If you thought you liked September Girls, you will like them even more when they’re angry.
More accurately, you will like the Dublin band more when they are indignant, which is a recurring theme throughout their second album, Age of Indignation.
Much has changed over the past few years for the five-piece, particularly since they released their debut album, Cursing the Sea, in 2014 – a record that introduced the all-female band as purveyors of dark, guttural, punk-tinged indie rock that floated like a butterfly and stung like a swarm of hornets. It was well received and reviewed, but it threw up some strange comparisons, bassist Paula Cullen and guitarist Jessie Ward say when we meet in a bustling city centre hotel bar.
“I don’t think there’s been any bad ones,” muses guitarist Ward, “but there’s just random ones that you’re going, ‘What? Literally, the only thing we have in common with that band is vaginas.’ ”
A new confidence is audible in their second album, Age of Indignation, a result of the band being more decisive with their sound. "We're more self- assured in what we want to say and what we want to sound like this time," says Ward.
Chiming urgency
That goes for the music, too. Songs such as Blue Eyes swirl with a feverish krautrock beat, the chiming urgency of Quicksand is hypnotic, and Jaw on the Floor, featuring A Place to Bury Strangers' Oliver Ackermann, is a highlight. If Cursing the Sea established September Girls as a band to watch, Age of Indignation is the album that will grab listeners by the lapels of their leather jackets, as it bristles with an underlying ire.
“I think compared to the first album, there are certain people that are like, ‘Oooh. You’re very angry now’, or ‘Oooh. You’re a very loud band’, and you know they were expecting harmonies or songs about love,” says Cullen, laughing. “I think we need to take the ‘harmony’ thing out of any press release, because now it’s just a load of people shouting; there’s not many harmonies going on any more. I think people do still expect that, so they are a bit shocked when they see us – cos we are quite different to the way we were even a year ago.”
That's mostly down to the album's lyrical themes, which is where the indignation comes into play: several songs deal with their views on the Catholic Church, feminism and the narcissism of social media.
“We’re all involved in different things– I’m an abortion rights campaigner, and that was stuff that was very important to me, so I wanted to write about that,” says Cullen.
“We’re not political people, but we have issues that we care deeply about that are related to politics,” adds her bandmate. You write about what’s important to you, so it felt natural in that way. It wasn’t like we said, ‘Let’s make a political album’. It’s not false internet outrage; there’s a lot of things that make me genuinely angry, that I feel like I have to say; that’s what’s really important to me. Feminism, personally, when you read about the shit that goes on with these MRA men’s rights activists and what they’re about . . . it works me up.”
As depressing as it is to spend even part of an interview discussing the gender of a band, in this case – and given some of the album’s themes – it is necessary. They both agree they have come up against sexism, both blatant and subtle. Cullen talks about how she is challenged by sound engineers, for example, who “try to bamboozle you with technical stuff because they think they know better than you”.
“Certainly, we are looked upon in a different way than a male band, or held to different standards,” agrees Ward. “People say, ‘You guys don’t smile in your photos’, and you just think, You would not say that to a dude in a band. Or certain live reviews would pretty much discuss what the band are wearing, and not mention one thing about their songs or their performance. And that can be really frustrating.”
A great outlet
Writing this album, Ward says, has “been a great outlet. I feel very, very lucky to be in a position where I can just let out my indignation. Get it out there, rather than just become frustrated or become an angry commenter on the internet.”
In short, September Girls have made a great album musically and one that tackles the sort of topics that few other Irish artists – much less female Irish artists – are talking about. In that sense, what do they want people to take from Age of Indignation?
“To me, part of feminism is making men realise that feminism is for everybody; that it benefits everybody,” Ward says. “Like all politics, the more educated people are about things, the better. Ignorance is bliss, but being knowledgeable about it lets you make more informed decisions and can help those less privileged than you. And also, just as a band, for people to go, ‘Oh, they sound more confident and more of a cohesive band’. I think the first album was more inward, more about what was going on in our personal lives. This one is a bit more outward.”
Cullen pauses. “I think hopefully this album will speak to women more. Not that the last one didn’t, but I think maybe some of the themes on it will hopefully make some other women angry.”
- Age of Indignation is out now. September Girls play the Grand Social, Dublin, on April 15th; Cyprus Avenue, Cork, on April 16th; and Lavery's, Belfast, on April 29th
