Dum Dum Girls - Interview

Monochrome garage girl group Dum Dum Girls graced Glasgow’s to showcase their grungy brand of noise pop. Their set included many songs from last summer’s soundtrack, the album ‘I Will Be’ as well as some exciting new material and a superb rendition of The Smiths’ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. I had a chat with lead singer Dee Dee (a.k.a Kirsten Gundred) before their show to talk aesthetics, vocals and stealing drummers…

For those reading who have never heard you before could you describe your sound in three words?

Buzz-saw-pop.

I heard that you got your name from the Vaselines …

And Iggy Pop!

How does it feel being signed to the same label as them now?

Good! We met them here the last time we played Stereo when we were on tour with them and it was really amazing, to befriend your namesakes is pretty cool.

You also went on tour with MGMT as well, how was that?

It was good yeah, that was the last time we were here. It’s always a bit hard to be the support band, especially on bigger tours like that when the fans are definitely there for the headliner… but they were really great, really fun to hang out with and it was pretty positive.

So can you tell us a little about the new EP ‘He Gets Me High’, is it a similar sound to the album?

No, it sounds like a band. We used a proper studio, it’s louder and fuller.

A big part of your music is the vocals, is that a main priority for you when you are writing new songs?

Yeah, definitely.

Dum Dum Girls started out as a solo project, how did you all meet?

Jules the guitar player, a friend introduced us; he knew I was looking for another girl that could play guitar and sing. The bass player was a friend of mine and the drummer… I knew her old band and I knew she was really good so I emailed her and stole her! She’s been with us for over a year.

You’ve all got a distinct look when you play, I’ve heard artists like PJ Harvey and Alison Mosshart describe how they like to have a different persona when they’re on stage, do you agree?

Yeah, I think I like the visual element to a performance, I’ve always liked bands that did that and I think it’s pretty classic whether it was The Supremes or Bowie, I think it’s cool when a band has an aesthetic as well as a sound, that’s my personal preference.

I think your music has a 1960’s feel to it, is that era a big influence for you?

Yeah I love music from the 60’s, it’s not the only thing I listen to by any means but I think a lot of it has to do with there being a lot of great pop songs written at that time that utilised multiple voices so since that’s kinda my thing, a lot of comparisons are drawn from that.

Was it a conscious effort to have an all-girl band or did that just happen by chance?

No it was intentional, I’d played with men before and I wanted to see what that was like playing with girls, and I also wanted to replicate what I’d done in my recordings so it was sort of necessary.

‘He Gets Me High’ is available now from www.subpop.com

Sophie McGraw