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Best Indie Band AWARDS 2011
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Babyfaced Assassins
www.myspace.com/babyfacedassassins
Meet the exciting all-girl band who are creating quite a stir…
L
ondon-based quartet Babyfaced Assassins are busy building up a strong following as they pursue a frenetic gig schedule that would put some older and more experienced bands to shame. The girls, who average only 16 years of age, are all graduates of the
Realistic Rock Academy in Epsom, Surrey play sleek and skillfully crafted indie-pop rock that tips a nod to the likes of Blink 182 and even Blondie’s rockier moments.
The band, which features bassist Lindsey Key, drummer Melissa Cleese,
guitarist Chloe Seymour and lead vocalist Claudia Brinkman formed when the girls met during their studies at the Realistic Rock music school, which is still their base for rehearsals and recording whilst forming their plans to conquer the globe. “We’ve been working with Realistic Rock for about three years,” Lindsey explains during a break in the band’s rehearsals, “They help us to get a more polished sound than a lot of other young bands, and they help us to learn our instruments: Chloe started learning guitar there, Melissa started playing drums there and I did bass courses and songwriting lessons. Claudia had two singing lessons before she auditioned for the band, they have helped us a lot, we are very grateful to them.”
Lindsey also explains that the songwriting courses she studied helped to
fast track the band’s distinctive take on contemporary indie rock, demonstrating an impressive level of maturity and focus for such a comparatively young band. “The songwriting courses are really great. I did them maybe three years ago and I wasn’t even in the band at that point! It was really great to make the musical connections, they teach you how to start writing songs and record them properly, it was all with people roughly my age and it was a lot of fun.”
The Babyfaced Assassins might be too young to drive themselves to gigs yet but with various willing mums and dads providing roadie duties the girls have already notched up well-received gigs at several major London venues. “229 and Club Turtle were both really good”, Lindsey confirms, “the people there were very supportive. We played South Park gardens last
24 3pickup
year, which was really great. John Kennedy from XFM hosted it and we got onto the XFM Exposure show and this year we are headlining it again, which is great.” Lead guitarist Chloe confirms that whilst their age doesn’t prevent them
playing gigs in the capital, sometimes their younger fans unfortunately have to miss out due to laws governing age restrictions. “Sometimes it means that some of our younger fans can’t come because we play at a lot of 16-pluses. A lot of people that come to see us are only 14 or 15 years old and it’s difficult for them to come up to London on their own and getting back really late but generally it’s not too bad.” When asked if the girls would like to make a living from playing music professionally Lindsey offers an unequivocal “YES! We would love to make a living from being in a band; it would be my dream. I can’t picture myself doing a normal job and I think that the other girls feel the same.” For most successful musicians the route to fame and fortune can still be
a hard slog. Asked if they would ever contemplate entering a TV show like The X-Factor or Britain’s Got Talent as a way of gaining more exposure, the band provide a measured answer… “I don’t think that we’d want to go on a show like that because we quite like having control over our music. If we went on X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent I don’t know if you’d get that sort of control. I have nothing against it, I think it’s really entertaining but I don’t think that we’d go on it; it’s quite mainstream and you don’t have the satisfaction of building up your own fan base and writing your own songs!” Finally, before the girls get ready to return to their rehearsal space we ask them if they have fielded any enquiries from music industry talent scouts? “There has been some but I don’t know if we are allowed to say.”
Lindsey chuckles, somewhat guardedly, “I think that over the summer we are planning to get out there and get industry people to notice us a lot more.”
Babyfaced Assassins are definitely worthy winners of our Playmusic Unsigned Awards Best Indie Rock category this year, we wish them all the best and all we can say is that they hope that they remember us when they are rich and famous! PM
UNSIGNED
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