Pitchfork: Girls Against Boys
Interview and story by Ryan Schreiber.
Painstakingly transcribed by Allison Miller.

Interview from Late September, 1996

Pitchfork: People constantly refer to your band as sexy. What do you think is the sexiest thing about Girls Against Boys?

Scott: The reason that word keeps coming up is because of the way the music sounds. The stuff's kind of dark and driving, but suggestive lyrics are in a lot of the songs. I think that, in a way, the word 'sexy' coming up so many times is an angle that people can latch on to. We've kind of got to expect it with songs titles like "Sexy Sam." We do want to make music that's dark and suggestive, so whatever.

Pitchfork: So you guys are from D.C. How did you all meet?

Scott: I've known Alexis, who plays drums, since we were 14 in high school and all of us were part of the music scene in D.C. in the mid-80's and that's kind of how we got to know each other. We all played in all kinds of different bands so we've just sort of known each other and we've been playing music together for a long time.

Pitchfork: You covered "She's Lost Control" on the Joy Division tribute album. What does that song make you think of?

Scott: When I was listening to the song and figuring out how to do it, one of the things I thought of was how the lyric "She's lost control" sounds like, in the song, the person has some kind of psychological problem. On the other hand, I thought the song could have a more nightlife vibe to it. All the lyrics are kind of ambiguous so I liked the way you could read a couple different things into it. One of the things I kind of liked is the lyric "She's lost control tonight." One of the reasons that we chose that one was because the lyrics just spoke to me.

Pitchfork: Whose idea was it to contribute to that record?

Scott: It was all of ours. I guess it was me that was doing most of the calls about that Joy Division thing. I just thought it was cool because Joy Division, as a band, used the bass guitar in a way that's sort of similar to the way we do it. I didn't even think about if there was similarities in the music at all. I hadn't thought about Joy Division in years. But going back and listening to the stuff and then doing that song, I kind of realized that the bass is like an instrument that's in the front a lot of times. It's not just following along, it's cutting a new path for the songs of Joy Division which is the same way that we write songs.

Pitchfork: Who do you think is the biggest Joy Division fan in GVSB?

Scott: Probably me, I guess.

Pitchfork: When Ian Curtis committed suicide, did it somehow have more impact on you than when Kurt Cobain or, say, Jerry Garcia died?

Scott: No, I wouldn't say that. Even though I'm a fan of Joy Division's music, I didn't know much about the band at that time. I had some records, but I wasn't following the band real close.

Pitchfork: How's the tour going thus far?

Scott: The tour was going great until we played in Dallas, Texas and someone broke into our trailer and stole my guitars. I was talking to the police all day about that and then we get down to the show in Houston and its been canceled. So we've kind of just been trying to play shows whenever we can with no notice at all. We played in Phoenix last night. Things should kick back in because we're going to L.A. tonight, but it's kind of been a rough week. We heard that mercury was in retrograde so that's probably why.

Pitchfork: What music are you guys really into these days?

Scott: We have a lot of Mo'Wax records and Ninja Tune records in the van. I think we're listening to a lot of that stuff. It's very different from what we do. When we were driving around, I used to tune into whatever commercial rock stations were around and see what was going on. Then I figured out that there's really not a lot going on. For a while it was kind of interesting because having lived in New York, I never listened to the radio. I had no idea what was going on in that world, so it was kind of interesting for a while anyway.

Pitchfork: Spin loved the new record. What's it like to finally be getting all of this good press and on the cover of magazines and stuff?

Scott: It feels great.

Pitchfork: The greatest fucking thing in the whole world is that Sassy actually wrote you guys up in the Cute Band Alert section of their magazine.

Scott: My favorite one is that we got a record reviewed in Mademoiselle. That's fucking great.

Pitchfork: When you first saw one of your albums written up or your name in a big magazine, was it a good or bad review?

Scott: It was a good review. The first record review I saw was a very lukewarm review. But I didn't like the record that much either so I understood. We've been really lucky with the types of reviews we get. Sometimes in the U.K. now they're actually embarassingly positive. A lot of times it's, "This is the greatest thing ever," or "This is a piece of shit because look at that guy's pants."

Pitchfork: What's the most sexy thing a band can do onstage?

Scott: I don't know. I always think that if there is a sexual element to music, it's that the band is into it enough to lose themselves in the music. Maybe it 's just dropping all self-consciousness.

Pitchfork: What's the sexiest place you know of to make love?

Scott: One sexy place I've heard of making love is to take a mattress down to the subway tracks and put the mattress on the subway tracks. You've got the anticipation of the train coming at any moment and you'd have to jump out of the way, so I think that would be pretty cool.

Pitchfork: Whose the sexiest member of the band?

Scott: That's probably Eli. He's always got the pants with the stripes down the sides and all that nouveau stuff that he's bought in all those shops that have like three things for sale.

Pitchfork: What's the sexiest thing you'd do for a million dollars?

Scott: That's a tough one? I'm always waking up in the morning and I'm wondering if the weather is sexy. Like no, it kind of depends on your mood. Some time the weather's sexy and sometimes...

Pitchfork: The sexiest album you own?

Scott: I think that Goldie's Timeless is pretty sexy. Something about the endless repetitiveness of the beat.

Pitchfork: Is 1996 the year of Girls Against Boys?

Scott: No, I'm hoping 1997 will be. I would definitely say it's been a really great year for us.

Copyright 1996, Pitchfork Online