I have been in the following bands: Girlboy Girl (1996-2002) Hewas(2002ish) Kyoko(2000-2002) Forest Giants(2003-2006) Moneyspider (1993-1995)
Influences
..not necessarily influences but musicians,writers, artists and other stuff I like: Music: Band of Horses, Flight of the Conchords, Velvet Underground, The Pixies, The Raincoats, The Ronnettes, Dusty Springfield, Bob Dylan, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Gillian Welch, Bluegrass, various American folk music, Low, Galaxy 500, Nico, The Carpenters, Francoise Hardy, Sigur Ros, Amiina, Stars, The Beatles, Beachboys, Kirsty MacColl, Throwing Muses, The Breeders, Parachute Men, Yo La Tengo, Pernice Brothers, The Go-Betweens, Crescent, Movietone, Abba (singing along to in car going south on M5), MBV, Eric Bachmann, Crooked Fingers, Dexys Midnight Runners, Human League, Suzy and Maggie Roche, Camera Obscura, Lunchbox, Beatnik Filmstars Writers and Artists: Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Patrick Heron, Alfred Wallis, Robert Rauschenberg, Janet Frame, Tove Jansson, Aminatta Forna, Marjane Satrapi, Jeffrey Brown, Charles Schultz, John Austin, Basquiat, Mark Rothko, Alice Hoffman, Tracey Emin's drawings, Chimamanda Ngoze Adichie, Einar Mar Gudmundsson, Khaled Hosseini, Andrea Levy, Jung Chang, Ben Okri, Milan Kundera, Other Stuff: water–fresh, salt or volcanic...especially the Atlantic, trees, trying to get birds to visit my garden, cycling, walking (Southwest coast path very little by very little), sea swimming, watching films, apple crumble, Woman's Hour, quietness, soap operas...
OK-so not strictly a band right at the moment rather a dabbler in friends' projects until I gets myself together to write some new material and catch up with the digital revolution - this is a start!
The tracks featured here will be from my own band Girlboy Girl (bass, vocals) and other bands' tracks to which I have contributed violin and/or vocals. Bands/musicians not listed on the left, which I have worked with, are Beatnik Filmstars (including 2 Peel sessions), Steward, Jez Butler (a track on Songs from the Jet Set). I also co-wrote (with Jez Butler) and recorded the string part on the soundtrack to a 3-minute short film 'The Plot' by Matt Hulse for Mesh/Channel 4.
During the course of my involvement in music I have met some lovely folk, forged some lasting friendships and realised some ambitions. I also misplaced my appendix whilst merchandising for Beatnik Filmstars in Germany, played a benefit gig for a diabetic cat in Portland (USA), met Suzi Quatro coming out of the loos at Radio 6 (Forest Giants session), have tried to nap on various horizontal structures all over Europe and the USA and best of all–John Peel played some songs I wrote in Girlboy Girl on his Radio1 show! Please refer to blog for more info on this and more.
Discography:
Girlboy Girl
2003 ‘Forget the Ladder, Climb the Wall’ 14 track CD – Kittridge Records KITT014
1999 ‘Fresco’ 19 track CD – Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club-BBPTC135
1999 ‘Two Halves’ 4 track ep – Skycap-cap005
1998 ‘Veritablement Pop’ 7 track one-sided vinyl ep – Blackbean and Placenta
1997 4 track 7” ep – Orgasm Records-spasm 13
Girlboy Girl also contributed tracks to several compilations / samplers on the following labels etc:
Darla, Kittridge, Mobstar, BBPTC, KFJC, Orange Slices, Cher Doll, Bliss, Breeze, Galaxy Train, Best Kept Secret, Future Radio
Recording for other bands:
Luckwell 'Flavours of The Sea'. Violin and backing vocals on 'Dunno'; violin on 'Saraswati'; backing vocals on 'The Spring Tide'; backing vocals on 'Let's all get Offended' Forest Giants 'Things We Do When We're Bored' / International Lo-Fi Underground - Woof3: Backing vocals, bit of violin, bit of bass on disc2 Beatnik Filmstars ‘Boss Disque’: violin on ‘Life Amongst the Cowboys’ Merge Records-mrg145 Kyoko ‘Unpure Disco’ Pet Sounds-pet024cd: backing vocals on track 5, violin on track 7 Steward ‘Horselaugh On My Ex’ 555CD20/Steward09: vocals on He Dispenses With Timid Afterthought (track 8) Songs For The Jet Set 2000SIESTA122: violin on Milky-Willow’s Song (track10) Forest Giants ‘UFO Stories’ BreakCD005: violin on Peculiar Feeling (track 3) Forest Giants ‘Welcome to the Mid-West’ Cherryade Records-CHY 004: vocals on The Message (track 6) and Stars (track9); keyboards and vocals on Planes Fly Overhead (track5) Hewas 3 track 7” single – Cytherea Records-CF080: violin, vocals, melodica
Sounds good about the violin session, and it was nice that the moth managed to escape as well. Hope all goes well for you. Lots f love from Beryl and all your friends at Guru. xxx.
Nice idea Paula, but no chance... Thanks for the message and I wish you a fun filled festive season and hope we get to see you if you get the time to pop in. Love from Beryl. xxx.
“We are singing songs of praise. We are praying and thanking our ancestors for being with us through this difficult time. We are happy to be going back to our home. It's our home and not a game reserve. We are pleased that the judges too were able to see that we need to be reunited with our ancestors.” (Xukurii, Botswanan Bushman).
Wow, Paula! How long as it been? Let me think... it's got to be at least 17 years!
So how's life? I see you're making music, and I think you have the same Casio keyboard I do... I'll send you my email address, I wanna know everything you've been up to!
Love, Stef
Hey Paula, thanks for the nice comment. I really like your music too, the first song reminds me of some Velvet Underground or Can, and it's a compliment !! All the best, Julian
Hi Paula, and thanks for finding us! It's been a very long time, but the strangest thing is that just the other day I listened to the Mobstar Bristol comp for the first time in years. Take care.
