Unwrapped: We Rock Like Girls Don’t / Welcome To My World

We Rock Like Girls Don't released 'Welcome To My World' a few weeks ago, and it was so pulse-quickening that Artrocker magazine was moved to describe it as being "like Hole gone down Rodney's English Disco".

Technically speaking, the song was the result of the group signing to Domino Publishing and working with Gossip producer John Goodmanson. But what's the real story behind it? We dispatched an Artrocker.TV reporter to find out...



"Welcome To My World was written in response to a gig we played in Chelmsford where we felt alienated from the whole thing. We were having to smile along through gritted teeth at this Japanese girl band who were pulling out tampons and couldn't play to save their rock'n'roll souls. It is quite disdainful to the audience who seemed indulgent of this. "This is where you clap, This is where you smile.." etc.

Surely you pay your money and you want your heart stopped, your pulse racing and a sense as you leave the gig that you can do whatever it takes to stand up to the forces keeping you down and to change your life! Music has this energising, invigorating effect on us and it's what we always try for. The lyric "Welcome to my war" in the last verse is about this and it goes beyond the gender thing.

We flew to Seattle in January and recorded the drum and guitars in Death Cab For Cutie's drum temple of a studio and then did the vocals and mix in John Goodmanson's Bog Roll Studios where we were sleeping on an airbed which kept deflating in the night!

The other side "Feeling Lonely Now" was written about the two of us touring in Europe in Vas's car in 2009. It was fun to record with the vocals going through a Leslie Cabinet, twelve string guitars and as many Big Muff overdubs as possible on the heavy section until we were satisfied!

The single artwork is the vocal booth in Bog Roll Studios which is basically a cupboard John converted into a padded cell for vocalists complete with airholes which we thought looked like bullet holes. It was literally "my world" for the session. Vas took a photo of me taking a photo of it and the date captured on her video camera is when we were there."

ROS AND VAS