A Chat with Birthday Girl (24.08.2020)
Stockholm-based alternative rock band Birthday Girl have been busy bees over the last year recording new material. Their latest single ‘Old House’ is just a taste of what they have in store for us. With more music to come, we sat down with the band to talk about the new single, their music, future plans and much more!
OSR: How did the band get together?
Birthday Girl: We got tired of going out and telling people we were in a band, so at some point, we had to actually do it. Three of us are friends from England where we used to live, and when Fran met Joakim they happened to have the same tattoo in the same place by the same artist, so it was meant to be.
OSR: Your music is a combination of alternative rock and dream-pop, did your sound evolve into this or was this what you wanted from the start?
Birthday Girl: We actually wanted to sound like pure aggression when we started, just noise with a drum beat, but then we fell into harmonising all the vocals and swapping some noise for reverb. We’re not as cold and heartless as we first thought.
OSR: Is there a backstory to your single ‘Old House’?
Birthday Girl: ‘Old House’ was written a long time ago actually up a mountain in the Pyrenees, we stayed there and the only person for miles was this German sheep farmer, real-life German Shepherd. She was very nice, so we wrote it about her and invited her round to listen, I don’t think she liked it.
OSR: What was your creative process for the single?
Birthday Girl: The song was written as a group in about half an hour extremely drunk in an old house with the rain hammering down outside, I don’t think there was even electricity, just baguettes and wine.
OSR: You have released a limited-edition print on vinyl of ‘Old House’, what made you decide to do this?
Birthday Girl: We’ve done a few singles just digital, so it’s definitely time to have something physical. We’re playing a lot of shows in October all things permitted so it’s nice to have something to flog I suppose.
OSR: In the last year, you have been recording for your debut album. What are the biggest challenges you have faced with this?
Birthday Girl: We have recorded the album twice because we thought we could do it ourselves and realised we haven’t got a clue what we’re doing. Being stuck at home this year actually allowed me to learn a lot about recording, so we just scrapped what we had and started again. So yeah, the biggest challenge was our lack of skills and willingness to ask for help, but we’re nearly there and it is a banging record.
OSR: You have showed booked for October, do you expect the pandemic to affect this?
Birthday Girl: We definitely expect the pandemic to affect these shows, in a way we’re stupid for even booking them now, but it was meant to be in May, so fuck waiting any longer. It’s definitely possible that some or all could get cancelled and it’s almost certain that there will be capacity restrictions. It feels like we’re the only group on the planet touring this year, but half of us already have antibodies so no real concerns.
OSR: If ‘Old House’ was an animal, what would it be any why?
Birthday Girl: Given that it’s a song about a shepherd, it would have to be a sheep, a lamb to the slaughter.
OSR: If you could have people remember one thing about your music, what would it be and why?
Birthday Girl: If people remember it at all, it would be nice if they thought it was honest and real.
OSR: Do you have a message for your fans?
Birthday Girl: Hello fans, see you both soon.
Thanks to Birthday Girl for chatting with us! You can find more about them on their Facebook, YouTube and Spotify.
