Young, hardworking and just downright awesome Indie rockers Girl In The Red Light have been together for less than one year and have already toured with British India, played at Dusty Days Festival and are booked for a few more festival appearances in the coming months.
Their own distinctive style of arty indie rock has already kicked up a dust storm throughout regional NSW and, with a new EP almost set for release the boys are ready to show the big smoke what they’ve got.
Who is Girl In The Red Light and what do you sound like?
Girl In the Red Light, also known as GIRL come from the town of Wagga Wagga in NSW, Girl consists of Felix Colman on vocals and guitar, Rhys Longfield on guitar and backup vocals, Ewan Harding on drums and Zac Cunningham on Bass and backup vocals.
Our sound is moving into the Indie Art rock direction, as we are writing for our new EP at the moment it has become more than evident that our genre is moving in that direction, which we are happy about.
Interesting band name, where did it come from?
Well it came about when Ewan was in a pub in Sydney and he was talking a lot to a girl that was under a red light. People tend to get rather disappointed when we tell them the story, I think there are usually looking for a sexual connotation.
Is it hard being a band from a regional area trying to make it?
It definitely has its negatives and positives, probably more negatives. It is good because there isn’t really anything else to do, so we get to practice quite a lot. But the negatives lie in places to play. We only have a limited amount of people in our town and usually they don’t like live music so it’s not that easy.
Although in saying that, we are looking to do more shows in Sydney and Melbourne, and therefore Wagga is a great location because it’s right in the middle.
You guys have been together for only less than a year. What has been your greatest achievement to date and what do you think is the key to having success come to you so relatively quickly?
I guess our best achievement is to be known around town and the region as a really good young band that is going well, and in turn, that reputation has given us the opportunity to be asked to play at Dusty Days (our local Festival), booked to play Indie Fest (Albury-Main Stage) and a Bathurst Uni festival with Art Vs Science.
I think the key to our quick movement up the ranks would be the amount of practise we did in the early stages to get really tight as a band, also recording as soon as possible and booking a lot of gigs, as well as a lot of My Space work! We were very proactive with getting in contact with bigger bands like British India to see if we could support them anywhere.
You guys have already shared the stage with some pretty big bands like Sparkadia, Little Red, British India and Faker. What is it like to play with bands that are an inspiration to you or you look up to? Have you learnt anything from playing with these bands?
I think it was easily the best thing we’ve done, especially the little tour with British India. It was good to play to massive crowds 3 nights in a row, to see the band perform and quiz the band for advice and knowledge.
I think playing with these highly renowned bands helps us out in getting other gigs. Meeting bigger bands is also really important in gaining perspective within the music industry. All of these bands were once like ourselves, practising in a shed or rehearsal room, and playing their first gigs.
What is the music scene like in Wagga?
The over 18’s scene is weak, and mostly all cover bands that play very boring music. But in reality there is no original music scene at all apart from a few metal bands, which unfortunately we can’t really pair up with.
But in saying that there are a lot of very talented underage musicians and I am sure that they will bring up the goods very soon.
Your band members range from 16-19 years old, so are you very involved in the all ages scene in Wagga? What does the all ages scene mean to you?
The All Ages scene is easily the most fun and invigorating. We do have a little underage scene in Wagga but it is very infrequent. Our council and the PCYC have been putting on shows, which has been really good.
As a band, we are trying to get one of our local pubs to get a license to let us put on all ages shows, that way we can be in control of the artistic integrity and get some bigger bands to do all ages and night performance. This should totally revive and inspire the scene.
What are you plans for expanding your fan base out of the regional areas?
We recently went to Melbourne and that was good fun, we played with a really sweet band from New Zealand called Bang Bang Eche and also a really cool band called Samson from Shepparton.
Once our new E.P. is completed we will begin touring from Sydney to Melbourne.
How can we get into your music?
If you want to get the true sense of what we are about, come to a live show. Apart from our festival spots we haven’t booked any gigs due to recording (at Hot House- Melbourne), hopefully the EP will be done by late September but we aren’t going to rush it.
You can keep up to date with the goings on of Girl in the Red Light on our MySpace
Your next festival appearance is the Indie Music Fest at The Ettamogah Pub near Albury in September. Are you excited about it? How important do you think it is to have festivals like this in regional areas?
We are ecstatic about Indie Fest. It has a really solid line up, and we have gained a lot of publicity from it. Being pinned as one of the main bands on the bill is awesome too.
It is crucial that these festivals go ahead, it would be robbing bands and fans/kids if they didn’t. We won our Dusty Days spot and since then it has only lead to good things like being ask to play Indie Fest and acquiring a whole heap more fans.
I think these festivals will revitalise and enthuse anyone out there thinking of being an active supporter or musician in the music industry. So definitely the more the better.
