"You look at something like Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and that song wasn't even written by her, it was written by a man and stuff like that is exactly what I want to change.”
Fellow members of the loud-farting, butt-crack-hair-growing gender, take a second to consider Tessa Richards' sentiment, because it's probably foreign to you. There's no shortage of material in the pop cultural pantheon that explores masculinity; from Hemingway to Henry Rollins, the dudebro experience has been delineated by countless dudebros prior. But what if that wasn't the case? The Androgyny were born out of a situation where there weren't a lot of people making music from positions which they could relate to
“After the nineties I had so much hope for women in rock'n'roll,” Richards says. “But, if anything, I feel like the number of girls in alternative bands has died down. And we want to inspire women, and also show everyone what women in bands are capable of.”
Richards says that's the point of latest single, I'm Not Your Heroine. It captures a riot grrrl influence colliding with an obvious appreciation for the last thirty years of alternative rock. “It's really important for us to empower women through our music, and that song is a real statement that sums up what we're about.” It's the latest single from EP, I Don't Desire Your Empire, which dropped late last year. Currently, the band's touring both the single and the record, after line-up troubles put the brakes on late-2012.
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“The EP was getting a great response and we really wanted to get out and tour it. Unfortunately, we had two line-up changes around the drums, and that put a stop to us being able to promote I Don't Desire Your Empire,” Richards recalls. “Then we met Laura, our new drummer, and since then the momentum's definitely back.”
With their all-girl line-up secured, Richards says that The Androgyny are doing everything in their power to capitalise on the momentum that's starting to build. Along with their current tour, they're already getting set up for what's coming next. “We've already been in the studio and we've recorded our next EP,” she reveals. “We recorded in January/February this year and it should be ready around the end of the year. We're really excited about it, we think it could take us to a whole new level.”
In regards to the band's feminine perspective on music, it has to be asked: how can a band defined by their gender refer to themselves as The Androgyny?
“In order to be in a band you have to be physically and mentally androgynous,” she offers. “I think you need to have a lot of traits that are quite stereotypically male to want to be in a band. I mean, the reality of the situation is we're lugging heavy equipment, we're travelling, it's hot and sweaty. When you start out you might have these aspirations of looking beautiful onstage – with beautiful make-up and all glamorous – but the reality is that you're playing music and your make-up's going to run.
“I've always been so frustrated by the lack of women in bands, and then sometimes I think about it when it's late at night and we're lugging equipment to cars and there's a long drive ahead of us; it's not comfortable, it's hard work. Maybe women are just smarter than men, they know better than this.”
