We are still everything… but the Girl
Gilla Band’s name tweak last year caused uproar online. Thankfully, that’s the only thing they’ve changed
G‘I left the room when I played the demo to the band because I felt uncomfortable’
illa Band’s first album since changing their name from Girl Band last year is called Most Normal, but it is anything but that. It is abstract, intense and often unsettling. Long-time fans of the noise-rock outfit will breathe a sigh of relief and say: ‘So no change there, then’.
As Girl Band, the Dublin quartet were signed to renowned UK label Rough Trade who promised a hands-off, keep uncalm and carry on approach.
‘They said we don’t want to change anything that you’re doing. We just want to get it out to more people,’ guitarist Alan Duggan says.
Unlike other labels, Rough Trade put no pressure on the band to work with ‘this or that producer’.
‘Foxy [bass player Daniel Fox] records us and engineers it. The band produces the record. We all have strong opinions; we know what works for us and what a song needs and when it is done.’
In a similar fashion to 2015’s Holding Hands With Jamie and 2019’s The Talkies on Most Normal the guitar, bass and drums contort and claw at your senses creating a menacing soundscape while singer Dara Kiely sings songs with titles such as Bin Liner Fashion and Gushie. As the lyric writer, he says the cadence of the words and how they meld with or chaff against the music can be as important as any perceived meaning. That said, Post Ryan seems to directly address the singer’s well-documented battles with preserving his mental equilibrium. In one part he sings: ‘I’m in between breakdowns. I’m in recovery; just the same pr**k. How are you getting on? Better. I get inevitable depression when I do nothing’. It is, I suggest, the most direct comment on his mental well-being he has yet committed to record.
‘Mmmm. I think the record as a whole is a happy album,’ he says, somewhat surprisingly.
‘That song was a test to see if
I could write more directly. In other parts of the album it is meant to be kind of dreamlike. Then I wrote some direct lyrics for this [Post Ryan] and another song. If it didn’t work I think my confidence would be knocked too much to try that approach again. I had to leave the room when I played them the demo because I felt uncomfortable but then it was really great because when I came back into the rehearsal room, they were really positive. It [directness] is a great thing to have in my arsenal.’
Given that it is so direct I wondered would he feel uncomfortable singing the song live.
‘I don’t think so. It’s my favourite song on the record. I’m not in a bad place. I’m enjoying things at the moment,’ he replies. The band got flak after deciding to change their name from Girl Band last year and issuing a statement apologising for ‘choosing a misgendered name in the first place’. Gilla, by the way, is an ancient Irish boy’s name.
‘We always knew that was it was going to kick off a little bit. It was interesting to see it go very moderately viral on social media for a few days,’ Alan says. ‘Then all these people who had never heard of us started giving out about it. We just think it was the right thing to do and we’re happy we’ve done it.
‘We felt bad for that one guy,’ Dara adds, ‘who had got a tattoo that said “Girl Band” and posted, “Well thanks a lot lads!” ■ Most Normal is out now. Gilla Band play The National Stadium on
December 9.