GRLwood
Interview conducted on September 11, 2022
By Dan Locke
GRLwood is a two-piece band of southern fried weirdos, wailing at max capacity from Louisville, KY. We call it SCREAM-POP. Establish November, 2016, GRLwood exploded onto Louisville’s music scene, quickly earning them a cult-like following.
Q:What was your up bring like?
GRLwood: Ah, ya know, the same sob story as everyone else. Homeless and gay in kentucky. The usual.
How did you discover music?
A: Limewire. My computer suffered through it, so my iPod could look thick.
How did you start to write music?
My dad was like, “I play guitar, you’re gonna play guitar” and I was a real little kid. And I thought that was cool and I thought my dad was cool. Then I became a sad teenager who played guitar. The rest is history.
Rej-What was your first guitar? Do you still have it?
A black acoustic and no.
Rej-What is your guitar of choice now? Year, make and model?
All of them are adopted garbage bound rejects. I love my acoustic great divide chamber guitar. It’s small. I don’t know the year.
Mia- What bands were you in before joining GRLwood?
I played as a hired gun for dozens of bands and 100s of artists but GRLwood was the first band that really excited me about being an actual member of.
How did you start the band?
I was mad depressed, tired of being homeless and transient, back in my hometown, and needed to make money, and street performing isn’t as easy here as it was in bigger cities. So, I played in venues instead. Made music, recorded music, played shows, and found other musicians to perform with. Played shows, played shows, and played shows.
How the band did gets its name?
It’s a joke. It was going to be ladyBONER.
Why are you called Kentucky Fried Queerdos?
Kentucky Fried QueerWeirdo equals Southern Seared homosexual freak.
What was your first performance at like?
I had been performing on the street with guitar while cross dressing as a man to make money for years before I started performing on stage. Man money was much better than woman money and I was hungry. So what was my first street performance like? It was like… “please gimme bread” and people passing were like, “Thats disgusting and annoying” or some were like “Awe, you have a pretty voice.” Every time people gathered around to enjoy and listen to my songs they would always run away when I started to play bjork covers or scream.
Describe your music.
Pop music. Sometimes angry.
What makes a good songwriter?
Love or friendship. Passion or whatever some main character anime’s response would be.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
“We Are Friends.” Yes, I think I was 6. It was a home recording on my friend’s dad’s laptop. We just sang it together. I don’t know if that counts.
What is the process of writing your music?
It depends. Waiting in line at the post office, on the toilet, whistling fleeting melodies. Sometimes I’ll record a guitar lick, and make funny words over it. Sometimes I play drums and yell. It’s different all the time.
Tell me about Kid Bruises?
Depressing. Having depression as a kid. I had to deal with a lot of shit as a kid, and I process a lot of that in therapy and through songwriting. It’s not about me and my feelings after it becomes a song, then it becomes something other people resonate with, and they find vocabulary to express their own complicated feelings. If my hard time makes you feel not alone in your hard time, then that’s what’s important to me.
The intention is not to stoke a fire, per se, but have those feelings articulated, then they can be expelled, and then comes healing. You gotta talk about the gnarly shit to heal from it. Get it all out. Shake it off. Wake up new.
Digital vs. vinyl?
iPod.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Y’know when someone asks you what music you listen to and you blank out and you’re like “…. I don’t know any …. music… right now…” Barbie girl by Aqua? I dunno, I panicked.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Plants.
In the past if a musician stops doing music, they find a new career. For example David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants.. If you can’t do music, what would you like to be doing?
If I couldn’t do music at all, not even write for other people…probably back to being a tattoo artist or labor jobs like home renovation. Wood working? Van-tiny house-building?
What is your happy place?
I’m a creature of solitude. So anything quiet with my dogs is good for me.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Closed.
