This week we’re bringing you balls-to-the-wall all-female rock in the form of the charismatic Fake Club.
Fake Club are all about the nicknames, and we’ll let them introduce themselves. There’s Essex girl Aicha ‘The Pacemaker’ Djidjelli, “who bashes the life out of a tin can.” Carmen ‘Jim’ Vandenberg (yes Jim) can “string anything into a guitar solo,” but don’t ask where she grew up because “she’s a mudblood.” They don’t know where she’s from.
They do know, however, that rhythm guitarist Chloe ‘The Force’ Askew, “is from a back alley in Liverpool.” And from London there is ‘Daddy Warbucks’ aka Rosie Bones, “with a voice that will make the marbles fall out of your pocket.”
Fifth and alphabetically final member Vicky ‘The Ace of Bass’ Warwick is from Cambridge, but “don’t call her a dickhead or she’ll blow your head off with some heavy frequencies.” Nice.
Fake Club are a band with a whole bucket load of influences. Sound wise they draw inspiration from the likes of Foo Fighters and QOTSA. How did they come to play this way? Listen up cus here’s the inside story straight from them.
“Legend has it that Dave Grohl, Prince, Josh Homme, John Bonham, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Buckley, Noel Gallagher, Axl Rose, Pino Palladino and Chino Moreno met up one day and each poured a bit of their musical talents into a secret chalice, not too dissimilar from the Holy Grail, to ensure their spirit will always live on.”
“Fake Club made it their mission 1 year ago today to find this cup. So with the help of Chloe’s scouse skills we swiped it right from under their noses. We then all drank the cocktail from the cup in a night of wild excitement and thrashed out an album over the summer of 2012. Hopefully the sound of the legends shines through in our music.”
You can figure that out for yourselves! Because streaming below we have the brand new video for their song ‘Over and Over.’ The incredibly distinctive vocals help elevate this to another level, with the frantic and thrashing drums providing the intensity needed to match.
There’s no special story about how the band got together. Fake Club are just a bunch of friends who met through mutual friends in London and made a band. It’s been a busy year for them.
“We’ve recorded two albums, put on three club nights at our band room in Holloway, curated the music for a feature film and we’re in the film as well.” Right not they’re putting together ‘FKR Mag,’ which they’re filling with their favourite artwork and reviews. Their fourth club night is planned for the end of March.
Over the years they’ve learned a lot about each other, and they’ve figured out a solid way to work together. “We know where each one of us sits in the mix and who sounds best playing what.”
Writing has become easier too – “we have a lot more experience with each other as friends too, so collectively we have a lot more to write about together.” It sounds like a collective effort: “we all pretty much just set up in a circle in the band room at Holloway and just jam until something good comes out. Any of us could come up with the next best riff or lyric for a chorus and it seems to work best for us like that.”
The last time we introduced a female-led band was London-punks Legend in Japan. At the time, lead singer Shabby told us that it was “irrelevant whether a band incorporates men or women.” We asked Fake Club for their thoughts.
“It’s totally true, gender doesn’t define genre so why the big fuss? If anything it works in our favour.” They recall a gig at Catch in Shoreditch where “some lads from Barnsley randomly strolled in upstairs, heard our music, went to the front and were like “fuck me they’re girls” so they went downstairs to get the rest of their mates in.”Have attitudes changed at all? “There are just more girls playing instruments well, who have made it into the mainstream. I don’t know that if we had existed ten years ago our music wouldn’t have been accepted, but it’s great to know that people like our stuff.”
Overall, Fake Club are a great up and coming rock band that you need in your life right now. As a band they have a fantastic attitude and the tunes to back it up. Get a taste on their soundcloud page and say hey to them on Facebook because they’re a band deserving of your time.
CHRIS MARSHMAN