Bleech Interview
Portland Arms, 26.2.13

Described langourously by the BBC as "a guitar and vocal marriage made in Nineties heaven" Bleech are an East London grunge-pop trio made up of sisters Katherine and Jennifer and drummer Matt. The band have been lazily compared to nineties greats, the Breeders, and noughties legends, the Subways, and have enjoyed supports slots with Wolfmother and Pete Doherty.

When they toured the UK early in 2013 Rosey couldn't resist booking them for R*E*P*E*A*T, and Ash B just had to pop into the Portland's new dressing room to drool over their expesnive rider...


Lucy: Your band have been quite quiet for the last few months. Are you looking forward to playing gigs again?
Katie Jane Garside: I think I give very obtuse ans

 

What inspired you musically to get into a band?

The Beatles and Queens of the Stone Age were two major influences. We’ve always been surrounded by music so it was quite natural to pick an instrument up. We listen to lots of old stuff; our playlist in the van is very limited. We’ve listened to a lot of Black Sabbath recently,
P.J Harvey, Radiohead and that’s it. If it’s Jen’s iPod anyway.


Pic by Patrick Widdess
http://www.patrickwiddess.co.uk/

Where did you come up with the name Bleech? Is there a story behind it?

I was in the pub with my mate, and he came up with it. Matt claimed it for his own. If you write it with two E’s it looks better. Sorry to disappoint, we didn’t come up with it all drinking Bleech.

What was it like playing the same show as Pete Doherty?

We were supposed to headline the show, and we get a phone call saying “do you mind if Pete
Doherty headlines it?” I was like er I don’t know I’ll think about it haha. He was really nice,
he came up and introduced himself and we were like woah. He was like I’m Pete Doherty, we were like oh are you? Haha

What’s your opinion as a band on X Factor?

It should be bombed. How can you like the X Factor when you’re a musician? You should have to work for it. It’s just karaoke. When they cover things, youngsters don’t know where the stuff originally came from and think it’s original.

What would be a dream gig for you?

We’ve talked about this actually. We said if we were big enough to play a football stadium, we wouldn’t, sorry when, we wouldn’t do Wembley we’d do Leyton Orient football club. 5 nights at Brixton Academy, or 100 nights at the underworld.

What about festivals?

We’ve got quite a few cool festivals lined up in France and some small and medium sized ones in England. We’re playing Big Tree Festival which looks really cool.

What’s it like touring in Europe?

Wicked. It’s always great, people love live music. And you get great food as well. You get wine and food for free, it’s really relaxed. You get like a huge feast after your gig, with all the other bands, it’s got this really communal feel it’s brilliant. Not like in England, actually we got food tonight! It was top notch haha and we got Peroni! [glad you liked it - Ed]. We’ve spent the last week getting given bottles of Carlsberg in Scotland.


Pix by Rosey R*E*P*E*A*T, more here

What would you say your best gig so far has been?

Quite a few. Coco at the beginning of this tour with Wicked was good. We’d been in the studio for like 5 weeks, I can’t understand how some bands say they’ve been in the studio for months, I couldn’t handle it. Especially for the drummer though, because that’s all done first so I just sit about watching Trisha. We all took mornings off to watch Trisha. Columbia Halle in Germany was wicked.

On the other end of the scale, what’s the worst gig you’ve played?

Oh my God! The worst one we played was probably in Burton upon Trent last year. It was like a man and his dog, a prostitute and a transvestite and some other band members. But they loved it, the dog really loved it. He woofed a lot. Our worst gig was probably Viva Viva actually, we played in a tapas bar, people were sitting down eating fajitas and all they could hear was us, we were so loud. I think they expected a mariachi band.

What’s it like being in a band with your sibling?

It’s alright actually; I think we get on better on the road than we do at home. It’s one of those
things, you know how to wind each other up, but now Matt’s worked that out too now. We all get on well really. Considering the amount of time we spend together we get on really well.

So there’s no chance you’ll end up like Liam and Noel Gallagher?

Hahaha, the PR would go up a bit, we might sell more records that way.

With downloads and torrents etc, is it harder to gain publicity and record sales?

It’s all online, if you haven’t got a million fans on Facebook, that’s all people look at. It’s
depressing really. There’s no point getting down about it though. In France and Germany, they love merchandise and they want it all signed we have to take loads with us. The problem with things like Spotify is that the £6 a month people pay has to be divided by all the artists on there so you end up with like 0.0002% so it’s better if you just go onto iTunes to buy it. iTunes were the baddies for a while but now they definitely are the lesser of all evils.

What do you think you’d do if you weren’t in a band?

God knows. Dustbin man, none of us really have any qualifications. We’ve got A levels but what do they mean? Matt would have been a stage actor. But we’ve never ever considered being in anything but a band. I’d be on GMTV playing drums for Emily Sande. Haha! You’d probably get better pay! We were in Doncaster about a week ago and we visited the high watt
factory, and this guy just say’s “drummers always wanna get paid, they won’t turn up if they
don’t get paid” haha! I’d just have a bag of cash sitting next to my drum kit.

What advice would you give to anyone trying to make it as a band?

Keep gigging! Sell your soul, get a good haircut and be prepared to bend over! Haha! No, just keep at it, learn your stage craft. Stay true to yourself, don’t lose faith hahaha! Go on X- Factor! If nothing happens in 5 years I’m going on X-Factor! “I work in a chicken factory, my mum thinks I’m really good”

By Ash B

http://www.bleech.me.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/bleechofficial
http://bleech.bandcamp.com/album/nude

wers to questions...It's never about looking forward to it. Actually maybe I should change the
script, maybe we are looeir musicm the 3rd album?