Stepbrother

Name, where are you from?
Nina, Stella, Casper & Ethan, from Ladbroke Grove.

Describe your style in three words?
N: All Stella’s clothes.
E: Uniqlo Men’s Section.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
N: I’ve been to almost 70 gigs in 2020 alone, so this is really hard to say... Paul Institute, Collard, Vlure and Wooze at Laylow all blew me away. I love going to gigs having never listened to any of the band’s studio recordings, it’s always a pleasant surprise. Working at a venue that’s usually the case anyway. Deathcrash at St Pancras Old Church was beautiful, as was their set at the windmill earlier in 2020. Shouts to Folly Group at the windmill, that’s the most excited I’ve been watching a new band in recent memory.
S: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at O2 in 2017. I was so far away yet it’s the most intimate gig I’ve ever been to.
C: Rosie Alena at The Social, 12th November 2019. I’m lucky enough to have performed with Rosie a few times since but this was the first time I saw her live and it was absolutely mesmerising. I couldn’t believe that there were people my age making music like that, and it’s always such an inspiration for me to see those around me doing great things.
E: My favourite of recent memory is JZ Replacement with Tim Lefebvre at Vortex 7/3/2020. Was just absolutely overwhelmed with joy and excitement. A mixture of chaos and precision. I called Casper right after and gushed for a while at the train station.

If you could be on the line up with any two bands in history?
Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell and FKA Twigs. We’re just all big fans and would love to watch their sets after ours.

Which subcultures have influenced you?
N: I’d have to say punk, just because it’s in most the music I’m into in some form. I’m pretty sure everything can be described as post-punk. Also, I’m not sure if this technically counts as a subculture, but I’ve always been influenced by home. The people, spaces, objects, feelings. Always creeps into my lyrics somehow.
E: Musically speaking, I would say the subculture of American Jazz education has influenced me a lot. I spent a while studying in Boston and it definitely shaped the kind of musician I am. In the past year or so, a lot of how I have been thinking musically has been informed by trying to avoid the stuff I really didn’t like from that world. I guess that’s like reverse influence. Unfluence or maybe defluence. More personally, I would say computer subculture, for lack of a better term. I used to play a lot of video games and am super interested in hardware and how it all works. Most of my interest outside of music lies in that world.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
E: My grandpa. He died before I was old enough to appreciate him. Cheese fest!

Of all the venues you’ve played, which is your favourite?
N: Dissenter’s Chapel in 2017. Was one of the first gigs we organised completely ourselves and played with all four of us. Also playing in a church is insane.
E: Laylow. Feels like a home base of sorts as Nina has worked there for a while now. Love the sound and the room, easy choice for me.

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?
C: Billie Holiday. She was at the absolute forefront of defining modern vocal styles and techniques that we have all been using ever since, and pop music today would be nowhere near the same without those. Her song 'Strange Fruit' is arguably one of the most important songs ever recorded, talking about the horrors of the lynching of Black Americans in the early 1900s. It played a huge part in the founding of the Civil Rights Movement and is a reminder of how deep racism is ingrained into society, and that those atrocities committed back then are still happening today.
S: Stella Mozgawa the drummer of Warpaint. Effortless creative, never overpowering, grooves always complementing the songs, cool name.