, a Shure sm58 that's my brothers and a 2 input audio interface I got on ebay for £50, with Squier instruments and second hand cymbals. I mixed it on a pirated copy of ableton that i dont really know what to do with all in our sheds (not kitted out big music room sheds - sheds, we aren't rich). We really genuinely dont know how to record, I even dropped my music technology A-level a year into the course. We can pretend we tried to be lo-fi to be cool though, does that work?
How do you find playing live? Have you done it much?
O: Once so far, and I couldn't hear anything clearly through the monitors, so it was terrifying. I had to look at Maxwell and guess where we were in the songs, but apparently it ended up alright.
M: Yeah, it wasn't bad. We have a gig coming up at the Portland Arms (12 May), so it was good practice for that. It was a blur though, I don't remember it.
You're from Cambridge. As am I. What's your favourite hangout?
O: The Regal is cheap but awful, The Portland Arms is great, Clowns is a nice cafe. But generally we just sit on spare patches of grass and drink whatever beer we can find cheapest.
M: Haha, that sounds about right, cheap is good.
Finally, are there any particular records/artists/labels/etc that you're especially enjoying at the moment?
Finally, are there any particular records/artists/labels/etc that you're especially enjoying at the moment?
O: Dirty Cousins/Tread Water/F.U.C.K. Grouper's new double album is great too, This Will Destroy You's is mindblowing as well, and Let's Wrestle's is probably excellent judging by the live stuff.
M: Yeah, shout out for our friends' music from Cambridge - Four Undercover Kings, Dirty Cousins, White Label, Tread Water, all great stuff. I'm listening to loads of the Beach Boys at the moment and Animal collective/Panda Bear. It's really interesting to hear how they passed on their sound. Bradford Cox has crazy amounts of music, and its all fascinating too, so that as well.
