Photo by Elle Brotherhood
For a while now NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION got British four-piece PINS on its radar. And it’s kind of easy to fall for the four ladies from Manchetser. The powerful post-punk anthems of their recently released debut album Girls Like Us might not reinvent the wheel but they surely understand how to re-create the dark and intense feeling of this late 70s sound. Talented women, fantastic tunes. And if you want to know a bit more about what helped PINS shaping their sound here come a few answers. The group shares seven songs that influenced Girls Like Us, each in a different way.
01. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND – “Venus in Furs”
Collectively, this is one of our favourite songs. it’s simple and brilliant, it’s never more than it needs to be, it’s a good rule to follow, especially in the studio, it’s easy to get carried away adding more and more..
02. BLACK LIPS – “Meltdown”
We always intended to record our album to tape and then manipulate it. We wanted some of the guitars and words to be backwards, it’s hard to achieve that without it sounding like the devil but, yeah. THE BLACK LIPS really nail it so they were a frequent reference for us when we were in the studio.
03. IGGY POP – “Lust for Life”
This song was used as a vocal reference. Recording vocals for the album was very important to us. We chose to record at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool because we could experiment with all the analogue equipment they had. Everything was recorded through a Struder 2″ tape machine and what you hear on the album is how it sounded when we played it together in the live-room. The vocals were recorded through a copicat tape delay machine to give the authentic warm sound we were after.
04. GRINDERMAN – “No Pussy Blues”
This is a PINS tour van favourite. We used this song as a reference for how a song can build before hitting the explosive chorus! It’s a really great example of how instruments can work together and compliment each other rather than everybody bashing out a solo at the same time and not letting any one thing shine.
05. RONETTES – “Be My Baby”
The RONETTES and girl groups of the 60’s influenced us for female backing vocals we have on the album. We also did a lot of gang vocals recorded together in a stone room, where in similar style we stood around the mic but sang with more force whilst trying not to make each other giggle after a long day in the studio.
06. BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB – “Spread Your Love”
Come on. This one is easy. That sexy fuzzy bass…never taking a backseat.
07. JOY DIVISION – “Atmosphere”
Not only for those massive JOY DIVISION Division tom sounds we commonly refer too… but Peter Hook is probably one of my (Anna) biggest influences for playing the bass and the way I want it to sound. When I (Anna) was a waitress I served him a meal in a restaurant and was too shy to say anything because I was 18 so I probably just stared at him funny. I can’t remember if he left me a tip. But he’s given me bass tips for life. Thanks Hooky.
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