Girls On Heat: The Ivories

It may have escaped your notice, but it seems that lately Leeds has become a bit of a hotbed for music. Apart from the likes of Duels and The Research, and of course the Kaiser Chiefs who are happily making their mark in music, you’ve also got The Ivories, a four piece all girl rock band. "There’s always been bands in every city but there’s a lot of talent in Leeds at the moment," reckons frontwoman Helena Gee. "I don’t think there’s any more talent than there ever has been, it’s just the media’s paid more attention than they have done in the past".

Signed to the Leeds based 48 crash label, The Ivories are made up of Helena, guitarist Emma Rowe, bass player Cathy Russell and Anna Prior on drums. “I’ve always lived in Leeds, two of the band members went to university there and we all kind of met in Leeds. Anna our drummer joined us later. We came across her and she’s a wicked drum player.”  Prior to the band Helena was doing her thing, writing songs for herself that she was too “embarrassed about, like acoustic stuff”. She was also promoting Release The Bats club nights which played anything from The Clash to Echo and the Bunnymen. “It’s not much of a backup plan!” she admits but at least it allows her to indulge in her passion for music. 

“I’ve always been into music since I was a kid. I’ve been playing the guitar since I was seven,” she tells us. The music industry has a bit of a bad reputation. The financial benefits especially for bands starting out is scandalous, not to mention being inevitably and ruthless exploited by greedy executives and managers, so did Helena’s parents have any concerns for their daughter who had such dreams of musical success?  “My mum didn’t get it for a while, bless her. She was thinking that it meant we were going to be big pop stars. She just thinks I’m going to buy her a house, next year or something, which I don’t think I will be! My dad’s a mod at heart. When he was younger he wanted to be in a band so he empathises”.

There is of course the added pressure of being an all female rock band in a male dominated world. “It’s a shame that it is like that. We’ve been lucky in that, it’s not even intentional, but the people that we’re working with, like press agents and stuff have been few of the women that work in the industry and that’s really cool, but it’s definitely is a male dominated industry,” she says.  “Last night we played a gig and these guys were like, ‘so what time is the band on’ and I’m ‘we’re the band’. They thought we were the girlfriends of the band or whatever and I was just like ‘oh **** off’. It was just ridiculous”.   

Travelling up and down the country in a tour van may be some people’s idea of hell but not Helena. “We’ve just been on tour for two weeks now and we’re having more and more fun like with every gig we do,” she enthuses. “We thought it’d be the other way around, we thought we’d be dead by now, but it’s better and better.  We’re having a laugh and that’s the main thing”. They’re also due to start recording their album soon, something to look forward to no doubt. “Recording is a whole new experience. You write songs and as soon you get into a studio they take on a new life, you kind of experiment,” she reveals. As for the songs: “we’re really happy with the songs and the best thing is that we’re playing them at the moment and they’re going down really well. It’s just nice that even though people don’t really know them yet, we’re getting a really good reaction”.