OOR HALLOWEEN COVER: Venus Grrrls - “I don’t think Mary Shelley knew she was a goth...”
“We've really leant into the more macabre side of the human experience on this EP - we've really been allowed to be the purest form of the darkest workings of our minds.”
Spooky isn’t just a short-term season for Leeds band VENUS GRRRLS, it’s their entire ethos for embracing the dark with the lightness of life and channelling morbidity and romance into modern-day gothic music. Vocalist GK (Grace Kelly) and guitarist Eliza Lee peel back the awakening of their gothic influenced EP To Die As Lovers May, full of succulent and alluring tracks to sink your teeth into.
“Some of the songs have already been in existence for a while, and at the beginning of this year we found out we'd be making the EP,” GK details the conception of the album, “it was exciting because we've never had the creative freedom to spread our wings with a body of work. We met with Brad Mair (STING, MARY J BLIGE) for a writing session, and we loved it so much we asked him to produce To Die As Lovers May.”
The band shipped themselves to Mair’s studio in Spain (“it was cheaper to go out there than to bring him over here”, the unspoken horror of the UK’s financial crisis just adds to the gothic tones of the EP) where they continued to develop their tracks and embraced the organic process that enveloped them, each member taking the helm when creativity struck them. “We’ll go in with the seed idea,” Eliza breaks down the growth of the EP, “maybe GK will have the lyrics - she had the intro to Carmilla already to go - or I had the verses for Evergreen, and then we’ll build it from there in a blaze of chaos in the studio. The downside is when we get to practice for live shows, we get to certain bits and I’m like “what the hell did I play on that track?”, and then you have to do a bit of problem solving with your earlier self.” The pair laugh at the absurdity of how they tackle this issue in preparation for their live shows, Eliza admitting she’ll make notes or film herself playing with an opening of “future you, this is what you play!”.
Practice has been key for the four-piece as their mammoth tour has been creeping ever closer, particularly as Eliza utilised different guitar sections whilst performing as the solo guitarist. Lamenting she’d “love to have eight hands” like an Eldritch horror or Frankenstein’s Creation in order to play multiple guitars at once, she’s been focused on narrowing down how to deliver the most impactful parts of their tracks. It’s no small feat for an EP that channels the darkest, “disturbed” aspects of the mind into raw lyrics and notes. “The EP is an exploration of viscera,” GK summarises their work, “it’s very soul-bearing and you go back to the origins of that, a lot of which is in early Gothic fiction and, particularly in this case, the 19th Century with Frankenstein and Carmilla being huge thematic and literary influences. That’s the genre I feel most comfortable and uncomfortable in, but it’s exciting to take other forms of media and move them into your lived experience.”
At this point, we of course had to run through the best Gothic icons (besides VENUS GRRRLS themselves), a question that ultimately became the most difficult question of our chat given the slew of horror icons available, Eliza pointing out there are “some figures in history who are unintentionally goth”, GK adding “I don’t think Mary Shelley knew she was a goth” as we burst into laughter.
Having set more current parameters the pair find clearer answers. “Morticia Addams growing up and Nancy Downs (The Craft) were always some of my favourites,” GK decides. “My head keeps saying Edgar Allen Poe,” Eliza muses, with GK laughing he passed long before the parameters of the question (“if he was in a film now that would be a right trick!”), “I’m a big Hammer Horror fan so we have to go with Christopher Lee, but also an uncelebrated horror icon Britt Eckland because I’m dead into folk horror.” We deviate at this point to talk more about certified badass Christopher Lee and his well-lived life (GK exclaiming “how can someone attract so many original experiences?!”) before getting back on track for their future plans and what they can manifest. “We’re so ready for an arena tour,or getting over as far as America and Asia,” Eliza says enthusiastically. “If we could do a support slot for Robert Smith (THE CURE), or playing Glastonbury as it's the only UK festival we haven't done yet,” GK laments. “Every time we think of going for it they have to stop it all for the cows, we could just have them as part of the set,” laughs Eliza.
It’s a sure sign of how quickly VENUS GRRRLS has spread across the airwaves and cast their spell over a wider audience that they’re already crafting their future, with the assured sense that their dreams are becoming more corporeal with each passing day. It’s something the band regularly reflect on, from their shared beginnings to the cathartic influence their songs have on fans. “There’s nothing more rewarding than finding out that an experience you’ve had and conjured into a piece of art has resonated with someone else, it’s provided some solace or comfort in a hard time of their life,” GK says with heartfelt feeling. “In a world of division, it’s nice to be united in something even if it’s a shared negative experience - there’s comfort in feeling validated.”
“It’s like purging the experience of feeling by putting it into a song and externalising it, you give it somewhere to live,” Eliza adds, “You can all be there together but then you can leave it there.”
“It’s like when I look at the soundtrack to my teen years,” GK continues, the pair bouncing their camaraderie off each other, “there were so many occasions where I’d hear lyrics and think ‘I didn’t have the words to describe that’, but it’s not just music it’s any piece of art that’s accurately described an experience I was having. To provide that for someone now it’s an honourable job to have.”
The quartet are ready to open up and connect to fans on their tour, and practice has gone smoothly. What more could be needed for their Gothic infusions and Halloween showstopper? “If any fans (on the Nottingham Halloween date) want to meet in the car park beforehand for necromancy…” Eliza shrugs with a conspiratorial grin. “We hope to see everyone dress up, we're planning to. We might do a seance, BYOC - Bring Your Own Corpse,” GK adds with deadpan humour. So prepare thyself for an emotionally visceral offering of meaty riffs and vocals that tear through the veils - if you don't have your own corpse, store-bought is fine.
Words: Julia Stark
Photos: Libby Percival
Cover Photo: Venus Grrrls
Cover Design: Robert Halls
Editorial Lead: Amber Brooks
With thanks to: Sarah Maynard, Killabop Records, and Major Transmission Promo
Comments