For Manchester’s attitude-filled post-punk girls PINS, 2015 has been a crazy year. The charismatic group saw the release of their second album Wild Nights, with a stretch of exciting tour dates in America, and UK shows forthcoming this September. Gigslutz caught up with Faith and Lois from the grunge-laden indie-pop group of the year, upon their return to the UK…

Your second album Wild Nights, which came out earlier this year, draws on genres from rock n roll to post-punk and grunge. But what were PINS’ biggest influences behind the album? Which artists do PINS draw their unique attitude-filled sound from?
Faith: Previous to the album we covered some ’60s girl group bands and released it on a cassette; around that time I listened to loads of the ‘Girls In The Garage’ records and I think the 4 part harmonies and guitar tones that made it onto Wild Nights are inspired by those records. ‘Curse These Dreams’ pays homage to ’90s Madchester and the end of ‘Dazed By You’ is our Sergeant Pepper’s moment. I can’t remember all of the influences, we wrote it ages ago, but it’s a record of purging and cleansing – maybe that’s where the attitude comes from. It’s real.
Lois: With Wild Nights we have a spread of songs that were written over a year and a half, and there’s loads of different influences depending on what was happening or what we were listening to at the time. When we’re recording, we always end up referring to Velvet Underground at some point, and I think part of the sound of the album(s) is that we record the bulk of it live in a room together. It means there’s little imperfections here and there, but we like it like that.

Wild Nights seems to develop on from your debut album Girls Like Us – with a more polished indie-pop sound at times. PINS seem to have become more commercially digestible and clean without losing their charismatic bite. Was this a direct intention on the second album, or did PINS become more polished through natural chemistry?
Faith: It’s more of a case of having access to better equipment, working with a producer and being better musicians – we recorded it at Rancho De La Luna which is a treasure chest of vintage gear. Dave Catching was on on producing duties and Hayden Scott was engineering, we only had one week to get the whole thing done, but I feel they got the best from us, they guided us on a journey and we came out new people at the end.

You recently completed a summer US tour. Did you have fun over in America, where was your favorite place to play?
Faith: So much fun, we drove through Badlands and made a video for ‘Dazed By You’ – it’s a vast landscape with huge cliffs… We were stood on the edge playing guitar and miming whilst tourists drove past.
Lois: I love getting to see a new place everyday, and we always try and make time to see a bit of it whilst we’re there.  I really like Seattle, and Denver was a pretty cool place, I think it took us about 5 days to drive there though. My favourite show was at Mercury Lounge in New York, it was at the end of the tour and it was packed. It was like an end of tour party.

You’re now not only a critically acclaimed band in the UK, but growing in high recognition in the US. How does it feel to be spreading PINS’ music across the globe?
Faith: It’s always flattering and strange when we go anywhere and people know who we are; it feels good, like it’s growing.
Lois: It’s exciting!

Despite your vast spreading recognition over in America, do PINS still feel a strong attachment to their roots at home in Manchester?
Faith: I love Manchester, it’s my home!
Lois: Yeah definitely, people are always asking if we’ve moved to London yet. We didn’t, and likely won’t. Things are good in Manchester 🙂

Whilst over in America you filmed the video for your new single ‘Dazed By You’ on Super 8 film; how did the video idea come around and did you enjoy filming it?
Faith: Well yeah! As i mentioned earlier, we drove through Badlands and decided to make the ‘Dazed By You’ video on that journey. We took turns to film each other with a Super 8 camera – it was funny, jumping out the van every few miles to film a bit more.
Lois: We also did some filming at a natural hot spring on Kyoko’s birthdays. We got up early and jumped in fully clothed.

Is it true you took the finished film and scribbled and burnt and scratched the film? It works to mesmerizing effect. Whose great idea was this?
Lois: Yeah, I sat at home unwinding the film with a load of sharpies, sandpaper and a soldering iron. It’s 8mm so it’s very small to write on, but luckily it worked.

Have you been pleased with recent responses to ‘Dazed By You’?
Faith: Yeah, it’s one of my favourite songs to play live. We only received our copies of the vinyl today – not even had chance to listen to it yet. The flip side to it is a song called ‘Live & Let Go’, we recorded it during our time at Rancho De La Luna but it didn’t make it onto the record. We had so much fun recording that song,  so I’m glad it’s getting its time to shine too.

You are about to embark on your September UK tour. What can fans expect from your forthcoming sets?
Faith: We’re going to play 90% of Wild Nights and some ‘old’ ones, send us your requests.

Once PINS have finished touring, what’s next for the band? Will PINS be hitting the studio for a third album? Or perhaps taking some relaxing time out after a crazy year releasing, promoting and touring Wild Nights?

Faith: We’re already writing the next one 🙂

Huge thanks to PINS for answering our questions. Their UK tour starts tomorrow: 

17 September – The Portland Arms, Cambridge
18 September – Deaf Institute, Manchester
19 September – Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh
22 September – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
23 September – Oslo, London