New Noise | Factory Girls
Words | Greta Kaur-Taylor
Photography | Greta Kaur-Taylor
10/09/19
New Noise is brought to you in the form of Factory girls; a Leicester band taking influence from the rock and post punk scenes, doing it well with full force.
Consisting of Noah Hopley - Jones (frontman + rhythm guitar), Will Astill (lead guitar), James Parker (drums) and Joe Barton (bass), Factory Girls create live atmospheric performances that create a sense of impending importance. Drawing in young people like moth to flame; a reminder that the young support for the music scene is still in full force.
When speaking on the bands most recent growth and their progression from previous releases, on Bandcamp, frontman Noah Hopley-Jones says:
“When we put first stuff out it was just two of us and we kind of did that in a day, we were just recording stuff to record stuff. I guess when we started playing all together and rehearsing live, we were more focused on playing live and what that sounded like; we made it a lot more basic and sometimes add a bit of synth. I guess it's just changed because it’s gone more towards that indie rock sound.”
Playing in the dimly lit and well styled Exchange Bar, Factory Girls delivered a powerful and all-encompassing performance; with no barrier the venue was a perfect fit for the bands intimate set up. Hopley - Jones’ vocals, emotionally cathartic and surrounded by a cacophony of interlaced instrumentals, sat well on a wholesome Thursday night of good friends and good music, a soundtrack to the end of a bleary summer. Not forgetting the audiences call for an encore.
Speaking on the bands previous show at Duffy's, which was their first live performance as a band, bassist Joe Barton says:
“It was so fun yeah, we almost got called off because of the stage, but yeah it was brilliant.”
With frontman Noah continuing:
“It went well, I feel like it’s going to be hard to top it because it was just like quite a lot of energy. I think it’s good having that show under your belt”
With lead guitarist Will Astill adding:
“I’ve been worried like this (gig) won’t be as exciting, hopefully it will be”
When discussing how they feel about their current local music scene Hopley – Jones says:
“I think that Leicester is doing pretty good for themselves at the moment and for the last two or three years. There’s a lot of young bands. I really like The People's Assembly and Earls are really good, Spacetoast; Just like young people that are local, it’s just nice that it’s easy to get gigs with young people, which is lovely. It’s good. I think that the more venues that open up to young bands the easier it’ll be.”
Factory Girls are yet to have released an official single and are currently working on future releases, an ep can’t come soon enough. When asked on how it’s all coming together drummer James Parker continues:
“It’s been difficult, we’re doing it all self-produced and recording it on a laptop at Still Ill Studios. We mic’ed it all up and recorded from there.”
With Astill adding “It’s nice doing it ourselves it feels like we’re part of it. We all kind of sat down together to make sure the mix was good, and we made it how we wanted it. It was nice to go back with fresh ears. “
Noah continuing “It’s nice doing it ourselves it’s just good to have that, if we ever do have a situation where we’re not doing it ourselves, we’ve got a better chance of giving it some of our own.”
Factory Girls are a band where excitement ensues, drawing in crowds that are not often seen by up and coming bands in a local scene, when ending with their current projects they said
" Get more gigs really and just try and have a few years of building up audiences, and with some of us going to uni it would be good to play at other places like Bristol. Possibly a full length album?”
As we do when we get a chance to chat with a band, we asked them to end the interview with the first thing that comes to mind. Factory girls concluding with “Fuck. Factory Girls enjoy responsibly.”
Factory Girls carry an aura of their own, don’t miss it.
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