It’s election time here in the UK, and many people have been asking ‘where are today’s political bands and musicians?’ Some have even gone on record saying that we don’t have any. Well let me assure you, there are plenty of politically charged bands out there, you just have to look in the right place. Take London trio The Tuts. Hand picked by Pauline Black to support The Selecter on tour, they’re a full on, highly charged and entertaining band with a clear message…
BM: Hello. Please introduce yourselves? Who’s who? And what do you do?
Nadia: Your mum, your dad and ya sister
Bev: I’m Beverley and I’m from The Tuuuuuuts!!
Harriet: I play bass
BM: And where are you from?
Nadia: My mum’s punani.
Bev: Yeah I’m from a poor punani, why wasn’t I from a rich one?
Nadia: I had more creativity when I didn’t have money though.
Harriet: These punani’s are from Hayes/Uxbridge in Middlesex
BM: How did you all meet?
Nadia: We met on a dating website
Bev: Yeah, fishing for jobs
Nadia: I prefer E- Harmony
Harriet: Nadia had this great fedora on and Bev was always getting friend zoned and I could really relate. So we became great friends.
BM: And how did the first rehearsal go?
Nadia: Our first rehearsal was an audition for Dane Bowers.
Harriet: It’s true, unfortunately.
Bev: It’s online do not find it! (I’ll be honest, I looked but I can’t find it! – stAn)
Harriet: We practise at mine in a DIY rehearsal space soundproofed by dusty books.
BM: Where do you get the name The Tuts from?
Nadia: Testical Tuesday
Bev: It dates back to high school
BM: If someone was to ask what you sounded like, what would you say?
Nadia: Bubblegum pop
Bev: Magical creatures. THE TUTS! One of a kind
Harriet: A million dollar idea
Nadia: I don’t think there’s a band we sound exactly like. But obvious ones are The Libertines, The Clash, Kate Nash and other female fronted punk bands. But are influences are from all over.
BM: Talking of influences, what are the bands that have inspired you?
Nadia: All American Rejects, Blink 182, Spin Doctors
Bev: Emo bands ha-ha!
Harriet: That’s basically what we’ve been listening to on The Selecter tour and I think its clouding the judgement of who are our real influences, ha-ha. Do love pop punk though. My original influence was Juliana Hatfield and other female fronted 90s indie/grunge but general pop has been such a huge influence on me too, Destiny’s Child, Nelly Furtado, Christina Aguilera. Nadia and Bev were really influenced by The Libertines and Feeder too.
BM: You come across as a really tight group. Was it music that you bonded over? Or something else?
Nadia: We bonded over eating wraps with vegan cheese, pranking people, ex-boyfriends. Loads of stuff.
Harriet: Saying the word ‘thin’
Beverley: Turtle heads
Harriet: Being from the same town. It’s run by Tories HELP US!
BM: You have a strong feminist message to a lot of your songs – would you class yourselves as a political band?
Nadia: Yes, definitely.
Bev: Our first gig was a feminist punk gig in Hoxton.
Nadia: It was pretty good! It sounded really nice in that venue. We’ve come a long way though, sounds like a cliché but it’s true.
Harriet: I think almost anything is political. Just writing about stuff that affects your life and is relatable to other people has undertones of politics. But specifically we have a lot of yeah feminist messages. Owen Jones recently wrote an article how there are no political bands- BUT WE’RE HERE!!! But he has a point that nowadays they wouldn’t play many political bands on the radio anyway.
Bev: I’d say yeah. I feel like if you’re human being you kinda have to be political. You have to have a stance on what’s going on around you, in your community. You need to think outside yourself as well.
BM: In 2015 it’s unbelievable, and unacceptable, that there is still as much inequality towards female performers. Why do you think that is? And what needs to be done to address the balance?
Nadia: Kill all the men! I think it needs to be tackled in society first, not just the music scene. We need to get to the root of the cause. But through the music equality can be promoted. So we’re just gonna carry on doing what we’re doing and hopefully we’ll help change things.
Bev: We’re gonna be the example of what change looks like!
BM: What would you say to other female artists that might just be starting out?
Harriet: DIY can be great for years, when you’re first starting out right through to when you’re playing bigger gigs. Don’t think you can’t do most of the planning and booking yourself! It’s nice having that control, it’s empowering!
Nadia: Don’t take being first on the bill if it doesn’t seem right/make sense, don’t be intimidated by men, don’t feel below men EVER!
Bev: The more crazy you are the more people will be drawn to you, I like fucked up and crazy! So if that’s what you feel like doing, do that.
BM: Do you get involved with women/equality issues outside of the music business?
Nadia: No we stay clear of them
all laugh
Nadia: I only socialise with a few people
Harriet: We collaborate with artists.
Nadia: Like Sarah Westgarth, a London based feminist artist.
Harriet: Creatively we get involved but it all comes back to the music. We do like to be politically involved though which often relates to equality issues. Like when we terrorised Boris Johnson in our local library by singing ‘Never trust a tory’ to him (lyrics from an ONSIND song)
BM: You’ve just finished touring with The Selecter (Click here for review and pics) – how did that come about?
Nadia: It’s over now, fuck off and die ha-ha
Harriet: Nadia’s currently eating crisps in a vintage dress and claiming she’s become cocky. But basically she’s got post tour depression.
Bev: Came about by being good! Pauline Black saw us at Glastonbury and loved us.
BM: What’s it like working with Pauline? Has she passed on any words of wisdom? (Careful here – I’ve been a big fan of Pauline since I was a teenager – and that’s a long time ago 😉 )
Nadia: Don’t tell me to be careful. I probably like her more than you do!
Bev: Hands off she’s ours!
Harriet: Pauline was amazing to tour with, I was trying to syphon her wisdom and knowledge so I could keep some. She really loved having us there. The whole band is amazing and such nice people.
BM: Having seen you live, I can say it looks like you are having a great time. How would you describe it?
Bev: Energetic
Nadia: A punch in the throat
Harriet: Epic
BM: Are you all always as ‘bouncy’ (for want of a better expression)?
Nadia: I tried to do the step like in Bhangra music, but it’s hard. Sometimes you step out of the beat on stage and you need to get back in rhythm with the bouncing.
Bev: The more the audience gives to us the more we wanna give back; it works hand in hand so yeah it’s always energetic.
Harriet: But even if a crowd is stiff we still go for it.
BM: When we saw you at Leeds, you all had matching outfits – is this a constant feature with the band? (I thought it looked really good – creates an air of unity and shows you are band etc.)
Bev: Yes it’s constant.
Harriet: We started doing matching outfits about 2 or so years ago. It’s important to us, and like you said does create a sense of unity. Helps with confidence. Also although we don’t always dress typically girly, when we do I like that it promotes a message to young women that they can embrace their feminity if they want to.
Nadia: Yeah, matching outfits all the time!
BM: One or two of your songs appear to about shit boyfriends and/or bad relationships …?
Harriet: Yes
Nadia: Indeed
Harriet: You write about what you’ve been through, it makes sense.
BM: Your current single, ‘Do I Have To Look For Love?’, what’s the story?
Nadia: The chorus was written a long time ago then we added new verses to it recently to complete it. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Do we have to openly go out there to meet people? Or does fate bring people together?
Bev: It’s a kinda of mix of that and how in movies how love falls in people’s laps- and should we expect that to happen to us?
Nadia: Kinda like fantasy and reality. And when you do meet people it’s just hard because the way we are, feminist, left wing. Then we meet dicks. And they’re just gonna need so much training.
BM: Who’s responsible for song writing duties?
Bev: Nadia and Harriet write most/all of the songs.
Nadia: And the little ghost writes the rest
Harriet: It’s reasonably collaborative. We’ll come to each other with an idea and be like ‘it might be shit ahhh!’ then we help each other kinda shape them.
BM: Where did you record it?
Nadia: With my Uncle Tipler. Paul Tipler. Unit 13 studios in London.
BM: Were you aiming for any particular kind of sound?
Nadia: I like The Strokes sound but they don’t come out like that
BM: When you’re not been Tuts, what do you do?
Nadia: None of your goddamnn business
Harriet: Basically we all have boring day jobs. But we all do a bit of video editing but even that relates to the band. We also play football sometimes. I’m in another band called Colour Me Wednesday.
BM: So what next for the Tuts in 2015?
Nadia: Achieve World domination
BM: When can we next catch you live?
Harriet: 18th April- at The George Tavern in East London! We’re putting the show on entirely ourselves and it’s a collab with a feminist artist’s exhibition! Tickets only £4 CLICK HERE
You can keep in touch with The Tuts @ …
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