Interview: The Darjeelings

The Darjeelings: Mairead, Greer, Izzy and Bella. Photo: Margaret Swan via The Darjeelings’ Facebook

The Darjeelings talk to One Chord about their debut EP, being a ‘girl band’ and having tough-to-impress parents.

It’s early Wednesday morning in the middle of school holidays. While most teens are tucked up in bed, one half of indie girl-group The Darjeelings are sitting bleary-eyed in a radio studio, negotiating their way through yet another interview.

It’s just after 9am when their second commitment for the day rolls around. By this time, pianist/vocalist Mairead O’Connor, 17, and guitarist/vocalist Greer Clemens, also 17, have been joined by 16-year-old drummer Bella Chwasta. Coffee is ordered and the three – who are usually complemented by bass player Izzy Flook – are talkative and excitable.

In a few days time, The Darjeelings will launch their debut EP to a sold out crowd at Northcote Town Hall. But right now, Mairead is holding court, speaking confidently about all things music.

“Have you seen Kimbra’s new video clip?” she asks.

No.

“Well it’s so …”

Self-indulgent?

“Yes! I was just about to say those exact words,” Mairead says, almost feverishly. “It’s incredibly self-indulgent. She’s gone from cool to outrageous just because … ”

“Because she can,” Greer interrupts, instinctively finding the words for her bandmate, “galpal” and songwriting partner. You suspect it isn’t the first time.

Having met at University High, the pair originally played as a duo, performing covers and bonding over a shared love of hip indie music such as Washington and Vampire Weekend. Their name is taken from the Vampire Weekend song, “One, Blake’s Got A New Face”.

“We busked together and played the school battle of the bands,” Mairead recalls. “Which we won. That started it all off,” she says, grinning.

As Mairead and Greer talk of their early days performing together, Bella sits quietly, nodding, laughing and waiting for her turn to speak. The year 11 student at Ivanhoe Girls Grammar joined The Darjeelings in 2010, through mutual acquaintances.

“One of their friends was like, ‘they’re looking for a drummer’,” Bella says. “So I messaged them on Facebook.” Her sister’s a drummer too, she adds. It was only when she joined that things really got moving for The Darjeelings.

“After we had a full band to write songs for we really got stuck in,” Greer says. “We don’t play the first song we ever wrote but play pretty much all the other ones.”

The pair say for them, songwriting is about collaboration and teamwork.

“One of us will come up with an idea or a skeleton of a song and then we’ll work on it together,” Greer explains. “We both enjoy that it’s never going to be good until the other person contributes, and it’s never going to be really good until we all contribute.”

Bass player Izzy Flook joined the band a year ago, completing the line up. In the 12 months since, the quartet have had their music played on radio, been interviewed by Triple J’s Rosie Beaton and appeared in street press magazines across Melbourne. They were also spotted by Washington and Kate Miller-Heidke producer Ben McCarthy, who worked with the band on their EP. Not bad for a bunch of year 11 students.

“It was difficult having (the songs) changed and having them assessed and weighed against one another,” Mairead says. “But when you’ve played songs 20 times live, and you wrote them, you have your own bias and old opinions. You have to trust people who have fresh ears.”

There are six songs on The Darjeelings’ debut release (which you can hear below). The EP opens up with the infectious piano-led, “All In Good Time” before enjoyable detours through jazzy pop and honest balladry. The EP’s finale, “Crimes”, is a charming a capella singalong with gorgeous harmonies.

Conscious of overproduction, they agreed with McCarthy that it would be best to try and capture their live sound.

“Overproduction is something I find so frustrating,” Greer says. “It feels a little dishonest when you listen to an artist and they’ve done all these things to a song. It makes it seem less real.”

Of the songs on The Darjeelings EP, tear-jerker ballad “Begins What Might”, benefits most from McCarthy’s restraint behind the desk. It’s a quiet meditation on the future with Mairead singing earnestly: “There’s so much to know, but there’s so little time.” Greer says of the song: “It’s about where we want to go with school and that whole thing about what we want to do with our lives.”

The year 11 students admit they’ll have to take some time off when exams come around, this year and the next.

“Obviously year 12 will be a lot of pressure for all of us,” Greer says. “But I hope playing in the band will be a bit of a release. We still want to gig as much as we can, around school.”

“We’ll go crazy if we don’t keep playing,” Bella agrees.

When conversation turns to the music industry, they say they’ve learnt a lot. But as a young all-girl group, there’s one thing that stands out.

“It’s a grown-up, man’s world,” Mairead declares. The girls laugh before she adds: “We’ve played some gigs (such as one at the renowned Melbourne rock venue, The Espy) where’s it’s like, ‘wow, we do not belong here at all’.”

But being “young and girls” does help them stand out, Greer says. “Even the young cool bands we play with around our area – we don’t know any other girl bands,” she says. “Girls who are musicians tend to be girls singing and solo and being Adele or Delta,” she concludes to another chorus of giggles.

They’re glad they aren’t solo artists. “The main reason we love doing it is because we can all bounce ideas off each other,” Greer says.

It also means having a shoulder to cry on.

“If it’s a bad gig you can just say ‘oh god’. Rather than ‘they hate me’, it’s ‘they hate us‘,” Mairead smiles.

But the audience usually don’t notice their mistakes anyway, Greer and Mairead agree.

Their drummer has other ideas.

“I think our parents do,” Bella says mischievously.

Really?

“Yeah, they’ve seen so many gigs. Sometimes it’s ‘you know that song, it just wasn’t right’,” she adds, hardly containing her amusement. “I remember after our winter break Mum was like, ‘that just didn’t sound good at all’.”

And with that, the trio erupt into yet more laughter.

But The Darjeelings can afford to laugh. All jokes aside, they do sound good. Very good indeed.

Watch this space.

You can buy The Darjeelings EP on Bandcamp.

Facebook: The Darjeelings