Already rapidly on the rise following a slew of standalone singles and impressive live shows, London trio Alien Chicks have now unleashed their debut EP Indulging the Mobs into the world via Hideous Mink Records & SO Recordings – something that has been eagerly anticipated for some time.
Consisting of frontman and guitarist Joe Lindsay, bassist Stefan Parker-Steele and drummer Martha Daniels, Alien Chicks were tour support for English Teacher in Autumn 2023, and have already notched up sold-out London headliners of their own at The Lexington and The 100 Club. They are on a clear path to their breakthrough – with an eclectic mix of rap over punk, jazz and bossa nova sounds. Nobody would ever be able to call them unoriginal.
The lead single ‘Steve Buscemi’ was written during a live set, when they decided to improvise a rap over two repeating notes. Intrigued by the song, an audience member later asked them what the name was of the song and after finding out it was as yet unnamed, asked if he could call it ‘Steve Buscemi’. “It’s not about him at all,” says Lindsay, yet that’s what they called it.
That anecdote captures the essence of the band perfectly: here to have fun, and also always a little chaotic. On one of the few hot days this summer, I managed to get Joe and Stefan on a Zoom call. They phone me from their car, on their way to finding a petrol station. They both seem a little stressed and at one point, Stefan has to excuse himself when he gets a nose bleed. Still, when they speak about their music, you can tell it makes them happy. They talk about being addicted to gigs, never staying the same and annoying people.
Why don’t you start by describing your music to someone who might not know what it’s like?
Joe: I would say it’s mathy punk, with lots of different genres in it. We do bits of rap and bossa nova and stuff like that. It is a bit of a fusion. Little bits of jazz.
Stefan: It’s quite eccentric.
What about that mix of different styles is appealing to you guys?
Joe: I think it’s just because of what we all listen to. I’ve been stuck on quite a lot of mathy stuff, I listen to rap as well and loads of punk, too. Me and Stef write the music together, I think it was just a collation of what we listen to. I feel like we write songs in whatever genre we are listening to most of the time.
Stefan: We like music that changes quite a lot, so I think we got bored of the same thing being repeated too much, we enjoy jumping around different ideas in the same song, it’s quite fun.
Is that what inspires your music writing, other music you listen to, or are there other influences too?
Joe: I think it’s the music we listen to but also the fact that we like things to be like what Stef said about changing loads and not staying constant, while we are playing, whether it’s conscious or not, we are constantly changing direction and I feel like that influences the direction a lot because it means that we end up writing lots of different genres, different time signatures, keys or whatever all in the same song, just because we get bored of things too quickly. I know it sounds really bad but getting bored of a section probably inspires us to then write new ones.
You’re about to release your debut EP – tell me about that.
Joe: What I quite like about it is the EP starts and finishes with the same four chords. Also the EP could be played cyclically forever and make sense in terms of the key changes between the end of the first song to the start of the second song and then the end of the second song to the start of the third one – for all of them. So you could play them all essentially as one song and it would make sense all the way through.
What about the themes you write about on the EP?
Joe: There’s a lot of social commentary or critical analysis of things I’ve seen or feelings I’ve had. The first song is about health anxiety and hypochondria and the second song is also about anxiety but around technology – its impact on the world and needing to keep up with it. I feel like I’m always a step behind on that front. The third song is not about anxiety (laughs). I don’t know how much I can go into detail about it – it’s complaining about people, basically, some annoying people we’ve met and commentary about that but in quite a cryptic manner. The fourth song is hyperbole, complaining about society generally and the state of humans. The last song is just a bit of fun, we were improvising on stage. We played two notes and I rapped over it. A guy later on said, “that was amazing, did you write it?” We let him name it and he called it ‘Steve Buscemi’. It has absolutely nothing to do with him at all.
So, you mentioned playing live, what does playing live mean to you, and is that why you write music?
Joe: For me and Stef it’s everything. It’s the reason we do it. Before we were gigging we didn’t have an issue, but now if we don’t play a gig for a week I genuinely feel deflated and unhappy. I feel like I’m actually addicted to it. Releasing music is just to make the live shows better.
Stefan: I think everything we’re doing is just to get bigger gigs, more people to come to the gigs. We know gigging is the thing we love. Most of our friends from London we met through gigs.
Joe: If we were playing to an empty room we’d still be gassed about it. The people being there and enjoying it is just a bonus. I feel quite flattered and surprised that people turn up to the gigs.
Words: Clara Bullock // Photos: Anya Rose
‘Indulging The Mobs’ is out now via Hideous Mink & SO Recordings. You can purchase a copy of the record here.