"I can start calling myself a musician now,” says Girls Names frontman and founder Cathal Cully of their new album, Arms Around A Vision. Granted, in the press release of the post-punks’ third full- length record, but it’s also a refreshingly honest and on the money appraisal of an opus which really feels like a coming of age.
“It’s the product of six-and-a-half years of being a band and it felt like we really knew what we were doing in the studio,” he resumes. “Musically, structurally, thematically and lyrically it’s a cut above the rest and has surpassed everything we thought we’d do.”
Described by Cully as “a romantic record,” the four-piece sound at the peak of their powers on Arms Around A Vision and a band very much in their pomp.
“There’s a lot of questions asked about aspects of love and even just ‘likes’ in general on the album. People think it’s quite moody and dark, but love is the main theme. We’re all very proud of it.”
The last few years have seen Girls Names transform radically since their first incarnation as a two-piece founded to support Wavves in Belfast venue Lavery’s in 2009. How would he compare his band circa their more primitive 2011 debut Dead To Me to the present day Girls Names we wonder?
“It’s a different band,” he replies. “There’s different people involved now and if we’d changed our name a few years ago we wouldn’t get that question. I suppose there is a thin line where you can see where it comes from but that’s it. When we started out we never really knew what we were doing. We’ve just been learning as we went along. Dead To Me feels like a school band that plays in front of your mates and we’re grown up now and it’s proper.”
Touring has played a huge part in Girls Names’ growth and Cathal tells us that he adores life on the road and getting on a plane, train or automobile.
“Touring changed us massively, it’s what we live for,” he offers. “I always feel more comfortable going away and playing somewhere else, especially compared to gigging in a place like Belfast where everyone knows everyone. It’s strange sometimes having to get up and perform in front of a whole room that you mostly know, but getting away gives us a thirst to do more.”
In recent times, this self-described bunch of outsiders have found themselves accepted by the mainstream. They’ve been nominated for awards, performed across the world and received plenty of plaudits in the wake of their second album The New Life. How does Cathal feel about being in the in-crowd?
“Are we?” he laughs. “It’s funny, we were actually in the American version of Elle magazine recently. It’s great that we’ve been getting this press and notice from the bigger mainstream places and these ‘lifestyle’ magazines but it’s also kinda strange because I don’t normally take notice of that kind of press - not just for the band, but in general - so it kinda goes over my head a bit.
“I don’t fathom how big the gap is between the mainstream and the underground because we do live in our own little world. When you’re put there in the culture picks in Elle magazine alongside Julianne Moore and Ellen Degeneres it doesn’t really make sense to me because we’re still here, not ‘stuck’ in Belfast, but living a very non- rock ‘n roll lifestyle at the moment, shall we say. Ultimately though, we have always done things our own way and if people come to us then that’s cool.”