Dream Nails, interview: “we’re under no illusions that art is enough”
Dream Nails (l-r): Janey, Mimi, Lucy and Anya. Photograph: Deborah Ellis
After three years building a fan base in the UK and Europe, all-female quartet Dream Nails have just released their fifth video for ‘Cookies 4 U’; a super catchy, slow handclap of a song dedicated to male allies who expect applause. In it we see them roll their eyes as they harmonise over guitars (Example lyric: ‘You held a placard / take a gold star’).
Guitarist Anya says: “We wanted to create a video that people could post on each other’s Facebook walls and share it whenever a guy was being a crappy feminist ally and you thought they deserved cookies for really basic feminist statements.”
The rainbow-coloured video sees them surrounded by giant custard creams and towers of pink wafers, which were all handmade by the band and crew.
Singer Janey says: “Giant biscuit making! My biscuits were shit, they got hidden at the back.” Lucy, who plays drums, laughs: “Yeah mine got hidden. It was the funniest thing: if you watch it carefully, especially in Anya, you can see the flu progressing through her nose, getting redder.”
Anya laughs: “In the first scene it’s a normal nose. Second scene; it’s like red and my eyes are tiny. It’s so bad. I was exhausted, so exhausted.”
The band has reason to be exhausted. After gigs in the last month including at The Finsbury and Rich Mix, they’re about to embark on a European tour. They’re also starting a fan club, and raising donations for a group providing access to reproductive justice.
On the video’s director, Janey says: “Becca Human is an actual artist, she is incredible. It’s just the latest in a line of incredible female directors we’ve worked with. We did another video with fourteen women, and they loved working on it because that working environment doesn’t exist in the film industry, where no-one’s patronising you, people are respectful.”
Take the biscuit: a still from the ‘Cookies 4 U’ video (d. Becca Human)
The band loves their fans, who they describe as: “intelligent and interesting – the exact kind of people we want to make music for.” Every year or so however, they do get someone in the audience who takes offence at their ‘girls to the front’ policy, where they will put down their instruments if men won’t stand aside and let women towards the stage. It’s not designed to trick anyone; they helpfully make little cards to explain it to people beforehand.
When asked how often they encounter resistance, Janey estimates three times in three years.
“And those that are bad are aggressive with it as well, which proves our point.” says Lucy.
Another time, a sound engineer told Lucy she might want to wear earplugs because playing the drums is loud. Bassist Mimi says: “You would never say that to a guy.” Lucy agrees: “Of course you wouldn’t!”
They believe the scene promoting music by women and non-binary people in London is growing. Anya says: “It’s super supportive, everyone shows us so much love and we’ve got to know so many amazing bands through those networks so it feels a bit like family.”
Janey adds: “People talk about women in music but only think about the bands, but actually the music industry is so much broader than that; it’s about female promoters, venues that are managed by women, producers, recording studios, bookers – everything.
“We have been called honest and genuine more times than we can count and people really value that in musicians I think because the industry prizes aloofness. From start to finish we don’t pretend to be something we’re not and people are really relieved by that.”
The band support Abortion Support Network, a volunteer-run organisation who they say make “a tangible difference to women’s lives” in providing access to safe and legal abortions. All proceeds from their latest vinyl EP are being donated to the group.
“In our own small way we try to raise as much awareness as possible about reproductive justice,” says Anya. “As musicians, we can only do so much. As people who do voluntary work and activism, we can probably do a bit more, [but] as musicians all we can do is raise awareness and energise people to do something about this stuff in their own lives.”
Janey thinks there is an important link between music and campaigning nonetheless: “Both music and mass movements rely on community, and they rely on people coming together and building trust. Ultimately that is something that music can enable, but I think it needs to go much further than just music.”
Lucy agrees: “I think a lot of musicians fall foul of that, like ‘we’re just making good music’, [but] you know, you’re not going to change something.”
Janey sums it up: “We’re under no illusions that art is enough.”