Blown away by their latest free track, I had to get in touch with Post War Glamour Girls to find out what they were all about. They were only too happy to help…
17 Seconds: Introduce yourselves please
J. Smith.:Hello, we are Post War Glamour Girls from Leeds, we are J.Smith (vocals/ guitar) Alice (bass/ vocals) J.Thorpe (guitar/ vocals) and Tight Clyde (drums/ vocals)
17 Seconds: How did the band come together?
J. Smith: I met Alice when I needed some Accordion recording for a track i was demo’ing which turned out to be the first ever PWGG song, She came and nailed it in one take and then we decided to start the band.
I met Tight Clyde in someones flat and we bonded by drumming Radiohead songs on our thighs with chopsticks and trying to guess what they were. Clyde pipped me with Talk Show Host, I think.
I met Thorpe on the first day of uni but steered clear of him because he had these weird blonde highlights in his hair and looked like he might be in a boy band. He joined the band about 9 months later, once the highlights had grown out, we let him in.
17 Seconds: Who do you see as your musical influences – and do you include Nick Cave amongst those?!
J. Smith: Yes Nick Cave does come up a lot, and I do admire his work greatly, but not as much as people might think, I love the 2 Grinderman albums and I have a fair few bad seeds albums, I love Your funeral… my trial and i’ve got a birthday party greatest hits as well, Once we get compared to someone I tend to stop listening to them for a little while as I get concerned we may start to emulate a sound that people assume of us, rather than moving forward on our own terms.
Also, between us recently…
Can, Portishead, Gavin Bryars, The Fall, PJ Harvey, Led Zepplin, Anna Calvi, Wild Beasts, Grizzly Bear, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Pixies, Neu!, The Art Of Noise.
Slides by Richard Harris is the best album in the world.
17 Seconds: What about influences outside of music on your work?
J. Smith: Stewart Lee. R.S. Lowry, Kurt Vonnegut.
I think what the above all have in common is that they hone in on something slightly surreal or a bit abstract within a very mundane or real situation, and I think thats what we try to do as a band, sonically and lyrically.
Aside from that loads of books, films, funny things you overhear people saying in the street and The Wire, we’ve written a song about Clay Davis.
17 Seconds: What can we expect from the live show?
J. Smith: We love playing live and I think it shows. We like to differentiate between the studio and live. In the studio we layer it up and spend a lot of time, getting noises together and stuff. Live we just plug in and rock AND roll, 2 guitars, bass and drums. OLD SKOOL!
in addition to that, I usually say ‘hello we’re post war glamour girls’ after 2 songs and make a mumbled slightly humorous, topical comment around 5 songs in. No one laughs because I mumble, is what i tell myself to get to sleep at night. J.Thorpe will usually wear a cardigan and then regret it, The sooner my glasses fall off, the better we’re playing OR the hotter the lights are. The bridge of my nose gets really sweaty.
17 Seconds: Do you have any strange tales from your live experiences?
J. Smith: we played with an ace band called sly and the family drone the other night and the frontman was in his underpants and kept spitting in a dog bowl and then drinking it. If we ever play with our good friend Thomas Truax as well, something weird will usually happen on his behalf.
Also, it’s not strange in a weird way, but I remember the first time these people called Jo and Simon came up to us after a gig and said they’d travelled to see us and I’ll always remember that as the first sort of ‘fans’ we had that weren’t mates of ours to begin with. Also when a guy called Mikey came up to us in London and said he’d come from Brighton to see us. It’s just really nice meeting sound people and I hope, if they remember us, we will always remember them.
17 Seconds: Are you working towards an album at the moment?
J. Smith: We have an e.p due out around may, which we’re currently recording, then another single in summer. Later on in the year we will probably start recording an album with the intention to release it in 2013. The plan is to not use any of the songs we’ve already released or plan to release, so hopefully it’ll all fit together as a solid brand new album for us and everyone else.
17 Seconds: What are your plans for the rest of 2012? Any festivals in the offing?
J. Smith: Yes, we’re playing a few festivals, but i can’t announce any of them yet. ssssh.
17 Seconds: Finally, any plans to come north of the border?
J. Smith: we are playing in Edinburgh on the 24th March at Henry’s Cellar Bar, if that’s of any use to you?