It is a rather intoxicating musical cocktail, and the lingering impression is that the band has almost more ideas than they can juggle all at once, which does not prevent them from trying anyway - and succeeding in a way that has something of the miraculous. Talking to them leaves much the same impression, with a buzz of racing thoughts, quick-fire interjections, and new ideas constantly popping to the surface. We discussed the life of the hard-working touring band, their love of the Brixton music community, and a concept album that might or might not be in the works - and of course, inevitably, a myriad things more.
MITB: You had a very busy time at The Great Escape. How did it go?
Alien Chicks: We actually played four sets, and they all went different levels of good. The first one was really fun. The second one was quite quiet, but still fun. And the third one was a little bit quieter, because of clashes, but we still had some thirty people in the room and got some moshing. We are not quite sure how we’re still alive after all that. We just have breakdowns all the time, but then, we just think, we’re not signed to a big label yet, so we just have to keep going. But it’s been great.
MITB: I’d say your sets are usually pretty high energy.
Alien Chicks: Yeah, we get some good crowds. Mosh pits, crowd surfers - often it’s people who have seen us before, so they kind of know it’s coming. We’ve had a good run of mosh pits. Even in places that tend to be a bit more static, maybe, all it takes is one person to start it, and then it catches on, which is nice. We’ve been lucky so far.
MITB: Have you been playing any new music recently?
Alien Chicks: We’ve got something that should be the opener on this concept album, which is about a man who has to go to a distant land to get some magic earth from under a lemon tree… there’s dragons in it - it’s quite a big concept. It’s called ‘Enter The Little Man’. Now, sadly, we don’t have any money, so if anyone wants to fund our album… we’d happily put a call out for that. We’d also want to do, like, a full half an hour music video for the entire album, front to back, so we only need about 100 grand probably. And if anyone wants to add us to some Spotify playlists, you may do that as well.
MITB: As they say, you’ve got to be ambitious.
Alien Chicks: We’ve been told we’re industry plants, but we haven’t been planted very well, so… yeah, like failed industry plants. We’re like cress. You know, how cress never really grows? We are industry cress.
MITB: It feels like pretty much everyone has been accused of being an industry plant at some point.
Alien Chicks: We can’t possibly be accused of it because we’re not doing well enough. Someone said we were, and we were like, are you serious? Look at the state of us. We don’t know anyone in the industry.
MITB: Assume someone has never heard any of your music, what would you say to explain it?
Alien Chicks: Probably something like - do you like poop rock? Do you like multiple time signatures? Do you like not being bored at a gig? Mosh pits - we have said that one already. Punk, weird chords, rap, all of that. Jazz - although if you like jazz, there’s a chance you won’t like this. But yeah, if you like any of that, then come to our gig! It is like all of that, all at once.
MITB: So how does all of this happen? How did it start - what’s to blame?
Alien Chicks: So many different things - tap dancing probably, Stefan and Josef actually met at a tap dancing class. And then, for Martha, a brass band. Then obviously the Windmill in Brixton, best venue in the world. We actually ended up moving to Brixton just because the Windmill was there.
MITB: It is a fantastic venue, and it really feels like a whole community.
Alien Chicks: It’s where we met so many of our friends. We used to play there four times a week in the beginning. We still play there relatively regularly. We put on our own nights there, where we choose bands that we really like. I’s just great music. Loads of bands who are making a buzz now are from that scene, like Man/Woman/Chainsaw, or Westside Cowboy. They’re all from that scene. You meet some great people, good musicians. It’s the best music, but it’s also the least pretentious people, for the most part. Everyone is really nice, and it’s not very cliquey at all. You can chat to anyone there, you can go by yourself. Some venues are very cliquey at times, but we’ve never found that at the Windmill.
MITB: Some other favourite places to play that you can think of?
Alien Chicks: A couple in Wales - the Moon in Cardiff, which sadly has closed now. And the one opposite, Clwb Ifor Bach, which was really good, a good space, really fun. We got a speeding ticket on the way back from that gig, but it was worth it because it was a good gig. The Hope and Ruin in Brighton, and Green Door Store, which is the best. It’s nice to talk about things we like, actually. We did an interview once where we spent about 90% of it roasting everybody.
MITB: Do you want to?
Alien Chicks: We’d like to slam the industry in general. We hate the music industry - although you meet like, 10% of people who are absolutely amazing. But we see a lanyard and we want to run away. There was a good moment when we had a mosh pit, and then it stopped, and there were just loads of industry people at the front not moshing, and Stefan goes - come on, lanyards! You can do it as well! They probably didn’t find it very funny. But there really are a lot of amazing people in the industry too. And we do love what we do, we just hate all the BS that surrounds it.
MITB: What is your biggest frustration with the scene at the moment?
Alien Chicks: We feel like a lot of people don’t have an opinion about music. They just go where the wind is blowing and where they think it’s exciting. It’s annoying. They like bands who sound like other bands, which we don’t. So that might be why it’s difficult for some people to get into it. We don’t really have that thing - ‘for fans of this band’. That’s risky too, because if you say you sound like another band and then people don’t agree, they’ll just be like, you’re not very good.
MITB: So would you say your mission is to not sound like anyone else?
Alien Chicks: Not quite a mission, but it really feels like we don’t sound like anyone else. It’s like twenty different things all stitched together. It’s this mix of like, rap and jazz and punk and whatever. We just write stuff we like and enjoy playing, and the different things we like come in through that. Overall we’re very happy with it, we’re having a good time.
MITB: Are you doing any more festivals this Summer?
Alien Chicks: We are actually playing Glastonbury! Then we are doing two festivals in France, which will be cool because we have never played there before. And we are going to Tenerife, which is the weekend before Glastonbury, so we are going to be ruined. We’re playing the Windmill, then going straight to Tenerife, then coming back and going to Glastonbury. We’re kind of used to it. Used to do gigs at weekends, then drive back and work all week. It’s doing something we enjoy, so it’s good.
MITB: Sounds like a lot of fun.
Alien Chicks: It’s not stopping either. We’ve got a huge tour in October around Germany and the Netherlands and UK. So come to one of those. And we are playing on the 1st of November at Green Door Store, so come to that one. And we’ve got an EP that’s just been released, but we don’t have the vinyl yet and Spotify hates it, so you should really check it out.
Chiara Strazzulla
Images: Aoife Hyland
