Four minutes with Savages
Jehnny Beth of Savages performs in Berlin. Picture: Frank Hoensch/Redferns/Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
LONDON’S post-punk prodigies take time out to talk about female charisma and their Australian friends.
Angry sparrow Jehnny Beth gave the world a slap upside the head when her band Savages put out a clip for single Shut Up, beginning: “The world used to be silent, now it has too many voices and the noise is a constant distraction”. The intellectual punks even put up signs outside gigs banning the use of phones. Narrowly beaten in the Mercury Prize by James Blake, Savages’ Silence Yourself has been received as one of the finest albums of 2013.
2. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
Formed in London in 2011 with Beth and guitarist Gemma Thompson, their plans for world domination seem to be going swimmingly. “I don’t know about world domination,” she replies with a flirty laugh. Beth? Flirting? This is the chick who kicks against the pricks, the creative dict … er … director who yelps “Don’t let the f—kers get you down” in scolding Gallic Ian Curtis tones. “That leaves people with hope after the concert.”
3. KRULE TO BE KIND
Expect plenty of Beth-alikes at the Laneway Festival, black is the new black again. Beth has a bud on St Jerome’s travelling concert in the form of “King Krule, we met Archie [Marshall] before he released his album. We love him.” Savages have BFFs in Australia too. “We had a reunion up with HTRK two weeks ago at a screening of the Rowland S Howard film Autoluminescent. I’ve been wearing the HTRK necklace for two years now, every day.”
4. THERE’S A RIOT GRRL GOIN’ ON
Scandinavia’s The Knife brought feminism to the fore this year with Shaking The Habitual but all-female quartet Savages “don’t have a feminist agenda. It’s four musicians binded by our styles because we surprised ourselves and created something … magical. With four women in the room, lyrically anyway, I became aware I could play with female charisma and what I was expected to do or say. I have fun with that,” she laughs.
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