Muncie Girls are 3 piece punk band from Exeter. They have been gaining a lot of well-deserved attention recently, playing the Lock Up Stage at Reading and Leeds for the first time this weekend. They are currently writing their first full length album to follow up their EPs and split with Great Cynics. We spoke to Lande Hekt (vocals/guitar) about Reading, Muncie Girls’ new record and her girl band workshops before their show at Deadpunk Festival in Bristol.
Let’s start with the obvious – you guys played Reading and Leeds this weekend. How did you find that?
It was awesome. It was different because it’s a massive stage and with really regimental timings. We played some of our friends and some people we don’t know, but not really that many people. I obviously prefer things like this because all my mates are here and it’s not such a big stage – its not so scary. This is the stuff we do all the time. But overall, it was cool, we enjoyed it. I don’t really know how it was received but I guess we’ll see.
You guys are writing a new album at the minute?
Yeah, we’ve been demoing this week down in Essex at No Recording Studio with John Hannon who recorded a lot of my old bands before. We’ve got half the songs demoed and we’re gonna write the rest and demo them and see what happens after that.
Is it sounding different from your EPs?
I’d like to say so yeah, but I don’t know. We’ve tried a little bit of this and that, we’re not sure yet but we’ve definitely tried to do that.
So, outside of Muncie Girls, can you tell us a bit about the School of Frock workshops you’ve been doing?
School of Frock is a workshop just for girls to start girls in Exeter. It was Lou from Caves teaching drums, Kelly Kemp teaching guitar and Iona from Great Cynics teaching bass with my friend Anna as well. It’s for girls who haven’t played in bands before or don’t play an instrument. Basically we spend the day teaching them instruments and we all learn a song together to perform in the evening at a show with mostly girl bands. We’ve done four of them so far.
Have any bands come out of that?
There’s a girl band from Exeter, mostly my sister’s band, which is a riot girl band. Catherine McLean does vocals, Kay from Specialist Subject plays drums and my sister plays bass. Other than that, I’ve heard of a few that are coming out of School of Frock. There are more girl bands in Exeter which is new, so things are definitely getting better.
Are there any similar bands that you’d recommend?
Caves, definitely. There are obviously a lot of good bands and things out there. Muncie Girls as a band don’t really do anything toward helping out girls so yeah for me it’s more individual people – Iona, Kelly Kemp, El Morgan, Helen Chambers.
What inspired you to help girls in bands?
A lot of girls who come to see shows don’t play. It’s harder because a lot of people don’t start playing when they’re young because they’re not pushed. It kind of pushes them now that they’re a bit older – there are a lot of girls in their mid-20s involved. It’s great to be a part of it’s great to see it come together out of nothing.
Have you had any experiences of being treated differently by promoters because you’re a girl?
I would say I’ve had mostly good experiences. It’s a perspective thing really isn’t it? Promoters are generally pretty cool. If they want to be put my band on then they’re alright because they want to put us on. With sound engineers and tech people you get the odd one – the other day, they had the sheets ready and were going through equipment we need and it was clear that the guy didn’t think I was playing. I’m personally pretty confident and I’ve generally had good experiences so I think I’m in a good position to help out.
