POWPIG: PAVING THE WAY FOR ALL FEMALE BANDS IN LIMERICK
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I was introduced to PowPig thanks to a friend who's really involved in the DIY LK music collective. In previous blog posts, I spoke about how I wanted to increase the number of female musicians I listened to and was frustrated that I couldn't compile an extensive list of women in music, let alone Irish female musicians. So I was thrilled when I came across PowPig, I thought their sound was fascinating and was even more impressed that these talented girls were still in second-level education. The girls took time out of their busy school schedule to respond to my questions. I really hope you take the time to listen to their tunes and support their EP on Bandcamp!
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For those who don't know what PowPig are about, talk me through the forming of the band and how you started playing gigs together?
We all went to Music Generation, which is a music programme set up to bring young musicians together. Three of us had written a few songs as a group but once our drummer, Laura sat in on a session we started practicing more regularly. Laura is really the only one who sticks to one instrument during a gig as the three of us swap bass and guitars and all sing. The band is comprised of Anna, Andrea, Leah and Laura.
You released an EP last August on Bandcamp, why decide to call it 'Denture Adventure?'
We decided to call the EP 'Denture Adventure' because it's a line in 'Sticky Teeth', the opening track. We didn't want to overthink the name as we weren't really sure what to expect from releasing an EP. That song was actually the last one we recorded and was done at Laura's house. Blue Man Child was a joke Andrea and Anna wrote, and we thought it would never be played live because of how ridiculous we thought the "Hey June" bridge was. It was meant to be a parody of ~emo~ rock songs. Andrea literally mangled the word "suicide" into "siocode". There's a screamo bridge about washing away emotions. No one was ever supposed to hear that song. My mother was never supposed to hear that song. But everyone has heard that song.
Rosalee was written by Andrea and Leah, and was based around some jazzy chords Andrea had been playing around with. It's the one song on the EP that's really been transformed by recording. Steve Ryan, who produced the EP, added an echo like effect to Leah's voice for the chorus and suggested adding keyboard on top of the piano for a synth-like vibe. He then suggested we add saxophone, which was what we'd actually been talking about seeing as Laura had bought one about three weeks beforehand.
Birds of Paradise started with Laura's drum beat and is the first song all four of us truly wrote together. The first demo we have is literally just six minutes of us screaming the same four lines and messing around with our instruments. It's a really fun song to play live.
What/who has influenced the unique sound you have?
We don't think there is a specific person or thing that inspired us in the music we make but we certainly do take inspiration from different artists, people, and places. Everyone in PowPig listens to a lot of different artists and genres of music, and we think this is what gives us a broader and more eclectic sound than if we listened exclusively to a handful of bands and only certain genres. We also try and learn from whatever we listen to and from whatever advice we are given. However, on saying that, we're a relatively young band and haven't fully developed our sound but the more we play, we feel the more it should become distinctly our own.
How did you go about putting together an EP?
We made the majority of the EP over two days during the summer with our tutors from Music Generation, Steve Ryan, and Patrick O'Brien. For us, once we had the songs ready we just wanted to get them out there. Patrick and Steve were so helpful and encouraged us to think about different things we could add and do to the songs, which was a really valuable learning experience for making music in general. Andy Connolly (naive ted) another tutor at Music Generation, mastered it for us. We then recorded 'Sticky Teeth ourselves. We wanted to record it on our own to try and experiment with the song completely by ourselves. We love the Denture Adventure EP and are excited to make and release more music.
Being involved in the Irish music scene, do you find that coming across other all-female bands is rare?
From what we've seen it's pretty rare to find a full female band but we've consistently seen girls get more and more involved in the Irish music scene which is cool. Music is just music and shouldn't be associated with a certain gender so it's great to see more annd more females coming into music with their own take on styles and concepts and just generally what they like doing.
What are your thoughts on the music scene here in Limerick?
There's so much talent all over Limerick and we've had a really positive experience so far with people supporting us. The DIY LK music collective regularly put on gigs and have been really helpful with giving exposure to Irish bands.
How have you been able to balance playing gigs and attending school?
Well three of us are in Fifth Year and one in Transition Year so we generally have the same schedule when it comes to gigs. We only started gigging in September so we're very new to this as a band. We try and only accept gigs that won't (drastically) interfere with our education.
What's the next step for PowPig post-secondary school?
We have no idea what the plan is but we just want to make music.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this interview, personally I really enjoyed reading about the girls' introduction to the music industry, and I do really think PowPig will go on to produce great music in the future. I hope to catch PowPig live as soon as possible!
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