• Interviews

• All
• Music
• Cinema
• TV
• Comic Books

Sep 29, 2021 By Andy Von Pip Photography by Holly Whitaker Issue #68 - Japanese Breakfast and HAIM (The Protest Issue)

South London’s Goat Girl made waves when their idiosyncratic politically charged self-titled debut album landed in 2018. The band—who consist of Lottie Cream (aka Lottie Pendlebury, vocals/guitar), L.E.D (aka Ellie Rose Davies, guitar/vocals), Rosy Bones (aka Rosy Jones, drums), and new bassist Hollie Hole (aka Holly Mullineaux)—have now released their second album On All Fours, which demonstrates a fresh, more experimental approach to creating music.

On All Fours gives off an air of effortless progression rather than a “difficult” second album. However, Davies says it took them a while to hit their stride. “As we’d been touring so intensively it did take us a while to get back into the swing of writing again,” she explains. “We had some half-written songs which all had some nice elements, but a lot of them ended up being scrapped or re-imagined.”

The band again enlisted producer Dan Carey (black midi, Fontaines D.C., Bat For Lashes) and there’s certainly a more synth-led sound than on the previous album. However, Davies explains that they had been experimenting long before going into the studio. “Holly introduced us to her synthesizer which is a Korg Minilogue and we had great fun exploring the possibilities it offered.”

Jones says they did their best to fight against complacency. “We all wanted to try something different so we did switch instruments a lot,” they explain. “I was a bit bored with just drumming so the synth was heavily involved from the start.”

In the wake of a critically acclaimed debut album there’s often a new weight of expectation and Pendlebury admits she was aware of this. “Initially it felt quite daunting as we wanted to challenge people’s perspectives of who we are,” she says. “It was also exciting and an opportunity for us to address those perceptions. I felt throughout the promotion of the first album we were put in a box, and not allowed to break out of that via our music. And the second album has been a chance to tackle that.”

On All Fours may not ostensibly appear to be as overtly political as their debut album but Pendlebury is comfortable with the band’s reputation for taking on ruling parties in their lyrics. “I didn’t have a problem with being seen as political, we all are,” she explains. “I was probably more concerned that people would be expecting us to retread the same ground. I couldn’t write something that simply replicated the first album. That was a certain time in my life and my reaction to those frustrations. I don’t think I’ve ever written in a way which tells people what to think or feel, it’s always been more drawing attention to what’s going on and the exasperation that exists within that. Goat Girl is about creating a safe space to express our opinions and allow people to join us, to feel they can be part of that collective and also express their feelings.”

[Note: This article originally appeared in Issue 68 of Under the Radar’s print magazine, which is out now. This is its debut online.]

www.goatgirl.co.uk

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.