COLLECTION 6

“There
lot of
is still a
sexism
in music”
from when I was young but the piano is more of an instrument, she
enjoys playing to herself rather than in front of an audience. Sophie’s
been playing instruments since she was four, starting on piano, then
took up violin and guitar too, but only started the drums properly back
in February when she joined PINS, “but now I feel like a real drummer
and absolutely love the drums. It’s a whole new experience.”
KALTBLUT: What was the first album you heard that really made you
want to be part of a band?
PINS: Well as a band of four members there’s a few answers to that
one! Faith used to try and make these bands when she was a little kid,
probably most inspired by the Spice Girls or Britney... getting dressed
up with friends and making up dance routines, singing the songs... rehearsing
day after day for the imaginary show we had... “I discovered
Hole when I was about 14 though and that changed everything.” Lois
reckons Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, or Greenday’s “Dookie”. “I remember
hearing it for the first time and thinking, what is this and how can I
make that much noise? I started a band with my friends Beki and
Natalie and we lasted one practice in the garage. I quit.” For Anna it’s
probably Arcade Fire’s “Funeral.” “I loved how many different instruments
they play and how they keep swapping about on stage. I’m keen
to slip a hurdy-gurdy into a PINS song.” Sophie wanted to be in the
Spice Girls, but it was Elvis that inspired her to learn guitar.
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KALTBLUT: What about when your debut single
release of “Eleventh Hour / Shoot You” sold out?
Amazing! How was that experience for you?
PINS: Exciting! Especially because it was
something we did on our own, we’re grateful for
all the help and all the people we get to work
with now but when that release came out it was
just us doing it for ourselves and it was really
special. The experience of recording a couple of
songs early on then deciding to release them on
(gold) cassette and make a video to then have it
sold out within a couple of hours was amazing!
Until that point we never realised how much
there was going on in the ‚blogosphere’ so to
have people recognising and noticing what we
were doing was very humbling.
KALTBLUT: “Girls Like Us” looks like one hell of
video, but what girls are you exactly?
PINS: [Laughs] It’s difficult to sum yourself up
like that so we’re not going to but what we will
say is that the song “Girls Like Us” isn’t about
being girls like us it’s meant to be about being
yourself and about being happy to be yourself.
KALTBLUT: Is sexuality a prominent topic with
your music? Or is it just a big F.U to anyone who
makes a big deal out of it?
PINS: There is still a lot of sexism in music
just like there is in most industries. We rarely
experience it first hand, it’s usually some sad
troll on the internet or some wannabe journalist,
basically it’s never anyone who’s opinion you
actually value.
KALTBLUT: What made you decide to start your
own label “Haus of PINS”?
PINS: It began as a platform for us to release our
own music, at the time of the “Eleventh
Hour / Shoot You” release we couldn’t settle on a
label, also it felt a little premature to be working
like that so self releasing seemed like the best
option. After that, we thought it’d be fun to work
with bands that we really love who are at a
similar place.
KALTBLUT: I’m a big fan of your all-girl mix for
i-D magazine, it contains some of my favourites
like Bikini Kill and Siouxsie and the Banshees,
are these your main musical inspirations?
PINS: Faith chose Bikini Kill, “I love them... as
for many teenagers they had a huge impact on
me. I was too late for the Riot Grrl movement,
but, getting into Bikini Kill helped me discover
a whole bunch of other music from that time,
and was my first introduction to feminism.” We
have loads of musical inspirations, and if we did
another mix today it’d be different depending on
how we’re feeling and what we’re into. Sophie
adds, “I’ve been getting into bands that we have
been compared to more retrospectively, I never
really actively listened to the Banshees until we
were compared to them.”
KALTBLUT: You’ve been touring a lot this summer?
Do you have a favourite gig so far? Or one
coming up maybe?
PINS: We have been touring with our friends
Abjects, September Girls and Post War glamour
Girls and we’ve had so much fun with them.
Brixton Academy next week. Oh. My.
KALTBLUT: What was it like opening for Best
Coast at Manchester’s Ritz?
PINS: It was special because it was our first experience
of a big stage in a venue where we’ve
seen some of our favourite bands, it felt like a
milestone. “I like Best Coast but I don’t think they
were the highlight for me”, Faith comments, “I
have a tendency to over romanticise everything
but it was definitely a night that I won’t forget.”
Sophie was actually in the audience at that gig, “I
thought, I would like to be in this band.” Little did
she know...
KALTBLUT: Are you excited to support Warpaint at
the end of this month?
PINS: It’s safe to say that we are all very excited
to be supporting Warpaint. We hung out at End Of
The Road Festival - they are SUCH babes. Will be
a pleasure.
KALTBLUT: This time our theme is all about the
Noire, the underground, the grime, the downright
dark. I noticed you use black & white imagery a
lot in your work. What is it that draws you to this
aesthetic?
PINS: I think we like a lot of imagery from the
past, sorta 60’s era and it probably comes from
there. It has a classic look. We do work with
colour too, but even then I think the colours
are very specific or of a certain era, the “Stay
True” video for example. Faith comments, “to be
honest, black is my favourite colour, I’ve always
dressed in black, even as a kid, I don’t know
what draws me to it.”
KALTBLUT: How important is your image as a
band, in comparison to the sound...?
PINS: Our music comes first! We don’t really
ever consider our image... it just is what it is. We
love getting involved with all the design, videos
and photoshoots creatively where we can, but
just because we want to make stuff that we like
and are proud of. The image is just an extension
of ourselves. We’re just projecting who we are.
KALTBLUT: If you could shoot a music video with
any director, who would it be?
PINS: Faith - I’d stick with our pal Sing J Lee.
Lois - Stanley Kubrick. Anna - Anton Corbijn.
Sophie - Chris Cunningham - that would be
fuuucked uuup.
wearepins.co.uk