Do you feel any pressure to sound like you did when you were starting out?

PEYTON: No, I don’t feel any pressure, and I don’t think Kelli does either, to sound the same as we did when we started, or even to sound the same as we do on The Big Fit. We’re always trying to find ways to write songs differently and make them sound new. We don’t want any of our songs to sound the same as the other ones. We wouldn’t want to be in a band if we weren’t going to always be changing.

KELLI: Yeah, a lot of our favorite artists change from album to album. And even if you don’t like an album as much because it’s different, I still really respect whenever someone can keep thinking about how to change their sound.

Who are your favorite artists?

KELLI: I’m really really into Lou Barlow. We got this Folk Implosion CD, as kind of a random bid, just betting on it being good, and it was. It’s one of my favorite records. I also love his last solo album, Break the Wave, and I really like the new Dinosaur Jr. album.

PEYTON: I also really like Lou Barlow; I just listened to his solo album last night, Goodnight Unknown. Beside Lou Barlow, I also really like Perfume Genius. He’s one of my favorite musicians.

KELLI: [Perfume Genius] is one of those musicians I was talking about that just changes his sound from album to album. Also Deerhoof—they’re amazing! We just got to go on tour with them, and I love their new album so much! Listening to their new album made me go back and listen to their other albums, and I think Friend Opportunity and The Magic are my favorite Deerhoof albums.

PEYTON: I’ve also been listening to the Replacements a lot recently, because I just read their new biography, and I love the Replacements. They quickly became one of my favorite bands.

KELLI: We’ve also been really into Daisy Chainsaw lately. I’ve known about them for a long time, since I was super little, but I’d only really heard about two songs that were always being played around my house. I bought their EP from a Goodwill recently, and I’ve been listening to that a lot. It’s awesome.

Speaking of bands that you like, I saw that you toured with Babes in Toyland and have been recording with Veruca Salt—that’s wild! How does it feel to be connected to so many legendary bands?

KELLI: It’s kind of crazy! I have this weird energy high around them, and also this nervousness most of the time. Even when we’re just joking with each other it’s like, Wow, I’m joking with Lori Barbero. It’s strange because they feel like family at this point, but they’re also my hugest heroes and part of the reason we started our band.

PEYTON: It’s a weird thing that’s happening now—all of these ’90s bands that we really like somehow have been all finding out about us in rapid succession.

KELLI: We joke that we have the monopoly on ’90s legends!

PEYTON: They’ve started talking about us on Facebook and Twitter and it’s really cool. We were with Louise Post [of Veruca Salt] for a while—we were staying with her—and she was taking her daughter to this play-school that she goes to every day, and we met Patty Schemel from Hole, and she already knew about us! All these cool women already know about us, and it’s all happening at once.

That’s amazing!

KELLI: It’s cool! I love it, it’s a huge honor. It’s been really helpful for us getting exposure, because people are hearing about us through all of these other bands. A lot of the time, people who like Veruca Salt or Babes in Toyland or L7 also like us. People tell us we have a ’90s sound, but I don’t think it’s really that. There are bands that we hear, or we play with, and they get really popular, and they sound like grunge-by-numbers. We’re really inspired by the ’90s, and certain bands from then have a huge influence on us, but we’re also inspired by other things—weird things that our friends in those ’90s bands hate. So it evens out. The last two really good friends we’ve had that are also awesome musicians we’ve looked up to, I haven’t wanted them to find out that I like certain bands because I think they have way better taste in music than me, but then I find out they also like certain bands that I hate, or hate something I LOVE, and it makes me realize why our music sounds so different. We just like different things.

Speaking of your style of music, I’ve heard you describe your music as “ugly pop.” What do you mean by that?

KELLI: What I mean by that is that we try to keep the focus on the song. Pretty much all I want is for all our songs to have really great melodies, but at the same time be noisy and off-kilter and chaotic and just have a lot of dirt on them. Even the most beautiful Skating Polly songs have something twisted. Even on the most punk, I’m-ripping-my-vocal-chords-out songs are catchy. Underneath all the grime, [I want them to] be pretty pop songs. I grew up thinking that pop meant Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, Elliot Smith, really catchy stuff. A lot of other people think pop is just the radio. I like “ugly pop” as a modifier, as I didn’t want to call us riot grrrl. I don’t really think we’re riot grrrl, plus Kathleen Hanna herself said she doesn’t want riot grrrl to go on. I don’t think we’re grunge. You could call us rock, but I feel like that’s such a broad term. Ugly pop describes our sound well. Also, we have a song “Ugly,” which is about not being able to choose what you hear about your appearance and stuff like that, so you really shouldn’t care what other people think. You should care what you think. People might say you’re ugly or whatever on the internet, but you can’t let that dictate your life. It’s kind of the same with a sound—you can’t let people tell you what would sound good if you did a certain thing. We don’t like calculated pop. We just like good, authentic melody.

That really comes through with your music.

KELLI: Ah, thank you!

So, what’s next for you guys?

KELLI: We’ll be doing a proper U.S. tour, as well as releasing our collaboration with Veruca Salt—we’re actually working on the art for that now. I also got cast in this Hulu pilot, and we’re waiting to hear back if that gets picked up. That’s holding back all of our touring plans as we’re not sure what’s going on.

What is the Hulu pilot?

KELLI: It’s a murder mystery set in the ’80s. It’s really awesome! It looks like a David Fincher film. The camera work is really awesome, there’s lots of atmosphere and smoke. My character is really sarcastic, and kind of like a tomboy in personality—very crafty, but dresses in really bright, colorful, unique outfits, and she’s obsessed with the ’50s. She’s really rock ’n’ roll.

What is the show called? Are you allowed to say?

KELLI: Yes! It’s called When the Street Lights Go On.

I’ll have to look out for that! Have you acted before?

KELLI: No! When we went on tour with Kate Nash, back in 2012 or 2013, her manager saw some of our music videos and asked us if we’d be interested in acting. Peyton was like, “No way, I’m shy, I hate acting!” and I was like, “Yes way, I’m a cheese!”. So I started auditioning and working on tapes from home, and I got a few calls that were really close. I’d been doing it for a while, and I was almost ready to give up, but I got a callback from When The Streetlights Go Out, and I could just tell that I was going to get the part. And sure enough, I did!

That’s definitely a new direction—from punk band to acting! I love it!

KELLI: Yeah! I really enjoy it. Recently I’ve been watching the Dustin Hoffman MasterClass. That’s been my thing.

Do you think acting has impacted your stage presence?

KELLI: I don’t know! I’m so neurotic on stage—sometimes it’s so random and uncomfortable, and I don’t know what to say between songs, so I just start doing South Park impressions. I’m very good at South Park impressions.

PEYTON: She made me laugh so hard that I hurt my wrist!

Oh man! Do you have any parting advice for Rookie readers?

KELLI:“Girl bands” should not be so lumped in together. A lot of the time, with our music, we get lumped in with a lot of bands that sound nothing like us, and their whole band mission is completely different, or we’ll get thrown in with an ironic band that’s sarcastic, and that’s awesome but it’s weird for us because it’s a totally different kind of thing. There’s this huge problem right now because people think of “girl bands” as all the same, and honestly it’s a little bit offensive. I was talking to Lori from Babes in Toyland, and it was the same back in the ’90s when all-female bands were really big—and they were all called riot grrrl, even if they didn’t want to be riot grrrl. Like, we sound more like some of the all-guy bands that are around right now—like the Frights, or the Orwells—and just judging by the music, we might fit better with them than some of the all-women bands we get booked with. Not that we don’t love girls in bands. It just feels kind of ridiculous sometimes. We need to actually compare music, and not just group bands together by nothing other than gender. ♦