Garage pop supergroup The Schla La Las recently celebrated 20 years since their debut EP with their first new release since the late noughties, and the original line-up of Piney Gir, George, Katrin, Vee and Delia are back with another generous helping of jangly rock and roll goodness packed with growling guitars and 60s girl group harmonies in the form of new single ‘Up For It’.
We’re delighted to bring you the first chance to see the nostalgia-packed video, featuring footage from some of their early shows, interspersed with modern-day images, as Piney explains: “The footage at the start (and peppered throughout) is from our very first gig at The Bull & Gate we were so green then!“
With all this in mind we thought it time to take a journey back to the mid-noughties – a time when haircuts were angular, jeans were painfully tight and guitar music rode high in the charts (and which has recently been rebranded ‘Indie Sleaze’, with an accompanying BBC 6Music documentary). And who better to be our guides than The Schla La Las?
For anyone unfortunate enough to have missed you the first time around, tell us a little about The Schla La Las and what you got up to back in the mid-noughties.
Delia: Gigs / festivals / matching outfits / being driven around in sports cars (thanks Lawrence!) and white vans (thanks Chris!). Opening the Isle Of Wight’s Bestival festival on the main stage only to find as it was a Sunday everyone at the festival had spent Saturday night stuffing themselves with all the dodginess and the only person to watch us was the hotdog man setting up. Closing Truck Festival’s last night and all the other stages had finished so the entire festival was trying to ram itself in to our tent as the chaos descended (pls note! I have found the live recording from this and it’s OKAY!).
Katrin: When we formed, originally we were going to have a guitar/guitar/bass/keyboard/drum combo but then we decided we wanted to rock more, so we ditched the keyboard for another bass. You can never have enough bass.
Other than the music – to be honest, a large percentage of Schlas back then, including myself, were on the hunt for boys, as you can tell from some of our lyrics. Being in a band helped on the confidence front. We had such a hoot!
Piney: From memory we were kind of debauched, little bottles of Cherry B in our guitar cases and smuggling in the cheapest white wine to every gig. Losing track of time in various basement bars, staying up all night and going straight to work, day jobbing after a white night. There was always a lot of back and forth about what to wear and we were on the scrounge to borrow backline. We rehearsed pretty much once a week, which is kind of unbelievable now to think that we had that kind of time! But it was always fun, I loved hanging out with these girls and still do!
Vee: The Schla’s were primarily a bunch of friends who started a band for the pure fun of it. Katrin and I lived in a shared house with guitar-axe extraordinaire, Leo Whetter, from The Black Madonna’s. Leo was part of the Cheltenham collective which included the up and coming Duke Spirit, and a friend who I worked with at Reckless Records introduced me to Leila of the Duke Spirit, who introduced me to Leo, because he was looking for a room to rent, and Leo was dating Piney and it was Piney who invited me to join the Schla’s, because I played guitar. At the time I was performing live with my solo art project, ‘Japanese Intelligence Mind Control,’ previously known as Sweetie, just as the Schla theme tune describes.
What have you all been up to since the last time the Schlas were active?
Delia: I’ll let the others talk for themselves but me same old same old / working in record shop / working in press association doing gig listings and now work in the Lexington / Waiting Room music venues. Also still being in bands.
George: We played our last gig five days into me going back to university, so my life changed quite a lot. I’ve swapped haring around Bethnal Green for a leafy cul-de-sac in South London, I prefer waking up at 6am to getting home then, and my biggest vice is masala chai. Honestly, I love it.
Katrin: I have got quite good at boardgames. Also, I am pretty sure that, through the power of wishful thinking alone, I have contributed to the UK’s booming sauna industry. Now we just have to get the prices down and the cozzies off!
Piney: Well… err… Alot! With my solo project I released my 7th album You Are Here in 2019 & 3 EPs since lockdown which will come out as a collection next year on vinyl which is super exciting! In 2016 I started singing backing vocals with Gaz Coombes which is such an inspiring project to be involved in. I feel very lucky to have travelled the world with him singing his songs and playing keys and percussion too, he kindly got Piney to support him around Europe, UK and America. We toured Australia supporting Robbie Williams, who I actually kinda hung out with a little bit and Robbie sang a Piney song to me on our last day of touring together, it was bonkers! Being part of Gaz’s band has created so much optimism for me just when I was starting to feel really disillusioned with the music bizz, being in his orbit is good for my spirit & I consider him to be a good friend now.
In 2019 Ride was lovely enough to have Piney support them on tour around the UK and that was so fun to play those special venues with one of my fave bands from the 90’s, it’s great they are still going! From 2018 I also had the honour of singing backing vocals with Noel Gallagher for 5 years before Oasis reformed. It was amazing to play to those huge crowds – we did the Saturday night slot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2022 just before Paul McCartney went on & those songs mean so much to people it was a privilege to be a part of that too. Noel was very funny and easy to work with, he was always kind to me and involved me creatively in doing more than just singing but contributing to the backing vocal arrangements, which was amazing that my first stint as an actual arranger was on UK number 1 album Back The Way We Came and also a gold record with Council Skies (FYI: I did these arrangements ahead of our live gigs and recording sessions together with Garo Nahoulakian, my partner/producer/co-writer I’m lucky we can live, work, and sometimes even tour together.)
I also presented The Other Woman show on Soho Radio for a few years, and now I present Loud Women Radio on Resonance FM as part of the Loud Women Collective. Despite being real busy, I had to maintain a day job alongside all of this, so in dressing rooms and studios I always had my laptop and was doing music supervision for feature films and tv shows, I could list the programmes I’ve been involved in, but that’d be kinda boring! You can find me on IMDB if you are interested in that sort of thing, and I’m still doing this, I have 4 films in production right now. I also do bit of sync consultancy, but you don’t need my CV now do you? Oh & last but not least I had a baby, he’s 11 months old now, his name is Miro and he’s a little delight. He’s totally changed the way I think and work, but I wouldn’t change a thing about him.
Vee: The Schla’s for me was about the creativity and conviviality of the collective – I was otherwise working as a solo artist, which though brilliant in many ways can also feel a bit weird and isolating… though I left the Schla’s in 2005 because I needed more time to complete a PGCert in Photography at CSM.
In a way I chose my solo project over the Schla’s, which tbh was not as much fun as the Schla’s, and in 2007 I performed my last show, at the Water Rats, as JIMC… and didn’t really make any new music for many years after that.
I moved out of London and eventually quit music and photography to live and work in a spiritual retreat centre.
How did the reunion come about?
Delia: Got asked. Said yes.
Katrin: Various people around us have always said, you should get back together and play a gig sometime. Now the stars have aligned, but truth be told, it probably wouldn’t have happened if Piney hadn’t taken the reins.
Piney: I think I’m getting credit for instigating the reunion, but in my memory it was George and Katrin who were keen to reform first. George was saying how her husband and her met after The Schlas had split up, so he had never seen us play. We released music pre-Spotify and only had 1 official music video, so there was little to no trace of us online, but we had done quite a lot back in the day! Then Katrin seemed to be missing playing and singing on stage, both George and Katrin were kind enough to hop up and sing BV’s with me at Glastonbury a couple of times and it was always fun to sing together. I see Delia pretty regularly and she said how she missed drumming. Vee had gone a bit awol but I’d heard mutterings from Katrin that she wanted to meet up. So all signs seemed to point to getting the band back together. Since I’m not on tour as much as I was (you may have heard that Supergrass & Oasis have both reformed!) I figured I’d have a bit more time to hang out and make some noise with my girlfriends again, something I have really missed the past few years. It’s great to have a regular excuse to meet up and hang out and turn our guitars up loud!
Vee: After leaving London I struggled to maintain friendships long distance, but I somehow managed to keep a link alive with Katrin.. no matter how many months or years it had been since we’d seen one another we seemed to be able to pick up where we left off. She dropped a few hints that Piney was musing on a reformation, and soon enough the text message came.. I didn’t have to think twice – I was definitely up for it!
How did it feel playing together again for the first time?
Delia: They were great. I was shit. But now I’m holding the drum sticks the right way up it’s all fine. They are all nice ladies so that’s good.
George: It’s SO GOOD being back in a room and making noise with these women. They’re funny, they’re fizzing with creative energy, and we’re having a riot together.
Katrin: Shambolic and awesome in equal measure. I cannot wait to play a gig!
Piney: It felt like wearing your favourite pair of shoes, you know, the ones that are super cute and super comfortable but you don’t wear them very often because you don’t want to wear them out, so when you put them on you are like “Wow, I wish I could wear these every day, why don’t I?”
Vee: Amazing! Such a buzz.. and Delia is being ridiculous – she played great.. we all needed a bit of WD40 to get going, but we’re really getting there.. all very exciting.
Looking back at 2005, when you released your debut EP, where do you think it fitted into the music scene of the time and what about it has meant it’s been able to stand the test of time – will we be seeing a reissue?
Delia: No recollection of fitting in to anything whatsoever ever so not worried about fitting in ‘again’ etc. The music sounds okay to me. Music doesn’t seem to have changed very much to be honest. I think not my call on reissuing stuff. Record label knows if it can sell stuff. It makes the few copies of the originals I have worth lots more as HERITAGE ROCK collector’s items that’s great I will put them on ebay and make a fortune. I can add in some original badge action too yay!
Katrin: I think that is a question for a bigger band than ours.
Piney: We definitely had a scene, I’d say we kinda formed at The Buffalo Bar when Anna Schulte (our original drummer) and I attended an A-Lines show (Delia was in the A-Lines) and we were a little tipsy and so inspired we formed a punk band and called it The Schla La las, I subsequently recruited this line up you see here/now/today, and Delia joined when Anna Schulte got pinched to go drum with The Slits – I lost track of Anna, I think she may live in California now (?). Anyway, we had fingers in pies at The Windmill & that whole South London scene in New Cross, but we also got around and played the whole Camden scene (our first gig was at The Bull & Gate) & our label Truck Records was in Oxford so we had a presence there too, but our happiest home was probably that hipster Shoreditch scene, before Shoredtich was the shiny thing that it is now.
Vee: Some music is just timeless. The Schla’s are a pretty straight up band.. guitars and drums, no fancy sounds that particularly pin it down to the 00s.. and the song writing pulls on so many influences it all becomes a bit timeless.
Were there any bands back then that were on a similar wavelength to you or that you felt a sort of kinship with?
George: Oh, so many. We played many gigs with The Priscillas, loved those ladies. The Open Mouths, The Boyfriends, The Research…
Katrin: The Priscillas were great to be around and then of course there were The Hives, who stole our concept of matching outfits. But we forgive them.
Piney: Well yeah, considering the A-lines were why we formed, I’d say them for sure! I remember really enjoying The Long Blondes, The Research were brilliant and still are brilliant, Art Brut were and are always fun, we were chums with The Open Mouths, The Boyfriends and Luxembourg too. We got to support the 5,6,7,8’s and that was brilliant fun! We didn’t speak the same language but we tried to chat in the dressing room and they were so smiley and sweet. There was that whole Hackney/Shoreditch scene that we hailed from with The Black Madonnas and The Beat Up, The Duke Spirit, Archie Bronson Outfit, etc… and in Oxford we played a few time with Goldrush. We were often compared to The Hives and while I’d heard “Hate To Say…” at the indie disco, I had never seen The Hives until Brixton Academy 2014 (with George & Katrin) and it was only then that I saw why we were often compared to them & hey, I’ll take it!
Vee: The A-Lines and The Priscilla’s, were like our big sisters at the time..
I used to hang out with Guri from the Pricillas, I even guest played keys with The Flowers of Hell, another band she was in, Guri was so cool, so stylish, I looked up to the women in both those bands as they oozed a certain confidence I knew I lacked, I was generally pretty neurotic and self-conscious at the time.. part of the reason I stopped performing was that back then I felt embarrassed about being so old at 30!! Perhaps now The Schla’s are older, we too can inspire younger women with the same confident attitude as the A-Lines and Pricillas… just pure enjoyment in making the music and performing and not giving a fuck about age!
That era of UK guitar music has more recently picked up the label ‘indie sleaze’ and even has a BBC 6Music documentary about it now – how do you feel about the recent resurgence in interest in the period, and the name it’s been given a couple of decades later?
Delia: I still don’t really understand ‘indie sleaze’ it seems to kinda mean all the bands that didn’t quite make it? It’s better than being called indie landfill though that’s for sure! The Schla La Las is my first ‘heritage rock’ band! I am legend hear me roar etc! Maybe we’ll get to play one of those Butlins weekenders with Sultans of Ping and Mighty Mighty and no original members etc etc
George: To me, the epitome of indie sleaze was Artrocker at the Buffalo Bar on a Tuesday night. RIP the Buffalo Bar, we had so many great nights there. The rank toilets can do one though.
Katrin: Ha! I thought we’d been on the pop end of the Naughties Garage Rock Revival and that Indie Sleaze was just the name of an instagram page with lots of party pictures from the supposedly coolest kids on the scene. Oh well.
Vee: Oh, I thought that just referred to The Libertines? Are they not the epitome of indie sleeze…? I knocked about with Pete and Carl for a while in 2001/2002, I’m actually credited on their demo album as we recorded a bunch of their songs in ny bedroom recording studio.
Not sure who else is sleaze… it’s all daft really.. back in the 90s my first band was dubbed as Romo.. totally uncool then.. probably still is today!? Ha ha.
But The Schla’s are far from sleaze.. rest assured! Indie tease… Perhaps but not indie sleaze.
Thinking of the musical landscape into which you are returning, what has changed since its original release?
Delia: not much apart from you can hear stuff on yr computer rather than hoping someone plays it on the radio / buying the record etc.
Katrin: When you come home from a gig, your clothes don’t stink of fags anymore.
Piney: We were always DIY, even though we’ve had help over the years from little indie labels like Truck Records, Sounds XP & now No Distance Records… we ultimately had to do everything ourselves and we still do everything ourselves now. What’s great about The Schlas is we make a great team, each one of us has our own unique skills and we all make room for each other to flourish with those skills. We all contribute differently and equally & mainly we’ve just been friends for so long it’s fun and we like spending time with each other, we respect one anoother and being creative together is a blast, we just wanna make some noise! && That hasn’t changed a bit.
Vee: Less quirky little venues to play in London.. such a shame that so many amazing places have disappeared like the 12 Bar Club, The Marquee, on the rocks, the Buffalo Bar, HQs, Eves on Regent St, and so many others I can’t recall all of them..
Who are the current bands that you admire? Are there any in whom you can hear or feel a similar spirit to what you were trying to achieve when you first started playing together?
Delia: Current bands…Heard Tyler Ballgame the other day – that was nice. Like Roy Orbison kinda thing – I am so jealous of people that can really really sing. Piney Schla can properly sing! PROPERLY SING! all Schlas dulcet and lovely but Piney can sing…I dunno. opera and things. . My friend keeps telling me to listen to Bathing Suits. It’s on my list! I like Lord Rochester. It’s garagey Bo Diddley land with the most elegant lady bassist ever. I am hoping to see the Dingly Boys soon and Boojuns i think this Tuesday!
George: Panic Shack! Oh my goodness, I love Panic Shack. Katrin and I saw them by chance at Glastonbury a couple of years back and I’ve been obsessed ever since. They’re so funny and their stage craft is chef’s kiss.
Katrin: The Hives. And I do love that female solo artists are so dominant now. I also look forward to seeing Lazy Jane soon, who featured in the video for ‘Gotta Go’ that we just filmed.
Piney: There are so many great bands it’s hard to name them all & I showcase so much music on Loud Women Radio if you wanna dive in and have a listen, but lately I’ve really been enjoying these Isle Of White bands, The Pill & Wet Leg, so fun and punky and cool, there must be something in the water down there. I also love the old school stuff like Vee does… I think it’s a balance of new and old and doesn’t really matter when it was recorded if it makes you smile, dance or feel something.
Vee: Geeze I’ve no idea, I’m still listening to The Seeds and Velvet Underground..
What is coming up next for The Schla La Las?
Delia: I’m not quite sure. I keep asking the others what am I doing? Is there a practise? Is there a gig? I have tried to show up for two practises that were not actually happening. I’m working on it. I’m not the Schla to ask this particular question to. The others seem pretty together tho!
Katrin: We’re writing new songs and plan to play some festivals next summer. And perhaps The Hives will ask to support us one day.
We asked each of the Schlas to select five songs from the mid-noughties and five from the past 12 months for a Now & Then Playlist – watch and listen below and scroll down for their thoughts on the tracks.
Delia:
FROM THE OLDEN DAYS
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing In My House
I do like LCDS – but mainly I like songs that reference other bands
COACHWHIPS – any of them really
What a row! I do like a good row. They bust a lightbulb in a venue I was doing the door for once! The utter bad men of rock!
BUFF MEDWAYS
Probably one of my most seen live (and also got sill amount of records) is Billy Childish. I always like his stuff. CHATHAM SINGERS was around this time too. Julie (his partner) is in them too and i really like her voice in it. Very proper on a mountain minding the moonshine kinda voice.
COUNTRY TEASERS
Loved them. Weird nagging songs that kinda suck you in and play clangy discordant pop country at you – The Rebel (Ben Country Teasers) still does stuff. I would not say particurly a 2005 thing. They are kind of outside of time.
MIA
I very much love the song paper planes. It actually came out in 2008 but I don’t care. I’m allowing it.
NEWSFLASH. I have looked up ‘indie sleaze’. random vague explanations abound. I don’t like most of the bands they say are it though sorry…
BANDS FROM NOT THE OLDEN DAYS
BRUNO & THE OUTRAGEOUS METHODS OF PRESENTATION – Best Dressed Chicken (In Town)
CONFESSION! I am in this band. Not on drums. I love the songs in this band.
TYLER BALLGAME – Gloves Off
He sings very nicely! Played The Lexington the other day. Kinda doo-woppy Beachboys songs and loveliness. I told him he should release stuff on ’78. He did not know what a 78 was. Partly I think his songs would sound great on 78 but partly I think it would cause consternation for his record label (I am bad but also funny (well I think I’m funny)).
QUICK ROMANCE – Brian Jone’s Hair
Teen punks from Bath/Bristol/Wells or something. Well the drummer is old man of 23 or something but the others are teenagers. Poppy punky songs – you know…X-Ray Spexxy and stuff. Great live.
LAZY JANE
They guest starred in our video. Going to go and try and see them soon. Not sure if they Spotifying it just yet? (Joyzine: we couldn’t find anything on Youtube, so check them out on Instagram here)
GEESE
Keep hearing them on the radio – really like this. Not gonna try and explain. Have a listen thingy.
THE CORDS
Kids from Scotland very very indie! On the grown-ups from Heavenly’s record label!
LORD ROCHESTER
I like all their songs, you choose.
George:
Art Brut – Good Weekend
There was a time when you couldn’t move in London without bumping into Eddie Argos, and that was no bad thing.
Maximo Park – Apply Some Pressure
Just an absolute banger
Young Knives – The Decision
I saw them just a few weeks ago and they’ve still got it. And LOUDLY.
The White Stripes – My Doorbell – I have a very funny story about Jack White actually, but you can’t print it…
Bloc Party – Two More Years
Katrin and I saw Bloc Party at the Astoria (RIP) around this time and accidentally got locked in the venue. Oh dear.
2025:
Panic Shack – Pockets
Love this band, love this song.
Midlake – The Ghouls
Midlake have never done it for me before, but this new song is great
Jehnny Beth – No Good For People
A song that I looked up the minute I heard it on the radio
Courting – Pause at You
Some wally at Glastonbury told me that no good bands have come out of Liverpool since The Beatles. He can take Courting and shove that up his bum (this is a great song)
Blue Bottle Club
I can’t find anything of theirs on Spotify but I had a really good time watching them play on Saturday night at Glastonbury. If you see them playing a gig, go.
Katrin:
I’ll just do one from each.
2005:
M.I.A. – Bucky done Gun
Not actually my favourite early M.I.A. track but the only one from 2005. She was so fresh! Also, I am a rhythm person – lyrics are the least important part of a song. Maybe because I’m foreign.
2025:
Bob Vylan/Amy Tyler – Dream Bigger
(I really wanted to choose something by Los Bitchos, but they had no 2025 single. But Bob Vylan are exciting and great live. Plus, I love a bit of aggression in my music)
Piney:
2005
Brakes – Ring A Ding Ding
The Hidden Cameras – Death Of a Tune
The Organ – Memorize The City
The Go! Team – Ladyflash
Goldfrapp – Ooh La La
2025
Gorillaz & Sparks – The Happy Dictator
Mac Demarco – Holy
Jeannie Piersol – The Nest
Le Volume Courbe – The Moon Song
The Plan – Cascade
Vee:
2005/2006
These are tracks I loved and were recommended to me from friends.. John of Brainlove Records put me on to most of these. Joan of Ass is a project by Jeffery, Disastronaught.. one of those polymath genius types..
Planningtorock – Changes
The Books – The Lemon of Pink
James Holden – Idiot
Animal Collective – Did You See the Words
Joan of Ass – Bodybuilding
2025 – I have no current music to share but this is what I am listening to:
Ruth Etting – Love Me or Leave Me
Francis Bebey – Forest Nativity
Igor Olivier Ezedam – Shruti-Box & Voice (Live)
The Doors – When the Music’s Over
The Schla La Las release their new EP The Schla La Las Are Out To Have Fun in November, with a launch gig taking place at Dream Bags, Jaguar Shoes in London on 15th November – tickets here
The Schla La Las: Instagram / Bandcamp
Interview by Paul Maps
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