Talking to: 1-800 GIRLS
Emotions have become commonplace on dancefloors but often states of ecstasy on top of high tempo drops. This artist is on a mission to show a different side of emotions; surrealism, nostalgia and poignance. With another two tracks to add to his electronic catalogue of feelings, we had the pleasure of getting ten insights into what makes him tick.
With EP release “songs 4 her” on the way, we have a chat with 1-800 GIRLS, here’s what he had to say:
1. First question for you, obviously there’s a nod to retro sex hotlines in your name, what’s the whole backstory behind 1-800 GIRLS?
So I used to sample sex-line hotlines. My first couple of EPs were just hot YouTube videos of girls being like “call me” and shit.
And then my name is really boring, Jake Stewart. So and then we had a party. I used to live in warehouses in East London. We had a party and I was queuing up to use my own bathroom in the morning to go to work and someone had spray painted 1-800 GIRLS all over our bathroom walls. Although it was a bit of a shock, I was like, oh, that's sick.
I've been looking for a name at the time anyway, and “U, Me, and Madonna” was about to come out, I was going to release under Jake Stewart, but thank god I didn't. And then I saw ‘1-800 GIRLS’ all over my bathroom walls, I'm stealing that. So that's how that came about.
There's lots of elements to it. It’s sort of girlbandy as well, you know, which is kind of on the nose. I'm a white straight male making sort of girlband music with a name like 1-800 GIRLS.
First couple of EPs, I put a lot into raising awareness for sex workers and sex work. It's always just been a subtle little nod and hopefully helps debunking the stigma around it, especially in this country
2. Your music is constantly evolving, covering a wide breadth of emotions and mental states on the dance floor, which you put together so carefully in all of your releases. Do you feel an emotional connection to your music at the moment, and how do you maintain that?
Definitely. I've always said, and especially recently, that 1-800 GIRLS is like a character that I play. I always grew up on indie music. I grew up on mainly sad indie music as well because, I don't know why, that just speaks to me a little bit more. You know?
That has probably come from evolving from a bit of an emo when I was younger, being a skater and liking sort of punky, grungy stuff. And then getting into dance music, I guess that left me liking the more emotional side of it. Although sometimes 1-800 GIRLS can be quite cheeky and playful as well, like you say, it's quite eclectic. It can be both side of things. But I think generally, it lies around emotion, whether that be cheeky and playful or sad, lovey and romantic.
And also, like, sexy or whatever you wanna call it.
I relate to a lot because it's combining all of the other things that I love into a sound. And I think every time I make a song, it probably is my emotions at that point in time poured into that song as well.
1800-Girls is a character I put in around that, and that is the theme behind it. 1-800 GIRLS is the genre.
3. Is there a specific memory you don't mind sharing that you've tried to recreate in your music?
The reason this first song is called “simplesong” is, I spent so long on every fucking song then I'm like, oh, it's just not quite there. Sometimes I'll absolutely love a song and everyone I play it to will be like, oh, it's really good man. You shouldn't worry about it. But because of how much thought I've put into it, sometimes a song comes together too easily.
I've had so many times where I've made whole EPs and I've made massive bodies of work, and then I've just turned around and I don't like it anymore. That's really hit me quite hard with imposter syndrome and with anxiety. It’s like I'm not good enough and I don't like it, and I've wasted all this time on it, I'm never gonna be able to make anything else like that.
And “simplesong”.
It recreates the thought; ‘let's just put it out’. Countering these memories of spending way too long on it and being sad about stuff.
And the reason it's called “simplesong” is because it was that simple to me. I made it out of things that were just sat around on my hard drive, put it all together.
4. So you have this great evolving toolkit of bleeps and bloops and all sort of digital voices going on in your music. But you also maintain and have always maintained them. We go back to early releases like “Just Cause”, etc, “U, Me and Madonna”, there’s a sense of nostalgia, how do you balance both?
It's probably just my influences pouring into it, I feel like dance music songs are traditionally one drumbeat and everything sort of builds and drops and builds and drops.
Whereas my songs, I feel like I've written with pop structures because that's what my influence is and what I listen to is. there's nostalgia in the some of the classic pop structures. Orbital write songs and used to write songs that are a lot more like verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and not some continuous song. So maybe the euphoric and nostalgic part of it comes from writing in a bit more of a retro style that's a bit more pop and indie based. You know?
5. It's not just your own production that's getting a lot of focus at the moment. It's also your production in remixes… if you were to remix any non-musical moment in time, what moment would that be?
Moment. It would have to be Godzilla's roar man. It would definitely have to be Godzilla's roar. I mean, I'm absolutely obsessed with that sound.
I always have been and the films just purely because of the sound design of it. It’s its own roar, you know. It's not like a typical dinosaur roar. It's like a screeching, monster sound, and I'm just obsessed with it. That's where my nerdy obsession lies with Godzilla.
Off the back of that recently, I have been asked to do a score for Godzilla in Teesside Museum in Middlesbrough, to do a score for a Godzilla exhibition that's going on. If I was to pick a non musical moment, it would have to be that. Any good any Godzilla sound.
6. So taking your sets live has been a big part of you as 1-800 GIRLS. How have you found this journey, and why was this a desired pathway in the 1-800 GIRLS journey?
When I released “U, Me, and Madonna”, and it just became a piece of the furniture on YouTube and it went semi viral. It got a few million plays, and it was a real big lo fi house song, so to speak.
And then it I kind of skipped the stage where you open for gigs when DJing. I never got to develop my DJing so much. I went straight into smaller clubs but, headline slots. And I always found that playing, like, 1-2AM, like, 1-3AM, like, peak time, it's really hard for me to play my music at those times because it's a bit sad and sometimes a little bit too slow BPM wise or maybe just a bit too up and down to keep a room intrigued. I feel like now I have more songs that do that, but back then my songs just didn't really work in the early stages of 1-800 GIRLS.
Because of that, ever since the beginning, I've always been toying around with different live sets because I've always imagined my songs able to play live. So it's nice to be able to play a live set and build it, from those songs that maybe are a bit slower and don't work on a dance floor to these newer ones that are more club ready and more dance floor orientated.
7. So in the past few years you've really refined your visual and artist brand and it's been a pleasure to see. It's clean, it's mysterious, there's these faceless figures moving through suburbia. How has this visual brand come about?
Mainly because I don't like my face on camera, to be honest.
Like you say, it kind of is ambiguous, and it works around the sound. Also a lot of it is AI, and it's not actually me either. So it makes it really easy to do and to create press shots without actually having to leave the house, which is quite nice..
At the moment, it's spaced around CCTV and being captured on CCTV, which I think is quite open to sort of any emotion.
And I think the music is quite city orientated. It's not very natural. It’s all quite digital, quite sound design and sound effects based.
It works more in an urban landscape than it does in more of a natural landscape
8. My question to you is what will the sound of 1-800 GIRLS sound like ten years from now?
Hopefully, I'll be doing more film stuff. But maybe that's me. It's Jake Stewart and not 1-800 GIRLS. Some of the music I've got coming out in the future, I'll be singing on it a bit more. In terms of, the live set developing, I think I'll probably get some other people involved at some point just to sort of build out the stage a bit more.
Maybe it will become a little bit more bandy but electronic, maybe me being a little bit more of a front man? But also it could go the other way, and it could go super clubby or it could end up really eighties. I have no idea.
I always just see that 1-800 GIRLS is the genre. Too many people say I'm a garage DJ and they get stuck doing garage. And I think that 1-800 GIRLS can do anything as a sound. So I would never limit it, I think every album will be different, and every EP will continue to be different.
9. When you're not making music and you're not performing. What does a perfect night look like for you?
Probably Godzilla and pizza.
There's two mentions of Godzilla now. Fuck it.
I’m a big gamer as well.
I play a lot of games.
But I do very much enjoy lots and lots of pints too.
So those are all probably ideal situations for me.
Can't go wrong with that.
10. I've noticed on both of these tracks on this EP, there's less breaks involvement as you do on “trust me” and “there 4 you”. What was your reasoning behind this? And in your own words, what emotions do you want the listener to feel from this upcoming EP?
These were sort of another case of me showing a different side, whereas the other two songs I've had come out this year are closer to each other. “there 4 u” was a little bit more breaky. “trust me” was more electro but then they were tied together through these emotional vocals.
“need 2 know” actually has quite a big extended version that I've been playing for a long time, I've been playing a six minute version of it, which has a few more breaks in it.
I wanted to cut it down just so it showed a different side to the other songs that have come out this year. And then the secret song, that will be dotting around in certain places, that's a little bit more breaky as well, and more percussive, maybe closer to “there 4 u” than the other two are.
I think “need 2 know” is probably a good one for a late night walk.
Like, a dark walk in the rain or a sunset walk.
I can imagine listening to “simplesong” like, at a barbecue. But maybe that's just me. I don't know.
Pre-order 1-800 Girls’ EP “songs 4 her”. Find out more on the artist’s Instagram, Bandcamp, Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music and Soundcloud
Also be on the lookout for his Metronomy remixes dropping 11/07/24.
Written by Brandon Purmessur
Brandon is a music journalist in Bristol who enjoys writing as well as hosting radio shows and video interviews. Beyond music, he enjoys working with the community and learning about other cultures.
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