Music > Interviews

Girls Names

21/01/16

Girls Names have been around for about seven years, and their sound has moved swiftly from dreamy surf pop to their current vibe, post rock indie with some well crafted lyrics. From Belfast, they’ve chosen to take a bit of a different route through the music industry. Vocalist and main man Cathal told me about starting a band where no one could play any instruments, and how not moving to London has actually played in their favour.

When did you first start getting into music yourself, and what were you doing before Girls Names got together?

I’ve always loved music from being a kid onwards, but progressed and got really into it in my later teens. Before the band musically I wasn’t doing a whole lot, I DJ’d around town now and again with a friend. I worked in film and TV actually, and I still dip in and out of it now.

None of you could really play any instruments before Girls Names existed. How have you managed to become a valid and successful band so effectively?

With a bit of luck I think! It’s been seven years since our first gig, which is a long enough time for a band to progress. It helps that being in Belfast you’re left to your own devices and we’re not really sucked into the middle of the music industry, we’re on the outskirts a bit. We’ve had the time to nurture our sound a little bit.

Have you deliberately stayed in Belfast rather than move to London?

Yeah, well it was never really an option in our case. We do go over there in fact I’m going this weekend, but the idea of living there as a musician doesn’t really appeal to me as it’s such a struggle and it’s not worth it. It wasn’t that we set out to be professional musicians or to do this long term, we were just winging it. So the old option of going to London to ‘make it’ or whatever never really appealed to us. I think it’s outdated anyway.

Yeah I guess you managed to get your debut EP released by a New York record label without moving to London.

I know, that gave us a push and also made us realise we didn’t need to move; if you’ve got the Internet, your music can go anywhere.

What have you learnt from the other bands you have toured with?

You do pick things up, definitely. It’s interesting. Sometimes you pick up musical things but more life skills and how to balance your normal and tour life and how to finance yourself.

I’m going to ask you where you got your name from even though that must be an irritating question!

Ha ha, yeah! It’s a nonsense name really. It just goes to show how this was all unplanned, we just thought we’d see how it went and see what happened. I didn’t think seven years later we’d be still going, far exceeding any expectations I had. The name wasn’t really thought about in any serious way. The label that released our first EP suggested that we change our name but being naïve and stubborn we refused!

Do you have long term plans for the band now or do you pretty much take it bit by bit?

It has been bit by bit but we’re in the middle of a semi-long-term plan. There’s a sort of infrastructure behind us now so we’re in that album cycle which can be pretty frustrating. But I can’t complain, it’s already exceeded all my expectations as I said and I’ve got to travel all round the world.

Your sound started off quite 60’s surf guitar-y but now I can hear a lot of Jesus & Mary Chain, The Smiths, The Cure and The Fall in your music and it’s got some sharper edges and teeth to it. Is your sound developing organically or has it been a deliberate move to sound different?

It’s a bit of both really. At the beginning we didn’t really know how to make music and we were just winging it. When I started this band I was into all those bands you mentioned, The Fall especially and also The Birthday Party. Weirdly that’s where the surf sounds came from because I was a massive fan of Rowland S.Howard’s  guitar. He had this weird demonic surf style. It just progressed then as we made records, learnt how to work in a studio and how to experiment a bit more. In the early days we were making pretty simple poppy songs and I wasn’t happy with that, I wanted to push things, and express my frustrations through the music.

Your latest album is Arms Around A Vision. Why is it called that, and what does the sleeve represent for the album?

It’s a line taken from the last song on the record and I don’t really know what it means! I did have an idea at the time but it was recorded over a year ago now. It’s kind of funny; when you release something and put it out there it almost feels like I don’t really have ownership of it always and it’s all open to interpretation. And even personally, not that I listen to it at all, but when singing it it can mean different things. As for the sleeve, we sent the guy who designed it these early photographic studies of the body from the turn of the last century. Francis Bacon had a book of them actually that he used when he was doing his paintings. So I sent them off and gave him big ideas and he got pretty abstract about it! I like the ambiguity of it all.

The video for A Hunger Artist from the new album shows a hapless guy interviewing you unsuccessfully as you’re being difficult. It made me a bit nervous of speaking to you! How do you feel about doing interviews?

Sometimes it’s OK..I’m not totally comfortable all the time. It’s interesting; I enjoy to the extent that I wanted to see if we could behave as one of those sort of groups and do the whole ‘make a video and act a bit ‘to push us out of our comfort zone. It was collaboration between the director, and our label helped us with it as well.

Who can you recommend we check out that you’ve been listening to recently?

Oh, William Basinski who’s a really minimalist composer. I’m actually going to see a guy from New York called Craig Leon play on Sunday. He’s a producer from the 70’s and 80’s who’s worked on so much stuff, like Blondie, Talking Heads, and Suicide records. He made this crazy experimental synth albums that got reissued last year and he’s playing them with a string orchestra. I’m looking forward to that. I listen to loads of stuff that you wouldn’t associate with Girls Names.

Your lyrics are intriguing. Do you have any favourite authors, poets or philosophers that you turn to for inspiration?

I’m really into the poet Apollinaire, who wrote beautifully, and whilst writing the last two albums, I know it’s clichéd, but I read a lot of the Existential writers like Kafka and Camus. I think everyone goes through a period of that!

What’s the Belfast scene like at present?

It’s a weird one. Live music doesn’t happen as much as it used to, but perhaps that happens everywhere. Compared to when we started a lot of venues have closed down or changed their remit..some of them have ripped out stages and just do club nights now. The dance scene here is pretty big and some of it’s good, some is mediocre, it’s all a bit samey. So yeah there aren’t so many live bands but we were never that involved in the scene, not in the middle of it all. It’s bubbling under but not as prevalent as it used to be.

Girls Names play at Norwich Arts Centre on 21st February. Tickets available from ueaticketbookings.co.uk