Amelie Marah and Eve Buckley, Online Music Editors, speak to Lacewings about life as a girl band in Exeter.
Lacewings are an alternative rock band based in Exeter, comprised of students Tabitha Tinsley (vocals, tambourine), Nehal Tumia (guitar), Sali Morgan (guitar), Florence Rhodes (bass) and Dhiaan Bains (drums). Aptly naming themselves after The Clientele’s song ‘Lacewings’, their sound reflects their eclectic fusion of 60s jangle, 70s funk and 90s grunge music. Despite forming less than a year ago, they are already making a real impact on Exeter’s music scene.
The band draws on a variety of different inspirations, forming a unique pastiche of their alternative sound. Nehal cites Brian May as the ‘reason [she] got into playing guitar,’ whereas Dhiaan grew up with Punjabi music. She says that ‘my dad was a Punjabi musician, so I like to jump into stuff like that. […] I call that alternative because its not exactly mainstream.’ The band are really enjoying ‘new wave indie bands like Horse Girl and Bella Lip Bombs’ and their PJ Harvey-esque essence. ‘I think we’re really leaning into that for these new songs with the big riff and laid back for the vocal.’
These inspirations compensate for the lack of female musicians at the university and in the local area more broadly. Unfortunately, they have already faced innumerate challenges as the only girl band at the university’s Campus Bands Society, with one student complaining about having to listen to ‘another girl band.’ In Lacewing’s experience, it seems a few members ‘don’t have respect for you until they know you’re actually in the band.’ As Nehal puts it, ‘we were kind of scared away from the society, it felt like the demographic of campus bands, especially last year was kind of white men. I feel like it is kind of hard paving the way as a girl.’
They think that this is a small part of an ongoing problem in the music industry stating that it ‘is quite backwards still.’ They talk about how many prominent female musicians often wear revealing outfits. As a frontwoman, Tabitha doesn’t ‘want to stand up on stage in a bodysuit,’ highlighting the necessity to sell yourself as well as your music as a female musician. Nehal describes it as a ‘feedback loop […] because women don’t feel comfortable putting themselves out there, they don’t get to develop as musicians.’
Despite these challenges, the band continues to love every second of playing and being together, describing themselves as ‘soul sisters.’ As Dhiaan says, ‘to be able to do something you love so much with your friends, I mean, that’s just insane.’ The opportunities this band has been given reflect their quality as musicians, playing a variety of gigs throughout Exeter; ‘I never thought we were going to play Cavern and we got asked to play four times.’ All of this fuels them on, and as Flo says, ‘this is what I want to do, this is what I enjoy.’
For bands here in Exeter, they are paving the way for emerging female musicians through Campus Bands Society and beyond. As Publicity Secretary, Nehal is hoping to help change the culture from the inside, out saying she ‘almost has to do it because you don’t see a lot of Arab Muslim women playing the guitar so I feel like I have to do it for the other girls like me.’ Similarly, Dhiaan ‘want[s] a south Asian drummer to walk in and like find people she wants to make music with and have fun doing it.’ Tabitha says, ‘I do feel like there’s an improvement’ and jokes that ‘I think that started with Lacewings,’ but we believe there is truth in her statement.
In terms of the future, Lacewings already have a busy calendar of gigs in Exeter, Bristol, and are hoping to play a London show soon. They are working on a variety of originals too which they want to record and put out by Christmas with the aim of playing some festivals next summer. If their demos are anything to go by, this is a band to watch out for, and they are sure to make waves throughout the alternative rock scene in the Southwest and beyond.
