By Dan Mitchell; Photo by Sandy Kim
The past two years have certainly been eventful for Christopher Owens, the primary songwriter, guitarist and lead vocalist for the lauded San Franciscan duo called Girls. In this time, Owens has gone from writing songs in his bedroom late at night to releasing one of last year’s most acclaimed debut records, simply entitled Album, which officially saw the light of day on September 22nd, 2009. Nowadays, the internet hype machine proves capable of generating such tremendous buzz for bands well before records drop and, as was certainly the case with Girls, it becomes difficult to sort through the muddle and find the bands that are truly worth hearing. Girls is one of those groups that have proven their worth and they did it through constant touring, including two European tours with another coming in March, and the release of a uniquely fresh and invigorating twelve-song set put out by the True Panther label. ANTIGRAVITY got the opportunity to catch up with Owens just before he hits the road on yet another American tour that will bring him, among other places, to New Orleans for the first time.
Much has been made of Owens’ back-story—he grew up in the Children of God cult, traveling all across the world—but the real story lies in the music. As opposed to approaching the recording process with songs ready to go, Owens and JR White, the bassist and producer, recorded Album on the fly, laying down tracks as Owens penned them. “We would record them [the songs] as I would write them and the first twelve that we did were Album, we didn’t have any other songs at the time,” explains Owens. “We did it all together. I played most of the music and he ran the equipment. We had to get a couple of drummers to come in every once and a while because neither of us played the drums. Other than that, we just did it on our own in our free time. It wasn’t really a band project [in the beginning], it was just something he and I were doing for fun.” Just two guys playing music with no preconceived notions that they may make it big, just doing it for the love of the music—that’s the more compelling story behind Girls.
When speaking about how the record took off and the positive feedback they’ve received from both critics and fans alike, Owens says, “Yeah, it’s all been a big surprise. I knew it was going to be a good album, but I didn’t know people would react this much. It’s all been pretty out of the blue.” It seems that many people have reacted so favorably to his music because of the honest and somewhat confessional approach he takes to songwriting, especially his lyrical themes. “I’m always writing about something that is substantial to me. I don’t really write about anything silly anymore. It usually just all comes out at once, as soon as the idea is there it’s pretty easy to just get it all out. I just talk about what I am feeling at the time.” Simple and to the point, just like the origin of the name Girls; “We didn’t really think about it at all, it was just thrown out, JR just said it and I thought it was cool. It just took about ten seconds and it was the first idea that we had.” This sort of spontaneity is trademark for Girls, a band that does not look back but only pushes forth.
As Girls is a duo at heart, there has been a revolving cast of supporting musicians that Owens and White bring on tour with them. For this upcoming string of shows there will be “at least two other people” who will join the group. “We usually play as a four-piece, but we’re trying to have five [this time]. We try to always get people to commit to a month-long tour, but everybody’s got their own band nowadays. We do have a four-piece now that is me and JR and a drummer and another guitar player and we may have a keyboard player, but we’ll see.” Owens went further to say that the musicians that they will be playing with are friends of theirs, which he expresses gratitude for, especially given the cramped hustle-bustle life on the road. But he would take the stresses of touring over a “regular” job any day of the week. “It’s awesome to get to do something that not only you like to do, but that is much more rewarding than a regular job that you don’t like doing, which is what I was doing for about thirteen years. Before playing music I was working and I don’t have any education so I was just working service jobs. I was stoked to start playing music, but to get to travel on top of it is just really cool.”
But as with any tour, you go through cities and countries with crowds that vary greatly, oftentimes coming across tough venues or less than cordial attendees along the way, but Owens understands this is symptomatic of the very nature of the beast. “They [the crowds] are kind of different from place to place. In London they are a bit like they are in New York. They will come up and tell you that they really liked it, but you wouldn’t know, because they stand there like they are all cool. Then, we played in Barcelona and they are just crazy. It’s different all over the place, but we have good shows everywhere, it’s just that cultures are different from place to place.” The one drawback to extensive touring, especially for an independent band on a small label, is that recording becomes near impossible while on the road, and with new songs popping up daily, Owens is looking forward to the break after they play Coachella Fest in April, their first time playing there, to get cracking on a new album.
“We have all these tours booked and we have to do them, but I can’t wait [to record]. If we weren’t going on these tours we would be doing it right now. We will probably get to do some more recording before the summer. I’ve got a steady flow of new songs coming, something like seventy down. I [write] some songs on tour and I do some when we get back and have time off.”
It seems at this point that there is little that can be done to hold back this steadily rising duo out of San Francisco. With an album down and enough material to finish off a few more this summer if they feel so inclined, Girls has no plans of slowing down any time soon. And this is a good thing for any of us that appreciate earnest, straightforward music every once and awhile. Christopher Owens, no matter how unconventional his background may seem, writes music from the heart and wears it on his sleeve. He makes no apologies and rarely second guesses his creative output, which is what makes Girls as charming as they are compelling. With a bit of effort, creativity and just enough self-confidence, Girls shows us that it doesn’t take grandiosity or elaboration to succeed in music. All it takes is a DIY mindset and the ardor to follow your dreams.
