# Lou Hayter- Keyboard # Sarah Jones - Drums# Tahita Bulmer- Vocalist, from the New Young Pony Club

[the_future_modernes]

"Ice Cream" - New Young Pony Club

Sarah Jones is the Woman who drums for New Young Pony Club and Bat For Lashes 2009 touring band:

Feature on Female Drummers from Mike Dolbear - Sarah Jones

Have you noticed any issues with gender in the music industry?

Erm, yes! When I was playing metal I’d always get lots of big, massive men saying ‘your bands gonna be shit cos you’ve got a girl drummer’. I think it’s so funny cos they don’t realise that it makes you work harder and if they realised that they probably wouldn’t say it. But just little things like doing photo shoots with new Young Pony Club and we did an interview with Q I think it was. You do a photo shoot so you go and wear something that you like and you’re a girl, you might wear some make up. He came in and the first thing he said was ‘oh so it’s all about the clothes then’, no hi or anything, ‘it’s all about the clothes and the make up’. Well no actually, it’s a photo shoot, we are girls, this is what we do but come and see us tomorrow when we’re playing a gig and it’s not like this. It’s just so annoying that if you do wear a sparkly dress or something then it’s ‘oh you’re all about that’.

How do people respond to you as a female drummer?

With music industry people I always get asked to do lots of really pop things where the drums will be very simple. I think they’re making an obvious choice; they want the female drummer over their talent. People are sometimes shocked because I don’t have massive arms. Lots of people have this thing that drummers have to have massive arms and it doesn’t make any sense! ‘Look at your hands, oh my god!’

‘Aren’t they small!’

Yeah exactly (laughs)

Do you think there are more positives or negatives to being a female drummer?

I think it’s half and half. It’s a double edged sword really. You get asked to do a lot of things because you’re a girl but then a lot of the time you won’t get asked to do things as a girl. Unfortunately there are female artists out there as well that specifically don’t want female drummers because it takes away from their thing, which I understand. Then there are bands that just want that female band which I find a bit weird as well. Why don’t you just get the right musician?

Can you think of examples of girls not being asked to play in bands?

I think it just depends on the artist. If someone’s slightly insecure or it’s the look that they’re going for, or if they’re the main attraction, which makes sense. I don’t think it’s good to say no to someone just on that though. But people like Natasha, she loves it - female tour manager, female lighting lady and it works so well.

Your set up for Bat For Lashes looks very cool with lots of percussion going on. Can you talk it through?

I have three toms – 10, 12 and 16 but I have a 16 by 14 to put a trigger (KD7) underneath. Then I have two KD7’s, one on either side, so I play a snare with my left foot on one song. Then a brand new PD 125 on my left for half of the songs on electronic snare, SPDS for all the other bits and a massive timpani.

Is that tuned to the same note the whole time?MORE

Chaos - New Young Pony Club

Tahita Bulmer on fashion in 'The close-up :Tahita Bulmer, singer with New Young Pony Club'

Are you a girlie dresser?

I wouldn't say I was necessarily girlie girl. I take my fashion cues from 1940s film noir and 50s musicals. I love all that stuff. People say my style is really 80s but actually it's not, it's from the 40s, if you want to get pedantic about it. I like to look feminine but I like to look strong at the same time. I'm 1940s punk, that's my style.

do you describe your music?

It's dance music but with real songwriting attached. You can dance to it, and be crazy and wild and drunk to it, and then go home and listen to it and the lyrics are quite reflective. There's a lot of metaphor and a lot of word play. Our influences are stuff like Talking Heads, Blondie and the Stranglers and more modern bands such as LCD Sound System and the Rapture.
MORe

Tahita Bulmer on Broken Electro+Indie Beats 2009 Interview on the release of their second album

Bands that influenced you in this 2nd album?

Siouxsie And The Banshees, David Bowie,The Cure, Bauhaus, early 90's rock music.

Its going to be really different.People will say "OK, this is a step forward" or "Oh, my god i hate it". I think it will be cool.Bands should be unafraid in what they do and say. Hopefully we are still a pop band and people can sing along and dance to our music.

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The Bomb - New Young Pony Club

How We Met: Lou Hayter & Anita Blay (cocknbullkid)

Lou Hayter, 27, is keyboardist for electro-rock band New Young Pony Club, whose debut album, Fantastic Playroom, was named album of the month by NME when it was released two years ago. Hayter is also vocalist for her solo project the New Sins. She lives in east LondonMORE

An Interview with what looks like the three ladies only from New Young Pony Club at www.repeatfanzine.co.uk

2.I read that writing and recording The Optimist was a painstaking task, and as synthesisers, guitars and bass still play a prominent role in your overall sound, I wondered from all of your favourite artists / songs, if are there any synth, guitar or bass lines that have stuck in your head?
Lou: “Hmm…”
Ty: “That’s an interesting question.”
Lou: (starts singing the hook to Mantronix’s Got To Have Your Love)
Ty: (laughs heartily) “Yeah, there’s always Mantronix, that’s a good one!”
Sarah: “I like the Tom Tom Club’s Genius Of Love as well (smiling), that’s great!”
Ty: “Yeah, and I like Dark Sneak Love Action. It’s usually the simple ones that get stuck in your head.”
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