Music, Style & Culture

Back Story: Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Behind every album, there's the story of its inception.

Behind every album there's the story of its inception. Granted, sometimes it's boring, but occasionally it's actually quite interesting. DIY catches up with Girls to find out just how their latest album 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost' came into being.

Your new album, 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost', is out this month. How long did it take you from start to finish?
It was about a month of recording - three weeks here in San Francisco, and then another two weeks in LA. Some of that was mixing, so about a month of recording and then a couple of weeks of mixing, and then mastering sessions and everything.

When did you start writing material for it?
I write songs all the time, and then when we go to make an album we pick the ones I wanna record the most. There are songs on there that were written years ago, and then songs that were written only a few months ago. They're not written in a session specifically for an album.

Did you know how you wanted it to sound from the off?
We did, we did. Each song is very specifically planned when it's written, so by picking the songs we knew exactly how the album was gonna sound.

We heard you recorded it in a San Francisco office building - that doesn't sound very glamourous?
There's a building where a guy has built his own studio down in the basement; it was very nice. The studio was ideal, because the guy built it with all the best sort of equipment but when you rent it from him, he gives you the keys and just leaves. It's not like a regular studio where you've got lots of staff watching you, and you're watching the clock because you're paying by the hour. We could be very relaxed, work all hours and be alone.

How much do you tinker with your recording equipment? Are you fans of unusual, or home-made instruments?
No, no. It's very basic. Especially with this album, more than anything we've done in the past. It's very much one track of drums, one track of bass, two tracks of guitar, one lead vocal and some backing vocals. And then, you know, either a piano or an organ but then that's it. In the past, we did kind of experiment a little more but this was a very classic, standard rock and roll album.

You'll be touring the album over the rest of the year: is there anything on there you can't play live?
There's nothing we can't play. I think if you listen to the record, it's less experimental than anything we've ever done. It's very straight forward and basic, so yeah, we'll be playing it all live and of course we'll try to make it a good show, like the best possible live performance we can from those songs. But they're very simple songs.

How do you think the addition of your new drummer (Darren Weiss) and guitarist (John Anderson) affected the end product, if at all?
Well, the new drummer is just very good; he's very good at doing exactly what you want him to do.That helps a lot because the drums are one of the first things you record, the basis of everything; we could just get on with the rest. The guitarist was a very good friend of mine who I've been wanting to record with for years now so it was like a dream come true getting to work with him. He's very talented and you can hear it. It comes through on the recording as well.

Are there any themes the record picks up on that are especially important to the band?
Yeah, there are very important songs that we've been waiting a long time to record. Like, I was talking about recording with this friend of mine that played guitar - that was a very special thing that we've been waiting to do for a very long time, so it's a big achievement for us. But you know, it's certainly not the end of it. The job's not done, or whatever. It's hard for me to say what's important and what's not. The songs are written and recorded on a song to song basis so at the end of the day, years from now, this could be an important album, or maybe just specific songs will be considered important.

Do you have any songs left over from the recording sessions?
There are songs that aren't on the album that were recorded, but they have plans. They're going to be released as special, as B-sides and giveaways and things like that. They'll all come out; there's nothing that won't be heard.

Is there anything you learnt recording 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost' that you wished you knew when working on 'Album'? Well, yeah, but at the same time, the first album, we knew we were doing it in a very unideal fashion; without a record label, without any money. We still had full time jobs. This record is made in probably the way that every band would want to make their record; well planned and in a nice space, and with good musicians and a good producer. I guess the thing that sticks out at the end of the day for us is that it's the way we'd like to continue to work. Good planning does work out.

Girls' new album 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost' is out now via Fantasytrashcan / Turnstile.

Taken from the Autumn 2011 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.