ARXX and answered

This Brighton alt-rock gal pal duo has been attracting a lot of music industry attention of late. Jaq Bayles finds out why

As the coronavirus pandemic began to surface, Brighton-based duo ARXX were halfway through a tour. They had spent a week and a half in Germany, but “saw the signs and thought best get home”. And they had recently supported The Hold Steady at a packed 800-capacity venue, The Bush in London, so it’s no wonder they were “pretty gutted”, in the words of vocalist and guitarist Hanni Pidduck.

“For us the live part of being a musician is the best part. Touring is such an incredible way to travel, we have been to places we would never have been.”

Drummer Clara Townsend fleshes out the details of having stayed in an anarchistic co-operative trailer park in Munich and Hanni chips back in with an anecdote about playing a gig in a venue next to slaughterhouse – which had to end at midnight when the slaughter began.

The chemistry between the two is palpable when they’re quizzed about their work – there are times one will jump in and finish the other’s sentence and their anecdotes are punctuated by bursts of laughter as they anticipate the outcome of the tale.

That sort of closeness comes from having played together for four years, touring extensively in the UK and Europe and appealing to a broad spectrum of fans with their own brand of what NME referred to as “garage-rock meets country-punk” when the duo headlined its Girls to the Front show at London’s Shacklewell Arms.

Indeed, the music mag is quite the fan of ARXX, naming them one of its 100 Essential New Artists for 2020 – a highlight of their career so far, resulting in nearly a million streams on Spotify – and in November it added their latest single, Call Me Crazy, to its New Bangers playlist.

The band gained the attention of the publication after responding to a call out from Dream Wife when they played the Concorde 2 for bands who were female or non-binary – ARXX’s favourite type of show.

We really love it when we play a show that’s a full female or non-binary line-up. There’s a real sense of community, everyone cares about it.

Clara adds: “The Dream Wife audience was good – female, queer, alt rock/punk. We used to play quite a lot of shows where we would be the only females on the line-up and people didn’t know what to expect. I quite like to convert them – we are very loud.”

Sadly, the current situation has silenced them when it comes to live shows. The tour they had lined up for next February looks likely to have to be rescheduled and, of course the last one was interrupted, the pandemic derailing their plans to tour in Europe as much as they could before Brexit struck.

They are particular fans of playing in Germany, where the audience turnout is always good, no matter how tiny the town, but they don’t yet know what Brexit will mean.

Hanni says: “Right now it feels like a big deal to play in Europe, but it’s very accessible. You can just chuck your kit in a car and go.”

But Brexit might put paid to some of the lucrative opportunities European touring can offer. For ARXX, “merch is our lifeblood” – in some countries sales of merchandise well exceed what the band get paid for the show, but they are expecting Brexit will see a tax introduced on that. There are also likely to be restrictions or, at the very least, a lot more red tape to deal with when it comes to transporting equipment. While ARXX have the sort of contacts that mean they could probably borrow gear, they feel for others in a less fortunate position.

What’s sad is that for bands starting out it will be less accessible. Bands make so much more money in Europe. We have had probably the most fun when on tour in Europe and it’s a shame other bands may not have that.

But the duo aren’t ones to give in to adversity and they have secured studio space in which they will be “cooking up new tunes” (adhering to social distancing guidelines) and a new single is promised for February.

The pair are pretty hot right now – Steve Lamacq played Call Me Crazy on BBC Radio 6 Music, describing it as a “serenading pop song”, which, say ARXX, “made all our pop dreams come true”. That tune was in contrast to their biggest hit to date, the rocky Iron Lung, while Clara promises the next release will “sit in the middle”.

It will be hotly anticipated by fans and the music industry in general alike, and ARXX can’t wait to get performing again, but in the meantime those tunes will be cooking and you can get involved in their podcast, ARXX Us Anything, by sending your questions to arxxusanything@gmail.com.

Influences

Hanni: “The reason I play electric guitar is Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who was a queer black woman who used to lead her congregation in church with an electric guitar.”

Clara: “I started playing drums because of Cherisse Osei. She was the first female drummer I saw on stage and she used to play for Mika, who I was obsessed with. I am a massive P!nk fan too.”

More info

www.arxxband.com