GREEN MAN 2022: QUICKFIRE ARTIST Q&A’S

In between all the good music and pints, VOCAL GIRLS writers Daisy Carter and Amber Lashley caught up with some of the most exciting new artists at this year's Green Man festival.

PRIMA QUEEN

Just hours before their set at the Walled Garden stage, Prima Queen’s Louise Macphail and Kristen Mcfadden joined us for a chat about their beginnings and their creative process.

Is there anyone you’re particularly looking forward to over the weekend?

K: Loads of people! Katy J Pearson-

L: Kraftwerk, but we’re actually leaving tomorrow morning! I really wanted to see Jenny Hval-

K: -and Cassandra Jenkins, but she’s playing when we’re playing.

L: Alex G too! When I was looking at the line-up I was just covering up the Saturday and Sunday, I guess we’ll see what we see.

K: There’s loads of good stuff today though.

How would you describe your music in some non-genre-related words?

L: Happy-sad?

K: Electric guitar? Focused on the lyrics.

L: Harmonies… and for today: space princess.

What can people expect from your live set-up? I’ve seen you have a rotating live band, but is the core of Prima Queen you two?

L: Sometimes we do gigs with just the two of us, but now there’s usually four of us. We used to have a bigger lineup though.

How did you two meet?

K: We met when I was studying abroad! I’m from Chicago and I came over to London. 

Did you immediately want to make music together, or was it more of a slow burn?

L: I was actually shown a video of Kristen introducing her as ‘the new girl’, I was like: “we’re going to be in a band together, I can feel it”. Everyone else was like “play it cool, play it cool”. 

K: Once I walked into the room I just saw Louise beaming at me - I was like “who is that girl? She’s gonna be so nice!”.

L: Then we decided to be in a band, but we had to be separated because Kristen went back to America! We eventually managed to be back in the same place though.

When you were separated and writing music, how did that work? Were you sending notes to each other?

L: Yeah, on WhatsApp! I don’t think Zoom was even a thing then. 

K: Just sending each other voice notes and stuff, or calling on FaceTime.

L: It would always be that one of us started a song and then sent it over to the other, it worked really well. Then lockdown happened and we were just like “oh, we know”. 

K: We know how to do this, we’re used to it!

Did the fact you were rarely together make the whole process of writing and releasing a lot longer?

L: We didn’t even have a band name at that time, we were just writing songs together. We didn’t have any other band members either, we just had a vision. 

K: It was our time to work on what we wanted it to be, while not really knowing what it was gonna be. We just liked being together and playing together-

L: -and being best friends. 

You’ve just come back from supporting Wet Leg on a few tour dates, how was that?

K: It was really fun.

L: We were actually saying how weird it was. You know when you’re in the same place a year on and you remember everything that happened a year ago? Well, we actually met [Wet Leg] at Greenman last year - they were playing and we saw them in a food queue. 

K: We were like “Hi, we like your band!”. 

L: We asked them, “are you guys best friends?”, and they were like “we’re on the same cosmic plane” [laughs].

Your latest single was produced by Jules Jackson and Ferne Ford. How did that come about? Had you worked with The Big Moon before?

L: We went on tour with them before lockdown. 

K: We were looking for new producers during lockdown, and they came up in the mix. It was our dream come true - we always looked up to them, so to work with them directly and see what they brought to the songs was really cool. 

L: And knowing their music so well and then seeing how they worked, it was like “oh, so this is how you do it!”. 

K: Yeah, we got to see the insides of it. I feel like in ‘Chew My Cheeks’ there’s a synth part that is very The Big Moon-y. 

Is there a particular song of yours that you’d tell people to listen to first? One that sums up Prima Queen?

K: Not really… we both sing lead so every song is different, but that’s what makes it all one unit, you know?

L: That’s what we find hard about releasing singles, because it’s like “which one do we do?”.

K: We could go in so many different directions. 

When you write the lyrics, is it a collaborative process or do you each take a song? Some seem particularly intimate - ‘Milk Teeth’, for example. Are they usually based on one person’s experience or an amalgamation of the two?

L: Each song is kind of a story: whoever is singing lead, it’ll be their story or their experience, but then we’ll help each other tell it because we know what’s happened.

K: We’re best friends so we know each other’s lives inside out - it’s almost easier to help someone when it isn’t your story, cause it’s like: “you’ve missed this part! You’re not portraying this right”, or “you told me this other thing a year ago!”.

L: I feel like in some ways too we have similar experiences; it could be one person’s story, but it fits both of us. We used to sing at the same time but then we realised that probably wasn’t good, because we’re quite different people… when you sing as one, you’re almost diluting your own personality. 

K: We’d always be saying to each other, “oh I wouldn’t say it like that” because obviously, I’m American. 

L: Like ‘sofa’ versus ‘couch’, or ‘period’ versus ‘full stop’. 

K: Certain things like that! Then we would make these songs that neither of us felt particularly connected to.

Then it’s neither of yours.

K: Yeah! It was creating something that doesn’t feel right. We love songs that are really intimate, that’s what draws us to music, so to take that away would defeat the point of music for us, I think.

PORIJ

Amidst a flurry of people trying to catch the fast-rising quartet for a chat, Porij - Egg, Nathan and Jake - sat with us to talk us through their hectic summer and their breakout track ‘Nobody Scared’. 

Could you please introduce yourselves and say what you do in Porij?

Egg: Hi, I’m Egg, and I do lead vocals and synths in Porij.

Nathan: I’m Nathan and I play the drums.

Jake: I’m Jake and I play guitar.

Could you give us a rundown of how you guys met and started making music together?

E: We all went to the Royal Northern College of Music together in Manchester. Three of us lived in halls together and Nathan was a little bit older - wait - let me rephrase that - wiser, Nathan was a little bit wiser! We just started jamming together and then got offered a gig. We had to write the set in a week and we went for it! We basically wanted to make dance music but with live instrumentation, and I think we’re kind of doing that.

Is there a particular inspiration behind the live instrumentation?

E: Well, I think we all had such a love for the genre and we wanted to capture the energy of a DJ set, but have it be a gig setting. I think it's really exciting visually to see people play it live. Not that DJs aren't exciting - shout out to my DJs! Obviously, we've got other influences in there and when you play with live instruments, naturally, it gets a bit indie as well. 

Do you find that mix reflected in the kind of crowds that you see at your gigs? Are they different to what you might get from a DJ set, for example? 

E: Yeah, definitely. I think we've got a wide variety of people that come to our shows, which is lovely. We've got slightly older people in the crowd who maybe listen to 6 Music a bit more, and young people who listen to 6 Music as well! Then sometimes we get people who are moshing to ‘Nobody Scared’ which is just completely unexpected. So it's a really wide variety, but I think that's what makes it so lovely. 

N: I’m still waiting for a flare. You know when there are people and it’s their first festival and they’ve got a flare… I really want a flare. 

E: Nathan, you’re just describing your brother! Call him - you know what to do.

N: Get your flare out!

You mentioned ‘Nobody Scared’, which lyrically is a strange one to mosh to. Was that track based on personal experience?

E: I wrote that song during lockdown and I had just watched something on Netflix, it was all about the Yorkshire Ripper actually. It was talking about the Reclaim the Night movement and it just made me think about the experiences I had growing up, and the experiences most of my friends had growing up. It’s funny that you mention the moshing actually, because it is meant to be positive. I think the instrumentation is very positive and light, it's more meant to be empowering. Obviously, it’s an important message, but it’s saying ‘you know what, we don’t need to put up with this. Let’s stop that and let’s mosh’! 

Could you give us three words that are non-genre related to describe your music?

E: Oh, we’ll do one each! Chaotic.

J: Energetic.

N: Liberating.

E: Fourth word! Euphoric - just throwing it out there.

N: We’re aiming high, these seem like big words.

E: We’ve looked at a thesaurus! We know what's going on guys.

Who else are you looking forward to seeing whilst you’re here?

E: Literally whoever we can! There are so many people I want to see that I’m just going with the flow and if I have a moment, I'm gonna duck into a tent and I'm sure it’s gonna be some of the best music I’ve ever seen. This is my favourite festival, but tomorrow we’ve got to go to another festival called TRUEFEST.

Have you had a busy summer of festivals and touring?

E: It is insane. It’s been hectic but in the best way. I never imagined we'd be doing so many - we’ll have done like 25 [dates] by the end of the summer. Sometimes we've had three festivals in a weekend, but I think it's been really good for us. We grew a lot over lockdown when obviously there wasn't much going on, and we’d been playing consistently before that, but this is our first proper summer of festivals. It's been wicked; it's been so fun. 

Have you got plans for any releases or more touring coming up, or will you have time for a bit of a rest?

E: No, no, no rest for the wicked. We've got a UK tour in September. We’ll be at Heaven in London on the 23rd of September. A Friday night! If you're not there, what are you doing? We're also releasing our EP ‘Outlines’ and then writing and recording our debut album! Pretty packed, but I’m feeling pretty relaxed about it. You’ve just got to go for it when you’ve got the moment, you know?

BLUE BENDY

In between watching some sets on their day off, Olivia and Joe from the South-London six-piece, Blue Bendy, joined us to tell us about how they all met and who they’re excited to see at Greenman this year.

Could you introduce yourself and say what you do in the band?

Olivia: I'm Olivia, and I play synths in Blue Bendy.

Joe: I'm Joe, and I play guitar.

How did you guys meet and start the band?

J: Me and Arthur, [lead vocalist], both moved to London at the same time and just started practising a couple of his songs. After a bit of time, we were like “we should find a synth player”.

O: My ex-girlfriend invited me to go to an audition with a band. It was really weird, I was seeing this phone call with my ex’s name and I was like “Oh, I don't want to pick this up”. Then I picked up and she was like “hey, do you want to join a band?”. We had our first rehearsal in a room above The Five Bells and there were no amps or anything.

J: We were like “just do something over these songs”, then Olivia did and we were all like “wow okay, this is great”, and that was it.

O: I just played the chords!

What a great result from a phone call from an ex! 

O: Yeah, and I nearly didn’t pick up!

For people who haven’t listened to Blue Bendy before, is there a particular song from your EP that you'd recommend listening to first?

O: ‘A Celebration’?

J: Yeah, that seems to be the most popular. 

What is it about ‘A Celebration’ that you think catches people’s attention?

J: It's quite pop-y I guess? It’s odd pop, so it's quite easy to listen to. 

O: It’s got a sing-along vocal too.

Could you give us three words that are non-genre related to describe your music?

O: Busy, but neat.

J: I like it.

O: I’ve got a wide mind today [laughs].

One thing that’s quite intriguing about your sound is the use of orchestral instruments. Was that something that you always set out to do?

O: I think it was just luck actually that we knew a flautist. 

J: Yeah, and it's sort of been on and off. So Katherine — who played the flute on a couple of our tracks — isn't properly with us, but she was going out with Arthur at the time. He was just like “we should have some flute on this track”. There was a bit of push and pull between people who wanted some flute and those who didn’t, but it worked out for the best.

How does the process work for the six of you in the studio? Is it mostly collaborative?

O: It tends to be that one person has brought something in; Arthur is quite good at bringing a skeleton of a vocal melody and some chords, and then we'll build from that. More recently though, for example, Harrison has written a song himself. So it changes.

J: It's pretty collaborative. There will be a starting idea but then you’re sort of free to do what you want.

You’re based in London, which is always lively and collaborative in its music scene - is there anyone around you at the minute who you’d particularly recommend?

J: We just saw Tenderhost! The drummer in that band is actually our producer, so he did our EP. They were really good. PVA, Bingo Fury…

O: Robbie & Mona! They’re amazing. 

Is there anything different we can expect from your Green Man set?

O: Yeah, we're trying to play ‘Supersonic Man’. It's just a song that goes “supersonic man” over and over again. It's not really a song, but we kind of think it's the best thing ever [laughs].

It sounds like it could be perfect for a festival - getting a chant going and everything. 

J: There’s a bit of that, but it’s under-rehearsed… we’ve played it once. 

O: We’re playing the new one as well! I think [Joe] has had one rehearsal with the new one and I’ve had two. So yeah, we’re playing the new one.

J: We’re opening and closing with two particularly ropey songs, so we’ll see how that goes [laughs]. 

Aside from yours, is there another set this weekend that you would say is unmissable? 

O: Ethan P. Flynn was really good, he was on earlier. And I mean of course, our best friends over at KEG. 

They did a DJ set last night too, right?

O: Yeah, they did but it clashed with Metronomy! So none of us went. Alex G for sure, Deathcrash are great too.

J: Cola! As soon as this festival ends we’re going on tour with them - eight dates around the UK. There’ll be lots of bonding with Cola, so shout out to them.

O: The Wedding Present! I’m so excited for them, 17 year old me is gonna lose it. Something is gonna come out of my chest… you should all be there to see it! It’s weird, I don’t know how [their music] is going to hold up, being older but singing about all this teenage angst, like “you’re wearing my favourite dress!” and “send my love to Kevin”. I can’t wait to see it.

THE UMLAUTS

Moments after their three-song set at the intimate Green Man Records stage - during which members were scattered across the stage and in the front of the crowd - we were joined by seven members of The Umlauts. With synth player Patrick joining us halfway through the chat, we discussed the band’s origins and their creative process in the face of alternating studio and live setups.

Could you please introduce yourselves and what you do in the band?

Maria: I'm Maria and I'm a singer, lead vocalist.

Alf: I’m Alf and I play the bass and synthesiser.

Ollie: I'm Ollie and I play the synthesis-ers.

Toby: I’m Toby and I play the drums.

Annabelle: I’m Annabelle and I am a vocalist.

Magdelena: I’m Magdelena and I play the violin.

Where are you guys from and how did you form the band?

Ollie: So, Alf, Toby, Patrick and I are from Stroud in Gloucestershire - we’ve been playing together since we were like 14 or 15? Then Alf and I met Annabelle and Maria at art school… we’re one of those bands [laughs].

Was your art school in London?

Ollie: Yeah, Wimbledon College of Arts. I’m like a walking advert! We’re down with UAL. 

Alf: We met Annabel and Maria there and we started writing a lot of songs, then formed a group by accident. The idea of the songs sort of came before the idea of starting a group, which was nice! It was like it already existed before it existed, and we just kind of fulfilled its requirements.

Could you give us three words that are non-genre related to describe your music?

Annabelle: Chaotic?

Maria: Synthy pop!

Toby: Silly, deliberate. 

Alf: Intentional music. 

Ollie: There we go, there’s a list of words. 

I've been told that in the studio, there are usually about four of you, compared to the nine of you we see on stage. What’s the reason for that?

Alf: It’s just how it started up, originally it was just the four of us and we had no intentions of playing live. Then we enlisted the help of the rest of the group to do that. It’s fairly new in the sense that we have nine of us, so I don’t know how it’ll be moving forward. 

Ollie: We played our first show last July. 

Maria: It’s only been a year that we’ve been playing live, so we’re still figuring it all out. 

Alf: We only finished the last record around a similar time ago too. 

Toby: Inspired by bands like Soulwax as well - I really like dance music but with live drums, I think it gives it a bit more texture.

Ollie: We didn’t want to do stuff where we just sync our music into computers, which in one sense could make recorded stuff a little easier to do, but it’s so much nicer having a big group and then the songs can develop together. We’re really different live to how we record at the moment, so it’s nice working out with nine people how we’re going to wander through these songs.

Toby: By playing the music!

I was wondering how it worked songwriting-wise - is it something that the four of you do and then you adapt it to a live show? Or is it the nine of you coming together and figuring it out?

Ollie: The nine of us come together and figure it out. 

Toby: It’s transitioning the record to the live stuff.

Alf: Like a translation- 

Toby: We try and learn it as it is on the track and then it comes out as its own thing.

Annabelle: It gets its own colour palette. Or sound palette, in a way. 

With other components - such as violin - that you wouldn’t necessarily have in writing sessions, are they something that [Magdelena] would add later, or is there an initial idea of what you want?

Magdelena: They write some violin, but then there’s some that we just figured out in practice.

Annabelle: It’s also a process that you can’t really pull a line through.

It’s not an exact science.

Ollie: It felt right to have a violin in it.

Maria: But then for example for the last EP, when Magda came to Margate to record the violins, she started playing it and some bits started to change because we realised that the sound is very different coming out of a real violin to how it is on a computer. So then you adapt that sound and everyone comes up with little bits that they want to change. 

You guys have an EP coming in October, is there anything you can tell us about what to expect?

Annabelle: Two songs have come out so far that definitely set the tone of it - I feel like it’s more intentional than the last one. I think the last one was us trying things out and finding our feet a bit. Whereas this one seems a bit more composed and more thought through, it’s a bit more mature actually.

Maria: We actually knew what we were doing.

Annabelle: When we first came into it we had no clue what was going to happen with the whole project, we were just like “let's make some songs”. Whereas with the second record, we knew what resources we had.

Ollie: That’s not to say it was easy though.

Patrick: We said that the new one was like the daytime, and the old one was like night-time - wait, sorry - the reverse of what I just said. The new one is night-time, and the old one is daytime. The third one will be dusk. 

So you guys are London-based at the minute: are there any bands around that you feel particularly connected to?

Annabelle: Gentle Strangers are really good friends and they put on a really good show. 

Maria: Uh as well. Spelt U-H.

Ollie: MFP (My Fat Pony) too, they’ve been getting loads of gigs up in Manchester, they’re really sick.

Annabelle: Butch Kassidy! They’re so good.

Toby: -and Caroline!

Annabelle: Magda is in Caroline. 

Maria: Mermaid Chunky! You should check them out, they're really cool.

Patrick: -and check out the Ultrasound Department - they’ve not got much material out yet, but it’s spicy. You have to dig to find it, but it’s good.

What have you guys been up to over the Greenman weekend?

Annabelle: We were smashed yesterday.

Alf: There was this big skip and it was full of cardboard. Really big. We had a marvellous time there all evening, it was really nice.

You played the main stage yesterday too, right?

Annabelle: Yeah! We were backstage getting iced tea quite a lot.

Maria: The sofas were amazing.

I’ve been told that you brought a man called Paul on stage. What’s the situation with Paul?

Ollie: Paul was in our most recent music video [for ‘Another Fact’]. He’s a lovely chap, he’s a legend: print that. 

Annabelle: He’s part of the band now, I think. We met him at one of our gigs at Venue MOT in Bermondsey and he just came up to me and asked me if he could dance on stage with us, and I was like… “No? But you can be in our music video if you want?”. We set it up basically the next week, but then he did end up coming on stage.

Patrick: Everyone’s dreams came true!

Maria: It was a very happy moment. The sun was shining. Paul was on stage. Lovely.

Is there any set here that you would say is unmissable?

Annabelle: I mean today we have a set plan. Grove, Witch, Viagra Boys and then go and see Kraftwerk, then Scalping.

You guys mentioned that there were 3D glasses for Kraftwerk too?

Annabelle: Yeah! It’s an all-3D show apparently! So you stand outside and get all the visuals. 

Ollie: Well done Kraftwerk! Impressive stuff. 

Patrick: I finally get to experience the 3rd Dimension. It’s been a long time in 2D [laughs].