PINS

Name?
Faith, Lois, Anna, Kyoko and Sophie from PINS.

Where are you from?
Manchester

What do you do?
Faith - We make music together, I'm the singer then we have Lois on guitar, Anna on bass, Kyoko on keys and guitar and Sophie on drums.

Describe your style in three words?
Faith - Vintage, vain, vivacious.

If you could make a record with anyone from history?
Faith - If you mean dead or alive then Lou Reed, totally. He's endlessly inspiring to me and he was definitely the coolest person in rock and roll. I'd love to do a cover of Vicious.
Kyoko - Hypothetically, Phil Spector, if he didn't have the history of murder and violence. Musically however, I think the way he creates a combination of ethereal darkness with a massive wall of sound is magical.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
Faith - The first show I ever went to was the Distillers, just blew me away and I thought, 'I want to do that!' I've outgrown most of the music from my teenage days but I'm still a Brody Dalle fan, I love her last solo record, my favourite track is 'Parties For Prostitutes'.
Kyoko - It would have to be when I saw Morrissey at a festival when I was 16 - it's stuck with me forever. The sun was setting as he came on and I guess it was the drama of the performance, the lights, and the raw emotion he puts into every line that made it, to this day, still, the best I've ever seen.

What British music icons inspire your sound today?
Faith - Marc Bolan for his style and substance, Electric Warrior is one of the best records. I'm jealous of people who got to buy it when it was released and take it home and put it on their turntable for the first time, it must have been insane. The best track is 'Life's A Gas'.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?
Kyoko - I'd love to spend an hour with Oscar Wilde, I've always been sad that we can't even watch any footage or hear recordings of him speaking. I'd just sit there and soak in all his wit and eccentricity.
Lois - The Suffragettes. I'd love to be able to tell them how all the things they did actually made a difference.

Which British subculture means the most to you?
Faith - '70s punks, the Sex Pistols and Vivienne Westwood
Lois - Punk, post punk and the Factory scene in Manchester. The different movements were all short lived and they had no idea what they were doing at the time, they just were doing it. I’ve been watching old documentaries about it. There’s a great one New Order made about Factory called ‘Play at Home’.

If you could share the bill with any British band in history?
Lois - The Fall! We did get to play with them already!

What music did you listen to growing up?
Kyoko - The first singer I ever loved was Elvis Presley. I was obsessed with the song 'Marie's The Name (His Latest Fame)'. I wished I was Elvis when I was a 6-year-old girl.
Sophie - Same for me actually, I wanted to be in a band and cut my hair short because of Elvis and as an adult, I managed to do both of those things.
Lois - I listened to a lot of Punk and Riot Grrl, that's what I could most identify with. My first band at high school was gonna be a punk band but I quit at the first practice.
Anna - I listened to Buddy Holly on repeat as a child. I think my favourite still to this day is 'That'll be the day'. My parents took me to see Buddy Holly: The Musical and I sobbed all the way through it because I thought it was so magical.