In Conversation with CurrentMoodGirl

Make it stand out

Greta Carroll’s music can be described as dreamy and ethereal yet spooky and abrasive at times. She has the power to completely take you to another world with her music. I first saw Greta perform with her previous band Pearl City whilst supporting Polyester besties Dream Wife and I was totally captivated.

She is a true performer at heart and puts everything into her live performance from outfits to stage setup to lights to writing, recording and producing everything from her bedroom. I sat down with her to have a lil chat about her latest musical project, CURRENTMOODGIRL, self releasing music, moving away from the male dominated Manchester scene and having that creative lightbulb moment.

It seems like you’ve always done everything yourself, writing, recording, producing. What’s your setup like? 

My setup changes a lot. I'm quite good at using what I have around me. This recent EP was saved from my 12 year old laptop that I had to manually turn on by unscrewing the back of my computer every time and rewiring it.

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I ended up having to go into a computer suite to finish producing the EP as my old laptop finally conked out but I always find ways to make my music in the madness. I'm surprised I can pull it off but I am obsessed with creating so I just make it happen.

I have limited funds to get the software I need and It doesn't help that I'm an incredibly clumsy and messy person who struggles with mental health problems and dyslexia and a broken laptop.

“I’m probably the most out of control, control freak you will ever meet.”

But I feel like I embody the true meaning of modern DIY. Lots of musicians are labelled DIY but tell me this, did they have working equipment or did they have to scramble around fixing things all the time? 

That's probably why my sound is so raw and industrial as at certain points when i’m recording stuff is breaking in real time. I feel like a mad scientist sometimes. I hope no-one sees how weird I am when I’m making my music. It's quite private sometimes as I’m holed up in my room running about. I hope no one no one can see me from outer space or looking through the window and see me zooming about dressed in a ballerina costume putting contact mics on household objects. I love recording instruments like the mini steel pan and the flute into my tracks alongside more electronic drums synths, but I don’t have a formula. You just have to work things out. One of my producer friends looked at my Ableton once and was like, “I've never seen anyone use Ableton like that in my whole life. It looks like a drawing. How did you do that?” But I literally couldn’t answer. I can't recreate it! It just happened in the moment. To make progress in songs sometimes you need to make no progress for ages and spend a long time doing one tiny thing.

I love being uncomfortable and pushing myself to limits even if no one else will ever know what i've gone thru to create a certain sound or might not notice the glitch or off drum I made halfway thru the track, It's all about my own path I don’t care if I’m doing it in the wrong way it feel right too me. I’m probably the most out of control, control freak you will ever meet. 

And how would you advise someone who wants to start recording music in their bedroom?

Take time to get yourself ready, turn off social media, create an atmosphere that suits your mood, just get yourself into your own head space. Think of it as you are about to summon a ghost, isolate yourself from the world for a few hours. I’m a night time artist so these are just the things I do, trust your own instincts.

In the creating process if you don’t have much money you can start on anything you can use your phone to record sounds round your house pots pans, you could record your voice in the bathroom for natural reverb, anything goes and there's lots of cool apps these days to manipulate sound as well. When it comes to starting recording in your bedroom there's no right or wrong way you have to explore what suits you best. Just make sure you backup everything you make on a hard drive!

I know it’s been discussed to death but what’s your experience of being a woman in the music industry and do you find you have to work twice as hard to be heard or taken seriously?

You have to work incredibly hard not only on the music but how you put it out, making the music is the easy part, I have done so much research on how to self- release and making any kind of impact is extremely hard. 

I’ve noticed that male musicians normally seem to move in groups and there's lots of different people around to carry the burden of a release/ gigs/ recording process so the artist can focus on just being the artist. It can sometimes feel like they’re in a club that you're not welcome at. Sometimes I just don’t feel cool enough!

I used to seek male reassurance and guidance from musicians around me, even if they were more inexperienced than me musically. 

But I feel I had an enlightenment moment. It took years but it was as if everything switched to reality like in the film “They Live”. I put on the glasses and saw the truth. That I was the same as a man and I started to trust what I do. I was just looking in the wrong places. I might have to work 10 times harder than a man but I think it’s made me stronger.

You’ve just moved from Manchester to Brighton. Did you find it hard to stay positive in a music scene that was hard to get recognition in?

I'm going through stages at the moment and I think I'm in the stage of realisation and enlightenment. I actually know how to make music. I know how to do it. I'm a producer, a musician and a multi disciplinary artist. I don't need a boy to tell me I’m worthy of recognition. Sometimes when they were talking to me about technical stuff I’d be listening thinking that's not right in my head, like the bit in Mean Girls. “Wrong. He was so wrong!” because I didn’t want to speak out. You have to follow your own instincts. If you think something's good you have to trust yourself that it is actually good. Do it. Stop trying to sound like someone else, you need to do your own thing. So make a new thing.

So what does the future hold for you creatively?

I feel like I could easily end up doing something totally different from what I'm doing now like sound art, because I'm so interested in the way that sound affects you emotionally, you know? But for now I'm gonna keep on learning, experimenting and making my bangers.

Words: Eden Young | Photography: Chelsea Mulcahy | Outfit: Myfanwy Holland | MUA: Georgia Gill

CURRENTMOODGIRL’S EP Side Split is out on the 22nd of October.