If you’re looking for your next favorite new band, they don’t get much newer then Pop Punkers’ Not Ur Girlfrenz. Formed just a year ago they have already played Warped Tour, released a music video and debut EP titled New Kids In America. Not Ur Girlfrenz is made up of three girls from Texas, Liv Haynes (14) playing guitar and lead vocals, Gigi Haynes (12) on bass and backing vocals, and Maren Alford (14) on the drums. We caught up with the band prior to their show show at the Hexagon in Reading opening up for Bowling For Soup on the ‘Almost Christmas’ Tour.
RAMzine: So it’s your first time in the UK, but you played with Bowling For Soup in America before this? How did that relationship start?
Liv: Yes we did. Well we did a battle of the bands at this place called Lava Cantina in Texas and Jaret was one of the judges there, and we were ya know doing our thing the stage.
Maren: And we only entered that competition just for fun, we were like ‘we may not get anywhere’.
Liv: We thought it would be good to get experience and stuff because we were playing against people who were twice our age, who have been playing for longer then we have been alive and it’s pretty crazy because we won the battle of the bands. That was the first big thing that ever happened to us as a band. We really had only been together for a couple of month.
RAMzine: Had you done any local shows during that time?
Liv: Yeah but not that many so it’s pretty crazy. We also have a friend his name is John Nicholson and he formally introduced us to Jaret. And Jaret was like ‘you guys are cool let’s do something’. Then we did ‘I Will Follow’ [U2 Cover] and ‘Friday I’m In Love’ [The Cure Cover], that’s how it started.
Maren: Yeah we just entered that competition for fun, like we didn’t think that we were going to get past round one and then we ended winning, we were like ‘hey, were still in the competition, how is this happening?’ After round one, we all looked at each other like ‘Ook…’
RAMzine: So did Jaret just call you up and ask you to come tour in the UK?
Maren: Well I was in a restaurant eating dinner and I was trying not to freak out and cry because I was getting emotional as this is a really big deal for us.
Liv: Me and Gigi have always wanted to go to the UK, we really secretly want to have accents. I know that I have a Texas accent and it’s like subtle, but that’s nothing, I really want to have a real accent. [Interviewers Note: They have real Texas accents, strong ones in my opinion haha!]
RAMzine: There are lot’s of different accents in the UK, the more Northern you go the more thicker they get.
All: Yeahhh!
Gigi: I want someone to teach me, please!
Liv: We were in Scotland a few days ago and the accents were crazy, they’re so interesting though. I just want to sit a listen to them all day. So when we got the news of coming to the UK we were like ‘We are going to be surrounded by accents!!!!!’ it was the first thing that came into our heads.
Maren: I didn’t know when they knew and they didn’t know when I knew, so when we all found out we knew we were just all like ‘Ok we are going to get British accents’.
Gigi: It was so funny. So you know pop tarts right? The first thing I did was grab some of those and put them in the toaster, and I was eating them like this is the celebration…
RAMzine: Have you tried Marmite on Toast yet?
Liv: I haven’t tried that yet, but I saw some and I really wanna try it.
RAMzine: It’s one of those things you either love it or you hate it. It could go either way.
Live: You have to put a small amount on right?
RAMzine: Yes, with butter! So we have seen your video for ‘No One Asked You Anyway’ and that tune has been in my head alllll day, I’ve been humming along to it.
Liv: Oh my god that’s awesome! Well our plan worked!
RAMzine: Yeah, it’s really catchy, but that’s the only song that I have heard so far, so I’m really looking forward to seeing your live set tonight and hearing more from the EP.
Gigi: Fun Fact, you should buy our EP! You can listen to it on all streaming platforms, and you can buy it at https://noturgirlfrenz.com.
RAMzine: haha you gotta get your plugs in, i’ll certainly be getting a copy! The video for ‘No One Asked You Anyway’ is really well made…
Liv: Yeah that was a really fun video shoot.
RAMzine: Who came up with the ideas for the video?
Liv: I did, I was sitting on my couch in the living room, watching TV and I was just thinking ya know I really wanna be all dolled up in dresses and I was like how would I do that? And so I was like it would be cool if we got paint thrown at us and stuff and it just all started coming together. Then this thing formed and it ended up being exactly how I envisaged it, so it was super cool.
Gigi: I remember her being like ‘*gasp* pause it!’ Then she would get her notes out and go ‘OK continue!’.
RAMzine: Who wrote the lyrics of the song?
Liv: Me and Jaret, so we wrote that tune together, which was super fun. It just start out with *hums tune* ‘du du du….’.
RAMzine: What is the song about?
Liv: It’s about being underestimated. Since we are a young girl group, immediately some people are like ya know… [have a certain impression of us]. One day we were playing a show and one of the sound guys was like ‘so are you going to be lip syncing today’ and were like ‘Excuse Me!?’ then he said ‘what tracks will you be using’?
Gigi: Then they were like ‘hit hard sweetie, speak right into the mic, don’t get nervous’.
Liv: We were like ‘We got this dude! we got it!’. Eventually after the show he was like ‘You guys were awesome’.
RAMzine: Wow! I bet he had a shock when he saw how great you are live! Are you studying at the moment?
Liv: Thanks! Me and Gigi are home schooled which makes it a lot easier to be on tour. Maren on the other hand is not home schooled.
Maren: Yeah i’m missing school right now, i’m missing a little over a week. My teachers are really nice to me and they understand, they are really excited for us. For the most part they gave me a lot of my work ahead of time, so I basically just had to teach myself a weeks worth of work. We’re be in the studio recording vocals and stuff and i’ll be there working on homework. I don’t really know how I do it but I somehow manage my time well enough, so that I can do anything. I’m a straight A student and everything.
Gigi: No need to brag *burst of laughter in the room*.
Maren: Well some people think that because my time is spent in so many different areas that I wouldn’t do well in school, but I actually do.
RAMzine: It’s important, so that’s good. Do you bring your parents along with you on tour, do they make you do homework on the road?
Liv: Yes [we bring our parents], we are just going to do it after and catch up. So we will have two times the work when we get home, it will all work out.
RAMzine: What have you got up to in your spare time on tour?
Liv: Well we have really been driving and driving and they were all like eight hour dives, but this drive was like two of three hours so that was a bit better. I really want to explore as we haven’t really had that much time to explore. But we saw a little bit of Scotland, that place is beautiful. and we saw a little bit of every place.
Gigi: There was Cat Cafe yesterday, which we really wanted to go to as there were actual cats inside.
Liv: But it was closed. So really we have just been chilling and enjoying the moment.
RAMzine: How did you all meet and start the band?
Liv: We [points at Maren] met when we were like 6 and 7.
Gigi: We [points at Liv] met when we were born as we are sisters!
Liv: haha! Yeah so we met Maren when Gigi was 6 and I was 7. We were at a film school and I knew that Maren played the drums and she knew that I sang and Gigi played piano, she hadn’t played the bass yet, but I played guitar. And we never really had the chance, like our schedules never really worked together, haha I know we were like 6 and 7 *laughs* but we were like ‘we should start a band, that sounds like fun’.
Gigi: Yeah, then ‘time skip!’ *laughs*. Liv was making a short film and it was about how kids lost their phones, there was a blackout and they relied on music. I played the bass in it even though I didn’t know how to play. Liv played the electric guitar, and Mauren played the drums. And then after that we were like ‘why don’t we actually do this’. We starting having band practice and I learned a couple of songs in a week.
Maren: Yeah the first band practice was like magic.
Liv: We really wen’t expecting that. The first song we did was ‘Rock N Roll’ by Led Zeppelin and that’s a hard song for everyone. They were scared by the drums because they were so loud and they weren’t prepared for it. We were like ‘lets not have super high expectations because we don’t know what’s going to happen’ and it was like magic, it was really good.
RAMzine: You sound like naturals! How was Warped Tour?
Liv: That was a dream come true, that was crazy because like every single night a different band was watching our set, which we didn’t expect to happen. They have BBQs at the end of Warped Tour, so we had lot’s of bands come and give us advice, which was amazing to hear.
RAMzine: What was the best advice your received?
Liv: This may not seem like that grand but it really is, just making sure that everything stays fun and that you never get too caught up in all the exstra things, just remember why you started in the first place, and always try and stay optimistic even though it might be hard sometimes. [Advice given by a member of Story Untold].
RAMzine: What are your plans after this?
Liv: Working hard in the studio again, I really want to put out new music, I know we just put out our EP but I really want to start working on new stuff again because it’s just so much fun coming up with our own things.
RAMzine: I think you should write a song about English accents!
*laughter*
Liv: YES! We should.
Gigi: That’s such a good idea! Oh my gosh that’s happening.
Liv: Hopefully we get to do some more tours and then hopefully come back here. We would really love to do that. They’re ready to move.
RAMzine: Have you been to London yet?
Liv: No we haven’t, but we really want to go. I think we get to drive though so hopefully if the drives are short we will get to stop for a little bit.
RAMzine: If not i’m sure that you will be back at some point to play a London show. Thanks for talking to us.
Not Ur Girlfrenz: Yes that would be amazing, thank you!
[…] New Texan Pop Punkers, Not Ur Girlfrenz, play their debut UK shows on Bowling For Soup Tour […]