A stacked line-up at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow on 16 August saw Comfort Girl, Venus in the Lake and Quality Control support Derry born, now Glasgow based Dirty Faces. The music scene in Central Scotland is currently thriving. Brògeal, Vlure and now Soapbox are reaching further afield with National Playboys and Cowboy Hunters set to follow in their footsteps. Comfort Girl have the potential to join the march. The Decibel Decoder sat down with the 4-piece comprising Andy Baillie (vocals, guitar), Liam Stevens (guitar), Ems Baxter (bass) and Lewis Gray (drums) before the gig to find out more.
First of all, can you share a little on your second single ‘Junket’ and how it came about?
Andy: We were kind of stuck in a bit of a rut with our old sound and we wanted to branch out, get a little bit more melodic but still keep it heavy. And it literally came from listening to Fontaines D.C.. I was listening to Fontaine’s, and then I just started writing words while I was listening. The themes are what’s going on in Palestine, genocide, general unrest, and not knowing where to place myself in the world at the moment, everything that’s happening with trans people. Everything kind of poured out. It was written in a day, the lyrics were done in 10 minutes, it came together very quickly.
How did Comfort Girl come together?
Liam: The three of us (Liam, alongwith Andy and Lewis) met at college. We’ve known each for a few years. We met Ems because we got rid of our old bass player, and Andy put an ad out on Facebook “Local Edinburgh band looking for a bass player.” Ems popped up, and there was already a connection with Andy’s partner and going to his gigs. We got Ems in and thought, that’s the guy, and she’s been with us ever since.
Andy: They’re both Virgos, we’re both Pisces, and they’re sister signs, so…..
And with the band name were there lots of alternatives? Or did you instantly settle on Comfort Girl?
Andy: Our first ever band name was Boabhan Sith, but we anglicised it to Vanshe, which is horrendous. We thought it’d be snippier.
Lewis: It was terribly indie of us!
Andy: We just went “Vanshe, it’s Scottish!”. That obviously didn’t come into effect. We started to hate it. We’d tell people we were in a band called Vanshe, and they would be like “What!?!” and that’s no good sign. I’ve always loved Joy Division. I’ve always been right into post punk and stuff, and I always took a lot from how Joy Division got their name (from the 1953 novel House of Dolls) and it kind of ebbed and flowed and became a thing about comfort women, who were sex slaves in China, held by Japanese military in the 1930’s. I wanted to give power to that, because a lot of our themes are surrounding sexual violence and domestic violence.
You’ve just had the two singles out (debut single is ‘Cool! Sexy! Drunk!) and have already been played on BBC Introducing Scotland BEFORE the second single was released. That must have been a bit of a buzz.
Andy: Yeah, very exciting. It was really cool. I didn’t expect it. I uploaded it and I think I did a good job of writing a brief for it but still we were so happy to hear the song but when I went back and looked at the track list of all the songs they’d played, they’d put us down as a different Comfort Girl, ‘underscore’ Comfort ‘dot’ Girl who are on iTunes only. That was funny, I just thought it was really funny. It got a play on Radio One too, and we got an email through for it and we were like “Oh my God!”, I mean just to know that they’ve heard it is insane.
How does your creative process work? How do you make music between the four of you?
Liam: It usually starts with an idea. We get in a practice room, and then we just kinda jam the thing out until there’s some kind of solid structure. Sometimes it’ll get put on to recording software, and it gets developed further on then we’ll come back into the practice room and we’ll just finalise bits and pieces. Andy’ll come in with the vocal melodies and lyrics, I’ll refine some guitar parts. Ems’ bass parts are always bang on, then we’ll let Lewis (drums) do whatever Lewis does!
Had any of you been in bands before?
Andy: The three of us no but Ems was.
Ems: I was in a band when I was a bit younger, which I think was good for my stage fright, because, well I’m not massively confident on stage now, anyway, until I’ve had at least two pints! However, it was a good experience. And I kind already knew, I guess, how to play with other people. And then I met these guys, and they’re all super sound, and I love them a lot, so, and it just all worked out. I hadn’t been playing with other people for a while so it was nice to get back into that. I think it’s a lot easier to be creative sometimes, when you’ve got other people to bounce ideas off, and you’re not just being super self critical and super nit picky about your own stuff. You can play something and instead of going, “Oh, well, that shite”, it’s, “Oh, but what if we did this instead”, which is a nice way to be.
And Andy are you the main lyricist?
Andy: Yes I’m the lyricist but we all take equal parts of writing songs, because everybody, even if I’ve went and, like, came up with something in full, I give it to the guys, and then they write their own parts for it anyway. And Liam writes riffs all the time and we’ll jam them out and everyone writes their own bits for it and it just, yeah, ebbs and flows.
Do you have a body of work in your back pocket ready to?
Andy: Yes, we do. We’re hoping for a release for an EP in December. It will be a five track EP.
Liam: And hopefully a single in October.
You’ve played a lot live, and that’s important don’t you think, getting that experience?
Andy: Yeah, we love playing live, it makes us gel better as people. But we took a wee break recently, just two months and went to Outbreak Festival, we did loads of silly things, we were down in Manchester, we were just having a good time because we forget that not everything has to be about us making music sometimes, and that we are friends.
Lewis: We all go to gigs all the time pretty much. We go together to some of them, but some of us have differing music tastes, obviously, but that’s kind of what makes it work out a bit better anyway, like a melting pot almost.
Are there any other gigs that you have on the horizon?
Andy: We’re playing with Junk Pups at Sneaky Petes on 28 August. And then we’re back again in October for a Halloween gig on 29 October with Alien Chicks, which is very exciting. And we’ve just announced we’re supporting The Bleeders in Glasgow on 26 September at The Old Hairdressers.
For more information on Comfort Girl please check their facebook and instagram.