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Like I said, this interview is going to run in<br />
our white album, which will evoke themes<br />
of purity, transparency and honesty. Which<br />
are themes that could really describe a big<br />
chunk of your latest album. <strong>The</strong>re is a fresh<br />
naivety, it’s simple, self-spoken. You talk<br />
about ‘starting anew, that’s why I’m sticking<br />
with you, nobody makes me feel better<br />
and magic.’ It’s very honest and transparent.<br />
Is that kind of who you are? Do you<br />
kind of to say things the way…<br />
Yeah yeah. This is how I am. I’m very open.<br />
Of course it’s great for the song writing and it’s<br />
great for interviews and it’s great for any kind<br />
of public personality. When I see people, I can<br />
talk with them and it’s just much easier to be just<br />
very honest but then at the same time I have a lot<br />
of stress…distressfulness. I feel stupid or I feel<br />
like people know too much about me. You know<br />
I read interviews and I feel like they made mistakes<br />
at the wrong things. I have to talk to my<br />
family all the time because they think I have a<br />
drug problem…<strong>The</strong> reality is that I’m OK, you<br />
know. <strong>The</strong> reality is just that I’m running a big<br />
business here. People work for me, and there’s<br />
been a recession in the United States for the past<br />
five years while I had to develop a brand new<br />
company! And I’m doing well, so…<br />
I can’t help but notice that any artist referring<br />
to his band or his art as a business is<br />
pretty rare! I’ve never met an artist who<br />
takes it so seriously and really talks about<br />
it like you’re the General Manager for the<br />
company “and I have employees and all”.<br />
You know, this shit is serious!<br />
Ha ha! I don’t know. Maybe it’s the wrong<br />
thing to say…<br />
Just to give me an idea, I don’t need a specific<br />
figure here but you know this second<br />
album, it’s getting so much praise. Is this it<br />
for you? Are you guys kind of like comfortable<br />
for the next five years of your life and can<br />
you now buy yourself a studio and invest in<br />
gear and buy yourself a house, or…?<br />
No! I mean, nobody makes money selling<br />
records anymore.<br />
But you’re touring.<br />
Yeah but this is our first tour for the new<br />
album. And sure, if we tour for the next two years,<br />
a lot, we can earn enough money. Anyway, without<br />
getting into money details, reality is yes, we have<br />
a opportunity right now: we could stop recording,<br />
play tons of festivals and outdoor…because the<br />
licenses are admitted…Coca-Cola…Just today I<br />
turned down a option from Tommy Hilfiger!<br />
Why?<br />
Because that’s what we do. We would<br />
not accept Tommy Hilfiger’s option for a<br />
Music<br />
commercial and we would not play festivals for<br />
two years on one album and keep the money<br />
apart: we’re going to the studio by next year.<br />
If I had to choose a musical genre that was<br />
the furthest away from what you guys are<br />
doing now, I’d say rap is definitely it. Do<br />
you listen to any hip-hop, who’s is your<br />
favourite gangsta rapper?<br />
Oh I love hip-hop. My favourite rapper right<br />
now is Tylor the Creator. I’ve always liked rap. I<br />
feel really similar to Biggie or 2Pac’s personalities;<br />
they both were raised by a single mother who<br />
was very dynamic with a lot of personality. 2Pac’s<br />
mother was a political activist, Biggie’s mother was<br />
a single mother and they both didn’t finish college<br />
and they, at some point, started to write songs and<br />
they became very open and honest and tried to<br />
write everything and they did it until they died.<br />
And Biggie’s real name is actually Christopher<br />
Wallace. But, realistically I feel exactly the same<br />
as those two guys. I used to be a very big Wu-Tang<br />
fan but I think that’s kind of over now.<br />
We asked a couple of our readers to send us<br />
questions on Twitter and one reader had<br />
a particularly funny one. He’s like ‘What<br />
does it feel like to be idolised by Pitchfork<br />
media but not to be able to be found on<br />
Google?’<br />
(laughs)<br />
I read somewhere that you’re working on a<br />
reggae album. Is that a project that’s still<br />
going on?<br />
Yeah, I mean not really. When I talked<br />
about working on it, that was the time when<br />
I was writing the songs but I had to put them<br />
away. That’s really how all of our work is done:<br />
I write them, put them away and the next day<br />
of work is just in the studio, there’s nothing in<br />
between so yeah, the first job has been done<br />
for the reggae album (the songs are written) but<br />
really I don’t know when we’ll work on it, I don’t<br />
know if this is going to happen.<br />
It will be a Girls project, then?<br />
I’d like it to be. I’ve received a lot of oppositions<br />
from the others involved, specifically on<br />
this one! It’d have to be done differently. I think<br />
that people have done co-records like that. I’d<br />
have to be done in a studio with a Jamaican producer,<br />
vocal musicians and all that.<br />
All right. Last question: if I’m not mistaken,<br />
you like Oasis, the band?<br />
Oh yeah!<br />
What do you prefer, Beady Eye or High<br />
Flying Birds (Liam and Noel’s new<br />
projects)?<br />
Oh God, I wish I knew, ah. I’d really love<br />
to tell you an answer but I haven’t listened to<br />
either of them. My intuition is to stick with<br />
Noel on this one.<br />
Girls’ latest album Father, Son, Holy Ghost is out now on<br />
True Panthers.<br />
myspace.com/girls<br />
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