Interview: Grandmas House | LOUD Bristol Issue Three
Posted on: 31 Dec 2021This article was first published in the third issue of LOUD Bristol, 365Bristol's dedicated music magazine. Read LOUD Issue Three and browse our first two editions here.
Grandmas House
Armed with their polished debut EP and a bond so tight it verges on being ‘a bit weird’, the Bristol trio are back on the road and loving every second of it.
“We’re very loud, very angry, very sweaty.” That’s how Grandmas House frontwoman Yasmin Berndt describes her band’s sound and style when I connect with them for an interview on Zoom. “Music-wise, we just have a lot of fun.” No messing about, no pretence. Grandmas House in a nutshell. Formed in late 2018, the trio play snarling punk music that sounds tailor-made for the stage, combining Yasmin’s weighty vocals with Poppy Dodgson’s expansive drumming and razor-sharp lines from bassist Zoë Zinsmeister.
Despite releasing a slew of singles since their inception, Grandmas House have carved out a reputation as an explosive live band first and foremost, playing some of Bristol’s best-loved small venues including The Old England, Exchange and The Louisiana during their early days. “We were playing out loads at that point,” Yasmin tells me, “playing Bristol pretty much every week.” But, like so many acts emerging across the city and beyond, their progress came to a grinding halt when Covid-19 started to take hold in early 2020. Suddenly, a band who were making a name for themselves with their head-turning stage shows had no heads to turn and no stages to play on.
As it turned out, though, the trio managed to maintain some productivity and keep the ball rolling through successive lockdowns. Living together for the entirety of the pandemic, Yasmin, Poppy and Zoë spotted an opportunity to come up with ideas and focus their energy on making new music while venue doors were bolted shut.
“Going from nothing to playing all these new cities in the past few months has been amazing”
“I think we figured out a really good way of writing songs,” Poppy recalls, “because we were spending so much time together and we’re so comfortable around each other. It was never like ‘oh let’s get together and write a song’ – usually it’s like we’re one brain that comes together and makes something happen.”
“One merged brain! We are just the same people – it’s actually a bit weird,” Yasmin laughs.
Whatever the dynamic, it was clearly a good fit. From March 2020 to the end of lockdown in July, Grandmas House released four standalone singles and two homemade music videos, showcasing their ability to self-produce and create on their own DIY terms. Yasmin explains they were “gigging so much before [the pandemic] that every time we practiced we’d just play the set for the next gig,” never being able to put time aside to work on a studio-quality release.
In contrast, lockdown presented the band with an opportunity to fine-tune their sound, spend more time writing and put more thought into their production. Now, they’ve released their self-titled debut EP (recorded between Bristol and Bath) and crucially, they’re back on the road. Between supporting IDLES on The Downs in September (playing in front of their biggest crowd to date), taking part in the Music Venue Trust’s Revive Live series and embarking on their first-ever nationwide headline tour, Grandmas House are right back in amongst it, and loving every second.
Grandmas House on-stage as part of the Music Venue Trust Revive Live tour. Photos: Vendy Palkovicova
“I feel like we actually kind of forgot how to play live,” Poppy says. “We’d only played gigs in Bristol and one in Cardiff before lockdown, so we never got to experience the proper touring thing and playing in different places. We were a bit scared - we were like ‘oh my god what if we don’t like touring!’ – but going from nothing to playing all these new cities in the past few months has been amazing.”
The band have even found time to maintain their links with hometown venues since emerging from lockdown, having a “crazy” full circle moment when they were invited to headline The Thunderbolt in August, the same venue that hosted their very first live gig two years earlier. “Since we started all the venues we’ve played have been so supportive of us,” Zoë says. “We’ve been really lucky in that sense.” The story of Grandmas House is one that’s come to define the contemporary Bristol music scene. They’re a hard-working band making the music they love exactly how they want to make it, maintaining positive relationships with fans, grassroots venue owners and fellow artists that make up the city’s flourishing punk community.
The band are, as they put it themselves, “perfectly suited” to a relentless touring schedule, and throughout our chat, it’s become abundantly clear they’ve got no plans to slow down any time soon. Returning crowds all over the country are finally getting to know one of the loudest, angriest and sweatiest bands in Bristol right now, and should expect to see and hear plenty more in the months to come.
Main Image: Rosie Carne
Head to Issuu to read the full third issue of LOUD Bristol, featuring an array of interviews with renowned artists, venues, labels and more.
Article by:
Editor - 365Bristol.com & LOUD Magazine
Matt is a Journalism graduate and writer, passionate about supporting Bristol music, art and independent business. Get in touch via email at matt@365bristol.com.
