Interview with Dance Bastards featuring Kate Wood and Amy Harrison (2/2) By Michelle Dee Photographs by Kate Langan www.katelanganphotography.co.uk

(1/2), (2/2).

Dance Bastards revel in the DIY ethos and create the different sounds that make up the songs, on lo-fi equipment in their bedrooms. I wanted to explore the idea that the music scene seems to be undergoing a steady shift in personnel type. There are more of the lofi-electro punk outfits becoming popular, bands such as Le Tigre, Bikini Kill and tonight's headliners Soho Dolls. Kate opines that it is just the rest of the world catching on to the earlier riot grrl movement of a few years ago. She adds that the culture of female musicians is not actively encouraged and that most industry types are concerned with skinny boys with guitars. She also believes that there is a certain hype and fear around technology and girls are being put off, by the boy's world of band music. She announces several times that anybody can do it.

And Kate's right, this webpage was put together by a girl, edited by a girl, the photos were taken by a girl, and I would wager that 70percent of the people reading this are indeed female. This strong female identity runs through Dance Bastards' songs too. Kate uses dramatic, character-led voicing, different languages, and an emphasis on the word sounding, not necessarily the words, themselves to tell the stories. She finds a place somewhere between singing, rapping and the spoken word to engage the listener. We discussed the way girls have certain words and phrases they use between themselves that no-one else understands; things created back at school.

That unmistakable look that you all understand, but passers by are unaware of. I remember one of the groups of girls at my old school created a whole language using complicated prefixes and suffixes just to confuse the boys when they came near.

Both Kate and Amy see their nursery rhyme lyrics, like playground chants: infectious in their simplicity. The repetitive nature of the lyrical refrain breeds familiarity and a strong urge to join in and be part. The girls commented on the bitchy school girl culture and pointed out that its prevalence has inspired some of the songs.

They are also massively influenced by the environment what they see and hear everyday. Not just their immediate surroundings but also, more of an international flavour. I saw something of the ragga style, possibly Caribbean in the show tonight. I found out from Kate that she lived in the States for a while in the city of Seattle. Here she has witnessed some of the resident Hispanic girls' attitudes towards life and it is fair to say she has adopted one or more of theses fiery Latino qualities. Some of that latent aggression comes out when we discuss the nature of men's reactions to the girls as musicians.

Meanwhile Amy pushes the idea that the most important thing is to stay focussed on what you are doing, being pro-active, being involved; and of course reading. This focus is emphasised by the girls' orderly and organized approach to their craft. I sense shrewdness about the way they go about their business. A well thought out and measured way of working.

At the same time neither seems cold or calculating they admit to being shit scared tonight for their debut performance, but they handled the first time nerves well. They add with humility we hope we didn't disappoint. They certainly didn't, not for this girl anyway.

Look out for Dance Bastards at the Sesh in November and check out soon to be newly mastered versions of the Dance Bastards tracks on www.myspace.com/dancebastards

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