Fresh

Fresh play an enthusiastic set of “scrappy,” “bubblegum-grunge,” a diverse combination cobbled together to execute their short and punchy songs about mental health and sexual identity. In both lyrics and in action, they advocate for equality in the industry and strive for the strength of DIY within it.

They’re on tour for all of summer and fall, supporting names like The Beths and Camp Cope. “We just feel like playing shows is the best way to write and learn songs,” says lead singer and guitarist Kathryn Woods, “so it kind of goes hand in hand; shows first, and then the work comes out of that, because that’s how Fresh started.” Barring even Kathryn’s impending move to Switzerland to teach English there, they’re still planning to tour, using the opportunity to play around

mainland Europe as well, which they’ll be doing for the first time this summer at various festivals. It’s a great goal of the band, as they tell me, to travel and to continue to learn more from the DIY scene, more about people and “identity politics,” that they never would have done outside of it.

With all the touring coming along, it’s inevitable we’ll be hearing more from Fresh, because they’re planning to record new things as a follow-up from

their debut self-titled album from last September. “Traveling and meeting people and being open to new things is a really good way to keep your brain always thinking about stuff,” Kathryn

says; “I don’t think I realize how much it influences me until I’m writing. Just hearing a turn of phrase or something, there’s no way you can plan that or seek it out.” Drawing from their mem-

ories as such – even though Kathryn writes the songs, she brings them to the group to collaborate so, as bassist George Philips says, “we’re able to add a little bit of ourselves to them” – allows them to paint a picture in people’s minds by triggering the senses that memories always seem to be made up of.

Being a songwriter, especially as a young woman, can be quite daunting, as what Kathryn thinks is often considers a “gatekeeper” of the ideas she presents in her songs, even though some songs might be about absolutely ordinary, mundane experiences that should be accessible for any to listen to. “Whether I want to or not,” she admits, “if you’re a woman playing punk, everything you do is going to be political, so might as well make it your own politics and roll with it.”

often than not, it seems that, when given a platform as a woman or nonbinary person (or of another minority identity of any kind), you become the spokesperson for everyone also within that minority. They reference Em Foster, lead singer of punk band Nervus, as being treated as the spokesperson for all trans people in music (along with a plethora of Against Me! Comparisons, despite sounding nothing like them). A DIY space is a safe space to avoid such questioning eyes, where “people look at me like I’m a lab specimen or something,” Kathryn says; even fellow women seem to show misogynistic attitudes, no matter how subconsciously, as they reference an instance where a woman praised Kathryn for not wearing makeup or showing cleavage, “because that’s apparently what women in bands have to do,” says Dan. But it’s not only middle-aged women who grew up in “that time” who experience these ingrained misconceptions; even Kathryn, along with no doubt countless others still have to deal

with internalized sexism and homophobia thanks to these perceptions still running amuck within and outside of this industry.

It’s good, then, that Fresh’s goal is to inspire those watching and listening to them play. “I want other people, especially other women and nonbinary and queer people, to just know that being in a band, anybody can do it,” Kathryn explains. “You don’t need to have some kind of innate talent even; you just need to have a bit of confidence.” Just as many bands in this DIY scene do, she has other, older people within the scene to thank for where she is now, and hopes to take a place in encouraging others to pursue this rewarding path. They reference Ducking Punches, a Norwich band that played just after Fresh, who spoke about looking after younger people within the crowd. Too often it seems that older fans in a punk crowd will look down on newer additions to the scene, but it’s in a punk attitude to protect impressionable younger people looking to fit in.