Super fuzz

Weird Girl was never a girl. The band first popped up on the online music site Bandcamp, where, as a guitars-and-drums duo, they released a series of singles and EPs last fall, available for free downloading. The band, now a trio, is finishing work on their first full-length album, Bad Friends. They sat down with LEO for their first interview.

“We liked the idea of a two-piece, it was a lot of fun,” says singer/guitarist Ryan Hater, “but adding Brady (McAfee) as a permanent member on the bass, it was for the best, definitely.”

Hater and drummer Basil Connor Martin had played in bands together, but they call Weird Girl their first serious band. They waited a few months before playing their first show, having previously booked shows and then written songs to play on a deadline. This time, they wanted to do it right.

So they learned from doing it the hard way, eh? “We learned from doing it the stupid way,” laughs Martin.

Adding McAfee has changed their direction a bit, too, from the first seven songs heard on Bandcamp.

“They’re all songs that we’re still proud of, that we really like,” says Hater, but the band is progressing.

The full-length features 10 songs. “There’s not a whole lot in town that sounds like it,” Hater says. “I’m not sure it fits into a scene,” though they do identify as “Post-Skull Alley kids.”

“My ambition for it is that it will be a bunch of songs that will make kids want to drive around town listening to it,” Hater says. “That’s what we did in high school.”

Martin cites ’70s rock and ’80s New Wave as influences, naming The Go-Gos and The Cars. “Really poppy, easily accessible. But also, we’re a rock ’n’ roll band.”

“We don’t just want to be a grunge band, or a fuzz band, or just a pop band,” Hater adds. “We want to put it all together as much as we can.”

Listen at weirdgirl.bandcamp.com.

Here
c. 2013 LEO Weekly