Focus: Sorority Grrrls

Who are you and where are you from? 
We’re Sorority Grrrls and we’re a riot grrrl band from Newcastle! We’re made up of Erin on vocals, Finn on lead guitar, Connor on rhythm guitar, Alex on bass and Luke on drums. We’re amongst the youngest in our local punk scene, all being teens still.

What is it you do?
Clear rooms. We write a mix of silly tunes and angry political songs, making as much noise as possible at all times. We then play them live for our unlucky audiences around Newcastle.

How long have you been doing it?
We’ve been around for nearly a whole year now but we’ve been playing gigs since August of 2022, when we played at Mousetival in Stockton. We’ve only recently started playing in this formation however, after being joined by Luke and Connor in January/February of this year, which totally changed our sound to something we’re very happy with. 

What inspires you?
Our sound is inspired by riot grrrl bands but we aim to make the scene more inclusive than it used to be. We think that as well as an interesting melody songs should have strong meanings behind them, and unfortunately, a lot of the feminist messages of ‘90s punk (one of our biggest inspirations) are still really relevant today. A lot of our song inspiration is taken from current issues that mean a lot to us, and the anger that comes from that really helps generate that energy and intensity in our music. Musically we have a range of influences including bands like Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth and Kittie!

Tell us about your music.
We’re named after the song Sorority Girls by Mommy Long Legs, and we’ve been compared to bands like Bikini Kill, who have definitely influenced our sound a lot. There are also elements of Sleater-Kinney in our songs, especially in the guitar parts, and we love playing stuff that sounds unique (even if it’s not technically accurate!) utilising a lot of open strings and angular riffs. Most of our songs start out as a fiddly and confusing Carrie Brownstein-inspired riff written by Finn, who will send the rest of the band chord progressions to work on. Then, after writing lyrics we have a song! Our originals are pretty varied – some of our songs are loud and silly, and some are about more serious topics like trans rights and abortion laws. We’re noisy. fun, and make people uncomfortable in the best possible way.

What have you got coming up in the future?
We recently recorded our first two songs, American Sicko and Dead Babies on the Floor, which will be available to stream from April of 2023. We also have many exciting gigs lined up including playing Greenbelt festival which we announced recently (All thanks to the amazing people in Mouses). We’re super excited to just keep playing gigs and writing songs for as long as we can!

Where can people find out more about you? 
You can follow us and keep up to date with gigs and releases at…
Instagram: @sororitygrrrls_band
TikTok: @sororitygrrrls_band
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@sororitygrrrls517