Our Chat With Body Type From Issue Six
I have only heard amazing things about all the girls in Body Type, so I thought I should try and have a chat with them. I got the chance to catch up with Sophie and Cecil, 2/4 of band Body Type, for the sixth issue of the magazine. Formed in 2016, Body Type are a rock and rock band mostly based just south of Sydney. We got chatting about all the moments these girls have been making over the past two years sine they recorded their lastest album, Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising, which is out TODAY, along with the ebbs and flows of getting back into the swing of touring and performing now that things are getting somewhat normal again.
How would you guys describe your sound?
Sophie: I always just say rock and roll. I find that such a hard question, so I don't know. Maybe rock and roll. Some people that have been reviewing the track have been calling us angular punk, which feels cool.
Cecil: I think there's more of a punk sound to this stuff now. I think also in the way it was recorded there's probably a bit more of that punk as well. Jono Boulet (Party Dozen/Arse) who recorded it is much more in that world. So it's definitely not as shiny as the other stuff.
How else do you think your sound has changed or progressed since your last release?
S: I would say [our progress since lockdown] has been another positive thing, sticking to the theme of bittersweet. We've been rehearsing so much with no end in sight during lockdown. So I think we've all gotten way tighter and have definitely had plenty of time to hone in on our sound and our instruments.
I'd like to give a shout out at this moment to Stranded Studios. Our friends started a studio in Bellambi during lockdown. They built it from the ground up, it's so incredible. So yeah, we've been going there every week and just practising, writing, jamming.
When did you guys start to work on the album?
S: Well, some of the songs on the record are super old. Like one of the songs is one of the first songs I ever wrote and we've been playing that live since we first started. And some of them came together super, super quickly. We spent a week in Margaret River in Western Australia in 2019. We just stayed on this beautiful property and really honed in and wrote a bunch of demos and then kind of worked off that.
How do you select songs to go into an album?
C: It was quite hard. I actually think what tipped us over was the vinyl time. We had all of these songs and we were so desperate for all of them to be on there. And then our manager was like, ‘You only get this many minutes per side’, and we're like, ‘Fuckk’.
S: In the album sessions, we only ended up shaving off two songs from the album. But with demos, we probably had like 15 songs and then we actually recorded 13 and then shaved off two. I was listening to it today, we got the test pressing of the vinyl, it arrived at my house today, and I think that we did the right thing. I think we picked the perfect songs and it flows really nicely. I feel really proud and stoked.
How did all of you guys meet and how have your friendships grown since starting together?
C: Well, Sophie and I actually went to uni together. This was when we were both living in Perth and then we both went our separate ways and we got back in touch when we lived in Melbourne. And then Soph went to New York and I moved to Sydney and then Soph and I just, I guess, reconnected through mutual friends and started jamming because Soph was like, ‘I've been learning guitar and been writing some songs’, and I'm like, ‘I've been attempting to play drums’. So we have all these funny videos of just the two of us, jamming in this shitty studio. But then I think Annabel was through Foz, one of our dear friends, and Annabel moved into this sharehouse on a whim. Soph, noticed that she had a guitar in her room and invited her to come and jam. And then Georgia is actually an old friend of Sophie's from Perth as well, who was living in Sydney. And Soph knew she'd played the bass in a band. But Soph was messaging her saying, ‘Georgia! Come and play bass! And we've basically been inseparable for the past five years. And obviously with the border [restrictions] it's been a bit hard, but we're still inseparable. The band has obviously brought us closer together,Soph, Georgia and Annabel are still my closest friends without a doubt. They are my best friends.
S: You just go through so much together. Like the process of creating something with three other women is just so unique and insightful and just really strengthens any kind of bond. Obviously there's challenges within that as well. You have to make a lot of compromises and there's a lot of opinions. So, navigating how to balance all of that is just the most healthy thing in the whole entire world. I feel like we're just in a long term partnership. It's literally like we're all married haha.
C: It's the longest relationship I've ever had! We're partners in business, but also in life.
S: It's really beautiful to reflect on it as well, because it's rare. It's rare to have this kind of ongoing connection and I have so much trust and faith in female friendships. I think they're a really unique and beautiful thing. So that on top of having a creative relationship is just so special.
Have you guys found it hard to reignite your creative confidence after so much downtime as a band, not doing your live shows?
C: I don't know. I guess the three of us having rehearsed throughout the whole pandemic the past few years [helps], and also individually, because we all play in other bands as well. So it's been good in that respect. We've been able to explore other creative fields too, which I think has made us all better musicians, and made us feel more confident on stage. We bring it back to Body Type and then we can harness all of that energy and skill and play on stage. It is electric though, when the four of us are there, there's nothing quite like it. Like we played in March last year and it was just like nothing had changed.
With you guys being so used to travelling previously, and then being stuck in the same spot for so long with the border closures, have you found a new appreciation for home? And have you dabbled in any other sort of creative things?
S: I guess, inevitably you have to have an appreciation for your home, don't you? Because you're just in your four walls, the whole time. I live with Annabel, which has been really life saving. It's nice to have someone to check in on you and make sure you're not going too crazy. In terms of other creative endeavours, I feel like I definitely spontaneously tried to do some things and then didn't follow through, but maybe that's okay. Like I bought a violin—haven't picked it up. Tried to teach myself some ragtime piano, which I got kind of okay at. What did you do Cec?
C: What did I do?
S: It's funny to think back on that time, and wonder ‘How did we get through these two years? Like, what have I been doing?’
C: I moved to Austinmer just before the Sydney lockdown with my partner, I moved into this beautiful house and I started sewing. That's what I did. I was just channelling all of this energy into sewing. Annabel and I ended up making our own merch for a while there, doing overlocking and screen printing. And I used to make corsets for people. But I guess we were just so lucky that we lived close to the water. I feel like being so close by and waking up every morning and going for a swim, it was quite grounding.
When thinking about the release of the album, does anything specific come to mind, like a memory or something that takes you back?
S: I'm going back to when we were writing in Margaret River and the owner of the property took us out for a walk to look at the land. She took us into this field full of cows to just get a bit earthy and go and see the cows. Georgia and I were a bit spooked and we hung back a bit, but [the rest of the band] were right in the field of cows. And then she was like, ‘Oh, there's actually a bull in this field!’, And Georgia and I just bolted. And then we turned around and [the others] were having to nervously tip toe away so the bull didn't see and come and charge them.
C: It was starting to look like it was gonna charge. Because there was a limestone sculpture in the middle of the field, 'The Naval'. And she was like, we'll go and see 'The Naval'. And then low and behold, we're literally standing on this limestone structure, surrounded by cows. And there was this bull just like doing the leg thing about to charge.
Did it come after you at all?
C: No, but they follow you. They are very intuitive.
S: What are your memories, Cec? Where does the album take you?
C: I think probably to those sessions where we wrote ‘The Charm’, that's what I think about sometimes when I hear that song. Because we wrote that at our friend's studio, at their house, and we'd just been through a bit of a shitty thing and it's quite an angry song. They had horses on their farm as well. And I just remember we would rehearse for like, eight hours, and then go and hang out with the horses, which was really nice. There’s a lot of farm experiences on this record haha.
S: We are a very earthy band!
C: Yeah. Soooo grounded... But for the End of the end of 2019 I can't think of anything specific.
S: It was a very hyper time. We'd just been overseas, we were on this huge momentum trail and we were like, ‘Fuck yeah, let's just get into the studio and record this album!’ There was big energy around it all.
You can read the full interview from our Sixth Issue BITTER SWEET
