I saw Girl and Girl back in December when they were supporting These New South Whales at the Brightside. And what can I say, other than they shredded hard and broke some hearts. I wept. The Gold Coast head-turners have been experimenting with some older influences recently, most notably in last years EP A Typical Friday Night (Shame, Sex Misery), and carried on in the laboratory with their latest single 'Garden Song.' The song plopped out of the sky on Tuesday 29th of March, so get your wireless headphones and plug in. The band comprises of Kai Aubort on the teeth tinglers & geetar, his Aunty Liss on the kick-hits, and brothers Jayden & Coby Williams slinging fat strings and skinny ones alike.
We were actually lucky enough to get a unique member-on-member interview from the band, and I'm just going to be fully honest and let you know that these guys are hilarious. So without further ado, let's get girl on girl:
Kai interviews Girl and Girl:
Kai James: Jayden, what song would you do for triple J’s ‘Like a Version’? But it's just you, no band, but you also have like a Bert from Mary Poppins one man band thing going on.
"I would one man band 'Age of Consent' by New Order. That’s just a song I’ll never get tired of and has so many lovely melodic parts that hopefully all my limbs can cover."
Kai James: Aunty Liss, would you ever do a solo drum record, if so would it be called ‘Aunty Liss on the tubs’?
"Yes totally, you’re spot on! I don’t think I’ll be doing a solo drum record any time soon, but if I did, maybe I would call it “Flight 1234”??"
Kai James: Jayden, who would play you in the Girl and Girl biopic, and who would play me and Aunty Liss?
"The guy from that show ‘You’. Apparently I look like him. Hopefully he plays me a bit less creepily."
"Kai can be played by Kai since he has professional acting experience."
"And Melissa I have no idea, maybe Helena Bohnam Carter could pull off Melissa’s cool Auntieness."
Kai James: Aunty Liss, favorite record from the 70’s and favorite record from the last 2 years, and why?
"I can’t say that I really have a favourite album from the 70’s. I was a little person in the 70’s and my parents were more into musicals and singing around the piano, than albums. As I got older I discovered more music, I went through a stage of listening to Led Zeppelin. In my late teens I listened to the Doors a lot. Albums I often go back to over the last couple of years, and would be considered amongst my favourites - not necessarily from the last 2 years, are Phantastic Ferniture - self titled album, Arcade Fire - Everything Now."
Kai James: Jayden, what would you rather, be the most successful musician on earth, but your genre is ‘sounds of the kitchen’, and it's just you banging pots and pans together in front of 100’s of thousands of people, OR be the least successful musician but you’re making really cool punk songs that warm your soul, whilst also calming all the neighbourhood pets?
"I would love to just play music for pets. That would soothe my soul. No fame needed for me."
Jayden interviews Girl and Girl:
Jayden: Melissa, what’s the special ingredient in our music that makes it magic?
"Oh YOU Jayden!! No sorry it’s Kai, oops maybe it’s me!!!! That’s at least 3 ingredients!
I’m certainly loving making music with you guys, I’m loving the music and getting to be creative with the drum parts."
Jayden: Kai, what other artists would you say we’re similar to?
"I would like to think parquet courts, A. swayze and the ghosts, Vundabar, Arcade Fire. A lot of people say The Smiths."
"Musical inspiration is constantly changing for me, and I like to think that's evident in our tracks, that they are also constantly evolving and changing. Inspiration is generally situationally dependent for me, it’s who I'm listening to at the time of writing a new track. For ‘Garden Song’ it was a lot of RAT!Hamock."
Jayden: Kai, ‘Mother’ comes up a lot in your lyrics - what impact does she have on your writing and are you a mumma’s boy?
"Yea I guess that's been a theme recently, the last three tracks I wrote were ‘mother’, ‘MOTHER’ and ‘My Mother Father Complex’. The first ones more ‘mum get out of my room!’ and the second’s ‘i love you mum, you're great’ and then third is more about my #daddyissues. And of course I'm a mumma’s boy, my mum is a literal punk."
Jayden: Kai, what’s your ideal height? Are you going to go higher with your next pair of boots?
"Ahhhh, you are referring to my #demonias, I think basically if i'm not at risk of hitting my head on something during a live show then what's the point, I need that thrill in my life. So that means tape measures at every new venue, measuring from the floor to the lowest hanging beam, then I'll purchase my next pair of boots accordingly."
Aunty Liss: "I think you should go stilt boots!! Or maybe just grow wings!"
Jayden: Melissa, what’s a funny story about Kai as a little kid?
"You just want to get me fired again, by spilling the dirt on Kai!"
"I can’t really think of a particularly funny story at the moment. But I remember when he was in his early teens, I was driving him to school and he told me that he had decided that he wanted to be a spy actor when he grew up! James Bond like! Then he went on to study acting, gymnastics, ballet, tap and hip hop - he has the highest kicks! He still has that spy role in his sights I think, or maybe a villain - a scary bug type of villain with long legs would be good, I think."
Aunty Liss interviews Girl and Girl:
Aunty Liss: Kai, what makes you feel uncomfortable?
"Death, it’s awfully unnerving that one day I'll just be a dead guy, and I'll be a dead guy for eternity. And there’s no post-death option that eases my anxiety, for example I don’t want to be re-incarnated, just unknowingly coming back as different guys indefinitely, but I don’t want to be nothing for ever either, and I certainly don’t want to go to heaven forever, #boring. Also bet you I'm not getting into heaven now that I've said that in an interview. I think the only option that makes me feel a little less uneasy is if time were to stop altogether after I died."
Aunty Liss: Jayden, what is your dream guitar?
"I really want to make my own guitar some day and make it one of a kind. I have no idea what that would look like or even sound but I’ll give it a shot someday."
Aunty Liss: Kai, where do you find your inspiration for the stories/ words in your songs? Speaking a Different Language?
"In general the music inspires the stories, shapes the words and their syllable lengths. I’ll riff words over a guitar riff until I find a topic that’s inspiring enough to last a whole song. "
"I wrote speaking a different language quite some time ago, but it feels like it's taken inspiration from the film ‘Lost in Translation’, ‘Speaking a different language, not knowing what to do, speaking a different language and I’m so in love with you’, and then in true Kai fashion I’ve just tacked on a bunch of whining about my social anxieties on to the end."
Aunty Liss: Kai, tell us about the newest Girl and Girl track ‘Garden Song’ and what it is about?
"Basically the track tells the tale of the pressures of growing up, especially that late teen to young adult phase. It’s that phase where maybe you’re yet to forge your own path/ identity, and you're feeling all these pressures from those around you on how to be and act and perhaps you're still feeling like a child, or those feelings of incompetence are lingering. "
"The lyrics, I don't feel are overly explicit but there are certainly these strong feelings associated, feelings of heart ache and a deep sense of longing."
Aunty Liss: Jayden, if you could be in any band throughout time and the world, who would you pick?
"A band like LCD sound system would be really cool to be a part of. They make some really inspiring music that has a lot of feeling and would be insane to experience what it would be like to play those songs live to people."
Some interesting facts about Girl and Girl:
Kai is currently studying his final semester of zoology, hoping to minor in entomology. Over the summer he had to catch, pin and identify 50 insects from in and around the south east coast of Aus!
Melissa (Aunty Liss) has been playing the drums for 37 years, and the piano for 44 years. She is also a teacher's aid and a jeweler, forging from scratch the most stunning rings, necklaces, bracelets etc.
Jayden works as a full time civil engineer, and is also an artist, he does all of the art for Girl and Girl.
Aunty Liss came 3rd in a 1995 band competition where the winner was Jebidiah.
Girl and Girl competed in a local band competition, where they came up against Tones and I, and beat her!
Big thank you to Girl and Girl, not just for the amazing track - but also for the most memorable interview in music history. 'Garden Song' is out now, and you can check out the band on all their sweet ass socials. They're actually reeling in a whopping big tour to treat you with in support of the new single, so you should sell lemonade for 25c until you can afford a ticket.
TOUR DATES
Friday 1st April - Elsewhere - Gold Coast - w/ Pure Milk and Square
Saturday 2nd April - Early Show - Junk Bar - Brisbane - w/ Nicole Mckinney
Saturday 2nd April - Late Show - Junk Bar - Brisbane - w/ Nicole Mckinney
Sunday 3rd April - Eleven Dive Bar - Sunshine Coast - w/ Nicole Mckinney and Square
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