In color-coordinated black-and-white outfits, the post-punk rockers of Grandmas House take over the Stubb’s outdoor stage.

Every heavy hit of toms, wriggle of bass, and strum of electric guitar cuts through the cool air. The growing audience headbangs and dances along with each and every note – there’s not a stagnant moment.

Raw, visceral vocals drift between frontwoman Yasmin Berndt and drummer Poppy Dodgson, with background aid from bassist Zoë Zinsmeister. Once a trio, the addition of guitarist Polly Jessett proves a critical addition to the band’s sound and performance, catapulting the already addicting sonics even further.

The Bristol-based four-piece sat down with Atwood Magazine in the midst of SXSW chaos, proving to be just as entertaining off-stage as they are on. The band works as a unit in performance and mesh just as well in conversation: Bouncing jokes of one another, finishing each other’s thoughts, and laughing perfectly in sync. Their latest single “DOG” just hit the airwaves and should satisfy your need for new music, but I can attest that it’s even better live – and they just so happen to be on an ongoing European tour…

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:: stream/purchase DOG here ::

:: connect with Grandmas House here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH GRANDMAS HOUSE

Atwood Magazine: When did music first enter your life?

Zoë Zinsmeister: Music in general has just always been a part of my life. It’s always shaped my style as well. I’ve always grown up kind of being obsessed with bands. For me it was bands like My Chemical Romance and stuff like that. I’ve shifted to lots of different genres through my life. But when it came to playing, it was when I moved to Bristol with [Yasmin and Poppy]. That was the first time where I picked up an instrument properly for myself and thought I can play this.

Yasmin Berndt: I feel like I never went to live shows really. I went to big concerts but like proper gigs, [not until] I moved to Bristol. And then the Bristol music scene was so good for that.

Poppy Dodgson: I was obsessed with bands when I was younger. I was very into different genres of music too. But I was very into pop and indie music, but I didn’t think that I could play. I tried to start learning guitar from quite a young age so I had lessons but I couldn’t really do it properly. And then when we went to Uni, that was when me and Yasmin were seeing all these bands like Shame and Idles… and we were both like, “You know what, that would be so fun if we could start a band.”

Yasmin: Very non-seriously. [laughs]

Poppy: And I didn’t play the drums at all. I’d never even tried to play them. I’ve always been into music and wanted to be in a band. That was always like something that I would love to do, but I just didn’t think I could do it.

Polly Jessett: I became just obsessed with music when I was like 11-years-old and just all I wanted to do was play guitar. I would just put on like a Green Day CD in my room and play along to the whole thing from start to finish with all the printed out tabs. [laughs] I then started a metal band with my brother and we played in the garage, which was fun.

Was there a moment you knew this was the career path you’d follow?

Poppy: Not for a while, once we were playing. We weren’t very comfortable when we started, I think ’cause we were learning our instruments.

Yasmin: It definitely took a few years.

Poppy: We were very shy and not confident in ourselves and I think especially women have a lot of imposter syndrome when it comes to music. Especially our kind of genre of music that we’re in.

Polly: I feel like it’s more in the last year we’ve all become just more like, “We are here and we deserve to be here.”

How do you push past that feeling? Because it is something very difficult to get over.

Yasmin: Well, I think paying live is our favorite part. I think that’s when you get the direct interaction with fans. We have so many lovely interactions at every show, people are so nice.

Poppy: And I also think just gigging a lot. I think the live aspect was the thing that I personally found really hard with the imposter syndrome. By the time you’re stood on the side of stages, I’ve literally got no choice but to go on. [laughs]

And I think just doing that again and again. Once I’m playing, I’m like, “Woohoo!” It’s the before bit that’s the struggle. I think just keep doing it as many times as you possibly can in as many places as you possibly can.

How would you describe your sound and how has it evolved since first starting band?

Poppy: When we first started, we obviously were just learning our instruments for the first time so we were working with the skills that we had. Whereas now we’ve… we were playing like very like punky, post-punky kind of music. I think now we’ve gained experience.

Zoë: Back then it’s kind of what we could do at the time.

Poppy: Whereas now, it’s the music we really had in us the whole time, but we’ve got the skill to play.

How do you expect your sound to continue to shift and evolve?

Yasmin: Honestly, who knows? Anything can happen.

Poppy: That is the exciting thing.

Zoë: In the last couple years, the stuff we’ve been writing… We don’t have the music knowledge from lessons or technical skills and stuff. We are just like, “Yeah, that sounds good.”

Yasmin: I think that sets us free.

Zoë: We recorded recently and our producer was like, “Oh, okay!” to certain things we were doing.

Polly: Like it shouldn’t work but for some reason it does. [laughs]

Do you consider yourself more of a lyrics or a sound person?

Polly: I feel like I need both. The lyric and the sound have to like perfectly go together. If I can’t take any meaning from a song, then it’s hard to really connect to want to listen again.

Yasmin: Lyrics are really important. I feel like it can’t be such a good song if the lyrics are really not good. I find it very hard to listen.

Zoë: I think with music I listen to, definitely lyrics. I need to be in the song. But then the sound has to be with it…

Poppy: Both are very important. Both can be emotional in different ways.

Where do you tend to find inspiration?

Yasmin: I like using real life feelings, but then sometimes doing a whole metaphor around it.

Poppy: Our last EP was very inspired by grief and illness. I was ill for a while, quite a long time. And we wrote that music during that time. Even if the song itself wasn’t like about it, it came from this kind of vibe that we were feeling at the time. And I think with our new music, it’s the same kind of era of that emotion.