The Joyzine ’20 YEARS OF JOY’ birthday weekender at The Old Library, New Cross, London is fast approaching (19th / 20th August) and over the coming week we will be talking to some of the bands who we have been lucky enough to get on the bill. Indie punk band Deux Furieuses are playing on Saturday 19th and they answered 10 questions from Joyzine editor Paul Maps:
1) Who’s in the band and what do they play?
Ros Cairney – guitar & vocals Vas Antoniadou – drums & vocals
2) How would you describe your sound to someone who’s not heard you before?
Drums, guitar and a heart.
3) Who are some of your biggest influences and how have they affected your approach to making music?
PJ Harvey, Sinead O’Connor, Kate Bush are a few of our biggest influences. These are not just wonderful singers but artists who worked to explore and develop their musical style and songwriting. We have been to see them all live and they connect as female artists with something honest and powerful. They created true music rather than musical pastiche which we find all too prevalent today. Add in to this mix, Ros’s post punk guitar influences and Vas’s drum inspiration from Steve Jansen and Rob Ellis.
4) Who are your favourite current artists and what do you like about them?
Hurtling make uncompromising music. We love the layers of Jen’s guitar and Simon’s bass. We had the pleasure of working with Jen in Brix Smith’s live band along with the wonderful Deb Googe on bass.
BERRIES we admire for their integrity and pursuit of their own distinctive style on record. Holly has a great voice and they have progressed so much live too.
Hannah Rose Platt has a great voice with Kate Bush tones and writes intriguing, evocative songs. Superb live too.
5) What do you like most about playing live?
We love the power and danger of our minimal line up with no backing tracks. It is the possibility to recreate songs live each time and to connect directly with people. When this happens, it is the best feeling in the world.
6) What makes the perfect gig?
A great live sound, a great audience, playing our hearts out for them.
7) Tell us an interesting fact/anecdote about your band.
We love earthing! Standing on the earth’s surface in your bare feet for ten minutes to recharge your battery with energy from the sun. It has been proven to work! Find a bit of the planet not covered in concrete and take your shoes off!
8) When did you first come across Joyzine & what connection do you have to the site?
We formed DF in 2013 and released our first album in 2016 and Joyzine have been there supporting us the whole journey with quality writing about the music and thoughtful interviews.
9) The shows are raising money for HOPE not hate, why is this an important cause for you to support?
It is important to us because we must always guard against extremism taking hold in our society. There is a song called ‘Words of Warning’ on our second album My War Is Your War about Sachsenhausen concentration camp for political prisoners, which is situated at the end of a suburban street on the outskirts of Berlin. ‘Europe of the future remember’ are the words of warning carved in stone on a memorial at the site. How a society turned a blind eye, lost touch with common humanity and enabled a system of persecution is a salutary lesson to us all. As we order 500 asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge resembling a prison, HOPE Not Hate are working to challenge inflammatory language in mainstream politics and counter the rise of far-right extremism in communities.
10) What were you doing 20 years ago?
Ros moved from Glasgow to London after her band Shriek split up and stayed in a hostel in Brixton signing on while looking for like-minded musicians. Vas was playing drums in lots of London bands and went on tour with The Libertines as drummer for Kill City. Together with bassist Jen from the Llama Farmers, we formed trio We Rock Like Girls Don’t, the irony of which was lost on many. After Jen left, we became a duo on a mission to write songs about the world around us and Deux Furieuses was born.
Thanks!
Ros and Vas
Their current single is the scalpel-riffed track ‘Our Day Will Come’ taken from the album Songs From Planet Earth.
Tickets for 19th and 20th are priced at £12 for a single day or £20 for the full weekend and available from We Got Tickets here, with the option of adding a copy of the first in our compilation series for a mere £5
Deux Furieuses socials: Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp | Website