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Franklin Fest 2016 - Pre Festival Interview - The Courettes

In the run up to this years Franklin Fest in Edinburgh, our very own Girl in the Garage @ Muso's Guide will be profiling some of the acts taking part, as well as chatting to the organisers and DJ's (or at least the one's who replied to my questions!).   

First up are Brazilian and Danish garage rock duo - The Courettes, who will be playing on Friday 24th June (that's a week on Friday already!) before hot-footing it down to the Big Smoke to play at the Weirdsville club night with Les Darlings on Saturday 25th. 

Daringly describing themselves as 'A blast of Jungle wildness & Scandinavian rock 'n' roll! and ‘Riot grrrl in the garage’. Let me introduce to you Flavia Couri on atomic fuzz guitar and screaming raw vocals, and ‘Beat! Beat! Beat! man’ Martin Couri on loud as hell drums. They are one of the busiest bands on the scene. Juggling gigs and family life, is just a walk in the park... 

Debbie: What are you guys up to at the moment in terms of gigs/releases?

The Courettes will bring the brand new single 'Boom! Dynamite!' + B-side killer 'T-C-H-A-U' recorded at Toe Rag Studios and produced by Liam Watson. And for those who still don't have we're also bringing our debut album Here are The Courettes, released in 2015. Still unreleased split 7' 'Hoodoo Ho' by The Courettes + 'Big Butt Bonnie' by Powersolo is also in our suitcase.

We played this year at The Cosmic Trip Festival in France, the Garageville in Germany, the SPOT Festival in Denmark - from where we got a great review by Rolling Stone's David Fricke  - and we are gonna be at Gutter Island Festival in Denmark and the great Franklin Fest in Scotland. We have one more show in the UK the 25th in London at Weirdsville.

Debbie: For those not in the know, would you like to tell our readers a bit about yourselves? 

The Courettes' history is full of interesting facts! It all began 10.000 km apart. Flavia (from Brazil) met Martin (from Denmark) on a tour in Brazil in 2013 with our former bands and fell in love. Now together in life and music, we are The Courettes! In February this year, two became three with the arrival of our baby boy Lennon (Debbie: sweeet!! congratulations!!). The very day after his birth, we played a show! We went straight from the hospital to the soundcheck. We're always up to some full-speed garage madness!

Debbie: Love it. Why should we come and see you play at the Franklin Fest (if the above is not reason enough!)?

You should come and see us play at the Franklin Fest if you're up to some wild fuzz guitars, go-go rhythms and riot grrrrl from Ipanema screaming! And I bet you never saw a half Danish half Brazilian band before, huh?

Debbie: You've sold me. What you are looking forward to the most about playing at the Franklin Fest?

We are really looking forward to play in Scotland for the first time! And also to play with so many cool bands, it's really a great line up!

We can't disagree with that. Thank you so much to Flavia and Martin for taking the time out to chat to Muso's Guide.

Links for tickets to the Franklin Fest can be purchased here:

http://www.franklinfest.co.uk/franklinfest2015/ticket-sales/

https://www.facebook.com/courettes

https://soundcloud.com/thecourettes

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Musos' Guide Chats With Oh! Gunquit

I caught up with Tina and Simon from Oh! Gunquit before they embark on their mini-tour of Scotland this weekend...

DS: You’ve been playing together for around 5 years now, with a couple of singles and your first album Eat Yuppies And Dance released in March this year. How did you feel about the wide positive reaction you’ve received to the album, and the radio play?

Well we're very happy that people are getting vibes from it. We feel sometimes we're in this funny place where we're too 'retro' for some and not 'retro' enough for others, which I guess we don't really mind at all...ha-ha. And it's always great to hear your music on the radio!!

DS: I’ve read about how you guys formed the band (being neighbours and visiting the same vinyl-only club in London), but can you tell me what your biggest musical influences are; and what was it that you had in common that really made you click and decide to go for it?

Simon: We started listening to lots more early '60s gritty r'n'b, girl groups, garage-punk, early surf instrumental bands, exotica & rockabilly records. I think the one idea was to really delve deeper into the older music but not try and sound like any one genre and lyrically make it relevant to today and also our sense of fun & imagination.

Tina: I used to work at this pub called The Constitution up in Camden and quickly came across a few people who were into good music including the Nitty Gritty crew (who still run a monthly night there) and a London-BlackCab Driver named Bob who I rented a room from. He was an avid Soul, Ska, R'n'B, collector and would also buy a lot of the ACE records reissue compilations. I remember that he had that album we instantly loved called Intoxica with lots of great 'strange & sleazy instrumental sounds', I think this was one of the reasons for deciding to get a saxophone in the band.

Simon: We wouldn't say we had any one specific single musical influence when we started; it was more of a mix of stuff that we were getting more and more into at the time and wanted to do a bastardised version of. As soon as we wrote our first song just for some drunken fun it clicked very naturally, there was no pressure to 'be a group' it was purely just for the buzz of playing without any plan. It also worked well in a way I think that Tina hadn't been in a band before, so she didn't have preconceived ideas about writing songs, singing, and performing, just pure gut instinct and good taste!

DS: Were either of you in bands previously?

Tina: I used to help run a warehouse venue in Denver US with some friends and put on touring punk bands, but my only other experience is playing trumpet in a marching band!

Simon: I had played previously in a sort of post-punk group who were into The Fall, Talking Heads, Liquid Liquid, Devo, etc. and also with Tina previously being a Crass-loving 'Crusty Punk-Rocker' we brought a little of these things into it too I guess...

DS: ..and have you met any of your musical heroes?

We've been lucky enough to meet Dick Dale, Wanda Jackson, Wayne Kramer, Penny Rimbaud, Viv Albertine, Ari Up, Davy Graham, Ray Davies, Mick Jones, Sky Saxon, Terry Hall and of course Adam Ant!

DS: Cool. What do you like the most about performing live, and what inspires you to keep playing?

The buzz of playing live is always addictive and I think that's where we really thrive best. It's a bit like Sex, eating your favourite food, and getting high all at the same time. To get a room to freak-out, howl, and get lost in some noise with us is fantastic fun. Life can be difficult, stressful, and full of pain and bullshit so you need to get your (high?) kicks when you can and when we all jump on a little weird juiced-up-octane trip together for a while it makes all the other crap you have to put up with bearable.

DS: The band are currently signed to infamous garage-punk rock n roll label Dirty Water Records, and have been embraced by that scene in general; playing the likes of Weirdsville, Hipsville, and the upcoming gig at the Franklin Rock ‘n’ Roll Club in Edinburgh. How does that feel; were any of you part of that scene previously?

It feels like a big kinda community or a large dysfunctional B-movie family which is great! It really becomes apparent when you play more of these events and nights etc. Other bands/promoters in that scene really help each other out and we have made some good friends from hanging out with all the assorted reprobates. We both went to the Dirty Water Club before the band started although not regulars and would cross over at certain specific gigs and nights. We briefly did a club at The Lock Tavern booking bands from that scene and we just got more & more immersed in the joy of it.

DS: What is next for the band?

We've just recorded 4 new tracks with Jim Diamond which was a treat to do and we hope to put out soon. We're putting out a small release in the US, a new EP, & working on the next album. We're also looking to do a new video this month and playing more shows outside London with Spain and France in the calendar for next year so far....and always up for more, because as they say 'you're a long time dead!'...

Thank you so much to Tina and Simon for taking some time out to chat with us. There is a lot to look forward to!

You can catch Oh! Gunquit at The Franklin Rock n Roll Club in Edinburgh at 8pm on Friday 13th (wooooooo!!) November, only £6.00 on the door - you'd be mad to miss it, but if you do, they are playing for free! at McChuill's in Glasgow, 8pm on Saturday 14th November. Support for both shows is provided by The Black Needles, psychotic rock n roll from Sao Paulo, our recent interview with whom can be found here.

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