Lil first met her bandmates – Mia, Thea, Maria, and Katya – at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts during freshers’ week. They bonded over shared music tastes (Lily Allen, Wet Leg, Liverpool-based hyperpop artist MARiMARi), as well as Polish vodka and “long rants about feminist issues.” Tired of being dismissed by their male classmates, the girls booked their first studio session partly out of spite.
“The lads would often take themselves off to the studio and have sessions, but none of us would be invited. If we were, it was on a guest-only basis, i.e., ‘please smile and nod and say what we’re doing is cool but don’t give opinions please.’ We said, ‘We should do that!’ So we booked a demo studio.”
The group dynamic is a unique one: all the girls are singers, harmonising for the most part but also taking turns to sing lead. They all write, too, Lil tells me. “Sometimes the writing process will start off with a reference to a song someone loves, or it’ll start with a topic to write about.”
Maria then acts as the band’s in-house producer. “We tend to dictate what kind of sounds we would like to Maria, who then taps away at the laptop and somehow gets it spot on. If we’re in a proper studio and not at home, we’ll all be up and messing about with synths and percussion and guitars, then record bits when we think we’ve found something good amongst the cacophony.”
It’s a challenging vibe to navigate live, Lil explains: “We’ve had to practice our guitar and synth playing skills, while also doing the choreography we’ve come up with in our bedrooms and singing in harmony.”
There are few things more girl group-coded than practicing dance routines in your bedroom. This celebration of the youthful female experience is at the heart of the group’s brand, with stickered-up artwork for their single and upcoming EP bringing to mind defaced school jotters or ‘90s teen magazines. “We’ve played into the childlike girlyness of what we would have loved when we were younger. Growing up we were taught that being girly was uncool. Girl Group is our way of reconnecting with that and showing the world how much joy and power lays in it.”
“Yay! Saturday” leans into this joy and power – a night-out narrative with playful, zingy one-liners (“if you don’t know us – tough luck” / “barman hates me – kinda hot”) layered over an irresistible bassy groove.
“‘Yay! Saturday’ was written during a period where we were going out a lot. It’s about the exciting feeling of having no responsibilities and getting drunk most nights and then being really tired from the night before and the kind of hazy euphoria this creates,” Lil explains. “It also feels as though it taps into something uniquely feminine about the going-out experience – knowing that you’re being observed and performing for the watching eyes because sometimes it’s kind of fun, ranting about inconsiderate toilet-users and the feeling of invincibility that getting dressed up for a night out can give you.”
Girl Group have had the single and video ready for a while, but have been intentional about when it drops: “We think now is a great time for it to be released to the world,” Lil says, “as the weather’s getting a bit nicer and people are coming out of the winter slump. Spring brings with it the need to be social and go out dancing!”
With more singles and an EP to follow, there is so much more to come from Girl Group – but, for today at least, they are going to enjoy this moment. “We’re planning a house party gig to celebrate the single – we’ll be playing in our kitchen alongside some local artists and DJs that we love.”