I can’t help but notice that you’re all guys, so what’s behind the name?
Tom: We’re all a bit feminine I suppose. No, it’s from a Wire song, and we took months and months in finding it. We started as a band before we had a name, and had hundreds of absolutely awful suggestions. So in the end, it was either that or Dirty Elton...
Dirty Elton…?
Tom: Yeah, that was the other band name, but I think we’re gonna save that for a side project…
Ian: It just kinda summed up all of our influences really. The only preference that we had was that it had to be girly and childish really.
When did you start making music together?
Tom: We first started making music together when we were fifteen. We were in a band for about a year and a half playing alongside a load of bands at Bilborough College. Then we all went off and did our own thing and over 2013 started getting together again to make music. At the start of 2014 we really, really started it, recorded some stuff and started gigging.
Ian: We recorded in January, but we didn’t even have a band name, so it’s only been since March when we’ve started jamming religiously and playing gigs.
How would you describe your sound to those who haven’t heard you?
Ian: It’s always a difficult one. We get compared to Talking Heads more than anything.
James: Talking Heads is a big influence on it really.
Tom: They’re a band we all love, and always will love. I always think of our sound as dancey, jangly and soulful. We all try to copy someone we really love, so while we all try to copy Talking Heads, I try to copy Aretha Franklin, but I’m still getting there…
James: Jaco Pastorious?
Ian: Weather Report.
James: Funk and soul really.
Tom: It’s kinda funk and soul developed into a more indie, 21st century thing.
How have your influences changed and developed since playing together again?
Tom: It's weird because what we sound like now and what we sounded like when we were sixteen is completely different. We had “sixteen-year-old influences.” It was always the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Greatest Hits playing, or The Libertines, so I’m glad we took five years not doing anything to come back and have something a bit more varied. I imagine if The Jonas Brothers came back after five years then they’d be really good, so that’s how we see what we do
Tom, you’ve obviously been away for a while – has any specific reason brought you back to Nottingham to make music?
Tom: You make it sound like I’ve been lost at sea or something. I moved out of Nottingham when I was eighteen, and went down south for university and since leaving I’ve just lived in London for work. Nottingham is always going to be a bit of a home really and I’ve always kept involved with the music scene and listened to everything that’s come out of here over the past few years. We’ve always wanted to come back and play amongst amazing musicians on a brilliant scene. The things I like about Nottingham I can’t really find in London, and for me at the minute, its just too big, whereas here we all feel quite at home really. We have a lot of respect for the bands around here, they’re doing a bloody good job.
What are your plans once you release your EP?
Tom: We wanna go straight back in to record. We’ve had this EP for six months now and it’s the first thing that’s really set us off with everything. Since then we’ve wrote about three times as many songs as we’ve got on there. That EP was the first set of songs that really defined what we wanted to do and we’ve just taken that further now, so we’re really keen to get that out. We’ve got a show in Dalston, and then a show at the Chameleon in Nottingham with some amazing people like Tray Electric.
Just to finish, I know that the Bilborough College scene a number of years back produced some fruitful talent. So do you have any words for its most famous sons, Dog Is Dead?
Tom: We love you! The boys have done absolutely amazing and we hope they carry on doing well, as I know they will do.
Three Girl Rhumba launch their EP alongside Ghost Twins, Scribble Victory and Tray Electric at The Chameleon on Friday 8 August 2014. Facebook event.
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