INTERVIEW: Girlpool - GigslutzGigslutz

After playing a fantastic Bestival set to round their run off nicely, we caught up with Girlpool – LA punk-rockers Cleo and Harmony – before they headed off for even more lives shows…

So how are you guys? Enjoying the rare bit of English sun?
Yeah it’s nice!

And how’s festival season been for you?
This is our first time doing so many actually. We just did End of the Road, Electric Picnic and now Bestival – we had FYF in LA too. It’s been really fun.

How do you find festivals in the US different to festivals in the UK?
I don’t know, really. We’ve only played a couple of festivals in the US – I think we’ve now played more here but it’s tricky to tell.

What are your plans for the rest of 2015?
When we get back we have a pretty big US tour then I think we’re going to lay low for the winter.

And are there plans for an album any time soon?
Yeah we’re recording but we don’t know when. We’ll just feel it out, see how it goes.

Is that generally how your writing works then, just taking it as it comes?
Yeah, but we like to write a lot. We like to explore ideas together and if it ends up being something we like then we’ll use it.

And how did Girlpool come about?
We were both playing DIY shows in LA, so we’d played together and realised that we both had similar intentions in writing music and what we wanted to create so we decided to explore that. It’s worked out really amazingly.

Do you think there’s a big scene for your kind of music at the moment or is it quite a tricky genre to get into?
Well we’ve been fortunate enough to be in a big music community growing up so that’s what we enjoy most about it, but there’s always been such a wide variety. We get to witness so much stuff.

And if you could be part of any festival lineup, who would you want with you?
All our friends… Anyone we relate to!

Finally, then, who should we look out for at the moment?
Again, all our friends are doing amazing things! We just got off tour with Quarterbacks, Fraternal Twin are amazing, Stephen Steinbrink… There’s a lot of cool music around.

Huge thanks to Girlpool for answering our questions, their debut album Before The World Was Big is out now.

Melissa Svensen
@MelYeaahh