Describing their style as “music for when your boyfriend dumps you”, Twinkle and the Sluts released their debut EP Sluttier Than Thou in September 2011.  

Read what we thought of the EP HERE and then come back to read what the band have to say for themselves...............

Your band name is slightly controversial to say the least, how did you come up with it? Did you have any second thoughts before you decided on it?

Twinkle: I came up with the band name. It was a case of nobody having a band name and I was feeling quite self-indulgent at the time. Immediately it draws people in as it is a talking point before you hear the music. It’s only controversial if you let a word have a hold over you, much like the “slut” walks that have been going on around the globe the way that Sluts has been put into our band name and the fact that the sluts refers to 3 guys in the band could be seen as empowering to women and trying to take a derogatory word back and redefine it. 

Curlz: The band name is tongue and cheek really, it’s memorable and different enough to turn people’s heads and get them to remember us. So it works...


‘Sluttier than thou’ is also a provocative name for an EP, along with tracks called ‘Kick the Stripper’ and ‘Shut Your Dirty Mouth’, what made you come up with those? Or is provocative your style?

Ad: It is just our style, the song titles reflect the lyrical content, it makes sense that way. It's not like we are trying to think of how we could get the biggest reaction or most attention from a song title. This is who we are. The EP title is a bit different I wanted it to be called Built to Last but was out-voted!

Curlz: We see ourselves of a bit of a darker style of female fronted music. We wanted to avoid the image of a Paramore clone just because we have a girl upfront and not be labelled as female riot punk. Twink is not a delicate, emotional flower who stands up on stage looking pretty. She rocks just as hard as the rest of us, while looking pretty!

Twinkle: I never wanted to fit in as another female fronted cliché. Our lyrical content and song titles directly reflect how we talk in conversation and ultimately we want the band to reflect our personalities and not try and be “nice” and “normal” because we are proud of not being average and ordinary! 


Speaking of your EP, which came out last month, how has the reaction been to that?

Ad: The reaction has generally been very positive. We've received acclaim from a number of internet blogs, fanzines, magazines and we are pleased with the positive comments that have been made.

Curlz: Great, people like it. We have got some great reviews on it like Ad said and feedback from our fans is all positive. We are just excited to get our new tracks recorded next month and get a new EP out soon.

Twinkle: what has been really amazing is that people get excited by our music, for a lot of people it’s slightly reminiscent of bands that they grew up with and we have been told it is a refreshing change from the current music scene. For me it was a positive start but we are now comfortable in our writing styles and our new songs (I think) are a lot more solid and with more depth to them which is why I can’t wait to get back into the studio in March and record our latest stuff. I am really curious and excited for whatever reaction our new EP brings!


Your tagline, so to speak, is ‘Music for when your boyfriend dumps you’, what made you choose that?

Ad: I think that’s just a joke, just us having a laugh?

Curlz: I think we wanted to play on the whole ‘Slutty’ image again. This isn’t nice music you buy your Mum for Christmas if she used to wearing leather and listening to Lynryd Skynryd...We are a passionate band that play hard, fast and dirty.

Twinkle: again I think this is more of a phrase that we have used in daily conversation but I do want our music to be passionate and resonate with someone on whatever level. Whether they are pissed off or sad or happy even, the best thing would be if playing one of our tracks picks you back up again and gives you a “fuck you world, I’m back” attitude. 


Female fronted bands gets a bad rap, do you guys have to deal with the same stereotyping problem?

Ad: I have yet to experience any negative stereotyping for being female fronted. Honestly, none.

Curlz: We called ourselves Twinkle & The Sluts, write songs about Zombies, Cats, Strippers and Hell. Seems to have worked well so far...

Twinkle: We have worked hard to build up a solid reputation and people respect what we are doing. Like Curlz said we are not a cookie-cutter image of a female fronted band.... I do like to write about cats.... There has been cases where people were unsure of what we were about but then they saw us live and knew that we weren’t another one of those bands. I would like to think that we are apart from the norm and so far we have received a great response. 


You are a relatively young band, so how did you guy get together?

Curlz: We are very young, but we don’t play or act like a young band. We got together in early 2011 but Ad only started in March, we had started gigging by April. By the end of the summer we had played Tattoo Jam 2011, The Sugarmill, Crewe Live and the Marcus Garvey Ballroom. We spend every free second we have, that isn’t spent at work keeping a roof over our heads, networking / gigging / promoting / writing and anything else to do with the band. This is the most fun I have ever had, but it also is the hardest thing I have ever attempted...

Twinkle: we technically got together because I woke up one day and just thought “fuck it, I could be in a band”. I was completely fed up with Radio 1 and X factor and things of that nature and wanted to make music that I liked and didn’t really care what anyone else thought of it to be honest. I found Alex, we roped in Curlz and completed our band with Ad and have been going at a million miles an hour ever since. 


You describe your music as, ‘elements of bands such as The Banshees and Blondie, throwing in the more modern hard edges of Dillinger Escape Plan and Distillers and using influences such as Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Queens of The Stoneage’. That’s a pretty big statement, so what sets you apart from every other band out there?

Curlz: It is a big statement, but it’s what we have been told. We don’t tend to blow our own trumpets because there are too many bands like that on the scene. They claim to be on the level of Guns and Roses but are still playing the local pubs with us on a Thursday. When we started we thought we were Post-Punk with an edge of Rock. As time went on people told us we were this, then we were that...It is a nice thing when people come up to you and say I love “X” band and you sound a bit like them, then you get someone else who tells you the complete opposite but they still loved you. We are broad in sound and taste, which is not what we aimed to do. We just play the music that sounds right to our ears!...

Twinkle: Those bands mentioned above are the music that we have all grown up with. Elements of those influences do leak into what we are doing as they are what ticked our musical brain boxes in the first place. However, it is and was never our intention to sound like anyone else, in fact it was never our intention to sound the way we do – we just wrote the music that came naturally to us and I don’t think we sound like anyone but Twinkle and The Sluts. 

You guys are out there touring at the moment, how are the people of England and the music scene treating you?

Twinkle: People are very curious about us, and like to ask us questions about the band name etc. Everyone has been really lovely and positive. We do always welcome anyone to come and have a chat, a beer and good old fashioned knees up!
 
Ad: We play as many gigs as we can. It's always a lot of fun. We drink we dance, we party so if you are looking for a band who can play and have some fun, then hit us up!

Curlz: Its fun, soo much fun. If I could do this every day for the rest of my life, I would die a very young but happy guy...


What would be your 3 dream bands to do a worldwide tour with?

Curlz: Queen to watch Freddie, Slipknot to know Joey, The Doors to meet Jim...

Twinkle: My dream band to tour with would be a band called Beretta Suicide and then from there I will have to see where it takes us 


Tell us your funniest story from this tour so far.

Curlz: We entered an “X-Factor” type talent competition by mistake. We turned up hung-over, not wanting to be there and offended every 12 year old band with their parents nearby just by existing. We finally got called to play in front of the judges and when we finished we just walked out without saying a word. We were all hanging around waiting to be told ‘No’ when we were approached by a woman. She told us we had got through and our reaction was to laugh in her face and say “What”. Needless to say we quickly removed ourselves from that situation. But it still makes us giggle!