Rough and Tumble: Dum Dum Girls

Kristin aka Dee Dee Dum Dum finished her tour with the Dum Dum Girls last week. After forming the live setup at a spur of the moment Captured Tracks festival she's transformed the band into a four headed garage-girl assault. Tight harmonies, rolling riffs and eyeliner attitude dress up some of the most charming pop songs you'll hear this year. Mixing songs from debut EP 'Dum Dum Girls' and new album "I Will Be" the band sold out every night, won a tonne of new fans and with the record out on 5th April will prove that girl groups can sell.

So you've been here for a week and a bit. How's it been going?

Um I think the first show was my favourite and probably just because the excitement of the first show and smallest. At the old blue last. that one i really loved because it was small and there was a lot of people there. It's something about playing in a narrow room i really like. The reverb going wide, is better. my husband told me that but i loved it. we had alot of friends here that i hadn't seen in a long time. We also met up with Girls who are going on tour with in the US.

Did you see what Chris Owens was wearing?

Oh gawd yes! I remember lime green shoes. He's great. And last night we got to play with Male Bonding. I love doing shows with friends. Plus, I'm excited about tonight withVeronica Falls and I love Yuck. We met them the other night and they were the sweetest.

Have you been that upbeat about shows all year?

It's all been ideas and planning so it's great finally doing stuff.

And with the record coming out too...

I'm happy with it. now, I mean, it's always made sense why our stuff was lumped in with lo-fi and the "lo-fi movement" but when I listen to the first 7" I think "Oh God! I did such a bad job recording it". For the album, my mixes before Richard Gottehrer walked in weren't that different to the end result. Instead of sounds mashed together I wanted everything to have its place so you could tell what was going on, not just that there was fuzzy noise.



Has the change in band line up helped that, too. Do you feel more focussed?

The first show that we played as Dum Dum Girls was just because Mike Sniper was putting on a Captured Tracks/Woodist Festival and Dum Dum Girls was the first release. We figured we should find a way to play. I was so nervous that I didn't even play guitar. I just sang live and did these weird dance. It was more nervewracking! Frankie played drums and then Mike and my husband filled spaces but it was half what I wanted. Then I met the guitar player and we did stuff with friends filling in. We only wanted to do it to play, it wasn't any supergroup or anything.



But it got quite a bit of attention online. Do you think it is weird that people cared about your first show?

To have your first show on Youtube is terrifying! Ours, is a really small world so it's not like loads of attention on us but people were documenting it. In October we first played as 4 girls and it sounded like we wanted it to. I think of that as our first show, all the others were just baby steps to get to where I wanted to be.

Did you find it easy to get over your shyness?

There's something about us all being on stage together that makes me feel better. We get ready together, we hang out... Our gang mentality helps us adopt the mentality we have on stage. I want to be no nonsense and full of attitude. It's good to have my crew.

What advice would you give to anyone who want to start a band but feels too shy to play live?

I mean it took me a lot years. I used to have such severe stage fright. I couldn't make any noise. But hey, time is the healer of all things. Maybe have a beer. but not too many beers.

Are you still getting pitted against other girl bands. That seemed to be really bad at one point.

It's this bizarre little thing that happens right now. I don't know how it was in the 90s or 80s. Instead of accepting that there is a variety of bands, people want to stir up trouble. When you read about the boy counterparts in the scene we are in it's all like "bros, cool" but it has to be Vivian Girls vs Dum Dum Girls. It seems to be Best Coast at the moment which is really weird. A) we're all friends and B) we're not playing the same kind of music. Why does it have to be one of the other? it seems inevitable but it seems really silly.

Like how pop girls can only be Britney, Madonna or else get compared to Kate Bush?

There are 3 roles apparently and they've all been filled.

So away from recent stuff, what bands do you take inspiration from?

I love so many bands but I love the Shangri-Las most because I liked the tough girl attitude and the topics of the songs. They were different to The Supremes way of doing things although I like them too. I lean towards the rough and tumble.

What about the Girls in the Garage? Cupons, Shamettes... there are so many bands that get missed out.

Yes! That shit is amazing. I only have a couple of the LPs so my nerdy lifelong goal is to acquire the entire Girls in the Garage series. I know this website with a list of them all on CD and LP and when I have a spare moment I look for them all on the internet.




Do you have any current favourites, then?

My favourite most recently is a cover of "Bend Me Shape Me".

The Models?

That's it. It's so noisy! it sounds like space monkey.



Did you take inspiration from those girls for the album title? It sounds quite classic.

Originally I was going to call the album Jail the La La. I was going to pull a still from the film "99 Women" but we couldn't get the rights to it. I thought, "I'm not going to call it Jail La La unless I have this visual". It's not as if the record is about jail or anything. So i took a look at the record to see if any phrases jumped out. I like "I Will Be". The song can be positive and negative at the same time and it sounded kind of anthemic. Not that I'm trying to be epic or anything but it seemed appropriate as it's similar to like "Let it Bleed" or "Let it Be". I'm just trying to be assertive, it's a first album statement.

What about the picture, is it your mum?

The EP is too. That was a picture of her senior year of Highschool so the album is 4 years later, senior year of college. I know it's funny to stick your mom on a cover but I was flipping through an album and it stuck out to me. I can't imagine anything more fitting or that personal. Want me to draw? I can't draw. Want to me use a random picture that I have nothing to do with? Choosing your art is totally personal and it's as much you as a song you've written.

Pre-order "I Will Be" from Dum Dum Girls now.

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