62 minute read
The SoapGirls Interview by Alice Jones-Rodgers.
Clean Up the World!
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Interview by Alice Jones-Rodgers.
At the ripe old ages of 26 and 27 respectively, French-born, South African-raised sisters Camille (Millie) and Noemie (Mie) Debray, aka The SoapGirls, have seen all the horrors that the mainstream music industry has to offer. The charismatic siblings began their career at ages 8 and 9 as child street performers on the streets of Cape Town, singing whilst selling handmade soap for charity, thus earning the name ‘The SoapGirls’. By the ages of 12 and 13, they had cut their earliest songs in the studio, with one of the tracks, ‘Boys Boys’ finding its way onto a 2009 Japanese compilation album entitled ‘Do the Independence (and Bridge Build Burn By Yourself)’, leading to a record deal with Universal Records South Africa two years later. Their debut album, 2011’s ‘Xperience’, hit the number one spot on the South African charts and the duo embarked on a national tour and appeared on a number of the country’s TV shows, including ‘Idols South Africa’, where their daring stage attire made them one of the most talked about, and hated, acts to have been featured.
Disillusioned by the lack of creative control they had been afforded and the poor treatment they had been subjected to whilst signed to Universal Records, the Debrays fought to end their association with the label for a full four years, a time which they used to save up money by waitressing whilst planning out their next move. Once free from their contract, gone was their early label-controlled Dance-Pop orientated sound in favour of self-released, wholly self-sufficient, full-throttle Punk Rock, complete with a boundary-pushing image and attitude to match.
The SoapGirls’ new found freedom was first expressed on their 2015 album ‘Calls for Rebellion’ and expanded upon with two further offerings, 2017’s ‘Societys Rejects’
and 2019’s double-disc ‘Elephant in the Room’. After entertaining the masses with over 100 weeks of lockdown livestreams, 15th April sees Millie and Mie return with their new single, ‘Breathe’, the first taste of their upcoming fifth album, ‘In My Skin’, expected in July. And with their new material comes an extensive world tour, known as the ‘Don’t Give a Damn Tour’, which starts in the UK on 9th April at a secret venue in Rotherham.
When I recently caught up with Millie and Mie (and their mother / manager Sam Debray and assorted pets) at their home in Cape Town via Zoom video chat, the pair were more than a little excited to be getting back out on the road, with Millie starting the conversation by saying, “We feel like bees on Red Bull and crack because we’ve got to like pack up the house and make sure everything’s ready for when we go and packing is NOT our forte! I don’t know, it’s just fucked up! It’s the same with the tour, because we just don’t know
Millie
what to expect, because it’s just crazy, but we’re just going for it! Kind of, that’s all we know!”
And so, after we had shared hair care tips and Millie had very kindly told me, “This is gonna sound really weird, but you remind me of Drew Barrymore. I was wondering who you remind me of! Your face looks like her’s, I don’t know why!”, we set about delving into the wild and wonderful world of South Africa’s most exciting export.
Firstly, hello Millie and Mie, it is lovely to speak to you. Could we start by asking you to introduce yourselves and tell us what each of you does in The SoapGirls?
Millie: Right, we are The SoapGirls, Millie and Mie, and how we got the name The SoapGirls is actually quite a quirky but ... I don’t know, it defines us. When we were kids, we used to street perform and we used to sell soap.
Mie: Baskets of soap, yeah.
Mie
Millie: Handmade soap that our mum made. You get Girl Scouts in South Africa, but not like the American version where people go out and they do good deeds, it’s not the same, but we wanted to do something like that and we decided, ‘Well, let’s just do it!’ So, we took soap and we went door to door and we were trying to raise funds for like a children’s hospital or something that we could help and then our mum was like, ‘I don’t really like you guys going door to door’, because it’s a dangerous country, South Africa, and going into strangers’ houses, it’s not that safe and we were eight and nine, so we were like ‘Okay, well, let’s go down to the harbour , because it’s open and everyone can see you and it will be safe’.
Mie: And it’s right down the road from our house. It’s a tiny little village. So, we’d go and spend every day there and street perform and meet people from all over the world.
Millie: Yeah, we went 365 days a year, even if there was no one and we met one person, it was our mission to make someone smile and it gave us a sense of purpose. I mean, when you’re a kid, you always want to do good deeds and that’s what got us started. We kept seeing newspaper articles of things happening all over the world that we wanted to help. And it wasn’t that we were very well off ourselves, but our mum always brought us up to look beyond our own situation and see everything that’s going on and never walk past someone that’s hungry and think it’s normal. You should, if you can help, help someone.
Mie: But also, through doing what we were doing, we gained like a new found confidence, I would say, and it showed us that, hey, we really enjoy entertaining people.
Millie: And so, what it was, we were able to do something that we were very passionate about, which is uplifting and helping other people and even if you, yourself, are not in a good place and you can do that for other people, it gives you something that nothing else
can do. It’s a sense of, I don’t know, like, purpose. We would go and raise funds and people were quite ugly as well. I mean, we learned to have a really thick skin, you know. So, we would go up to people and just start bursting into song.
Mie: Some people were really sweet, some people were fucking awful!
Millie: And it taught us to really not give a damn! I mean, we knew what we wanted to do and they told us, you’ll never raise that much money and we did! We raised even more than what we set out to do! We bought incubators, humidifiers, and people called us ‘the soap girls’. At first, we were ‘the ladies in pink’ and then it was ‘the soap girls’! Everyone would drive by and go, ‘Hey, the soap girls!’ So, that’s just our name and we started getting into music professionally from when we were twelve and thirteen and also, from when we were selling the soap and street performing, we met all met all kinds of people and we happened to meet someone that had a recording studio and the guy was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got a recording studio, do you want to come and maybe do some songs? Because you sing’ and we were like, ‘Okay, yeah, cool!’ Yeah, because we hadn’t actually wanted to do that and life’s a weird thing. As soon as you realise what you want to do, you start finding that roads start feeding you in a direction and you’re like, ‘Okay, cool!’ So, we went and ooh, we had some very bad experiences!
Mie: Yeah, we learned fast that people are pretty fucked up!
Millie: Anyway, it shaped a lot of things and we started learning what we wanted and yeah, we just kept at it and eventually, we even got signed to a record label [Universal Records] and that was the whole other thing that made us very determined.
Mie: It taught us really that we would never want to be in that same situation again, where somebody else is dictating to you how you should be and what your sound should be because they
have this idea of you and that’s just what you have to be. And we were like, ‘We don’t ever want to do that again’.
Millie: So, we were very determined to be completely DIY, which again, has taken many, many years to be able to even save up and just do our own music. We produce everything ourselves, we’ve worked from like absolute scratch to like follow our dreams and again, when people say, ‘Who are The SoapGirls?’, I don’t know, we’re just a very quirky family that believes 100% in following your dreams no matter what and just making the world, in your own way, a better place.
Mie: And also spreading our message of just freedom and believing in yourself and doing what you want to do.
Millie: And also, don’t, under any circumstances, define what you can or can’t accomplish. Mie: And also, other people’s labels of you ... don’t let that affect you, just be who you are.
Let’s skip forward to the here and now because 15th April sees the release of your new single, ‘Breathe’, our first taste of your forthcoming fourth album, ‘In My Skin’, due for release in July. What can you tell us about the new single?
Millie: So, it’s been over two years of doing the lockdown shows. We’ve done one hundred and, I think, four weeks straight of livestreams, which has been an insane adventure, something that we didn’t think we would ever do, but obviously, COVID changed a lot of things. But, through all the livestreams, we’ve connected to people in countries who would never have heard our music, or found it, so it’s been really cool and we were able to record our fourth album, ‘In My Skin’, and ‘Breathe’, this new single, we are extremely excited for, because I think ... I don’t know, what does the song mean to you?
Mie: A lot of people hold on to like baggage and shit that has been weighing them down and I think, especially in the last many years, a lot of people have had regrets about things that they didn’t do, but if you keep bringing your past with you and carrying a weight around with you, you can’t exactly go anywhere, you can’t move forward. So, I think that’s really good and really cool and fitting that we’re going to be releasing that song and getting out on tour again, because we haven’t been able to tour properly for years now, so ...
Millie: And also the music video for the song was quite a weird video. I mean, there’s nothing controversial ... okay, well, we don’t think about it, but there was some themes that the police in South Africa ... we kept getting stopped whilst we were filming it, so we had to cut some of the scenes, because they were just ruined. So, that was pretty annoying! I mean, we were going to leave the cops in it, but it didn’t go with the whole vibe of the video. I was just walking down the road and I was wearing bodypaint and tape and no bits were out, or whatever, and someone obviously complained in a house somewhere and the cops showed up!
Mie: Like two patrols, two big cars and we were just like ...
Millie: One went fast, another one went and then they came back and they were like, ‘Oh, what’s going on here?’ And we were like, ‘We’re busy filming a music video’ and they were like, ‘Oh, but it’s indecent exposure’, and I was like, ‘But I’m covered!’
Mie: But, it’s a bit ironic, because they were called and within ten minutes they came over ...
Millie: Normally, no, that never happens in South Africa!
Mie: You don’t get that, even if you’re house is being burgled!
Millie: If you’re being stabbed!
Mie: I almost hate them, yeah!
We’ll be there next week?
Millie: Yeah, it’s weird! I don’t know, people have some strange priorities when it comes to what is shocking to the public. It’s very weird, I don’t know! And I hope people enjoy the video, so we’re going to release the single on the 15th [May] and the video. Yeah.
It has been three years since your last album, the two-disc set, ‘Elephant in the Room’. What can you tell us about your new album, ‘In My Skin’, at this point in time and how do you feel it differs from ‘Elephant in the Room’?
Mie: Ooh!
Millie: Well, this album isn’t a double album! [Laughs]. It’s very tricky, because once we start writing, it’s very difficult to stop and then we can’t decide which songs to put on the album. I think it’s probably our most emotional. I mean, a lot of times, we’ve almost been anti-political in what we write. Even in the beginning of hearing a song, if you listen or look at the lyrics, you’ll be like, ‘Aah, okay!’
Mie: And I think we went through a lot of different things and we’ve grown as artists, so, yeah, it’s more selfreflective?
Millie: I think, yeah.
So, do you think with the period in which you wrote and recorded ‘In My Skin’ having been the time of lockdowns and things like that, it has made you write in a more self-reflective sort of way, perhaps?
Mie: Definitely, yeah! And also, I think it showed us maybe a different part of ourselves and also, maybe people in your life, you kind of saw different parts of them.
Millie: I mean, bad situations bring out either the best or the worst in people
and I think it’s the same like ... I don’t know, the breakdown in friendships, or relationships, just things that you notice and that. And having the time to like write, because we had more time than usual. Normally, it’s off tour, write, get out on tour again! And, like, I don’t know, it was just different.
Mie: And there’s even a song on the album about how a lot of things, especially in this country, were handled with the lockdown and everything. That really showed us, wow, the people in power really don’t give a fuck about us.
Millie: There is no humanity if someone can beat to death someone for not wearing a mask or drinking a beer, because alcohol was illegal here, even though the person in charge had dibs on the black market for their own alcohol and to us, that was just like, ‘Wow, okay, this is ...!’
Mie: Like, people will farm out orders without considering what they’re doing to someone else, the harm that they’re inflicting on to others in the name of doing something good. That to us was just like, ‘Woah, okay!’
Millie: Of course, people don’t realise that’s how Hitler brainwashed people too, so you need to think and not just follow, like, the crowd and use your own intuition.
Well, it looks as though all that is starting to happen with Putin over in Russia, doesn’t it?
Millie: And history just repeats itself. It’s actually kind of scary when you look at what’s going on and you’re just like, ‘Wow!’
Mie: But people to me are so shocking, because they blame the Russian people for decisions that their government made, even though they were living in a communist society, so how the fuck would it have been the normal civilians’ choice to go to war?
Well, it would seem to be just one person, Putin, wouldn’t it?
Millie: Exactly! I just think people need to have more compassion. Just think how you would like to be treated in the same situation and I guess you can’t really go wrong, because no one wants to be treated like shit or indecently, yeah. And I think also, it’s unfortunate that a lot of people are frustrated and unhappy, obviously because of everything that’s happened and then anything where they get a sniff of any hatred towards one party or the other, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s do it!’, even if they don’t understand the full picture [laughs], which is stupid! But, so, each song on the album, I don’t know, it’s an in-depth reflection of how we’re reacting to things we are seeing.
Yeah, that’s brilliant. I can’t wait to hear the full album!
Millie: Yeah, you’ll feel something, because it’s shit that we know other people feel as well. You can’t not, because everyone’s different, but at the same time, you get a feeling from things. Mie: And also as well, I think it depends on where someone is at a point in their life. You listen to a song when you’re in a certain area, or whatever, of your life and it doesn’t really like hit anything with you, but then maybe a few years later, you hear it again and you’re like ‘Holy shit!’ Music is crazy like that!
Amazing! I’m really looking forward to hearing the album! The single is great!
Both: Hey, thank you!
Millie: It’s [the album] is also very diverse. I mean, the one song on there, the song ‘Kill Me’, that’s probably the [laughs] scariest song we’ve ever done! But like, I don’t know, it’s quite a harsh song, but it’s interesting, because you have ‘Breathe’ ... so, it’s like a rollercoaster. There’s some very sweet moments on the album and then the rest is like, ‘Woah, okay!’ That’s what we’re looking forward to live.
Mie: There’s a song on the album
called ‘Medicated Bubblebath’ and I think this is where you can use that song as like a measure to see if people are really listening to what it is that you’re saying in the music. Because they might think ‘oh, that’s a fun melody’, or something, but when you actually break down the lyrics and read what it is that we’re saying, it’s pretty ...
Millie: ... scathing.
Mie: Scathing, yeah! [Laughs].
Millie: And the thing is with music, it’s always open to interpretation, so we love when someone ... they make up their own mind about what something means to them.
To be honest, I think that’s a big mark of a good song, where people can listen to it and you can have all these different interpretations of it. And I like it when songs aren’t explained to you and you can sort of draw your own meaning from it. I think that makes it more special for the person who is listening as well.
Mie: Because you’ve created your own memory.
Millie: I completely agree. You know the song ‘Alive’ [‘Ten’, 1991] by Pearl Jam? Eddie Vedder, he said it wasn’t meant to be like an uplifting song, he said it was a real downer song and he was shocked, but he said it changed the way he felt about the song, because people used it as like an uplifting anthem ...
Mie: ... as opposed to a suicidal sort of song.
Millie: But it wasn’t intended, so he said it made him look at the song completely differently. That’s crazy!
Mie: But, I suppose it’s the same as like a painting by an artist. Like, everyone can look at a painting and feel something different. You know, maybe see it from a different angle. Yeah.
How does the composition of a
SoapGirls song usually happen? Is it a case of you both sitting down in a room together or will one of you come up with an idea which will then be expanded upon by the two of you?
Millie: With us, there’s no kind of formula, like, but it works very similar how we do it.
Mie: No song that we’ve ever written has ever been planned out, or pre-thought out, if that makes sense. We just ... either she’ll come in and I’m playing around or whatever on the guitar and she’ll say, ‘Don’t say anything!’
Millie: In one of the places that we stayed, in the house, we had a music room and there was a shower and she was playing the guitar and she didn’t know that I was writing out the lyrics on the shower tiles with like shaving foam and I was like ‘Sweet!’
Mie: You’re a liar, you don’t shave!
Millie: Shut up! And then I said, ‘Dude, I’ve got the verse!’ And then she said, ‘Oh, I’ve got the chorus, man!’ And yeah!
Mie: Genuinely, one time, she was playing bass and then ...
Millie: ... I was singing a different melody and she said ‘Don’t you do that melody, I’ve got the melody!’ I was like ‘Okay!’
Mie: Like, ‘I heard this’, yeah.
Millie: And even on some songs, we will sing completely different verses, like two songs we’ve put together, because we’re not agreeing with the direction of the song and it’s like ‘I insist this is my way, you do it your fucking way’ and that’s it and people are like ‘It sounds like two different songs and we’re like, ‘Well, it pretty much is!’ But it works! [Laughs]. I don’t know, generally, we’ve been through something and we feel very, like, passionate about it.
Mie: Strong about it.
Millie: We’ll see something on the news, or witness something and be like, ‘Fuck, we have to write about it, otherwise we’re going to go insane!’ But usually, it’s always the music first, either guitar or bass, and then we hear the melody. But, one time, I was vacuuming and, I don’t know how, I heard a melody and then the song ‘Liar’ [‘In My Skin], which is on the album, [laughs] that’s that song! But, it’s also interesting, because whilst we’re writing, we record on our phones, just so we don’t forget anything and we hear it back and it’s like ‘Wow, it sounds like a completely different song!
Mie: And it’s like ‘What the fuck?!’
Millie: Not so much the lyrics, more like the way that we sing them, it’s like ‘Woah!’ It’s cool!
Mie: Usually though, she comes up with the lyrics though. I will then just sing some gibberish and she’s like ‘The lyrics are terrible!’ and I’m like, ‘Don’t worry about it, just listen to the melody. Millie: And then she’s like, ‘Do you need a chorus or anything?’ and I’m always like, ‘Dude, the chorus is yours, do it!’
The release of ‘Breathe’ is accompanied by the extensive ‘Don’t Give A Damn Tour’ of the UK and Europe, starting on 9th April at a Secret Venue in Rotherham ...
Millie: So, the first show that we have is on the 9th of April. It’s actually closed off to the general public ...
Mie: ... because it’s a private show [entry for fifty people only].
Millie: People who don’t know what to expect would probably need therapy afterwards! The first and the last show of every tour is batshit crazy, yeah! All our shows are crazy, but these ones we can get away with a little bit more! And then, on the 13th in Exeter, we have a show at the Bierkeller; the 14th is The Griffin in Bristol and that’s my birthday and the 15th is The Nambucca [London] and the 16th is in Guildford
[The Holroyd] and after those shows ... if anybody wants to get to those shows, we hope everyone reading knows there’s four shows in the UK and from there, we go into Europe and there’s forty shows back to back in Europe and then back to the UK for two more shows and then after the UK, it’s America, back into Europe again. I think there’s maybe ... how many shows?
Mie: I’ve no idea yet, but normally on a tour before COVID, we would try to do about 150 to more shows a year.
Millie: We love it! I mean, for us, there’s nothing better than just doing shows.
Mie: And also, for us, because we’re coming from the tip of Africa, you need to, if you’re going to get out, like really go hard! Otherwise, there’s no point. I mean, otherwise, stay at home!
Millie: And also, you get accommodation when you’re doing the show, but afterwards, you’re fucked! Mie: When you’re doing the shows, you’ve got to have places to stay, yeah! Wow, how do you find it being away from home for that much of the year? Is it just something you have got used to?
Millie: You’re in a tour van and being on the tour, you’re in your own bubble. I mean, like, you’re in the world, but not of it. It’s just crazy and even, on tour, you can’t give a shit about dumb things. It’s literally just music, get in the car, next show!
Mie: We don’t really miss anything from home besides our animals. Obviously, that’s one thing that we hate, that we have to leave them.
Millie: And especially because we rescued a cat in the lockdown and she had kittens and we kept the one kitten and it’s just really shit and our brother as well, he’s staying behind. So, that is pretty heavy.
Mie: We go for eight months, so it’s quite a long stretch to be away for.
But, I mean, it’s a strange thing that you don’t really miss your band, because you kind of feel like you belong everywhere but you don’t belong anywhere.
Millie: Yeah, I don’t know, it is really cool. I’m just so grateful to be doing it. It was our dream since we were kids, so no matter how difficult it is, it’s just the amazing energy and the fans and all the people that we’re meeting, they make it work.
Mie: And also, although it’s extremely hard, it kind of really breaks everything down and strips it all away and it shows you that if you don’t love this, because it’s very difficult ... it’s not an easy thing to do, to be away for like eight months ...
Millie: If you can wash your clothes, it’s like a rare treat!
Mie: But if you really love it, then you’ll take all the shit, so yeah!
Millie: But, honestly, it reminds us of when we were kids and we street performed and we were able to make people smile and happy. So, at the shows, it’s that same like exchange of energy or like a reminder to people to believe in themselves and go out and do what they want to do.
Mie: Because also, there’s a lot of ugliness in the world and I think it’s good for people to have a space where they can kind of ...
Millie: ... be themselves!
Mie: And also, it’s like our own little fucked up world that we’ve created.
Millie: It could be called a cult, or whatever, but it’s really cool! Just a whole bunch of different individuals and who are also of the mind to care for animals, to care for like vulnerable people in society and just for people to not care about what people think about them.
Mie: And also, like, just let loose! Yeah!
Millie: Not too loose! No shitting on the stage! [Laughs].
Mie: No shitting on the stage!
Millie: I would have a good laugh if someone did decide to just take a shit on stage, but ...
Mie: ... I would throw up!
Ew, that sounds horrible!
Millie: We’ve had some very fucked up shit happen at our shows. Like, we did a show in England and I’ll never forget this. These two guys started performing oral sex on each other!
Mie: Yeah, and it was like, ‘Okay!’ Yeah, it was like a ‘Brokeback Mountain’ [2005] moment and we were like, ‘Okay!’
Oh my goodness! Do you attract this sort of thing quite often then?
Mie: I will say I have seen a lot of things, yeah! Millie: I think after a while nothing shocks you and that kind of scares me! Because eventually, you’re kind of like, ‘Wow!’ and other people are shocked by stuff and you’re like, ‘Woah, is this meant to be shocking?!’ We must be fucked up, [laughs] because it doesn’t even surprise us!
Mie: I mean, I never really get distracted on stage, but we played a show in Italy and the stage was kind of weird where you could see far off into the bathroom and the door was like open and this couple there were literally just having sex and I was just playing and I was just like ‘Wow, okay, whatever!’
Millie: And then you get people who like want to crowdsurf in a wheelchair, which is fucking cool, but one guy like almost took out a whole load of people and in a bad way! It was just like, ‘Woah, fuck!’ And we didn’t know where to look! Anything goes, anything!
With your earliest singles and debut
album, ‘Xperience’ (a number one album on the South African Album Chart) having been released in 2011 on Universal Records and you having released three albums on your own label, simply called The SoapGirls since (‘Calls for Rebellion’, 2015; ‘Societys Rejects’, 2017 and ‘Elephant in the Room’, 2019), we dare say that you will have played in many of the destinations on the itinerary previously, but are there any places on the upcoming tour that you are particularly looking forward to playing and visiting?
Mie: Yes, Germany! Definitely!
Millie: I don’t know, it’s tricky. I really enjoy playing in France and also the UK.
Mie: Every country, we like different parts about them, but one thing we are looking forward to is seeing our fans again because it’s been so long.
Millie: It feels like a family, so I don’t know, it’s cool, it’s a special bond. At our show, there’s no wall between us and everyone that’s at the show.
Mie: We don’t like that, when you have a band and they’re like on the stage and make it known that there’s such a big difference, like ‘oh, you’re just peasants down there’ kind of thing.
Millie: I hate that shit, yeah! We’ve been at shows [by other bands] and we’ve just been like ‘Damn, they’re making it seem like they’re doing us a favour, let’s get the fuck out of here!’
Going back to those early days of The SoapGirls and, as you said earlier, The SoapGirls story began back in the mid-2000s, when aged 8 and 9, you were street performers in Cape Town, South Africa selling handmade soap for charity, thus earning the name “The SoapGirls”. What are your memories of those days and how did you end up becoming recording artists from that?
Millie: Oh, okay, so, what happened
was, we went into a recording studio and we started recording like different songs and everything ... God, they were awful! And we kind of started figuring out what kind of style and it was interesting.
Mie: The songs were so bad that ... we still have them on disc and when we leave to go on tour, we hide them away like with all the other shit. They were terrible! It’s kind of sweet because you can hear that we were just kids, but we started recording and then we got a song called ‘Boys Boys [Mix2]’ that got onto a Japanese compilation disc [‘Do The Independence (And Bridge Build Burn By Yourself)’, 2009].
Millie: And we, at the time, thought to be signed to a major label was the best thing that could ever happen, because we didn’t have the budget for music videos and we thought that it would be like in the movies, but it wasn’t! So, we were like ‘Sam [Debray, mother and manager], we have to get signed!’ So, people heard the Japanese compilation disc and the A&R guy from Universal Music South Africa came down.
Mie: We met him at the airport and we just like broke out into song and he was like, ‘Kids, fine, it’s cool, man!’
Millie: We were just so excited! And we got signed and it was all so eye-opening. People were very ugly after we got signed. People were very bitter and it was crazy!
Mie: Because we still like selling the soap and stuff and even this one guy, I think he like stood and played guitar or whatever, he came up to us and he was just like screaming and going insane, like ‘How did you get signed?! I’ve been trying for years!’ It was bad! Not that it matters, he should know better, he should be uplifting to you.
Millie: Yeah, were like ‘Woah, dude!’ People were really ugly. So, we started recording, but a lot of shit happened. We had an album that never got released, because the sound engineer that we were working with was an absolute piece of shit. We didn’t even
have bank accounts or anything and the record label paid an advance into that guy’s bank account and he snorted it up his nose and had a heart attack. But he lied, because he told us he’d just had a heart attack, but because we’d raised funds for the public hospitals, we knew people who worked there and I said, ‘Did this guy come in with a heart attack?’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, but it was self-induced, because it was cocaine’.
Mie: Yeah, and it was like, ‘Woah, okay!’ But the guy from the record label said ‘Don’t say anything, because you’re going to make me look bad, so just leave it and we’ll scrap that album and ...’
Millie: But it was horrible. So, you’re recording and we couldn’t make money in other way and we were fucking starving and I mean, because of the guy taking all the money, nothing was coming in, so the idea of strawberries to us was like luxury! It was bad! We were just trying to carry on, but the guy also was really volatile. We didn’t know anything about drugs and stuff like that.
Mie: His moods would change.
Millie: So, one day, you’d go into the studio and he’d start screaming and kicking like the gear and stuff and he had a gun that he pulled on us. But he wasn’t like fucking around ...
Mie: ... so we were just like terrified!
Millie: Imagine, you’re fourteen and fifteen years old ...
Mie: ... and you’re just like ‘Oh, this is how people record!’
Millie: Yeah, we started not liking it as much, because we thought ‘Why is it so fucking difficult?! What the hell’s wrong with this guy?!’ And eventually, that album was scrapped and then I think the guy just like disappeared and then we got into other studios and it was just like effortless and we just thought ‘wow, this is like how it’s supposed to be’ and we were
recording ant that, but, again, when you’re with a record label, they will only release the songs when they decide it’s time for them to be released.
Mie: So, you can record a whole album, not be able to perform the songs, they hold it for years and it’s sitting on a shelf somewhere and you can’t do anything about it.
Millie: So, that was kind of our situation as well and it was a fuck up and we had no money, but then we would have to get flown, for the image or whatever, to go to these events, these music events. And we were starving! And I mean, the car, we were like ‘Park it round the back, don’t let anyone see our car!’ [Laughs].
Mie: And then there would be a buffet and I would be just like straight for the buffet, taking food!
Millie: We were checking the diary to see when we had a meeting with the record company, because it was an excuse to get some food! Mie: The worst thing was, they were like doing a meeting and you were thinking about what could you order on this menu!
Millie: Fish and chips, man!
Mie: They would cancel the meeting and the whole week, you had been like ‘I’m going to get food!’ and then it would be like ‘Fuck!’
Millie: ‘Motherfuckers!’ [Laughs]
Mie: In meetings, they would talk and I was literally not giving a fuck what they were saying, all I cared about was the food in front of me! And one day, we got very desperate and we actually just gatecrashed a film set and started helping ourselves to the lovely food and people were like, ‘Who are these guys?!’
Millie: We were like, ‘Oh yeah, we just know the director!’
Mie: And then, eventually, the director came out and he said, ‘Hey, who are
you guys?’ and we said, ‘We know the director’ and he said, ‘I am the director!’ ‘Ohhhhhh!’
Millie: We were just like ‘Thank you so much for the food!’ [Laughs]. Anyway, the music was on the radio and we didn’t even have the money to own a fucking radio! Other people would phone and go, ‘Oh, I heard your song!’ Or, if we randomly walked into a shop, we would hear it, but otherwise, no. I don’t know, it took us years to get out of that contract.
Mie: It sucked! I don’t know, they’re very weird in South Africa. They don’t do anything original, they have to try and emulate what’s going on in America, but that’s a stupid thing and honestly, it was hell! It was a relief when we told them to ‘Go and fuck themselves!’
Millie: They would put you in men’s magazines, like FHM and, don’t get me wrong, that’s great if that’s what you want, but we were really young and it wasn’t what we wanted. Mie: Nobody asked us, yeah.
Millie: I mean, they had a problem if we wore miniskirts and we dressed how we wanted to, but then they would put us in a men’s magazine!
That is really weird, isn’t it?!
Millie: We’re all for women being empowered and being naked, but the thing is, there’s a difference ... if it’s you, yourself, being comfortable in your skin and it’s your decision, then fuck, yeah! But it shouldn’t only be okay when men decide that a woman can be sexy and this is how we want to portray them. It’s not that we’re fighting against it, it’s just that everything we stand for is about being comfortable in your own skin and whether someone else understands it or not, that’s not your problem, that’s theirs. So, for us, it was a struggle. We absolutely fucking hated it! Even the music videos ... oh God! It was just bad! We had no say in our image. There was this music video that we did for ‘Hurricane’ [‘Xperience’, 2011], I
was very naive and very like in a bubble kind of thing and we had to have this guy ... they were like, ‘Okay, there’s going to be this guy and you’re going to have to kiss this guy’ and I was like, ‘What the fuck?!’ Even the guy ... I was like seventeen at the time and he was like fifty and it was like ‘How old are you?!’ But yeah, that didn’t happen, thank God! I’m not saying he was ugly or anything, but I was not comfortable.
Mie: It was just very weird. I mean, they would put you on radio and, for instance, we were very different, so we didn’t drink, we didn’t smoke, we didn’t have boyfriends, hadn’t even kissed anyone, and the record label, they were funny, so you couldn’t be sexy, or whatever, on your own terms, but oh no, no, you had to be what the market wanted. But we were very like in a bubble, we didn’t know about this shit and we did a radio interview and they were like, ‘So, what do you drink?’ And we were like, ‘Well, water and juice’ and he said, ‘No, come on, what do you really drink?’ So, then we were getting annoyed, so we were just like, ‘Each other’s piss!’
Millie: He said, ‘What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?’, ‘Drunk each other’s piss!’ Ooooh, we got into so much trouble for that! And then they were like, ‘Who do you have a crush on?’ And we were like, ‘I don’t fucking know, man! Kirsten Dunst!’ And then you get called into a meeting and it’s like ‘You’re not meant to say things like that!’
Mie: ‘You’ve got to be family friendly!’
Millie: And all this shit and it’s like ‘Okay, wow, man!’ Everything we said, we would have to hear how we said it! We would have to hear how we said it wrong!
Mie: [Laughs] It’s like some abusive relationship!
Millie: It was really awful! So, eventually, we even got asked to be guest performers on ‘Idols South
Africa’ [based on ITV’s ‘Pop Idol’. The SoapGirls appeared on the show in 2011]. Oh my God!
Mie: And bear in mind, we’d never had like any in-ear monitors and we’d never sung with microphones on TV on a massive stage like that. That was the first time, so it was kind of like lambs to the slaughter!
Millie: And so, that show, going on air, until that moment, we were very nervous, but I remember in my diary entry, when we got on stage, I felt this peace and I knew that, okay, this isn’t our genre of music, but this is what I want to do.
Mie: But I will say one thing I did remember, when we walked out on stage, when people looked up and the lights went on, they were like [gasps in shock], because our outfits were apparently the devil incarnate, but it’s ridiculous, because ... the outift that we wore, it wasn’t even scandalous or shocking at all, but it was this native’s outfit, so it was a top and like shorts and then like native’s chaps.
Millie: But they had to approve all our clothes, so we sent them a Photoshopped edition of it, where the shorts were like really pulled down and it looked very like dawky and they went, ‘That’s fine’.
Mie: But the day of the thing, when they saw the outfit, it was too late to say anything, because it was like ‘Well, this is what we’re wearing’.
Millie: They were shocked! But also, the crazy thing was, the song was the second most downloaded song in the country, which was really cool, but the backlash! Wow! Just because of what we wore! See, on their Facebook page, they’ve usually got a few hundred comments and there’s thousands of them! And we didn’t have any normal personal social media, so we couldn’t know anything about them and we were in Heat! magazine, People magazine, Kill those bitches, they’re disgusting!’; ‘They should be hanged!’; ‘Kill them!’ It was bad and we were very young, so
we got home and we were shellshocked! I think I sat in a cupboard for a week! And then the people from the record label, they said, ‘Oh, just lay low and we’ll deal with it’.
Mie: They didn’t come out to defend us, which they should have. They should have said, ‘Excuse me, they’re young girls. Why are you enticing hatred towards them?’
Millie: But they never did, so that was really shit and then, so, after that, we actually just were really over the whole thing. We were like, ‘Nah!’ And again, it took years, still even more time to get out of the contract. It was awful! And we had a huge fight with the guy who took over the MD [managing director role]. That got us out of the contract, but then we were blackballed in the music industry. And where we stayed, we had everything robbed, so we had all instruments robbed, and our mum had to keep us safeguarded. We could not even afford rent, nothing, it was awful! Mie: Every time the landowner would come for the rent, we would hide!
Millie: Yeah, it was bad! But, again, we just kept uploading videos on YouTube and like, eventually, we had these people in America that were like ‘Oh fuck, we want to bring you over ...’
Mie: ‘... and you can come in the studio and do some of your new songs’.
Millie: So, we went over and was this before we waitressed, or after? So, yeah, eventually, we went to America and it was just like we were in this amazing studio, we did the songs, we were in New York and we met some really cool people, and they played the songs back to us and it was what we’d left [with the previous record company].
Mie: It was just not what we wanted to do. And once, they offered us a lot of money, like a contract, and we said to Sam, ‘This isn’t what we want. It’s the exact same thing’.
Millie: We could see where it was going to go. So, we said to them, ‘Sorry, no’.
Mie: And actually, we just left. We actually have a lot of our stuff left in America, we got out of there quick!
Millie: So, we left and we came back and people were like ‘You fucking idiots!’ and we were completely fucked, so we were also in a really bad situation in this regard. We were born in France and we spent our earliest years there and then we came to South Africa under fucked up circumstances.
Mie: Our mum escaped from our dad.
Millie: We had to escape a situation. So, he, technically, in the eyes of the law, would have kidnapped us. So, we had to lay low and we just assumed that because, you know, she’s [their mother] got South African citizenship and we grew up here that we would be naturalized, but no! So, we were illegal immigrants as well, because our father didn’t want to sign the papers. So, that was a fuck up for us, so even like with finishing school, we were screwed, because they wouldn’t sign the papers unless you had a South African identity.
Mie: Do you know, even forced to leave the country ... I was just remembering it now ... to go to America. We shouldn’t have been allowed to go, but at the airport, I think we had to pay someone to just ignore the fact that we had a French passport and we weren’t supposed to be let back in. And I don’t know how the fuck we did it, but we got back in, but it was a really shit situation. So, if you’re illegal, you don’t have many options of work available unless they’re very dodgy and people exploit that, so we were like ‘Fuck, what are we going to do?’ and I’m not joking when I say there was a time I was going to sell my blood or an organ or something, because we were that fucked. And then we eventually got legalized, because someone from the Home Affairs was like ‘I’m sick of this! I can just see what’s going on’. And she risked her own job and she put the necessary
stamp on what we needed.
Millie: We actually went to bars and we were like, ‘We could be ‘Cayote Ugly’ [2000], man!’ I just remember going on the internet and studying as many cocktails as I could and going ‘How the fuck do people do this?’ and it was gibberish to us! And then we would go into places and they would know us from being The SoapGirls and they would be like ‘What the fuck are you doing here?!’
Mie: Can we take a photo?’ and we were like, ‘We guess, but we’re doing our job!’
Millie: And people were like, ‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous, man! Look at this, it’s The SoapGirls, man!’ So that really sucked! People didn’t hire us, they just took photos, so we went to a place that we knew.
Mie: It was close to where we used to sell the soap and the owner knew us because he had like watched us grow up.
Photograph by Scott Smith
Millie: And he was like, ‘Okay, I’ll give you work’ and we were like ‘Oh my God, thank God!’ No, actually, to get the job, we studied the menu and had to learn the items off by heart.
Mie: We had to learn the items off by heart and we went to him and told him every single item and he was like, ‘Fuck, nobody’s ever done that before!’
Millie: He said, ‘Did you cheat?’ And we were like ‘No, no, no!
Mie: But we were fucking desperate!
Millie: So we started that and that’s how we wrote our song ‘Champagne Cocaine’ [‘Call for Rebellion’, 2015], it was him, because I think the restaurant industry and that, people think ‘oh, it’s just easy! You give people food!’ and no! It’s a whole other world! It was very interesting. It wasn’t anything we’d been used to and our eyes were opened. We were like, ‘What the fuck?’
Mie: I remember this one table I went
Photograph by KKFP Photography
to, there were people who recognised us from our music and that and they were like, ‘Oh my God, you’re The SoapGirls!’ and I remember I just burst into tears, because they were like, ‘What are you doing here?!’ And I was just like, ‘I don’t know, man’ and I just had to go, because I was like, ‘Sorry, I don’t know’. Yeah.
Millie: It was really shit, but it was interesting and at first I hated it and then I was like ‘Hang on, I’m going to actually be great at this and I’m going to save up, I’m going to buy a fucking bass guitar, I’m going to fucking buy an amp’ ... because all our shit had been stolen. Oh yeah, and people taunted us and people would laugh, like ‘Oh, what a fall from grace!’; ‘Oh my God!’ and take photos of you while you were working.
Mie: People were dicks! We spat in their food anyway!
Millie: Even the owner of the restaurant, he forbade any of the other staff from taking photos of us and people couldn’t say that we worked there and shit, which was cool, but it was a weird situation. So, I was like ‘Fuck this, I’m going to make money and get what I need. So, we started writing songs, a double shift every day, and while we were working, we’d have the song and the melodies in our head and we would just save up and we started buying back all the gear that had been nicked and yeah!
Mie: Then a guy from England contacted us ...
Millie: Because we kept uploading videos on to YouTube.
Mie: ... and he said ‘Okay, well, I really like your music, would you come to the UK and do like a tour or something?’ And we were like, ‘Er, sure!’ But we’d heard many people make promises, many a times.
Millie: ‘Oh, I love what you’re doing! I’m going to ...’
Mie: And we were like, ‘Okay, yeah,
sure’. But, so, it was really awesome and it was kind of like fate. I’m just so grateful that it happened. He heard the music and he was like, ‘Well, I’m going to bring you over to the UK and you can do like a little mini-tour’. And it did happen, but we needed an album to tour with. We were like ‘Fuck, we need an album to tour with!’
Millie: We had the songs! Don’t get us wrong, we had fuck-loads of songs!
Mie: So, we had to go into the studio and record sixteen songs in two days, just under two days. It was just mad! So, yeah, we recorded that, but even just to be able to get to the UK as well, we worked like maniacs, like double shifts. I think it was almost illegal, the hours we were working! There’s a mountain, it’s called Chapman’s Peak, I don’t know how many kilometres, but when we drive it now, we’re like ‘How the fuck did we do this?!’ We literally walked from one end to the place that we worked at and then back again because we couldn’t afford the petrol or the toll to get over. In the shoes that we
Photograph by Grind House
just knew what we wanted to do.
Millie: On the first tour that we went to the UK, when we came back, we went back to waitressing again for a few year, but we never told people. So, people would be like ‘Oh, are you enjoying your time in South Africa?’ and I would be like in the toilets or whatever replying on social media! But, I just drank, because I hate stress and shit. So, it would be really funny, the barkeeper would just keep giving me alcohol and I would be like shot, shot, shot and she’d be like ‘What the fuck are you doing?!’ And I was like ‘Get out of here, man!’ But we always had a vision, because we knew like this is shit right now, but ...
Mie: And there was a time when we were making a hell of a lot more money waitressing than with music!
Millie: Because we would leave the tours bankrupted! [Laughs] Or with a lot less money than we started out with! Because the difference between the currency of England versus the rand
in South Africa is quite big and we also have to pay for the rent and there’s also our brother and like all the food for the animals and stuff while we’re here and for while we’re on tour. But again, it was just such a good thing for our work ethic, I guess. There’s no time to waste, so we’ve always been determined. That’s why when we’re on tour or whatever and anyone gives us shit, there’s no time for it, because, Jesus, life is so short, it’s like ‘Fuck you! I didn’t come this far for you to be an arsehole to me!’
Mie: So again, we used all experiences, even from like waitressing and the all the people that we met to write about things and it was good! We were exposed to loads of different kinds of people, yeah.
There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about The SoapGirls, which usually seem to be based upon your stage attire. Is this something that bothers you and how do you deal with it?
Photograph by Marc Antone-Panda
Mie: Initially, I think it did. But what bothers me, I get pissed off at people just asking me ‘Why are you wearing this?’ Because they wouldn’t ask a guy performer. Like, they wouldn’t ask the guy from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, ‘Oh, why did you wear just a cock-sock?’ If you’re a female, you’re always having to justify why you dress like this!
Millie: It’s ridiculous that Halloween is the only time that you are allowed to dress differently and that’s nuts! For us, one of the things that we’ve always stood for is freedom of expression. And I mean, we’re not here to tell everyone ‘Wear paint’ or ‘Take off your clothes’ and ‘That’s how you have to be free’. Freedom means different things to different people, but for me, the biggest thing about freedom is what makes your freedom beautiful is that it’s yours and you have no right to try and diminish the freedom of another person because you don’t agree with their freedom.
Mie: And I also think it’s very
important for people to see, especially females, because whenever under usual circumstances, if a female is in a strip club or if a female is a prop for a male band and she’s just like twerking, or dancing, or not wearing much, then that usually is fine ...
Millie: ... because she’s just a slut ...
Mie: Yeah, and she’s doing what she’s supposed to do, but if people are confronted with a female that is playing an instrument and dressing how she wants, not wearing much but she’s not asking for anything, that’s just her, she’s just being, then somehow people, they can’t wrap their heads around that. It freaks them out!
Millie: So, for us, you see, the thing that I disagree with about society is that they’ve reserved a woman’s body almost exclusively for sex and pornography. There’s nothing wrong with being sexy ... don’t get me wrong, if that’s what you want to do, go for it, but that’s just not all that a woman is. Mie: I don’t like the fact that someone will think that ‘oh cool, we don’t wear a lot, so, yeah, we’re like strippers!’
Both: Noooooo!
Millie: I mean, that’s someone else’s freedom and it’s great, but we’ve had people book shows with us and ...
Mie: We had a show in Belgium and it was one of the worst fucking shows we’ve ever played. The venue owner, he thought it would be a good idea to book us and have a ‘titty night’.
Millie: So, topless bar staff and strippers.
Mie: I mean, that’s cool, that’s fine, but it really highlighted that what we’re doing is very different.
Millie: Nudity doesn’t have to be sexual. You can sexualise it in your head if that’s what you want, but you’re not going to see us rubbing our boobs and being provocative, it’s not our thing!
Mie: The type of crowd that it attracted and the minds of those people that were there were so depraved and fucked up that it is literally the only time that I have played a show and wanted to kill everyone in the room!
Millie: I jumped on someone’s back, I kicked someone! There were so many altercations, it was pretty heavy! It was bad, man! We did a show also, I think it was in Austria, and they had a burlesque show on before us ...
Mie: Which is cool!
Millie: But again, it highlighted the difference. I was watching it, but I didn’t find it very comfortable. And not for all the nudity, not for what they were wearing, I just don’t like a spectacle made of the nudity. Like, I don’t care if people are naked, I love nudism! I am a naturist, so for me, it’s just like whatever, I don’t care, but when someone is shaking their tits with tassles on, I don’t know where to look! It’s very weird for me, because it’s just boobs, so what the fuck?! And it’s the same with a guy. If a guy’s shaking his dick, it’s like ‘what the fuck?! Where do I look?!’ It’s weird! Don’t get me wrong, it’s just skin, but if you making it ‘ooh, dirty!’, I feel like ...
Mie: People are just going to associate you with that mindset of ‘oh, she’s not got any clothes on, it’s for my entertainment and she’s there to arouse me’ kind of thing, which is not what we do.
Millie: It’s interesting, even on Instagram, I’ve seen like posts ... I find the photos, a lot of them are very artistic and it’s great, but the problem I have is that it’s only okay for a woman to be sexy when it is for the benefit of a man, which kind of irritates me. It actually does piss me off. And for us, someone can think ‘ooh, I’m going to see tits!’, but I promise you, if that’s your mindset, you’re going to leave that show ...
Mie: ... you’re in for a rude awakening!
Millie: So, we did that show with the burlesque thing before us and as we got on, someone wolf-whistled us and I just hocked back the biggest loogie of my life and spat and I said ‘Fuck off!’ and I was like ‘What the fuck do you think this is?!’ and people were just like ‘Woah!’ ... ‘It doesn’t matter what I’m wearing, it doesn’t matter that you can see my tits, I’m just here to do music!’ You’re either going to get it or you’re not. ‘If you really want to check out tits that much, there’s a lot of shit out there, you’ve come to the wrong place if that’s all you want!’ But if someone is that way inclined, you know what? That’s their freedom and I’ve got no problem with that.
Mie: Some people will dismiss us and say ‘Oh, people only come to your show because they see tits!’ It’s like, first of all, I’ve got very tiny tits! I doubt many people are going to buy a ticket and fly all the way to Europe and go ‘I’ve gonna fly all the way to Germany and I’m gonna see those little raisins!’ [Laughs]. There are plenty of women out there on the internet and
Photograph by Andras Paul
they are very well-endowed!
Millie: I mean, I’m in my granny pants! When I’ve got my period, I deliberately wear white or very light coloured clothes. I rip out my tampon because it annoys me after a while and I bleed out freely and people are like ‘What the fuck?!’ But, there you go, that’s my fucking freedom! Not everyone can afford a tampon! There you go, you want to understand what it is like to be a woman? ‘Fuck off!’
Mie: I’ve thought about this a lot, but I think maybe people get annoyed or angry and they’re like ‘Oh, it’s sexual’, or whatever, but then I think that says more about that person. So, maybe they are affronted or annoyed with the feelings they are having about themselves or maybe they’re frustrated. Maybe they’re gay, or ... I don’t know.
Millie: I don’t know, I think it’s really awesome to challenge peoples’ perceptions. I think it’s refreshing for men who’ve never been around women in a wholesome situation ... or as
Photograph by Steve White
wholesome as Rock ‘n’ Roll can be ...
Mie: I wouldn’t say we’re wholesome!
Millie: ... and they’ll be having a conversation with me after the show and I’m topless and a lot of guys, after, they’re like, ‘Hang on, fuck!’ They said, ‘They never in their lives thought they would talk to a topless woman and be able to look her in their eyes’ and they said ‘They actually don’t even care anymore!’
Mie: Let’s just say, in your town, if the norm was for everyone to walk topless, people eventually wouldn’t even bat an eyelid, it would be normal.
Millie: But then the porn industry and also the industries exploiting women’s bodies couldn’t sell it to people, so, of course, they have to make it a thing, a shameful thing. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being sexy. I love gorgeous people and sexy people, but, for me, at our shows even, I’ve seen people that are dressed and they go onto the stage and they’re literally fucking the stage and the stage monitors and I’m not prudish, but I find that a bit uncomfortable! But just because a woman’s wearing clothes, ‘Oh, she’s a fucking great woman!’ And it’s like, ‘what the fuck?!’
Photograph by Steve White
Mie: And also, there’s a singer called, I don’t know if you’ve heard of her, Anita? And she’s from Brazil? Anita. And she’s very provocative in her dancing and her stage shows and even music videos, but because she’s from Brazil, then people excuse it and say ‘Oh, it’s a cultural thing’. But, if we were to do that, they would say ‘You fucking slags! They’re disgusting!’
Millie: But the very same people who have an issue with us, they will go apeshit at us, but they all watch ‘Love Island’ [ITV2, 2105-present] and they don’t mind that! I think if we were actually very sexual and had stripper poles, they wouldn’t mind as much, but because we’re just us and we don’t want anything from anyone ...
Mie: Trust me, if I wanted to be
Photograph by Steve White
provocative, fucking hell, I would!
Millie: But that’s not what we’re about and it is annoying when ... for instance, we did a Rock festival, it was like a Rock and bike festival, and they told us before we went on stage, ‘Please don’t do anything too un-family friendly. So, you’re outfits, make sure they’re family friendly’ and we were like ‘What the fuck?! Okay!’
Mie: And the band that was on before us, they were a Guns ‘n’ Roses tribute band and on each side of the stage, were two females on stripper poles! And that’s fine, because it’s family friendly, right?! Because the females didn’t have instruments, that’s fine! They were just being what they’re supposed to be, objects.
Millie: It’s the same for us, if we were like singing, and then we had guys in the band and they were grinding and humping the stage, people would be like ...
Mie: ... ‘Fucking empowerment!’
Photograph by Steve White
Millie: ... and if we had hairy [arm] pits, it would be like ...
Mie: ... ‘What a fucking powerful woman!’
Millie: If I had like massive rolls out
Mie: ... ‘You are a real woman!’
Millie: ... and hairy pits and hairy face, people would be like ‘So brave, I love her!’
Mie: But if you maybe shave your armpits and you, I don’t know, wear sparkles and glitter ...
Millie: ... ‘Fucking slag! Get out!’
Mie: We’ve had wives forbid the band from playing with us!
Millie: Because apparently, we’re going to steal their husbands! I mean, that’s really ... we’ve just come on tour just to fucking steal peoples’ husbands! Fuck, yeah! It’s like, are you fucking
Photograph by Steve White
kidding me?! Like, what the actual fuck! It’s weird, isn’t it?! But also, I will say, just going back onto the mindset of our fans, what was really refreshing for me, where we were at the show where people travelled to see the show in Austria where they had the burlesque show, the fans came up to us and, it was mostly guys, but they said, ‘Look here, we’re not trying to be funny or anything, but we’re actually going to leave and come back’. They said, ‘It just feels a little bit strange’. It was weird for them. There’s nothing wrong with people ... but I saw a woman bending and I saw like everything and there’s nothing wrong with that ...
Mie: I even took a picture!
Millie: No, man, come on! But it was just weird, because it was everything that we’re not. I mean, we might not be wearing much ...
Mie: There’s nothing wrong with women being sexual or sexy, but it’s just not what we’re doing. Millie: So, we were just like ‘Woah!’
Mie: I didn’t even know where to look! I mean, I love wearing a thong and being cheeky and fun or whatever and sure, fuck it, whatever ...
Millie: I love people who push boundaries, I think it’s necessary, even if we wouldn’t do that ourselves, but it just wasn’t what we’re about, like, at all!
Mie: People say to us, ‘Oh, you’re just selling sex or whatever’.
Millie: But sex does sell. People are stupid as well, they know that they’re attracted to the forbidden, so put that onto everyone that’s different, but maybe their perception of what you’re doing is actually different to what you’re doing and they should remember that.
Mie: Maybe they’re just selfprojecting.
Millie: I don’t know, but don’t just
assume why someone’s doing something, if that makes sense.
Finally, do you have a final message for our readers and your fans?
Millie: Yes, final message is, you only have one life, so it is up to you to live it 100% true to yourself. And also, first of all, thank you to our fans because seriously, without you guys, everything would be impossible.
Mie: And also, thank you to everyone who supports live music and independent bands and music just in general.
Millie: Everything would be impossible without the people who go out and support the music, but more than that, you have one life, it’s not up to anyone else to impose their limitations on your own existence on your existence, so you just be yourself. Mie: And also, we have limited time in this life, really. We don’t know how much time we have. I mean, we could die tomorrow, so don’t spend it being an arsehole! Make your life count, stand up for what you believe in!
Millie: Yes, and also come to our shows!
Thank you for a wonderful interview, it has been really lovely to chat to you both! We wish you all the best with the ‘Don’t Give a Damn Tour’, ‘In My Skin’ and for the future.
The new single, ‘Breathe’ is released on 15th April via the duo’s own label, The SoapGirls, with their fifth album, ‘In My Skin’, due for release in July. The SoapGirls are on tour now. For all dates, visit the links below:
