Page 26 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 104

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he multi-talented frontwoman is a self- heavier-sounding female artists and female- live. But recording, I would probably have to say
Tconfessed secondary school dropout, fronted or all-girl bands. Looking back, she says ‘Bigger Than Me’. ‘Bigger Than Me’ was the ab-
who has reached great heights since leaving she felt aimless until she discovered unconven- solute hardest one to sing because I’d lost my
school. Not only does she front her own band, tional, angry, riot grrrl, feminist music. voice at that time. Because I’d been singing
Hands Off Gretel, a band that has released two She explains, “Growing up, until I found ‘Don’t Touch’, I’d condensed all my vocal takes
studio albums, ‘Burn The Beauty Queen’ and ‘I these bands myself and I found riot grrl, I’d into the last day and I’d only got a few hours to
Want The World’, but Lauren has also released never even heard anyone say the word ‘feminist’ finish them, and I’d finished ‘Don’t Touch’, and I
three solo albums. Aside from that, she directs without it being a joke or without someone taking was drinking shots of whiskey which I never
and produces the band’s own videos, designs the piss out of someone and going ‘Oh, you do… I don’t know why I did it, but I was drinking
the band’s own merchandise and artwork and sound like a feminist,’ and I always thought of shots, and then the producer was like, ‘OK, we
more. And she’s pretty awesome at it all. that as a bad word. And when I started research- need to finish the vocals today, so can you go to
She also speaks out, online and offline, ing into that word I related to so many of these the next song?’ and I kinda felt like I was gonna
about issues that need discussion – whether it women. I was like, ‘Where’s this been my whole go home after the song I’d just sang and I was
be mental health, abuse, body image, bullying life?’ When I found riot grrl, that feeling of like ‘Oh shit! Oh shit!’ I went to scream and my
and more. Lauren has educated herself on women being together, women encouraging voice was so tired and husky, and I thought, ‘I
many subjects. She tells Black Velvet about her each other and not women being against each don’t think I’ve got the strength to do it,’ and then
desire to speak up and sing on behalf of other other, I’ve never had that before. The thought of I just thought about what the song was about
females. no male interest ruining things was fresh to me and was like, it kinda makes sense that it was a
“Growing up when I was younger, I didn’t re- because all the music I’d listened to until that little bit harder to do, and then, as I went for that
ally think about it too much. I just thought about point was about a woman that’d broken up with scream, when I recorded it, everyone said ‘That
my music as singing and making songs kind of a man, or a man they’d liked. All the music I was is the best scream you’ve done!’ That was just
without too much of an aim or purpose. And listening to was like that until I found riot grrl and raw.”
then, when I was around 15… leaving school, I I found songs about abuse and songs that had ‘Bigger Than Me’ is a song that Lauren
had to think about, ‘What is my actual purpose subject matters that I felt were really important, wrote about prostitutes.
in life? Why am I singing? What’s my music that no one was singing about.” “I wrote that song about a prostitute that was
about? What’s the point?’ And around that time Inspired by this, Lauren soon integrated that treated like shit her whole life and did sex work
I was heavily depressed. I was turning against into her own music. “To me, my voice, I like to and there’s a man treating her like shit and mak-
all my friends. I lost literally all my friends. I just be as honest as possible. I like to say things that ing her feel small and then, for a minute, she
listened to P!nk all the time. P!nk was like my scare me, and I like to say things that I dread my makes him feel like he’s bigger than her, he can
best friend. She was always on my iPod, listen- parents listening to because I think ‘Oh God’. I dominate her body for that short minute, but
ing to her music. Connecting to every line. I think sing about things I’ve not told them about. I put then she pulls a gun out and shoots him in the
it was about two years I spent pretty much dis- myself out there. It makes me feel alive when head!” she chuckles.
appearing from the world and listening to I’m performing because I’m sharing parts of my- The third song on the EP is ‘She Thinks
women like P!nk and Courtney Love, all these self that I haven’t told anyone about. Or I’m shar- She’s Punk Rock N Roll’ and sees Lauren sing
women that felt like they were with me and ing elements of my life that I feel people are ‘She’s such a stupid girl with all her stupid
spoke to me and understood me, and when I going through right now and they need me to songs’, which makes you automatically think
grew out of that stage of needing someone else, speak about it because a lot of the time in your that someone has (horribly) thought that about
I realized that what I was doing then was, I was life you go through things and what makes it Lauren. And, while that title and lyric is not a par-
writing to become that person for someone else. worse is that no one’s talking about it and you ticularly nice one, we love that Lauren has used
And my purpose became to fill that void in feel alienated.” something negative and transformed it into
someone else’s life the way that my idols filled it something creative, something that can inspire
in me.” others or that they can relate
Lauren found herself iso- “There’s also a lot of power to owning your insecurities and using them to re- to. We ask Lauren what she
lated from others at that time. mind yourself that you’re just like every other woman. We all feel the same about would say to others that have
“I think it was mainly be- haters.
cause my school and my town our bodies. We can all pick at different things about ourselves that we don’t like Convincingly, she says, “I
and pretty much all the kids and if I was to talk about self love and how you should love yourself and not pick think it’s important that you
that I knew, they were all into have hate because it truly is
the thing that was popular, the at your insecurities but then look at my body and then go and get surgery, I wouldn’t quite boring when you don’t. I
thing that was trendy. They all feel right doing that. I wouldn’t feel right getting surgery but then telling someone find it so hard. I am the softest
dressed the same, they all person. I cry at everything. I
looked the same. When I was else that they shouldn’t get surgery, they should love themselves,” - Lauren Tate read comments and for years
15, it was around that time, as I’ve got comments that have
I was leaving school, it was ow, Lauren is backed by Sean Bon on been horrible. Sometimes I get
building up to that… I didn’t really have many Nguitar, Sam Hobbins on drums and a load of horrible comments from troll accounts.
friends at school anyway, but it was around that Becky Baldwin on bass. The quartet have a new Ugh jeez. The times I release something and it’s
time I was rebelling completely against every- EP, ‘The Angry EP’, in hand. The EP features just good comments I start to think ‘Woahh, are
thing. I just got this wave of depression that hit three tracks, ‘She Thinks She’s Punk Rock N people not interested? Where are the trolls?’
me; the realization that I wasn’t a kid anymore Roll’, ‘Don’t Touch’ and ‘Bigger Than Me’. We and when you get the good comments AND the
and I was leaving school. I started looking at my ask Lauren which of those songs is the angriest. negative comments I think that’s when you’re
friends’ groups and thinking, ‘These people are “Depending on how I sing it live, sometimes provoking a reaction in people that’s not just
fake, everyone’s fake. Everyone’s just stabbing ‘Don’t Touch’ becomes the angry one,” she people going ‘Oh, it’s good’. It’s like making peo-
each other in the back. No one’s themselves. No replies. “I wrote that one inspired by girls mes- ple have an opinion, which is much more impor-
one’s authentic.’ And then I started listening to saging me from my gigs saying that people had tant. That’s the purpose of art, I think.”
heavy music, so I was listening to a lot of The been inappropriate with them in the crowd, Hands Off Gretel have other similar songs
Distillers and Hole, a lot of Bikini Kill and bands which I just can’t believe would ever happen at of integrity that stand up for the underdog,
like these that my friends had never heard of. I one of my gigs. It was an awful shock, the whether it’s looking into her own life, or encom-
started getting into vegetarianism. I started get- amount of messages, I must’ve got around ten passing others. ‘Fingers’ on the ‘I Want The
ting into animal rights. Just seeing things differ- different girls message me and tell me they’d World’ album mentions how ‘school was awful’,
ently to everyone else. I didn’t want to go out been at one of my gigs and that there was a which obviously a lot of young people can relate
and party at weekends. I had no interest in drink- man behind them touching them or a man be- to. But then they also have songs such as
ing with friends, I just wanted to lock myself hind them throughout the gig pushing them ‘Freaks Like Us’, which is a more empowering
away. Looking at it now, I see that a lot of the aside or saying things to them and making them song. Lauren says she thinks these tough, bad
time I was in a dark place, but in that dark place, feel uncomfortable. And when I sing that song I times help strengthen us and empower us in the
I completely took myself away from a route in always try and get all the girls to come forward, long run.
my life that could’ve meant that I ended up like and I channel that feeling and when I sing it I “I think just the amount of kids that have no
everyone else. But instead, I isolated myself and think, ‘If there is anyone in this crowd that is kind friends, or the amount of adults that have no
kinda created my entire persona from that day of being inappropriate right now, this scream in friends, you learn a lot of lessons that you don’t
on. this song, oh my God, I wish it would just oblit- learn when you’re a popular kid. When I was
After listening to P!nk, Lauren moved on to erate them’. That one I sing with all my heart popular I didn’t realize how powerful my own
HAND OFF GRETEL