Hands Off Gretel

The Prince Albert, Brighton

Tomorrow

With a sound comparable to Hole and Nirvana, Hands Off Gretel are bringing their grunge sound to Brighton. Jamie Walker speaks to bassist Becky Baldwin about their mission.

For people who aren’t familiar with you, how would you describe your music?

It’s a naughty sound.

Quite devilishly sweet, contrasting the thrashing grungy guitars and angsty vocals with sweet harmonies and bright bubblegum pop melodies.

Where does the love for that genre come from?

I’ve always been really drawn in by fierce women.

I read a lot about feminism when I was a teenager and felt a strong connection with bands like Hole, Bikini Kill and Babes In Toyland.

I guess in pop culture there aren’t many women screaming the roof down, thrashing a guitar and smearing make-up all over their face.

Whenever I need to get my frustration out and unwind I find myself always gravitating back to Nineties grunge and alternative rock bands which is why I started this band in the first place, I felt it was time for new role models for my generation of angry girls.

What about people who ask where your name comes from?

Hands off Gretel is about female empowerment and respect, but also brings in the child’s fable connotation.

Hansel and Gretel is one of the few children’s stories where the little girl is the saviour.

She is fearless and fierce and doesn’t let her elders take advantage of her.

Where do you take your inspiration from?

I’m inspired a lot from my experiences growing up feeling like I don’t fit in.

I had a hard time during my teen years with school, feeling outcast and struggling to understand why I felt so different to everyone else.

I’m constantly working, everything we do is DIY and I’m creating what I’ve always dreamed of, the biggest escape like in my sketch-books.

A lot of my songs are like open diaries and it always makes me so happy to see people relating to the stuff I write.

Your music videos seem pretty wild, does that translate to your on stage performance?

Absolutely, we give 100 per cent energy to everything we do.

The difference is that the music videos are mostly strategically planned, whereas the live shows are totally unpredictable.

We don’t know what sort of energy we are going to feed from an audience so every gig is an exciting adventure.

You’re coming down to Brighton on this tour, is it somewhere you’ve played before?

Yes we have played Brighton a few times before and always had great audiences there.

The Prince Albert is new for us, although last time we played the city we almost loaded into this one by accident as it was only a few doors away from our destination.

We almost tried to steal a venue from our friends in Pussyliquor who were booked there that night. Sorry guys.

What are your experiences of the city?

Well Sean used to live there and he’s always bragging about how amazing it was.

The gay scene is really amazing, there’s just so much diversity and colour.

We especially love the vegan food down there, being vegan on the road can be complicated sometimes so whenever we are in Brighton we fill our boots.

What do you enjoy most about touring?

We love meeting the fans. It’s really amazing how many friends you can make in different corners of the world when you’re in a touring band.

It’s so great to see that our music is making a connection with people we have never even met before.

The excitement people have when they see you in the flesh is just amazing. I also have to mention food here, because I love it when we find great food.

What can people coming to this tour expect from the show?

Lots of loud and empowering noises. All of the shoeless dancing and beer chugging.

There will be musical noises too. We play the majority of the new album I Want The World and a healthy mix of older popular tracks and the odd curve ball for the super fans.

You’re two albums in to your career, what does the future hold for Hands Off Gretel?

Yes. We’ve had such great feedback with this album and it’s opened up doors that we didn’t have before.

I think as a band you should just aim for the top. We want to get out there and tour the rest of Europe and venture out worldwide, especially the US.

We have fans all over the world now and our fan-base grows more and more every day.

This year will be focusing on touring to promote the album, making more music videos for singles, and to start working on the next music release; but long-term we are planning to take over the damn world and see our name in Hollywood lights.

For tickets and more information visit www.princealbertbrighton.co.uk