LIVE
“We wanted a name that stood for something strong and powerful” - AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTEMIS Artemis are an all-female alt-rock band from Southampton, their most recent release being ‘Reckless (Moan for Me)’. Read on to find out why they’re an up-and-coming band making waves in the alt-rock scene.
What was the inspiration for the name Artemis?
Originally we wanted a name that stood for something strong and powerful. We came up with the idea of using Greek gods as our lead singer Yianna is half Greek. We thought it would be amazing to add something that’s personal and powerful. We originally started with Aphrodite but thought it wasn’t a great representation of what we stand for. Aphrodite is the goddess of love and although we do write songs about love and passion, we wanted something much stronger, hence we came up with the name Artemis. The godess Artemis is associated with love but also is regarded as a patron of girls, young women and a protector. Her image is also portrayed as a huntress, a strong empowered woman which we really wanted to incorporate into our name.
What drew you four together to create Artemis?
Yianna (vocals) and Fenella (Drums) met at a university gig and chatted about starting an all-girl band, so we found Frankie (Guitar) and Hannah (Bass) also through our university and met for a drink in a pub! We shared our common music interests and what kind of music we wanted to make and that’s how it all started.
You smashed the New Blood competition, has this led you onto any big opportunities as a result?
Thanks! That was definitely one of our favourite gigs and a big opportunity for us, so we were really pleased with the results. Hot Vox (the promoters of the competition) offered us a London show, which got cancelled from COVID, but we’re rescheduling it all now! We’ve definitely gained more attention, it was amazing.
31
Image courtesy of ARTEMIS
Being an all-girl alternative-rock band, have you found this has at all hindered your journey so far? I mean, we definitely get some patronising comments after our gigs or even when we’re setting up. It never affects how we play though, if anything we always want to perform at our best, it really drives us to be the best that we can be.
Is there a particular band/musician you’d love to see at one of your shows? Who wouldn’t want to have Hayley Williams at their band’s show?! There are so many amazing female rock artists out there that we’d definitely want to show our music to like WAAX, VUKOVI, and Estrons. We actually have an artist playlist on our Spotify page called ‘Angry Girls’ which has a load of amazing female rock artists and bands that’s worth checking out!
Southampton has a very active new music scene, are there any local bands you’d love to collaborate with?
Yeah Southampton has definitely got a great live music hub, and there’s a lot of talent here. Georgia Turnbull is an amazing singer-songwriter artist in the area that we were supposed to support The Riscas with, but got cancelled because of COVID-19.
You described your recent song ‘Reckless (Moan for Me)’ as being about sex and control, is this empowering style of music one you plan to continue?
Definitely. However, we like to show a range of emotion too; music is a perfect way to portray how you feel and why you’re feeling that way. We’ve got an unreleased track, ‘Julia’, which is about a betrayal from a best friend but rising above it and becoming a better person.
MADDIE LOCK
