05 Jan Interview — Prima Queen talks creation, Wet Leg and Ali Chant

A few days after their first ever gig outside of UK and in Paris, we sat down with Prima Queen to look back on their history.

Could you tell us more about your meeting ? 

We weren’t in different bands before, we were sort of writing songs and playing on our own. And then, Christine came on to study abroad to London and I had been trying to find someone to be in a band with, but hadn’t found anyone. And then I just knew. I saw a video of her play and I was like “she’s gonna be the one!”

You’ve played with the Big Moon and Wet Leg before, can you tell us what you’ve learned from your experience with them ? 

When we went on tour with the Big Moon, we didn’t know how to go on tour. It was our first tour, we felt like babies. We were very excited and obviously we looked up to them a lot. It was really cool to get to know them a bit more, and then they ended up producing four of our songs. And we learned a lot from them during that process as well. Just like seeing how they worked and what they brought to the songs. 

You talk a lot about mental health and Alzheimer’s disease in your songs. Can you explain why and how you chose to talk about it ? 

Christine : It felt like it was something that had to be talked about. Butter Knife is about that. This is something I was going through.. And the songs were inspired by just being in a bathroom, hiding from people, cause you’re like too sad to talk to anyone. And I thought it would be an interesting way to start a song, someone alone in a bathroom, trying to hide from your own friends, which is quite sad. 

Louise : In general, we write songs about things that are happening to us and, yeah, my auntie died from Alzheimer’s. But I guess you just write about what you know and what you’re going through at a certain time. 

C : Sometimes you have to write about it because you just don’t know what to do with the feelings. 

L: The best thing is when you write a song and you feel like that delt with some of the feeling. 

C : Yeah, you can process it in it. A better way maybe when you have to create something that’s coherent instead of just journaling… (laugh)

L : We have to sit down and really make something, a finished product from a feeling, and I think that helps process. 

C : And then getting to sing it, that feels so satisfying when you finally like kind of figured out your feeling and then put it in a song and then each time you get to play it, it’s really cathartic. 

Do you think mental health is talked about more at the moment ? 

L : yeah it’s definitely talked about more but it’s something that is always good to talk about I think. I think in our songwriting… we make sure that we’re being really honest and vulnerable, and I think that it’s what’s important to us. So I think that yeah, talking about everything is good. 

What did you think about your first gig in France ? 

The audience was so nice ! It was a crazy feeling like “wow we’re in a different country now and there’s people here!”. We only ever played in the UK and everyone was so nice, it was a really good experience. We’d love to come back ! Next year, sometime, we’ll release an EP. 

Can you tell us more about your influences ? 

We love Jenny Lewis, Big Thief, Taylor Swift… It’s always changing ! We’re quite different. Sharon Von Etten also, trying to get those big guitar sounds ! We’re working with a producer, Ali Chant, and he’s recorded a lot of bands that we like : Aldous Harding, Katy J. Pearson, Sorry, Soccer Mommy… So we’ve been listening to a lot of his production stuff !

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