On Tour With: Kamikaze Girls
Are you excited about the tour? What are the bits you look forward to most when hitting the road?
Lucinda: Yeah really excited. It'll be a nice way to round off the year, plus I've been a big fan of AIHN for ages. We always share a van on tour as there's only two of us so I look forward to just hanging out with the other band we're touring with and getting to know them. It's also fun playing a bunch of shows in a row, I tend to get really immersed in it and enjoy it way more than one off shows.
Connor: Oh yeah, I can't wait to get back out and see some of our favourite cities. For me, the best bit of touring is getting to visit our favourite places in each of the cities. We've usually got our favourite coffee places in each city, we also have a few choice food places we like going to in each city, Vegan Haggis on a baked potato from the Baked Potato Shop in Edinburgh, or on a pizza when we're in Glasgow, VRevolution in Manchester, Grubs in Brighton are just a few of them.
What are the main tour essentials you pack and why?
Lucinda: For me it's pretty boring. Ear plugs, 'Singers Saving Grace' (which is an American vocal remedy to help your voice), and definitely headphones. We always end up sleeping in living rooms with loads of people and I always need some sort of noise to fall asleep to, so instead of blaring a podcast or music out loud I guess you can escape for a bit at the end of the day when your head hits the floor that way.
Connor: If you’re me you'll pack for a weekender in Brighton, London and Nottingham and leave your bag at home. Then proceed to fall over in the shower after the first show, push the shower door open and watch as a perfect stream of water falls down the shower door and onto your only clothes for the weekend. I was pretty miserable after that. Other than that you gotta pack the essentials, toothbrush, medication and a football is usually an essential I take too.
What is your best tour experience?
Connor: Oh yeah, I can't wait to get back out and see some of our favourite cities. For me, the best bit of touring is getting to visit our favourite places in each of the cities. We've usually got our favourite coffee places in each city, we also have a few choice food places we like going to in each city, Vegan Haggis on a baked potato from the Baked Potato Shop in Edinburgh, or on a pizza when we're in Glasgow, VRevolution in Manchester, Grubs in Brighton are just a few of them.
What are the main tour essentials you pack and why?
Lucinda: For me it's pretty boring. Ear plugs, 'Singers Saving Grace' (which is an American vocal remedy to help your voice), and definitely headphones. We always end up sleeping in living rooms with loads of people and I always need some sort of noise to fall asleep to, so instead of blaring a podcast or music out loud I guess you can escape for a bit at the end of the day when your head hits the floor that way.
Connor: If you’re me you'll pack for a weekender in Brighton, London and Nottingham and leave your bag at home. Then proceed to fall over in the shower after the first show, push the shower door open and watch as a perfect stream of water falls down the shower door and onto your only clothes for the weekend. I was pretty miserable after that. Other than that you gotta pack the essentials, toothbrush, medication and a football is usually an essential I take too.
What is your best tour experience?
Lucinda: Last year doing 8 weeks in the USA and Canada was incredible. It was tough going, uncomfortable but amazing. We saw so many amazing things, and met so many people each day, it's hard to remember all of the things we did our there, but it's the nicest memory to look back on now.
Connor: Picking one experience is super hard, one that really sticks out for me is standing on our friend Mattys roof, on Bushwick, Brooklyn. We'd been in the states for less than an hour, we dumped our suitcases at his and headed to a bar round the corner, he then took us to a Halloween house show (we weren't playing until the night after, our first show in the states was in NYC, there was two people there but it was still incredible.) and then he said let's go for drinks on my roof. So I drunkenly stagger up this tiny ladder and up onto the roof, I get handed a PBR instantly and sway towards the edge of the roof and say "Matt, is that the Empire State Building I can see." We've been best buds ever since and it's one memory that will stick with me forever.
What is your worst tour experience?
Lucinda: When I was 16/17 and touring in a previous band it was pretty hellish. The people I was on tour with weren't very considerate of having a female member of the tour around. I had a lot of new anxieties as I hadn't toured much before, and I remember spending our last tour really down and leaving it very depressed. I'm so grateful people are more considerate of having non male people on tour that maybe have different needs or find different things important on a tour. I had times when I was taking a shower and people thought it would be funny to burst through the door. It made me so much more insecure about myself, and at points I definitely hated being female as it felt so much harder than being 'one of the boys'. I'm really glad that's not really a thing now.
Connor: Being stuck in a van or car for hours on end can be pretty uncomfortable, but it's always worth it to be able to see new places and travel loads. I was recently talking to my sister who was asking how I did it, she was saying that she'd never be able to sleep on floors and travel for so long every day, but to me it's so normal now and it's just what I'm used to - I love it and wouldn't do it any other way.
Who has the most disgusting habit in the van? And what is it?
Lucinda: Between the 2 of us I think we're quite good. I wouldn't describe either of us as disgusting. Conor always buys Double Deckers and leaves them stuffed in really random places, but obviously it's just rubbish so it's not really gross or anything. He does make me laugh because sometimes he falls asleep holding onto stuff, but again it's not disgusting, just amusing haha.
Connor: It's probably me, Lucinda is a pretty clean and tidy person, there was a time she accidentally left a pot of hummus under the passenger seat in my car and I couldn't work out what the smell was for ages! I don’t think I have any disgusting habits but I probably do. I have a Conor Special which I always buy from service stations which is Salt and Vinegar McCoys and a Double Decker chocolate bar. That's proper service station grub.
What can we expect from this tour? Is there anything new in the set list?
Lucinda: We don't really do set lists. We just tend to start on one song and see how the rest of the set pans out. It's fun that way and keeps it fresh. Sometimes if we get on a vibe with a certain string of songs we'll stick with them, but for the most part expect to head a lot of our album 'Seafoam' and a few oldies.
If you could tour with anyone, who would it be and why?
Lucinda: The Cure and Oasis. Mostly because we're both huge fans, but also I think we both want the challenge of doing what we do in a really big space. Surely that's gotta be fun?
Connor: For me it would 100% be The Cure, without question, every time. They are my favourite band of all time and I can't imagine Robert Smith been a diva, so I can imagine touring with them would be good. My life would be made completely if I could have a post set Beer with Rob.
What is your tour playlist?
We honestly listen to so much music in the car it's difficult to narrow it down to 10 songs, I'll give it a go though.
Debut Album Seafoam Out Now On Big Scary Monsters Records
Catch Kamikaze Girls this December, when they tour with Apologies, I Have None at the following dates:
13 DEC - Manchester - Partisan
14 DEC - Glasgow - Bloc
16 DEC - Cardiff - Cathays Cpmmunity Centre
17 DEC - Bristol - Exchange
18 DEC - Brighton - Hoe & Ruin
19 DEC - London - Montague Arms
Feature by Ant Adams
Connor: Picking one experience is super hard, one that really sticks out for me is standing on our friend Mattys roof, on Bushwick, Brooklyn. We'd been in the states for less than an hour, we dumped our suitcases at his and headed to a bar round the corner, he then took us to a Halloween house show (we weren't playing until the night after, our first show in the states was in NYC, there was two people there but it was still incredible.) and then he said let's go for drinks on my roof. So I drunkenly stagger up this tiny ladder and up onto the roof, I get handed a PBR instantly and sway towards the edge of the roof and say "Matt, is that the Empire State Building I can see." We've been best buds ever since and it's one memory that will stick with me forever.
What is your worst tour experience?
Lucinda: When I was 16/17 and touring in a previous band it was pretty hellish. The people I was on tour with weren't very considerate of having a female member of the tour around. I had a lot of new anxieties as I hadn't toured much before, and I remember spending our last tour really down and leaving it very depressed. I'm so grateful people are more considerate of having non male people on tour that maybe have different needs or find different things important on a tour. I had times when I was taking a shower and people thought it would be funny to burst through the door. It made me so much more insecure about myself, and at points I definitely hated being female as it felt so much harder than being 'one of the boys'. I'm really glad that's not really a thing now.
Connor: Being stuck in a van or car for hours on end can be pretty uncomfortable, but it's always worth it to be able to see new places and travel loads. I was recently talking to my sister who was asking how I did it, she was saying that she'd never be able to sleep on floors and travel for so long every day, but to me it's so normal now and it's just what I'm used to - I love it and wouldn't do it any other way.
Who has the most disgusting habit in the van? And what is it?
Lucinda: Between the 2 of us I think we're quite good. I wouldn't describe either of us as disgusting. Conor always buys Double Deckers and leaves them stuffed in really random places, but obviously it's just rubbish so it's not really gross or anything. He does make me laugh because sometimes he falls asleep holding onto stuff, but again it's not disgusting, just amusing haha.
Connor: It's probably me, Lucinda is a pretty clean and tidy person, there was a time she accidentally left a pot of hummus under the passenger seat in my car and I couldn't work out what the smell was for ages! I don’t think I have any disgusting habits but I probably do. I have a Conor Special which I always buy from service stations which is Salt and Vinegar McCoys and a Double Decker chocolate bar. That's proper service station grub.
What can we expect from this tour? Is there anything new in the set list?
Lucinda: We don't really do set lists. We just tend to start on one song and see how the rest of the set pans out. It's fun that way and keeps it fresh. Sometimes if we get on a vibe with a certain string of songs we'll stick with them, but for the most part expect to head a lot of our album 'Seafoam' and a few oldies.
If you could tour with anyone, who would it be and why?
Lucinda: The Cure and Oasis. Mostly because we're both huge fans, but also I think we both want the challenge of doing what we do in a really big space. Surely that's gotta be fun?
Connor: For me it would 100% be The Cure, without question, every time. They are my favourite band of all time and I can't imagine Robert Smith been a diva, so I can imagine touring with them would be good. My life would be made completely if I could have a post set Beer with Rob.
What is your tour playlist?
We honestly listen to so much music in the car it's difficult to narrow it down to 10 songs, I'll give it a go though.
Debut Album Seafoam Out Now On Big Scary Monsters Records
Catch Kamikaze Girls this December, when they tour with Apologies, I Have None at the following dates:
13 DEC - Manchester - Partisan
14 DEC - Glasgow - Bloc
16 DEC - Cardiff - Cathays Cpmmunity Centre
17 DEC - Bristol - Exchange
18 DEC - Brighton - Hoe & Ruin
19 DEC - London - Montague Arms
Feature by Ant Adams