When did ‘Lidocaine’ start taking shape as a song, and did you always know it would be a lead single?

GK began writing the lyrics whilst she was still on chemo, but they weren’t finished until after. She had a basic melody idea that we built on, and we knew once we’d made a demo that it was the most appropriate song to return with after everything that had just happened.

You took a hiatus as GK recovered from leukaemia. How has that experience changed the band’s approach to making music, if at all?

We’ve always written about our deeply personal life experiences, so in a way, writing ‘Lidocaine’ was true to that. Our songs are very authentic for that reason, but we also try to make them thematically ambiguous, to allow people to attach their own experiences. We believe this to be equally as important as the origin of the song itself.

Could you name some of your biggest influences?

We adore Garbage, Heart and The Cranberries, as well as bands from our Riot Grrrl roots like Bikini Kill. More modern bands that come to mind are Wolf Alice and Dream Wife.

What do you see in your future?

We are inherently focused on topics that are difficult to confront, to make them more accessible. Such as body image, a personal and amorphous topic, not dissimilar to what we did with ‘Lidocaine’ and cancer. We hope to contribute to the collective voice of women in the music industry, and intend for our voices to be heard as well as amplifying the unheard.  

Check out 'Lidocaine' by VENUS GRRRLS below.