From Southern California comes this punk rock band that will give you a ’90s nostalgia while still keeping you grounded in the 21st century. Girl Fry is perfect for your angsty brooding, your bedroom air-guitaring/thrashing, your general anthem singing, or just your casual listening — you decide.
Punk is notorious for its focus on conveying a certain feeling via simplicity and repetition; however, here musicianship is in no way sacrificed, and the lyrics tell the whole story rather than just the aftermath. Indeed, it would seem that Jessy Spino and Alex Calderon are taking their genre to the next level.
I had the opportunity to talk with guitarist/vocalist Jessy about the band’s inspirations and experiences.
Germ Magazine: Let’s begin with how you all got started in music. What made you decide to pursue being musicians?
Jessy Spino: Alex (bassist/guitarist/2nd vox) has music in her blood. She is the daughter of Viper flamenco guitarist Joe Calderon. As for myself, I come from a family of songbirds. I believe I am more into poetry and writing, and as a youngster the only way to get people to listen to me was to sing very loudly. And here we are!
GM: That’s great. If you were to describe your music to someone who had never heard it before, what would you tell them?
Jessy: I would tell them we’re trying to do latin punk, and then they would tell me I’m wrong and compare us to a goth pop band from the ’80s.
GM: What are your aspirations — in music or life in general?
Jessy: I want to release an album a year and record every song we’ve ever written. Perhaps rub two pennies together. In life, I aspire to own and operate a chihuahua farm.
GM: Sounds eventful! Many of our readers are writers and/or creators of some sort. What advice would you give them in their artistic pursuits?
Jessy: I would say it’s okay to toil in artistic obscurity and then be posthumously recognized as a genius.
GM: It’s no secret that females in the music industry are far too scarce — especially in rock. What has been your experience as a female rock band?
Jessy: Very difficult. Some places have turned us down because they couldn’t properly exploit the gimmick of an all-girl band. Industry peeps or fans, critics — offering advice that either we’re too gay, not gay enough, not cute enough, too young, too old, too punk, not punk enough, too ethnic, not ethnic, not marketable. All of this crap and slop that the boys skirt by on. But it has made us very tough.
GM: I can imagine. What would you say has been your favorite part about being a part of Girl Fry?
Jessy: The writing and honing of music comes first. Second is the travel. A close third is that being in a punk band means you can get away with being trashy.
GM: Love it. Finally, where can we find you and your music?
Jessy: First and foremost: girlfry.bandcamp.com is where you may find our new album we released like two weeks ago (Titled: When You Drink, I Drink; When You Sink, I Sink). Second, it is available pretty much everywhere else: Itunes, Google Play, Spotify, Pandora, ReverbNation.
GM: Great! Thanks so much for agreeing to this interview, and I can’t wait to hear more from you!
Check out the video for their song “Survivalov”:
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As always, if you know a local band that you think deserves some recognition, let me know, and I’ll check them out. Maybe you’ll see them on Germ in the future!