Have all your friends jealous this summer with a hot new playlist for road trips, pool parties, and much more that will make you look like the ultimate trendsetter. Wargirl, the up and coming indie rock band gave me an exclusive interview before their San Diego show at the Soda Bar lounge where they shared the inspiration behind their catchy new album.
The band's long beach inspired afro punk sound is the perfect music to chill out with your friends to this summer. The band was founded by Matt Wignall who worked with the indie success Cold War Kids and was inspired to create the band to share the mish mash of sounds from his hometown in Long Beach, CA. You won't want to miss out on reading this interview with this group who are poised to break into the indie scene in a big way this year!
Question: How would you describe your sound?
Answer: It honestly depends on who you ask. Every single band member is going to answer that question in a different way which is what makes the band special. Everyone comes from such a different background and it's such an eclectic mix. We've got some Afrobeat, indie, rock and roll background, jazz, acapella you name it its in there and that kind of makes up a comprising Long Beach town.
Question: How would you describe your style? Is it more rock and roll or Boho?
Answer: Me, I just wanna be Keith Richards when I grow up. It's really up to the individual. I would say there's a lot of punk, in a weird way in a sense that if you look at Blondie, the talking heads, B52, bands that were considered in the punk scene but not necessarily the largely popularized versions of punk, It's more like that because that's what the late 70s early 80s punk scene was about just individualism and self expression.
Question: What are you playing tonight for this San Diego audience?
Answer: We have a new EP out and an album so there's 6 songs on our EP and 10 songs on our album. We've got about 16 songs that we can choose from right now. We're also going to be doing some Eagles covers. Freebird is on the set list!
Question: Who are your musical inspirations?
Answer: The first sort of inception point for the band was that I produce records I have my own studio and I was like I want to make some music with my friends I haven't done that in awhile. So, I've always really liked the later Clash material like London Calling and Sandinistas especially Sandinistas was so interesting because again, here's something that's considered punk but they had some hip hop, Afrobeat and the base player was into Reggae and it was like they kind of put all that together and it evolved into a much more mature band.
So hearing that stuff I was like gosh like Sandinista's could come out tomorrow and it would still sound current. I really just wanna make something like that. There was a festival recently with a bunch of like the old Orange County angsty bands playing and they're all sort of old and grey haired flipping the crowd off with their baseball hats on and it was kind of cool and relevant when you're that age, but it doesn't age well at all. And all of us in the band love music and we're kind of addicted to it. And if you found us all of us in 20 or 30 years I think we'd all still be doing music in some way or another. And I just really wanted to make some kind of music that if I'm 60 years old and playing that music that I won't look like an idiot doing it. So that's what inspired my idea for the band.
Question: Where do you find inspiration for your songs?
Answer: I think we're largely inspired by our environment in Long Beach. And what we're surrounded by culturally and artistically. We surround our self with the local flora and fauna to go out and write.
Our band does have an undertone of Long Beach because that's where we're all from. Long Beach is just this melting pot for diversity and character. In terms of writing its kind of nice to step away and be in a place where we're not in the thick of our everyday lives.
Inspiration for me is not just like where I live but like who I'm around the conversations I'm having what's happening socially. What I'm experiencing personally as a black woman in America which is really prominent right now for me. As the front woman of this band I really want to speak to that I think it's super important. But I also want to keep this music and the lyrics universal for people to take it in their own interpretation I think that like Matt was saying I want this music to be timeless and I want it to be accessible for everyone because that's what lasts. Things that you can latch onto.
We're all so diverse in the band which is like a reflection of long beach. So our influence is varied which is cool we're like a melting pot within a melting pot. We're like fondue!
Question: You've released your EP and you've been touring for about a year and a half, what's next for you guys?
Answer: We're a little bit like a freight train we never really stop. Once we came back from the last tour we started working on some demos. We wanna keep the momentum going. We recorded the album last year and we released it in both Europe and North America so now it's time to really stream our focus into what's coming next in the sophomore album. But, in the meantime we're just enjoying touring and finding some awesome venues to play at. We're heading to a festival in the UK this weekend. We're doing a lot of travel.
Question: How would you describe your sound?
Answer: It honestly depends on who you ask. Every single band member is going to answer that question in a different way which is what makes the band special. Everyone comes from such a different background and it's such an eclectic mix. We've got some Afrobeat, indie, rock and roll background, jazz, acapella you name it its in there and that kind of makes up a comprising Long Beach town.
Question: How would you describe your style? Is it more rock and roll or Boho?
Answer: Me, I just wanna be Keith Richards when I grow up. It's really up to the individual. I would say there's a lot of punk, in a weird way in a sense that if you look at Blondie, the talking heads, B52, bands that were considered in the punk scene but not necessarily the largely popularized versions of punk, It's more like that because that's what the late 70s early 80s punk scene was about just individualism and self expression.
Question: What are you playing tonight for this San Diego audience?
Answer: We have a new EP out and an album so there's 6 songs on our EP and 10 songs on our album. We've got about 16 songs that we can choose from right now. We're also going to be doing some Eagles covers. Freebird is on the set list!
Question: Who are your musical inspirations?
Answer: The first sort of inception point for the band was that I produce records I have my own studio and I was like I want to make some music with my friends I haven't done that in awhile. So, I've always really liked the later Clash material like London Calling and Sandinistas especially Sandinistas was so interesting because again, here's something that's considered punk but they had some hip hop, Afrobeat and the base player was into Reggae and it was like they kind of put all that together and it evolved into a much more mature band.
So hearing that stuff I was like gosh like Sandinista's could come out tomorrow and it would still sound current. I really just wanna make something like that. There was a festival recently with a bunch of like the old Orange County angsty bands playing and they're all sort of old and grey haired flipping the crowd off with their baseball hats on and it was kind of cool and relevant when you're that age, but it doesn't age well at all. And all of us in the band love music and we're kind of addicted to it. And if you found us all of us in 20 or 30 years I think we'd all still be doing music in some way or another. And I just really wanted to make some kind of music that if I'm 60 years old and playing that music that I won't look like an idiot doing it. So that's what inspired my idea for the band.
Question: Where do you find inspiration for your songs?
Answer: I think we're largely inspired by our environment in Long Beach. And what we're surrounded by culturally and artistically. We surround our self with the local flora and fauna to go out and write.
Our band does have an undertone of Long Beach because that's where we're all from. Long Beach is just this melting pot for diversity and character. In terms of writing its kind of nice to step away and be in a place where we're not in the thick of our everyday lives.
Inspiration for me is not just like where I live but like who I'm around the conversations I'm having what's happening socially. What I'm experiencing personally as a black woman in America which is really prominent right now for me. As the front woman of this band I really want to speak to that I think it's super important. But I also want to keep this music and the lyrics universal for people to take it in their own interpretation I think that like Matt was saying I want this music to be timeless and I want it to be accessible for everyone because that's what lasts. Things that you can latch onto.
We're all so diverse in the band which is like a reflection of long beach. So our influence is varied which is cool we're like a melting pot within a melting pot. We're like fondue!
Question: You've released your EP and you've been touring for about a year and a half, what's next for you guys?
Answer: We're a little bit like a freight train we never really stop. Once we came back from the last tour we started working on some demos. We wanna keep the momentum going. We recorded the album last year and we released it in both Europe and North America so now it's time to really stream our focus into what's coming next in the sophomore album. But, in the meantime we're just enjoying touring and finding some awesome venues to play at. We're heading to a festival in the UK this weekend. We're doing a lot of travel.
