Girl Ray – Wishing we had « Friends like that »
A few days before the lockdown in France, Verity had the chance to see Girl Ray’s show at La Boule Noire, in Paris. It was the last tour date for the girl’s band from London, promoting their second album, aptly titled Girl. We had a little chat with Poppy Hankin, singer, about their evolution, sorority and vintage inspirations.
Interview by Marine Toux
Pictures by Laura McCluskey
Girl Ray – Poppy Hankin, Sophie Moss and Iris McConnell.
First of all, how do you feel in quarantine? Do you keep yourselves busy ?
Poppy Hankin : As I’m sure the whole of the world is feeling right now, very surreal! There are highs and lows for sure, and although the situation we’re in is awful in so many ways I’m trying to see the positive in it as well. There are many things I won’t take for granted again! And I’m also trying to treat it as an opportunity to be creative and get some writing done.
Paris was the last date of your tour, you were pretty lucky ! Did the quarantine have an impact on the band ?
PH: Yeah we were incredibly lucky! We did get one festival in Madrid cancelled and it looks like many summer dates will also be cancelled, but I feel very lucky that we managed to get the album tour done. Obviously the quarantine means that we can’t see each other which is strange. But mainly we’re disappointed about how it might affect our summer dates. Other than that though I was meant to be writing over these months anyway so it’s not too bad.
Could you explain the beginnings of Girl Ray ?
PH: We all met in secondary school when we were teenagers. Iris and I had tried to get a band together for years but had always struggled finding a third member. When we were a little older, around 16, I was put in loads of classes with Sophie and we asked her if she wanted to be in a band we wanted to start. She said yes and then after a lot of practice we started playing shows!
Do you think the fact you were three girls changed anything in the way your band grew ?
PH: Not really to be honest. Obviously we’ve experienced people being dicks about us being girls in a band, but mostly we’ve been ok and it hasn’t affected us.
Your second album Girl is quite different from the first one Earl Grey, does your musical evolution match with your personal one ?
PH: I suppose so, yeah! There was quite a big gap between the albums so I guess we all grew up a little bit. But more than anything, touring the first album a lot we realised that the funnest music to play live is more upbeat pop music that everybody can dance to. That was a big motivation to change sounds.
I feel 90’s vibes in Girl, what were your inspirations ?
PH: I’m glad that you do! We were listening to a lot of 90s and 00s pop and R&B when we were recording the album. In terms of production, we took inspiration from Pharrell Williams for lots of songs. We also listened to early Britney and Destiny’s Child. So much good stuff in that era!
It seems to me that the whole project is about sorority. Do you want to inspire other girls ?
PH: Definitely. This album is really written for girls (hence the name!) – we wanted to make something that represented our lives and our experience of female friendship and relationships. To inspire girls would be great of course!
In your last video for Friend like that, you kind of rewrite the end of Carrie, I loved it ! Was it your idea to turn an 80’s movie into something more “feminist” ?
PH: Haha I guess we did. We didn’t mean to have an especially feminist ending or anything – we just wanted to recreate the 80s movies we all loved growing up.
Would you have liked to live in another era ? If yes, which one ?
PH: I think we’re in a good time right now! Well… maybe not right now but as far as eras go! But if not now then maybe the 70s or 90s sound pretty fun!
Who are your heroines ? Musically and generally?
PH: Hmmm there are so many! Ariana Grande, Weyes Blood, Carly Rae Jepsen, Carole King and loads more
And finally, what’s next for Girl Ray ?
PH: It’s kind of hard to say right now with everything being so uncertain! But generally, the plan is to finish writing the next album and record it later this year hopefully. And also a bit of touring later in the year if gigs still exist!
You can listen the last album of Girl Ray « Girl » on all digital platforms
Discover the amazing video for « Friends like that », directed by Alex Cantouris
