Interview: Tuff Love
22nd February 2016
Share This Article:
Hailing from Glasgow, Tuff Love provide a fresh take on the sound of the city whose vibrant music scene boasts the likes of Primal Scream, Franz Ferdinand and Chvrches.
The band have certainly felt the city’s influence.
“Glasgow is amazing for creative people. Also, it’s lovely being surrounded by people that inspire you.”
The talented trio’s punchy album Resort, a compilation record made up of three EPs released by the band between 2014 and 2015 was self-engineered and self- produced in bass player Suse Bear's flat.
“If we were somewhere that wasn't Glasgow, like London maybe we wouldn't have been able to afford for me to have enough room in my flat to record in, to rehearse weekly, to get together often because we might all have to work more if rent prices were way expensive etc.”
Tuff Love consist of Julie Eisenstein on guitar and vocals, Suse on bass and vocals, and live drummer Iain Stewart.
Even in 2016, a "female bassist" is still a talking point, but the band insist are not a new thing, with Suse following in the footsteps of “frikking loads” of legendary musicians including the Pixies Kim Deal, Hole’s Melissa Auf Der Mar and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon.
Suse describes her own progression to bass: “I started playing piano when I was very young, then guitar and ended up playing bass because no-one else wanted to when I started my band before Tuff Love."
Then for Tuff Love I was kind of playing keyboard, extra guitar, drums and bass on the recordings but Julie was the guitar master so after deciding to be a three-piece band I thought might as well just do bass as my last band was a three piece too. I like the limitations/restrictions of being in a three piece with a minimal set up.”
In 2015, Tuff Love were personally invited to join shoegaze innovators Ride on their first UK tour in 20 years!
“It was really cool, we really like them so it was lovely of them to ask. We were really shocked when we got told it was happening, like reaaallly shocked. Playing the Barrowlands with Ride is probably our most exciting gig to date.”
In an industry where females clearly struggle to make it onto festival bills and headline slots, do Tuff Love feel like they are taken less seriously?
“That’s a big and complicated issue. I feel like if we ever felt we were taken less seriously anywhere because of our gender then we would cut ties with that person or promoter. It’s hard to tell if we’re taken less seriously though because you can’t see promoters/music business people talking about you/making decisions. We only get to see what people think of us through reviews, live bookings, social media, live audience and that all seems ok so far. So I guess I would say no.”
“There’s this horribly outdated idea of the rockstar boy model that I feel like some people still go by, like all bands/rock bands have to be testosterone filled kinda stuff. I wonder if certain festivals thought that women didn’t fit into that image or something. Then young girls etc see festival line ups made of solely boy bands and see no role models in it for themselves and then it perpetuates the rock star boy model. Lots of festivals have great balanced line ups though, things are getting better.”
http://greatescapefestival.com/
Tickets here: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/the-great-escape-2016-tickets/201241
“Glasgow is amazing for creative people. Also, it’s lovely being surrounded by people that inspire you.”
The talented trio’s punchy album Resort, a compilation record made up of three EPs released by the band between 2014 and 2015 was self-engineered and self- produced in bass player Suse Bear's flat.
“If we were somewhere that wasn't Glasgow, like London maybe we wouldn't have been able to afford for me to have enough room in my flat to record in, to rehearse weekly, to get together often because we might all have to work more if rent prices were way expensive etc.”
Tuff Love consist of Julie Eisenstein on guitar and vocals, Suse on bass and vocals, and live drummer Iain Stewart.
Even in 2016, a "female bassist" is still a talking point, but the band insist are not a new thing, with Suse following in the footsteps of “frikking loads” of legendary musicians including the Pixies Kim Deal, Hole’s Melissa Auf Der Mar and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon.
Suse describes her own progression to bass: “I started playing piano when I was very young, then guitar and ended up playing bass because no-one else wanted to when I started my band before Tuff Love."
Then for Tuff Love I was kind of playing keyboard, extra guitar, drums and bass on the recordings but Julie was the guitar master so after deciding to be a three-piece band I thought might as well just do bass as my last band was a three piece too. I like the limitations/restrictions of being in a three piece with a minimal set up.”
In 2015, Tuff Love were personally invited to join shoegaze innovators Ride on their first UK tour in 20 years!
“It was really cool, we really like them so it was lovely of them to ask. We were really shocked when we got told it was happening, like reaaallly shocked. Playing the Barrowlands with Ride is probably our most exciting gig to date.”
In an industry where females clearly struggle to make it onto festival bills and headline slots, do Tuff Love feel like they are taken less seriously?
“That’s a big and complicated issue. I feel like if we ever felt we were taken less seriously anywhere because of our gender then we would cut ties with that person or promoter. It’s hard to tell if we’re taken less seriously though because you can’t see promoters/music business people talking about you/making decisions. We only get to see what people think of us through reviews, live bookings, social media, live audience and that all seems ok so far. So I guess I would say no.”
“There’s this horribly outdated idea of the rockstar boy model that I feel like some people still go by, like all bands/rock bands have to be testosterone filled kinda stuff. I wonder if certain festivals thought that women didn’t fit into that image or something. Then young girls etc see festival line ups made of solely boy bands and see no role models in it for themselves and then it perpetuates the rock star boy model. Lots of festivals have great balanced line ups though, things are getting better.”
- Article continues below...
- More stories you may like...
- Interview: M w S
- Introducing: Super Inuit
- Women in Music: An interview with Maddy Raven, founder of Burstimo
http://greatescapefestival.com/
Tickets here: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/the-great-escape-2016-tickets/201241
You might also like...
People who read this also read...
TRENDING
TRENDING CHANNELS
CONTRIBUTOR OF THE MONTH