ALIEN CHICKS: WE MOVED TO BE NEAR THE WINDMILL BECAUSE WE LOVE IT SO MUCH
Ahead of their single release show, VOCAL GIRLS’ Amber Lashley sat with Alien Chicks to touch base on the bands’ beginnings, their love for The Windmill, and karaoke crowd surfing.
Photo Credits: Indy Brewer | @indybrewer
Alien Chicks are the fast rising, Brixton-based trio, made up of Joe (vocals and guitar), Martha (drums) and Stefan (vocals and bass). After releasing their crazy second single, ’27 Stitches’, the band hosted a packed and sweaty single release party at the renowned venue, The Brixton Windmill. Pulling together a lineup of other upcoming artists, Alien Chicks’ electric set was sandwiched between their support acts—A Void, Cowboyy, and Duck Wax—and an entertaining karaoke session hosted by the cult favourite, Pink Eye Club. The night was sold out and ready to burst by the time we sat down with them for a pre-show chat.
How did you guys meet and form Alien Chicks?
Joe: Me and Stefan met when we were 10 years old in tap dancing class. I taught him guitar when he was 17 and we had a couple of groups together. We moved to Brixton to be near The Windmill and then we met Martha in a practice room-
Stefan: -and why were you in said practice room Martha?
Martha: I was playing in an all-female brass band and overheard Joe complaining about not having a drummer. I just said “I’m a drummer!”, then he said “are you good?” and I was like “yeah”, and that was that.
Funny how it works out.
M: Then we did a few rehearsals and I found a gig at the New Cross Inn and we basically said yes to every gig from there.
S: We did so many gigs, we did 18 gigs in October or something-
M: -and we’d only met in September.
Both individually and as a band, who would you say are your musical influences?
J: Black Midi. I listen to loads of jazz as well, and loads of bossa nova and rap; Ocean Wisdom and A Tribe Called Quest, Denzel Curry - that all comes into it.
S: Black Midi are sick, I’m really into Led Zeppelin, I think I learnt a lot about bass by listening to them. The Beatles! I really like that era of music, Pink Floyd and that kind of thing. Squid are really cool too, it’s quite a mash of modern stuff and older stuff for me. But I don't really listen to that much rap. Unless Joseph's showing it to me in the car like “listen to this, it’s so sick!”.
M: I grew up listening to Nirvana and Pixies, lots of Ska and Reggae as well. Stone Roses, Primal Scream. The Ramones! My brother used to love The Ramones so I always used to listen to them on repeat. Green Day! Well, when I was little I used to listen to a lot of Green Day. Oh, I love Lily Allen as well-
S: -and ABBA! How could you not mention ABBA?
M: Lily Allen has got to get a mention I’m sorry. I might even do it on karaoke later.
Do you remember the first song or artist you guys bonded over as a band?
J: For me and Stef, back when we were 17, it was The Libertines, we were so into them. Pixies too! Massive Pixies fans, all three of us are.
M: ABBA-
S: -yeah but not by choice, she just plays it in the house at 3am.
You guys have just put out your second single ‘27 Stitches’. How long has that song been around and why did you choose it as the follow-up to your debut, ‘While My Landlord Sleeps’?
S: We had a really good phase where we just banged out a few songs, it was pretty early on after moving here. It was gonna be the first release originally but we weren’t too sure, I guess that’s why it’s the second one.
M: Some of our best songs we definitely haven’t released yet.
J: I love this one!
M: I love it too, but there’s been a few recent ones, like ‘Mr Muscle’, ‘Candlestick Maker’, and ‘Steve Buscemi’ that are going to be sick.
Steve Buscemi?
J: One of the barmen here named it!
S: It’s quite an interesting name, it’s not really related to the song but I think it’s memorable isn’t it. Oh, and who is it that sings - “gonna mix these packs and potions''?
J: Hazey!
S: That verse [from ‘Packs and Potions’] has made its way [into one of our tracks] somehow.
I’ve heard it! In your live show, I was like, “is this…?”
J: Well yeah it is! Right at the end [of writing] I decided to throw [that verse] in cause I thought it was really funny, I used to do it in a Liverpudlian accent as well but then I was like ah.
M: You should do the accent!
S: No but it’s too quick with the accent!
J: Essentially the new single has been around since October, and I really like it. We usually finish with it - I think it’s my favourite one to play.
What have you been getting up to around the single release?
M: On Wednesday we had a bath together so we could make necklaces filled with our shared bath water, which we are selling for £5.
S: We’re fucking gross man.
M: We played a gig supporting Medicine Cabinet here - we were trying to keep it on the down-low because of the single release show today, but we failed at that. We [played The Windmill] last Friday with Neuro Placid as well.
S: We've also been emailing a lot of people, just spamming [them] like “listen to our stuff!”, and one of them was successful because we got played on Radio X which was really cool!
M: And we’ve been filming a music video for the third single! There have been lots of extras, some of the people from The Windmill! We're actually waking up at 8am to film more tomorrow, we might as well just stay up-
S: -we should just stay up?
J: I’m just not doing that, I’m gonna be dead to the world.
Lyrically, I’d say your songs are usually quite surreal and funny - what is the creative process for that side of your music?
M: Joe’s weird little mind.
J: I write lots of poetry, and normally Stef’s playing something and I’m like ‘that sounds really good mate’ and write around that. Me and Stef write the music together and Martha just taps something.
M: Rude.
J: It can be things that have annoyed me or things that I find funny, like maybe i’ll see someone and be like “jokes”-
M: ‘Woodlouse’ is about some guy’s haircut that looked like a woodlouse.
You guys are based in South London at the moment, which musically is always exciting. Are there any other bands around you who you feel particularly connected to?
S: Many many many.
J: Duck Wax - who are playing with us today - are really good friends of ours, Fat Dog are good friends of ours…
M: The Queen’s Head.
J: Neuro Placid, House Arrest, Pigeonhole, Pink Eye Club.
M: Cowboyy.
S: A Void, lots of good bands basically.
M: We got to know them all quite well. The lead singer from A Void, Camille, filmed our music video for ‘27 Stitches’ actually. She's really nice, and it was her idea to get us all in the bath in the first place.
S: It's nice because we get to put on nights ourselves, like tonight, so we can choose who we’re playing with. The crowds will be a lot of their friends who we also know, so it's always a really nice social event.
Speaking of, how did your regular sets at The Windmill come about?
M: We said to Tim [The Windmill’s Booker] that because we live in Brixton, whenever you have a slot just hit us up, and he just did that.
S: I think he realised that we just never say no to gigs, I think we said no once and he was like “oh, that’s weird”.
J: He was like “is everything okay?”. We just started playing here so much and then got a bit of a regular audience who came to watch us.
M: -and the sound is so good here.
J: We actually just love doing it, it's been my favourite venue since I was 16. As I said, we moved here to be near this venue because we love it so much.
S: Our aim was to play here maybe once by January/February and now it’s been about thirty times? But every time we go anywhere else we’re like “ah, it’s not The Windmill”.
Would you come here a lot before you started playing here?
J: I was here once a week / once every two weeks when I was 16. I used to come here with my friend Harry who plays in bands like MADE and White Devil Disco.
M: I lived around the corner so I did.
S: I’d never been here but I’d heard it was cool! The way [Joe] used to go on about it I thought it was like the O2 Academy, some massive venue.
It's such a passion place. I feel like when people are into it, they're really into it and they’re here all the time.
M: Yeah, there are people who will come to every one of our gigs, it’s so nice.
J: There is such a good community here.
You’ve been playing a lot of live shows recently, is there a favourite that stands out so far?
J: All the ones here, we’ve done some sick ones at [The George Tavern] as well where we’ve done karaoke afterwards and it’s been packed, like crowd surfing during the karaoke, brilliant.
M: There were a few in January that were really good, I think because everyone thought there was gonna be another lockdown. The first week of January we played Friday and Saturday night [at The Windmill] and both were packed! Like one was sold out and then they accidentally sold an extra 50 or 80 tickets or something like that? We also did a little tour in April! A DIY tour of the north basically.
S: After that tour we played 10 gigs in 11 days - I remember going back to work and I was just a shell of a man.
M: My hands were broken, I had blisters all over my fingers.
I know you guys said you don’t usually do covers, but hypothetically, what would be your dream song to cover live?
J: ‘Babooshka’ by Kate Bush, that would be a good time.
M: ‘SOS’ by ABBA, ‘Friday Night’ by Lily Allen.
S: Maybe a Busted cover, that would be fun. I used to have a busted CD when I was in year two so they were a favourite when I was really young.
Do you have any specific goals for the band over the next year?
M: Pyramid Stage.
Yeah, just something small.
J: I really wanna do Rough Trade, we haven’t done that yet, that would be cool.
M: To get some festivals next summer would be sick, like Wide Awake, Glastonbury?
J: Get some management? Some management would be nice.
S: It would be great to do another tour as well because the last one was so fun. It's exciting because the things that have happened so far have been above expectations. We don’t know what it’s gonna be like in six months, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
M: We’ve got big plans!
