What have you been up to since we last heard from you?
"We've just been doing a lot of writing and recording. We finished a
really long tour, and after that we came back to New York and got a
new rehearsal space up at Times Square. We've just been writing and
recording the album all year."
It's your first album since signing to Geffen. Has being on a major
label changed things much?
"No. There were probably things they were hoping we would do or not
do, but we were pretty adamant about not wanting them to be involved
in the recording process. We had more time- a year - to focus on the
songs and to present them in the best way. It did seem like forever,
but there was never a moment when we were sitting around just adding
senseless things. It's just the way we work- it takes us a while."
Where on earth did you get that strange title, "Freak*on*ica"?
"It came to us out of the lyrics to one of the tracks. It's kinda
wordplay, you know: 'Electronica' - 'Freakonica'. It had the right
mixture of attitude and absurdity that we just kinda go for."
Is there a theme linking the lyrics on the album?
"I'm always writing lyrics in a continuous stream. So when we get
near the recording time a lot of the things that have been running
around in my head always end up in the songs. So they do have a sort
of theme. I guess on this record I've been thinking a lot about
entertainment and the speed of life."
What's the first single going to be?
"It'll be 'Park Avenue'. It's about everyone's secret idea of fun, as
fucked-up or as pure as that may be."
We hear that you've been getting into club culture in a big way,
opening your own "House Of GVSB".
"Yeah, we opened a club in Minneapolis. We did it every Tuesday night
out there, but here (New York) we do it about once a month. We
arranged all the entertainment. There would be clowns running around
or sitting at the bar looking bored and crazy music going on. Doing
something like that for the live shows is something we'd love to do,
taking the time to make it a special evening. For some of the shows
coming up in the UK and Europe, we're hopefully gonna have the 'House
Of GVSB' as an aftershow thing. Instead of people getting kicked out
on the street they can hang out for a while."
So can we expect something a little different from your last, brief
visit to Britain?
"Yeah, that was just one show in London. I wasn't too pleased with my
shirt choice, so I have to get back and straighten that out! We've
decided to do a lot of things to the live shows which we haven't
really done before. I think people can expect a slightly longer
performance, and hopefully a more multi-faceted performance instead
of a 40-minute barrage."
"Freak*on*ica" is released by Geffen on May 18 and the single "Park Avenue" follows on June 1. Girls Against Boys' tour dates are: Bristol Fleece & Firkin (May 27), Sheffield Boardwalk (28), Leicester Princess Charlotte (29), Glasgow King Tut's Wah Wah Hut (31), Dublin Mean Fiddler (June 2), Liverpool Lomax (3) and London ULU (5).