RELIGIOUS GIRLS

MUSIC

BIO

Religious Girls is an experimental pop band from Oakland, California that originated in 2008. They’ve released several praised EPs and gained a dedicated following with their dynamic live sets (often performing off the stage in the middle of the pit). They haven’t released any music since 2012, and their fans are highly anticipating hearing new music.  The Stranger poetically explain Religious Girls unique sound and its powerful effect on the listener: 

“combining frantic live drums with layered synth textures and expressive howls, the band creates a magical space for my thoughts to wander in public, directed by otherworldly sounds.”

Religious Girls has become a diverse trio of multi-instrumentalists, with each member hailing from separate musical backgrounds that range from metal to noise to math rock and pop. The band's current line-up consists of keyboardist / lead vocalist Christopher Danko, keyboardist / drummer / vocalist Luis Gutierrez and lead drummer / vocalist Nicholas Cowman. Using their influences and talents, Religious Girls focus their energy into creating powerful harmonies and layering them over intricate percussive rhythms. Bay area indie music site The Bay Bridged concisely explains the spectrum of Religious Girls songwriting:

“bursting-at-the-seams compositions to soaring, noisy, melodic, and mathy extremes.”

Collectively, the band has tried to push aside the standards of popular song writing with non-repeating structures, an intricate meth-matical style, and a carefully laid out set in which all songs are interweaved into one. Religious Girls focus on creating intimacy with the crowd, and are known to offer an intense and dramatic set. They feel that no matter how high of quality a recording may be, the live set is what moves people, and viewers leave in awe by the end of their live performances. 

Religious Girls have played countless shows around the bay area, consistently toured up the West Coast, and have amazed crowds from L.A.’s FMLY Fest to Idaho’s Treefort Fest. They are currently planning a Spring 2017 tour to bring their fans the mesmerizing live-chaos of their new album. 

The long awaited Pure Energy is out on Long Beach label Porch Party Records on August 11th 2017. 

PRESS

IMPOSE // "Pop noise anomaly Religious Girls return with a sharpened and earth shattering precision approach to distortion with their upcoming fall slated album for Porch Party Records...Religious Girls spin glimmering keys & rolling percussion into a mind carousel that awakens the senses to a meditative like state. Join us after the following debut of “Respect” as we catch up with everything that has been happening with Religious Girls, Oakland, activism, and more."

The Stranger // "the three dudes in the experimental Oakland trio are artfully pulling my mind in new directions. Combining frantic live drums with layered synth textures and expressive howls, the band creates a magical space for my thoughts to wander in public, directed by otherworldly sounds. The songs specifically deny verse-chorus-verse formula, and because they're never repeating structures, it feels like the musical equivalent of a helium balloon set free in the sky. There's no grounding structure, no repeating theme to draw you back to earth."

NOISEY // "The latest offering from the Oakland-bred trio is boldly experimental, even by their own standards. It hurries from singalong melodies and arena-rock guitar melodies to brutal noise and discomforting wails; it's lushly electronic one moment and jaggedly analog the next; it's changes rhythm and tempo without ever sounding mathematical—there's just too much chaos for any sort of dull precision. It might give you nightmares, but it's a risk worth taking."

LINKS

https://www.facebook.com/religiousgirls

https://www.instagram.com/religiousgirls

https://twitter.com/religiousgirls

VIDEOS