“Energetic pop music that comes from the heart, but also comes from a place of DIY punk, so it’s more stripped back music making, but also influenced by a lot of African pop music.”
That’s how vocalist and guitarist Rachel Aggs, one half of Sacred Paws, describes their music. She forgot to add uplifting and hip-shaking, but we’ll let that slide for now.
Completed by drummer and vocalist Eilidh Rogers, Sacred Paws came together roughly five years ago when Aggs’ other band, Trash Kit, toured with Rogers’ old outfit, Golden Grrls. Aggs eventually joined Rogers in the latter, before they both decided to break and form their own musical partnership. They admit “it’s a bit complicated”, but you can keep up.
The band has been a slow burn ever since. They released their debut EP, 'Six Songs', in the spring of 2015 and, just shy of two years later, their first album, ‘Strike A Match’, is due to drop on January 27. “It’s been quite a while. We have been slowly developing stuff,” explains Aggs. “Because of the distance thing we maybe don’t move as fast as other bands. But also we’re incredibly disorganised.”
Yes, the distance thing. Aggs lives in London, while Rogers is based in Glasgow. Jam sessions via Skype didn’t work out thanks to time lags, so the writing process for ‘Strike A Match’ had to wait until the pair met up to play shows, or whenever the one could travel to the other’s city. The resulting tracks were recorded in Glasgow at Castle Of Doom studios with producer Tony Doogan. The finished product is 32 minutes of lo-fi, joyous pop that has earworms for days, with lead single Everyday a particularly guilty party.
“I’m really proud of Everyday, because it sounds to me like a pop song,” admits Aggs. “We’ve always been trying to write pop songs but they always end up quite weird. It’s still quite weird, but it’s genuinely catchy and uplifting in a way that the pop music that I love is."
“We both like folk music, but not quiet folk music. Roots music and world music, although I hate that term, and a lot of African pop music. We really bonded over that. We knew exactly what we wanted to do. We knew what kind of energy we wanted our music to have. It was quite straightforward.”
Despite currently being known for her distinctive melodic guitar style, in her younger years Aggs was unsure about swapping acoustic for electric. Her reservations were rooted in the macho mentality and posturing often associated with the instrument; the discrepancy between its perceived temperament and hers.
“I picked up the electric guitar when I was around 20,” she says. “I played acoustic guitar really badly in my bedroom for years. I was always really put off playing the electric guitar because I’d just seen it as this quite macho thing. Men make playing guitar look really hard, so you think it’s really hard, so you don’t try it. And it’s loud and I was really shy so playing a loud instrument seemed quite the opposite of my personality at the time. But actually I loved it.”
Although Rogers is also quick to describe herself as shy and awkward, she’s equally swift in explaining that it’s not something that affects her own or Aggs’ live performance. In fact, it’s abundantly clear that both push anxiety aside and allow owning the stage to empower them. “It dissipates a little bit, you just get caught up in the music,” she confesses. “And I think that’s because we’re having fun. You just forget.”
Aggs agrees. “Yeah totally, we’re not putting on a show,” she adds. “We haven’t rehearsed the fun things we’re gonna do. We actually genuinely really love playing music together so I think that comes across. We are still quite awkward as well. I always think it’s generally quite a strange thing. I’m a really shy person and it always occurs to me when I’m on stage: ‘What am I doing on stage?’ I don’t know. I don’t know how I do it. But I do feel so much more confident on the stage than I do in the rest of my life.”
Sacred Paws are sure to get feet moving at their upcoming UK dates. With their line up set to expand to include a second guitarist, bassist and synth player for their album release show, Aggs has promised a mixture of old and new tracks for the tour as a whole and even “some new stuff we haven’t even recorded.” If you don’t feel compelled to bust a move, you’re probably dead inside.
‘Strike A Match’ is out on January 27 through Rock Action.
Sacred Paws Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
Fri January 27 2017 - GLASGOW Mono
Sun January 29 2017 - LONDON Cafe Oto
Fri February 10 2017 - EDINBURGH Summerhall
Sun February 12 2017 - LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
Tue February 14 2017 - GATESHEAD Old Police House
Wed February 15 2017 - MANCHESTER Soup Kitchen
Thu February 16 2017 - YORK Winning Post
Fri February 17 2017 - LONDON Islington
Sat February 18 2017 - BRIGHTON Hope and Ruin
Sun February 19 2017 - CARDIFF Undertone
Wed March 08 2017 - ABERDEEN Tunnels
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