Do you get into trouble, then, being asked about Marine Girls, something you did so long ago, when you were so young?
“When I’m asked questions about those Marine Girls albums by people who’re still listening to them, now, it occurs to me that the music must be just so vivid for them. But, for me, as someone who never listens to those records, I really have to rack my brains trying to remember that time, and I suspect that I often don’t do so particularly clearly. It was, as you say, a very long time ago. At the time, we were so small, and our success was so localized, so it’s more exciting for people, years on, to uncover this ‘hidden’ bit of history. I know for lots of people who love the Marine Girls, it really has that sense of discovery about it. Particularly in America. There, there’s a real cult-ish thing about the Marine Girls. Ever since we got name-checked by Kurt Cobain, we’ve become one of those apparently-influential early DIY indie groups. People often want to ask about it, and that’s cool. It’s an interesting story.”

Was starting an all-girl band, in 1980, an act of rebellion?
“We really didn’t think about it that hard. I’d been in a band with some boys from a local school, where I was the only girl, and they made the decisions, and I just went along with it. When I left that band I thought it’d be more interesting to form a group with some other girls, and be more in charge. I suppose we were, as girls stepping out on our own, quite independent and spirited. We never really paid much attention to these so-called ‘rules’ about what a band was supposed to be. We didn’t know anyone who played drums, for example, so we just formed a band without a drummer. We were just happily following our own instincts.”

In hindsight, you’re closely associated with Young Marble Giants, The Raincoats, and Television Personalities. Was there really a sense of closeness between you?
“We definitely knew Dan [Treacy] from TV Personalities because he was the person who first ‘discovered’ the Marine Girls, and put out our first record when no one else was interested in doing so. And we absolutely loved Young Marble Giants, which is why we got Stuart Moxham to produce our second record. And we used to bump into The Raincoats, because we’d often go up to London to Rough Trade, and bump in to Gina [Birch] and Ana [da Silva]. There certainly was no scene, we were never all together, hanging out, but we were definitely aware of all those people and inspired by them as well.”

Did that time —the post-punk era— feel like it was this exciting thing to be a part of?
“Not at all. We took it completely for granted. We were all too young. We’d never lived through another era, never experienced something that we could see the contrast to, and feel that what we were doing was new and refreshing. We just happened to hit the age of 16 when it was a current idea that you could make records yourself, release them yourself, sell copies of cassettes in shops. Being the kind of like-minded people that we were, we just went on and did it. We didn’t think of being something new; these DIY girls making their own music by themselves. We were too young to know we were different.”

http://altmusic.about.com/od/interviews/a/traceythorn.htm

Tagged: marine girls tracey thorn everything but the girl

Posted on May 22, 2012