Girls Names have reinvented themselves with a classy new album that has been several years in the making, writes JIM CARROLL
Those who think they have Belfast band Girls Names sussed will get a surprise when they hear their second album The New Life. It’s an appropriate title given the band’s rebirth. Gone is the scuffed, scrappy garage-pop of debut Dead To Me in favour of hypnotic, hazy soundscapes, sublime dream-pop textures, and a driving, moody set of songs.
But this new sound did not come about overnight, the band’s frontman Cathal Cully says. “I know the album seems like an overnight big jump but it was a two-year process. Some of those songs are almost two years old and we’ve been fine-tuning them all this time.”
When Girls Names formed, Cully says the band “were really just learning how to play music” and weren’t ready for what was to come. “We didn’t tour all that much. The week Dead to Me came out, we did a tour around the UK, and even then we had new songs and we even played a few of them. Things happened over the course of that summer and we just didn’t capitalise on the release of Dead to Me so we decided to lock ourselves away and work on new stuff.”
The new album seems a more natural fit to Cully. “This is the music I’ve always been into. I used to DJ in town with a friend years ago and I used to play all this dark post-punk stuff.” He also played with Belfast band Documenta, an experience which “opened up the more psychedelic, spacier elements. I got massively into Spacemen 3 for ages.”
Although based in Belfast, Girls Names have always looked beyond the city. “We were always on the periphery of the so-called Belfast music scene and had no great interest in being big here,” says Cully. “We kept ourselves to ourselves and we were much more tuned in to what was going on elsewhere in the world.
“We’re good at getting away because I’m not a big fan of playing Belfast. It’s so small and you’re just getting up onstage in front of people you know. It’s not as fun or as pleasurable as playing in front of strangers. You feel very open and exposed playing in Belfast.”
Cully also feels the band’s approach sets them apart from their peers. “People have this mindset that they’re going to get big in the city and labels will come in, but the labels don’t come to Belfast to see bands anymore and the money isn’t there. I don’t know if bands realise that yet. You also still hear so many horror stories about advances and bad contracts.”
The economics of keeping a band together is something Cully is acutely aware of. “We paid for the recording ourselves and I still have a bit of money to pay off it. The whole economic thing is so frustrating and jobs are so hard to come by.
“I’m out of work at the minute, but I’ve been through so many jobs in the last year. I was labouring all last summer and autumn, then driving for a TV shoot and then working in a shop over Christmas. I just took whatever came along to pay for what has to be done.”
But he is not doing Girls Names for the cash. “I know people get into music for various reasons, like to become famous or whatever, but we were the opposite. I’ve no qualms in saying it’s as much an art project as anything else. I personally treat it as making art. Even saying the words ‘music industry’ seem wrong. The dirtiest thing about it is that people are making money in the music industry but the artists aren’t.”
For Cully, the success of The New Life will be gauged by the opportunity to make another record. “The best-case scenario is that I can get back into the studio to record again without having the stress or pressure of figuring out how I will finance it. I don’t expect it to sell loads but I hope people will be into it.”
The New Life is out now. Girls Names play Dublin’s Grand Social tonight
