DOWNGIRL Screams with Aussie Femme-punk Rage
Courtesy of the artist
Deep in the heart of Sydney, Australia, there are women who glow with a fiery desire to scream, fight and shred across the dusty plains and wild city streets. Combining the feminine rebellion of The Runaways with the modernity and grunginess of Hole, DOWNGIRL creates raw and energetic punk music for women who want to claw their way to peace and sanity as they write songs about mental health, feminism and rights for indigenous people.
Having only released three singles since the band’s formation in 2020, DOWNGIRL recently announced that their next single, “Boys”, comes out on August 18th and their debut EP, “Manic”, will be available for pre-order on August 18th.
DOWNGIRL, consisting of Alex Neville (vocals/guitar), Kristen Adams (vocals/lead guitar), Lou Harbidge (bass/vocals) and Skarlett Saramore (drums), came to life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Skarlett says that she, Kristen and Lou were originally in the band Boys Club until the band fell through in the midst of COVID.
While Skarlett was ready to call it quits, she admits that it was Kristen and Lou who were determined to keep the band going under a new name. After meeting Alex at a bar and talking about music over some beers, Skarlett later introduced Alex to Kristen and Lou. The four of them soon talked over Zoom, and from that day on, DOWNGIRL was on the prowl.
“Then we just promised, like, let's not take this for granted ever again. Let's go all out. Let's have fun,” Saramore says. “Because we're just missing the joy of just living, I think. [It] put us in this really cool headspace of writing music. Through even that time with the band and not giving up, I found my voice in writing music as well as a drummer, which was really, really cool…I think it was the biggest curse or blessing of all time was how this band was created.”
Although each member of the band comes from different musical backgrounds, they all share similar musical influences, listening to everything from hip hop to punk to old Australian rock. Heavily inspired by GOATs such as L7 and Bikini Kill, Skarlett says you can’t really stray far from loving some of the grunge and rock and roll staples. Each member of DOWNGIRL takes these influences and comes together to create a unique punk sound that’s the embodiment of gritty and charismatic feminine rage.
“I still don’t even know what we fucking sound like, to be honest!” Skarlett admits.
“We have such a wide range, and I think we always have, writing together,” she says. “But it was interesting breaking it up and writing singularly through the interwebs, because we actually got to see each other's distinct, separate kinds of styles, but every song was kind of finished with us together. There was never really a full song ever created by one of us.”
Although the band has been around since 2020, they are still fairly new. However, Skarlett says that despite their newness, it feels like all the hard lessons have already been learned for them.
“Especially, like, back in the day, being undiagnosed with bipolar and BPD and destroying everything around me all the time when I was younger, like, it's so good to know that I don't need to do that anymore,” she says. “So I feel like even though it's a new band, it feels like all of us together have been doing this forever.”
The band’s most recent single, “2006”, came out in May. Opening with a punchy surfer-rock bass line that’s soon joined by energetic guitars, “2006” is a thought-provoking, fast-paced punk rager that calls out four specific Australian politicians and brings light to the fact that much of Australia is stolen indigenous land. Released alongside a satiric music video, “2006” is a battle cry for those whose voices aren’t heard.
“I'm so over the disguised racism and the unintentional racism that this country has. Like, it's fucking vile,” Skarlett says. “There's a lot of speaking out and a lot pointing this out, but…if we're not lifting our indigenous sisters up right now, then I don't understand what feminism's on about right now. Until they have complete equal rights and everything that they fucking deserve in the simplest form, I think we'll forever keep singing and screaming about this as allies.”
DOWNGIRL has always advocated for their sisters around them. Skarlett says that they donate proceeds from shows to women's shelters and they try to do what they can as a band to use their platform for good.
“Raising your voice and having the power to do so — that will forever exist in this band. It could be about anything,” she says. “If you have a voice, I think you should use it.”
When it came to the idea for the “2006” music video, where the band blatantly mocks Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s holiday in Hawaii that he took while Australia was being destroyed by bushfires, Skarlett says the band felt absolutely no fear or hesitation when it came to putting this out there. Or tagging them in the video on social media. Or sending it to their media advisors.
“I despise those four people more than most people,” Skarlett says. “They’re an absolute joke to our country and they’ve kind of made it easy to do this to themselves.”
DOWNGIRL also released two other singles in 2022, titled “Manic” and “Beauty Queen”. The former, being the title track for the band’s upcoming debut EP, is a passionate and cathartic track as it discusses issues with mental health. Skarlett says she wrote this song as she was going through a manic episode herself. Not thinking the song would end up being a hit with the other girls, it soon became the song that she felt most proud of.
“I wrote that song and it made me feel good again,” she says. “It made me feel like, you know, it’s not the end. If I could create this at my worst, imagine what I can do at my best.”
Skarlett, who is so reassuringly unapologetic about her mental health, says that being open when it comes to these things is crucial.
“It's all about connection. Whatever can come through the connection of the listeners to us is why we do what we do and we can have fun with that,” she says. “Because if you give us energy from what we give you, we'll just keep going. We'll just keep going crazier and doing better things and then we'll have more budgets to do even crazier things, so it comes hand in hand.”
Listeners can scream out their frustrations and find themselves again, not just in “Manic” but through the rest of DOWNGIRL’s music as well. In their first single “Beauty Queen”, written by Alex, the band discusses stereotypical beauty standards for women while alluding to images reminiscent of a young and troubled Stephen King-esque beauty queen who, drenched in blood, burns those around her who have done her wrong.
“Boys”, the band’s next single that’s set to come out on August 18, is one of the first songs that the band was able to all write in the same room together post-COVID. Essentially, this song embodies the direction that DOWNGIRL plans to go in terms of their sound.
“I'm nervous to see the response. It's always a bit scary putting out a song that's a little longer than most standard singles, and I think, you know, hopefully people feel what we're trying to do with this,” Skarlett says.
Ultimately, DOWNGIRL is a group that plays with unparalleled and unbridled passion. DOWNGIRL writes music for the girls covered in blood who want to scream and kick and make their world better. Their music and insane live shows are for those who want to have fun while they drink beer, rip their jeans, and get sweaty in a pit. It’s raw and gritty, but it’s lighthearted and healing. If your inner demons came to life and started a “femme soul punk” band, then DOWNGIRL is this band.
“That's the point of music to me, you know? And punk. If you're not getting it out through your art, people like us will literally go insane in this world,” Skarlett says. “This is a weird time we're living through, and it's a very fucking weird world. If I didn't have music to channel that into, I would be one of those crazy people protesting every day on the street. I would go crazy. I would go full-blown insane if I could not channel this somehow out of me.” ♦
“Boys”, the new single from DOWNGIRL, out now!
“Manic”, the debut EP from DOWNGIRL, is available for pre-order!