12 Questions With Hands Off Gretel’s Lauren Tate
NSG’s David Lancaster caught up with Hands Off Gretel singer Lauren Tate (aka Delilah Bon), to chat about Bratz dolls, wanting to be a “Hippie serial killer” and doing 4 encores after a gig in Stuttgart!
DL: Hiya mate, thanks again for the interview opportunity. You grew up in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, you’ve been at this now since you were 14 or 15, rising steadily, releasing your first solo album at a very young age, then forming your band ‘Hands Off Gretel‘. Since then you’ve toured all over the U.K. and Europe, building up a huge dedicated fan base. Can you tell us how you got into all this in the first place and what made you pick up a guitar, why not a trumpet or a cello?
LT: I’ve been singing since I could talk, always annoying my little sister whenever we’d play a game of Barbie or Bratz dolls and I’d throw mini concerts halfway through the game. My mum always pushed me to take it seriously and believe in myself, getting me my first recording experience in a studio when I was 12, which was terrifying. Back then I had many singing teachers come and go but I never stuck to it, I really hated doing the competitions. Then when I turned 14, a producer called Pete contacted me to ask if I’d like to collaborate on a song writing project with him. After a nervous ‘yes’, 2 to 3 times a week for the next 3 years, I worked with him in his home studio, recording cover songs, singing while he played guitar, and talking about my future. I was allowed to record there for free, Pete always pushing me to take guitar practice seriously, showing me different chords, and encouraging me to get my dad’s old Westbury guitar out of the loft and become the next Joan Jett. I hated guitar practice and I hated going to my guitar lessons every Wednesday night. I used to lock myself in the garage and pretend I couldn’t hear my mum calling me because I really didn’t want to go. Only when I learned how to play guitar did I learn how to write music for myself though. Writing my own songs gave me control and confidence in the studio, which is something I didn’t have while I was just singing the songs Pete had written for me. I knew exactly what I wanted for the first time, even down to the final sound of the produced song. It was a weird dynamic then between myself and the producer as what I wanted and what he wanted began to change.
DL: What was Lauren Tate like at school then? A model student or a bit of a rebel, did you enjoy school??
LT: I hated school! That routine of waking up every morning and living the same day over and over again, I had a bleak outlook on life pretty early on. I never wanted to grow up or lose my innocence, my friends left me for boyfriends and I was always in trouble for being disruptive. I just never felt real, always feeling like at any moment a massive asteroid would hit earth and kill us all. I’d wander around school in a daze just looking at all these fake people, seeing teachers fake laughing with each other, and wondering if anyone was even happy. I once laid down on the path outside school staring up at the sky with my earphones in watching as people walked past me. I’d do weird stuff all the time just from boredom and frustration that life was just so dull and slow and repetitive. I was constantly in trouble with teachers, listening to them lecture me every day that I’d amount to nothing and that my dreams of being a singer were unrealistic because of my attitude. I knew when I left school I wanted to be a rock star, a serial killer hippie woman, or a famous artist. I just knew I had to be something different to everyone else and get as far away as possible.
(Hands Off Gretel’s Lauren Tate)
DL: How did H O G happen, how did you meet your bandmates, Sam, Sean, and Becky? Do you feel like you have a good support network around you, with Becky, a fellow female musician in the band, and your boyfriend Sean alongside you also ??
LT: When I was 16 I decided I wanted to get out and play some acoustic shows to gain some experience as it’d been a while since I’d sang live. I ran auditions at Pete’s studio and I remember being so shy that day as most of the guitar players who auditioned were men a lot older than myself and none of them actually spoke to me. Sean came to the audition late and covered in sweat. He complimented me on my patchwork boots and my mum told him I was vegetarian and that I didn’t wear leather, to which he was like ‘wait, I’m vegetarian too’. I instantly knew before he even played guitar that I was going to pick him, it felt like fate. A few months after that, we’d played many shows together, and I decided to ask him to write the guitar parts on my EP. The EP’s sound was transformed because of Sean. He showed me all of his favourite grunge bands, giving me CDs to listen to while I created paintings in my music room. When the EP came out, I auditioned band members to create a solo band, one of those members being Sam (Hands Off Gretel’s drummer), who played lead guitar at the time. We’d practice nearly every day for almost a year and only played a handful of shows. I knew within the first few months that I didn’t like the style of music, I just didn’t feel happy. Before a music video shoot, Sean fell down the stairs and broke his hand, meaning for the next 6 weeks his hand was in a cast. Those 6 weeks changed everything, as I picked up my guitar and Sean pointed at frets trying to teach me his playing style. The band wanted to replace him but I stood my ground. The drummer and bass player then quit. I worked hard at guitar then, and influenced by ‘Hole‘ and ‘Bikini Kill‘, I began screaming for the first time and creating aggressive songs. I quit the solo band and created ‘Hands Off Gretel‘ in 2015, it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done. Fast forward then it took a while to get the right line-up sorted especially with bass players. I took a chance and asked Sam if he wanted to help out and play some shows on bass, to which he agreed. Sam eventually joined HOG and we recorded our first and second album just the 3 of us (Sean, Sam, and I) Sam on both bass and drums. Sam stayed on drums then and we asked Becky to help out on the tour. Becky joined the band officially in 2018 and we haven’t looked back since!
DL: You come across as a very strong woman Lauren, I know you are very outspoken and a leader in the campaign and movement for protecting women and girls who attend shows. You’ve spoken out admirably about girls who encounter sexual harassment and abuse at concerts. What do you think can be done to make our venues a safer, more comfortable place for everybody attending a show and what can concert goers do to protect themselves,… artists too?
LT: I used to feel safe at shows, I used to be very naïve and think the best of people. In the early days, I was just thankful people showed up and bought a ticket. If that meant posing for pictures all night with drunken men, I could handle it. But as the shows got bigger I noticed the lack of women there. Some nights there wouldn’t be a single girl in the crowd and it was beginning to really impact on me. My mum noticed too and she knew it was taking its toll, as after every gig I was being swarmed by men grabbing at me, asking for kisses and hugs and wanting attention from a then teenage girl. Over the years eventually more girls began coming to shows and I’d always look out for them and make sure they’re having the best possible time. I’ve had girls call up to me on stage to tell me they’re being harassed, I’ve seen girls getting pushed out the way by men with cameras demanding they stand beneath myself and Becky and I’ve had girls message me to say they didn’t enjoy the show because of certain creepy men in the crowd. If I know one girl in the audience is having a bad time it ruins the entire show for me, venues should be doing more to ensure everyone is safe but most don’t know how to. I’ve been getting changed in backrooms when drunken men from the bar have wandered in following me with no security there to ensure my safety. Women shouldn’t have to do anything to protect themselves, they should be able to enjoy the show and let themselves go like everyone else. Bands need to be more vocal about crowd safety, even just once in a while reminding drunk guys to keep their hands to themselves and be mindful. Venues need training to know how to deal with sexual assault or harassment of any kind, ensuring at all times someone is present in the crowd to just observe instead of leaving it down to the performers to handle it.
(Hands Off Gretel’s Lauren Tate)
DL: As mentioned earlier, you have a huge following now and you are very close to your fan base on social media, you interact and speak to them on a daily basis, offering many live streams and Q & As. Do you think it’s beneficial for you to be so close to your followers and what do think your fans get from it?
LT: I love being close with my fans. Statistics are great but they don’t really mean anything. What really means something to me is the everyday messages I get. Women telling me how my music has helped them become more confident and create music of their own. I’d hate to lose that connection with fans as it’s really special building such a loving community. As a girl growing up with hardly any friends, I finally feel accepted and it’s a beautiful thing.
DL: What is your spirit animal, Lauren?
LT: Well, I have absolutely no idea…so I just did a google test and it tells me that I’m a clownfish, Haha!!! I do love the ocean and I am a Pisces so I guess it does make sense.
DL: On the last Hands off Gretel album ‘I Want The World‘, you wrote all of the songs, as you did on your recent solo album ‘Songs For Sad Girls‘ (I love ‘Miss American Perfect Body‘ btw). More recently you’ve released about 9 singles as your new alter ego/character, the delightful ‘Delilah Bon‘…. like that’s pretty prolific right ?… like, WOW !!! People should know that you also produce these songs, direct your own videos and you are a fine artist too, designing sleeve art and merch, when do you sleep Lauren? .. Do you like the D.I.Y approach and do you like having that level of control??
LT: I have all the skills to do it DIY, which is sometimes a pain for me because I’m constantly working but also really freeing because I can do whatever the hell I want. I’m so visual with everything I do, I have a vivid imagination so whenever I see a concept for something I must grab my pencils and map it all out. Working with other people is frustrating sometimes because they take so long to do things. If I have an idea within a few hours it comes to life whereas with someone else I have to wait for them going back and forth, discussing every detail via email. Being able to create what I want, when I want with my current ‘Delilah Bon‘ project, I just feel so free.
DL: Tell us about Delilah Bon, where did she come from?
LT: During the tour with Hands Off Gretel I was facing backlash after speaking out about how I’d been treated by male fans wanting to kiss me and touch me, demanding the same respect the guys in my band had. The first show I played after my post blew up on Facebook there was a weird feeling in the air. Men were coming up to me to explain they weren’t creeps and that I could trust ‘them’ and women were thanking me for speaking out all the meanwhile some drunk guys were shouting “hashtag me too, can I have a kiss Lauren?” while I tried to sign CDs and smile for pictures. I was struggling, just wanting to stay backstage and hide. I started writing these sassy songs to hip hop beats in my home studio just for fun. I needed an escape as I tried and failed to write new HOG songs. I wasn’t in the mood for rock, I didn’t even want to pick up my guitar. I just wanted to do something completely different and dance, which is how Delilah Bon came about. The songs were too exciting to hold in and I’m so excited to launch the debut album come May!
DL: If you could collaborate with 2 artists, from any era, 1 deceased, 1 still with us, who would you chose and why?
LT: Rob Zombie and Little Richard for sure!!
DL: Hands Off Gretel could be described as “Grunge Punk”, Lauren Tate’s solo stuff has a more “stripped back, Americana/pop” sound and Delilah has a kind of “Brat Punk/Rap” thing going on. As a writer, do you find you now have 3 different boxes to put your songs into, like do you write a song and think, “oh, that one’s for Gretel and not Delilah?”Is a bit confusing now??
LT: I think all artists should have different flavours to them. It just keeps life interesting. If for whatever reason I hit a block with one thing, I create something for another. I have clashes every once in a while in the early stages of a song coming together but by the time I start adding my vocals I know for sure.
DL: What’s the best show you’ve ever played? How has missing the venues over the last 12 months impacted yourself and the band and what’s your favourite song to play live??
LT: I always enjoy playing ‘Oh Shit‘ because the crowd goes wild for that one. We played Goldmark in Stuttgart in 2017 and the crowd went completely nuts at the end for that song. Sean broke 2 guitars in the crowd and we did 4 encores playing ‘Oh Shit’ twice as they wanted that song so bad. That was a crazy night, everything was completely trashed on stage as they begged for more. I eventually had to get the sound guy to put the venue music back on as we’d ran out of songs. At first it was nice to have the break without gigs as they’re pretty full on when it’s all you do for a year, you don’t have much time for creativity when you’re traveling, but I’m looking forward to getting back into now.
(Hands Off Gretel’s Lauren Tate)
DL: Looking ahead, post Covid, where will we see you at the end of 2021/start of 2022? What does H O G have lined up and what will Lauren and Delilah be getting up to??
LT: HOG are back on tour this year with dates selling out incredibly fast. Lauren’s not got anything coming up musically but I will be continuing my YouTube vlog series once I get chance. In May, Delilah will be dropping her debut album, which I’m so excited for. Lots of music videos in the pipeline and new songs being written as we speak!
DL: Once again thanks for giving us the chance to interview you, anything else you’d like to add?
LT: Nah, I’m off to watch ‘Firefly Lane’ now on Netflix with my mum, we’ll probably cry the entire way through it haha! Thanks for interviewing me, dude!
To follow and listen to Lauren, Hands Off Gretel, and Delilah Bon on social media please click on the pink links below.
Spotify
Listen to Hands Off Gretel on Spotify
