Crowdsurf & Turf Meets: Girlhood.
When Christian met neo-soul chanteuse Tessa at the back end of 2015 they instantly bonded over their shared love of nineties pop and late eighties hip-hop. A flush of tracks quickly followed during 2016 and 2017, including the incredible My Boy and Bad Decisions.
Pouring influences such as The Avalanches and The Fugees onto their distinct UK sound, they’ve formulated a template that’s as indebted to the streets of London as it is their worldly listening habits. We caught up with Christian to find out more about Girlhood.
Who are you?
We are a voice of a generation. Just kidding, we are just best mates who fucking love making music.
Firstly, congratulations on your new single ‘Keep On’, it’s such a great track and it’s been getting love on the radio. Were there any different influences for this track compared to your previous releases?
We started by going back on this track. We had a bit of time off touring, wrote a whole bunch of weird-ball music and then ended up taken a step back to our roots, looking at Dancehall pianos, Gospel, Hip Hop, 90’s R&B instrumentation and Nu-Soul vocals. The lyrics reflect on our time off, and the music industry at the current time.
How did you two meet?
We met on Tinder.
Did you have any goals when you started working together?
I’ve always written music, since I can remember, but always worked with a vocalist. I aim to create the ‘perfect song’ that I, personally would want to discover. Tess usually adds something I would never even predict for the track, and that keeps the process wonderfully fresh for both of us.
What is your process when working on a track? Are there any creative differences in this process?
We play off each other strengths, however, recently we tend to flip this about, giving each other different approaches on each track to find a happy medium. Tess handled all of the songwriting and a lot of the production on Vol 2, whereas most of Vol 1 was written before we had even met. I write the instrumental, and some of the chorus hooks, fire over to Tess and we go back and forth with finalising structures and melodies together. I hardly ever get involved with lyrics, but sometimes build the hooks from samples, My Boy for instance.
Who and what are your influences, both musically and in general?
I can’t speak for Tess, but for me I look at each instrument as different source of inspiration. I take huge inspiration from live sessions like La Blogoteque, this incredible session CocoRosie did where they sourced a collection of world musicians and reworked a few of their tracks, and underground hip hop such as Immortal Technique. I try and keep everything acoustic, with hardly any studio trickery, which was definitely the case on Vol. 1. Vol 2 is a slightly different beast as I took a step back from production.
What music did each of you grow up listening to?
Barry White, Savage Garden, Paul Young, Alishas Attic, Bewitched, Steps, Burt Bacharach, Celine Dion.
When not writing music or performing, how do you spend your free time?
I just started my own business creating branding for the entertainment industry. Pretty niche, but it’s great fun. I moved out of London and fell in love. I also have to have ’Spa Day’ every few days with Hiro, my naked cat, as he seems to just sweat dirt.
Do either of you have any other talents?
Tess can make anyone laugh, anytime she wants. She’s like a beacon of joy.
How can people listen to you & support you?
Spotify! Or if you are a mug, you can buy it on iTunes. Even better, play us in your pub/ We don’t make physical records, because no one believes in us that much yet.
What do we have to look forward to from Girlhood?
Vol 2 early next year, which is pretty much a mini album/mixtape. It’s a different beast to Vol 1, as we flipped the bands roles around. It’s much more dreamlike, smoother and a bit melancholic.