Quick-fire Questions: 10 minutes with Bathing Suits
When Bathing Suits played to the packed-out basement of their local haunt, Leeds’ Hyde Park Book Club, back in January for Regtown Festival, it was clear to see that the foursome knew exactly how to take control of a crowd.
It was at one o’clock on a Saturday night, and people might’ve been knackered after a long day of back-to-back sets, but you couldn’t tell, because from the moment the band picked up their instruments, a constant swarm of bodies collided among sweat and spilt beer. Friends were swimming over the top of the crowd, as though the mysterious mixture of liquids flying about and dripping onto the floor was enough to keep them afloat.
It doesn’t matter that the band are hardly in their 20s; they’ve already mastered the precise art of creating a live experience that is guaranteed to have fewer mosh-ready audience members hovering near the sides from the start. You instantly know that getting too close to the front could mean a boot to the face, or maybe even frontwoman Freyja Blevins charging into you in her pants, a flash of bright white hair weaving through the pit, her microphone wire trailing like she has let go of a dog that she’s gone frantically searching for in the pit.
Maybe she’ll be hanging off the rafters of a venue, perhaps she’ll strip; there’s always unpredictability at play when Bathing Suits are performing. But it’s not as though Blevins’ erratic, mesmerising stage presence is merely a way to distract from mediocre tunes.
Bathing Suits blend electronics and noise rock to a blinding effect, Elise Hughes’ basslines sending a thumping wave through the crowd, while George Dickinson and Alex Mulholland thrash about with their guitars. If Blevins isn’t frantically throwing herself about, she’s probably hunched over her synths, twisting knobs and playing with effects and samples.
They captured this on their five-track-long debut EP, KILL Bathing Suits, which was released back in April. Offering up Estelle samples, a seven-and-a-half-minute pounding epic, and plenty of grinding, sleazy sounds fit for the early hours, expect to see Bathing Suits popping up on more line-ups over the coming year. They’ll probably be there, causing havoc.
Quick-fire Questions with Bathing Suits:
Describe Bathing Suits in three words
Freyja: “Love this shit”.
Elise: “Lit, sexy, loud”.
George: “La, la, la”.
Alex: “Awesome vibes, yeah”.
What’s the weirdest show you’ve ever played?
Alex: “O’Neill’s ‘Battle of the Bands’. Got £500, though!”
Elise: “We were playing to a hen do and mums. But it was actually nice”.
Alex: “Everyone had the same idea of ‘Oi, this will just be kids doing Oasis covers. We’ve got this in the bag’. But then everyone heard that idea, so everyone rocks up and was like, ‘Oh shit, our schemes failed’. But we did kinda rig it.”
What’s your most controversial music opinion?
Freyja: “I don’t care that much for The Beatles”.
Elise: “Dry bass fucking sucks, and there’s no good reason to have dry ass bass coming through”.
Alex: “That’s not controversial, it’s just wrong.”
What song do you want played at your funeral?
Freyja: “What if it’s your funeral and everyone’s cringing at the song choice? You don’t need that. But maybe tinnitus ringing. I want people to experience what it’s like to be me”.
Elise: “‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ by The Byrds”.
George: “‘July Tree’ by Nina Simone”.
What’s the best venue in the world?
George: “The Windmill, then Brudenell”.
Freyja: “Windmill.”
Alex: “Tim [Perry; booker at the Windmill] has done so much for us. He was the first person who was really behind us in any way. Anytime he knew a band was gonna sell some tickets and it was electronic, he’d throw us on support every time. He’s someone we owe it all to.”
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever woken up?
Alex: “The side of a motorway. [He explains that when he’s back home, he often goes drinking with friends who live a few miles away]. “It gets expensive Ubering home every time. As long as you like, lock in for the roundabout, and you go straight across it real quick, it’s pretty easy. But one time, I was way too cross-faded, and I just remember lying down on the grass for a second. I remember waking up, and like five metres from my head, this lorry was just fucking speeding. I was less than two minutes from my front door.”
Elise: “A children’s play park next to Alex’s house, dreaming about a bakery”.
Freyja: “Alex’s friend’s flat in London”.
Alex: “It was Kate Moss’ old flat!”
Who are your dream dinner party guests?
Elise: “Lou Reed would be a great dinner party guest, you know. He’s both polite and charismatic, and he’s bringing something lit”.
George: “I would agree Lou Reed would be sick, but he might be a bit mean”.
Alex: “Nah, Mark E Smith!”
George: “I probably would have to say John Lennon”.
Elise: “I would want the dinner party to be both John and Paul and kinda just watch them interact”.
Freyja: “Kris Jenner”.
Alex: “Jack Rowarth, CJ MONEYZ, Mark E Smith, and Aristotle. That’s the worst possible combination of human beings you could put, especially throwing me in the mix with them”.
What’s the best thing about being in a band?
Elise: “Being able to do it with these guys”.
George: “Very true.”
Elise: “Yeah, but also you get to go to loads of great shit for free”.
Alex: “I’m only in it for the free beer”.
What’s the worst thing about being in a band?
Elise: “It’s like being married. You all have to agree, you all have to problem solve. You all have to compromise in some way”.
What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen?
Elise: “The worst movie I’ve ever seen, not that this is a bad movie, but my least favourite viewing experience was when George made me watch Oldboy. I hated every minute”.
Freyja: “What was that movie about the guitar person? What’s his name?”
George: “Bob Dylan?”
Freyja: “Shout out Bob Dylan, but I hated that biopic [A Complete Unknown]”.
Alex: “Napoleon was so bad, me and George walked out. It was so bad. It was like, ‘Man good at war, why bad at sex?’”
George: “And also Interstellar”.
Alex: “I really hated Birdman”.
What album should be deleted from history?
Freyja: “That Doja Cat album that has ‘Say So’ on it [Hot Pink]. It changed how pop music works, and I feel like it changed it for the worse. I love Doja Cat, don’t get me wrong”.
George: “Here’s a great album that changed things for the worst: The Strokes – Is This It? Everyone in the UK just went too far with it. Oftentimes, a great album will inspire so much shit”.
Have you ever cried at a gig?
Elise: “They can be an intense experience. I have to be honest, I cried at Regtown just because it was my birthday the next day. It’s not really that deep, and I wasn’t really that upset. It was just overwhelming. I also got caught crying at a gig by Rhian from Wet Leg. She walked in on me crying in the toilet before we played.”
What’s in your dream rider?
Freyja: “A big fan, a pack of Vogues, and a small chocolate bar”.
Alex: “Fuck-tons of weed and cheap beer”.
Elise: “Yeah, and lots of cider. Or a big bottle of white wine”.
George: “And some good food”.
