Episode 33 is an exploration into electronica from Not bad for a Girl member Kiana. Read our interview with Kiana and NBFG founder Martha below.
Hi Not Bad For A Girl, you’ve exploded onto the Manchester scene over the past few months. That must be really exciting, could you tell us your story from foundation until now?
Martha: Hey! First of all thanks for having us on, we’ve all been following All My Friends separately for a while and really dig what you do. The last few months have been such a whirlwind, going from launching our page one day and waking up to over 400 followers the next morning was madness.
Last year I was Event Manager for Fuse FM and one of the events I put on was a night with an all female line-up that raised money and supplies for Bloody Good Period, a charity that works to end period poverty. That event is kind of our origin story in that most of the NBFG girls were on the lineup. Running an all female DJ collective was something I had wanted to do for a while so it was really exciting finding a bunch of cool and talented women who wanted to get involved.
Since then we’ve been playing on lineups all around Manchester (including running two of our own launch events) and we’ve been on radio shows across the North of England. To be honest though the best part is probably the friendships and the general atmosphere of the group, we’re really all just a group of mates with the same dreams and goals!
Your collective is relatively new are their any other brands in Manchester or beyond that you look to for inspiration?
Martha: The Manchester scene is thriving at the moment, I think we’re all so spoilt in that there are so many promoters and brands that are putting 100% into running creative and I individual parties. We’re particularly keen on All Hands On Deck who run open-deck parties that give women and non-binary folk the opportunity to play out at events. Aside from having a wicked brand name they’re all great DJs and lovely people.
In terms of looking for inspiration though I think we move in quite different creative directions. We often say that while a lot of Manchester brands are rightfully quite serious and professional about what they do we’re just 8 trash people having a trashy time. We came across a London brand called Childsplay the other day and I think our vibes are quite similar – the community feeling, the annoying amount of caps lock and emojis in our captions and intimate secret location parties. We’re basically all about having the most fun humanly possible.
Where do you see Not Bad For A Girl heading? What direction do you want to take the collective? Are there any venues or events you’d really like to tick of your bucket list?
Martha: We’re really excited to be getting more into radio, we’ve had our show Girly Music on Vandelay radio in Swansea since the beginning and are about to announce our monthly Reform Radio show (HEARD IT HERE FIRST) which is so exciting.
We want to use that as a platform to give others some exposure so we’re actually looking for women and NB DJs and creative writers/who work in media (radio, events, tv etc) to collaborate with. If that sounds like you drop us a message on Facebook or Instagram.
In terms of venues we obviously can’t stop hyping over the new Mayfield Depot. We’ve been invited down to Printworks in London by the owners in September to go see a heavily female lineup they’re putting on there, obviously playing there to that many people would be an absolute dream! Other than that it’s all about production production production at the moment, it would be great to be able to release a collaborative album.
Let’s talk a bit about the mix. Was it a collective effort or did one of you put it together? Did you approach the mix with any theme or idea in mind?
Kiana: We have done mixes as a b2b or b2b2b before or individually, and normally just go with the flow. This mix is done by myself individually.
When I do any set whether it’s a recording or playing out, if I’m not requested to stick to a theme or a certain vibe, I go for my favourite genre or artists I’m interested in at the time, which happens to change quite frequently as I love exploring different kinds of music and learning new things. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of music with focus on synths as I’ve been learning more about how technology has affected music. As an electrical and electronic engineering student, I’m planning on expanding my academic knowledge to sounds and signals in my final year and been finding this topic very exciting. I’ve played a selection of my favourite tunes with exciting synthesizer sounds in this mix.
Are there any standout track in the mix you wouldn’t mind sharing with our readers?
At the start, you can hear Women’s Hour by Daphne Oram, one of the pioneers of electronic music in the UK and creator of BBC Radiophonic workshop. This album called Private Dreams and Public Nightmares is a concept album that re-works unheard sounds from Daphne Oram’s creations. In this track you can hear her interview with BBC’s Women’s Hour which offers an amazing perspective into Women and Electronic Music from the 50’s and 60’s.
I have also come to admire the electronic sounds from film scores and soundtracks, and have showcased a selection of my favourite tracks. Probably the one of the most exciting music scores of its time, is Delia Derbyshire’s electronic re-work of the Dr Who theme, in 1963, being one of the first film scores entirely made by electronic devices. You can also hear Faith, Hope, Fear and Falling in Love by Clint Mansell, who is one of my favourite contemporary film composers. This particular track is from the Black Mirror episode, San Junipero. His work on Requiem for a Dream, Noah, Moon and many more are an example of what an amazing brain he has with his work with synthesizers.
Later on you can hear a track from one of the best albums ever made, not even just a personal opinion to be honest, Dark Side of The Moon. This track is an incredible example how synthesizers took the music world by storm and had an amazing array of musicians obsessing over them, eg. Pink Floyd. Nick Mason, the drummer of Pink Floyd has recently presented a series of podcasts called Music and Technology which is available on BBC Sounds. He explores the very first sounds created by a medium of electricity up until now and expanding it to future predictions. There are epsiodes focused on Synthesizers, Drum Machines and Samplers and many more. I listened to the entire series in absolute awe and would recommend it to everyone.
The mix finishes with Elegia by New Order, another band who were fascinated by synths and explored many aspects of them. This song will forever remind me of Stranger Things, which takes full advantage of 80’s synthwave, and what a great job it does of it as well, thanks to immense talent of composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein.
The rest of the mix includes less known synthy gems, that I have been listening to a lot lately.
If you’re interested in learning more about synthesizers I can’t recommend the Technology and Music by Nick Mason podcast series enough. If you just want to listen to some bleep bloops made by electricity, and less talking, I recommend listening to the Synth Heroes show on NTS, who sees a guest mix by a synth giant every month.
Last but not least, what is coming up for you on the horizon? Are there any gigs, radio shows or events you can tell us about?
Martha: We’re on a months hiatus right now while we take a bit of an admin break but we’ll be playing at Lounge Fest in Warrington on 26th July_. Our first Reform Radio show is on the 17th August 7-9pm so you can tune in there to hear us go into a bit more detail as well. Other than that we have some really big stuff coming up across August and September which hasn’t yet been released, you’ll have to keep eyes on the Facebook page for updates (did somebody say part 2 of our Super Secret ParT series???? WOOOO).
Been lovely having a chat Liam, enjoy the mix and hopefully catch you over the coming months!
