The Thousands

If I could pen an anthology of great, modern American stories, the life of Girls front man Chris Owens would be at the top of the list. Reared in the bizarre Christian cult Children of God, Owens led an itinerant childhood through various European countries. As a teenager he ran away from the group and found his way to the small Texan city of Amarillo where he worked at a local supermarket stacking shelves. By sheer fortune he met local philanthropist, media owner and conceptual artist Stanley Marsh 3 and started working for him as his PA.

After a couple of years with Marshall, Owens moved to San Francisco and briefly played in Ariel Pink and Matt Fishbeck’s Holy Shit, which very quickly imploded. Not long after he formed Girls with co-founder Chet White. Since their first LP, Album, Girls have upped the stakes with their new, kaleidoscopic, dead-honest shrine to pop that is Son, Father, Holy Ghost.

Dominic Kirkwood: What do you think producer Doug Boehm brought to your production that you wouldn’t have achieved otherwise?

Chris Owens: A lot of organisation… He has more experience in a studio so he helped everything run smoothly. We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do he just helped us get that done. It was about three weeks of recording and another two weeks of mixing. The songs had been written for a while though…we went in there ready to work.

DK: I was quite amazed at how many different genres of pop you cover over the course of the album. For example ‘Die’ sounds like Deep Purple mixed with the lighter elements of Sonic Youth. What were the albums you were referencing whilst you were writing?

CO: I don’t know… nothing really specific. There’s dozens of different ideas being referenced from other bands but it wasn’t very specific for each song. I feel like nowadays there’s so much music to reference it’s to say one specific thing for each song…

DK: I noticed your voice has undergone a change; it’s less melodramatic and has become a little more delicate and soulful. Do you feel the way you sing now is a more accurate reflection of you?

CO: There’s been a change because I’ve been singing more, and I do feel a little more natural now and less contrived. I do feel like it’s a little more natural now; I feel I do have a little bit more of a personal style. I think it just comes down to the amount of shows we’ve been playing and spending time being a performer. In the beginning it was all very new.

DK: In past interviews you’ve been quite candid about your drug use…

CO: I don’t mind people talking about it. It’s taken a step back a little bit because we more to and we’re working more. It’s still something I like to do in my free time. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed.

DK: It’s interesting you’re so relaxed about it. Does it help you creatively?

CO: It does help me as a songwriter. It’s a way to relax and it helps me focus on these things I’m writing about. When you’re exploring your feelings like that it can be very helpful. It also can take too much importance if you let it and that’s something that I’ve been trying to make sure doesn’t happen. In general I feel like it’s been a very good thing for me, it’s been pretty easy to control and use in a positive way. That’s why I don’t really mind talking about it because it hasn’t been such a bad thing for me. At the same it can overshadow things. I don’t like to just be against it because of how other people look at it in the world.

DK: I know it’s only been a week into the new year what’s the best thing that’s happened to you thus far in 2012?

CO: We have some really big shows coming up. Much bigger than we’ve ever done. Our drummer quit and we had to find a new one and we’ve done that. So far that’s the best thing that’s happened.