UK outfit PINS have just released their second album, Wild Nights. LUCY RUTHERFORD chats with vocalist, Faith Holgate.
British rock four-piece PINS’ new album, Wild Nights, has been getting positive reviews from audiences.
“We played at the Lexington in London, that was where we unleashed all of the songs, and we had a girl moshpit and a bunch of people dancing up on stage at the end so that’s always a good time,” says lead singer, Faith Holgate.
The Manchester ladies introduced us to their brand of garage, hazy indie rock with their first album, Girls Like Us, in 2013. Their second album, released earlier this month, was recorded over seven days in the Joshua Tree desert studio of Queens of the Stone Age producer, Dave Catching, and features many of his large collection of vintage instruments.
“He’s got guitars from the past 50 years, things that he picks up here, there and everywhere. A lot of that made it on to the record, a lot of vintage guitars and pedals, it was like being kids in a toyshop,” Holgate says.
“There’s more in the way of vocal melodies and harmonies,” she continues, talking about what’s new for PINS on Wild Nights.
“It’s got keyboard which is new and there are other layers of percussion, all the little details we didn’t do on the first album. We’ve also added more of a psych edge, just tried to be a bit more open a bit more creative. But we still have the two-minute noisy pop songs.”
Girls Like Us was, as the title suggests, an album taking inspiration from the experiences of the all female line-up, and this new album follows on from that.
“Overall there’s a theme of coming of age. Being older and being able to look back on experiences rather than always being in the experience. Looking back at the idea of teenagers and how I felt at the time.”
As an all-girl rock band, this can often become a focus of interviews. Even describing a female band often has to be prefaced by all-girl as simply writing ‘band’ implies all male. But Holgate says this gender divide in music is getting better.
“It used to be every single question was about being in an all-girl band. Now it does still come up but we’re proud to be an all-female band. We’re happy to fight the fight for women, we just don’t want it to be the only focus. We don’t want it to overshadow the music, we’re just trying to do it in the sense of being equal to male bands. But now people do ask more about the music and the instruments and the sound rather than just what we look like or what sex we are.”
However Holgate is always happy to appreciate the female musicians around her.
“I went to watch Courtney Barnett in Manchester about a month ago she’s very cool. I like her garage rock element of her music and the way that she delivers the melody. Warpaint, Sophie our drummer is a very big fan of them, she looks up to their drummer quite a lot.”
Holgate hopes she can inspire females even just to be creative.
“I always find it very flattering when people say they want to start a band because they’d come to see our band. And when there’s younger girls at the shows and they say they feel inspired to do something, not just music, just something creative.”
