Sink Ya Teeth: Interview

Slider and the Goose were lucky enough to meet one of Norwich’s potential greatest success stories: Sink Ya Teeth. It was all going swimmingly until I offered to get them a drink before we sat down, they both respectively declined and we went on to order our own drinks. Following my lavish offer, I go to grab my wallet to pay for the single pint of ale I had just ordered only to realise that I had left my wallet at home… a mere 30-minute cycle away (still working on that S&TG budget for a sweet ride). Anyway, it was very much a testament to Sink Ya Teeth's genuine kindness that they covered me without even batting an eyelid as I awkwardly explained that I had forgotten my wallet. Not my finest start.

Maria Uzor and Gemma Cullingford of Sink Ya Teeth seem to be more Norwich than Norwich is Norwich. Together, their personalities combine in a vibrant and graceful manner. If a recipe was to be devised, to sum up their ease and brilliance, I would probably look to pan-fry their endearing comedic edge, add one heaped teaspoon of cynicism, a generous sprinkle all the '80s you have lying in the cupboard and serve on a bed of seasoned musicians. While the listeners have the distinct pleasure of sinking their teeth into a concoction of pulsing, minimal electronic funk beets. Not even the fussiest of eaters could look me straight in the eye and tell me that Sink Ya Teeth’s self-titled album isn’t fucking delicious.

Your album opener Freak 4 the Kick brilliantly sets the tone of the album. How did you decide the order of the album? Was that always gunna come first?

Maria: No we kind of decided the order once the songs were already written. There were some songs that didn’t make it into the album. We kind of just tried to figure out which ones worked together. We wanted to kind of like creep in, and then sort of end very suddenly.

Have you got any classic favorite album openers? 

Gemma: There's an artist from the '70s called Gena X Performance and I love the first few bars of that album is brilliant cause it’s like a vocoder and it’s all layered up and it goes: **ooaaa000AAAAAOOOO… And then it goes in to it... off the top of my head I think that’s a good one.

Maria: off the top of my head I think I’d say Gabe Guernsey’s recent album. It came out at a similar time to ours. I like the way that it starts… and then when the beat drops it just takes you somewhere else…

If You See Me follows with real intent, summoning tight, groovy beats which reminds me a lot of ESG. Have you guys been long term fans of the band? 

Gemma: I’ve been a long term fan of the band. Since the early 2000s I was a big fan but...

Maria: But, I wrote the song! And I don’t really listen to them at all… And loads of people say that it sounds like ESG which… that’s just weird isn’t it!?

Gemma: I was really chuffed. Cause I’ve loved ESG for ages, and I knew the song way before the first person said “oh that sounds like ESG”, and now everyone says it. I haven’t heard the likeness in it myself, but some other songs that we’ve done are like theirs…

Maria: I think it’s just that sort of minimal, early '80s electro beat, and the African bassline.

Gemma: I think it must be the bassline that does it.

Is it true you teach Kraftwerk covers on the Ukulele Gemma? Do you feel the instrument gets a bad rap? 

Yeah I’ve been teaching my kids Depeche Mode, and Kraftwerk. It can do, from adult groups, like what I set up in Norwich… it can be fun for people playing it, but I think it can be a bit drudgery…  people take the piss out of it… or it’s too fun, d'you know what I mean?

Maria: it’s like marmite isn’t it! Either you love it or you hate it.

Gemma: Well I don’t know, I love it and hate it.

Maria: Is that how you feel about marmite?

Gemma: No I love marmite!

I love that. I guess the reason it (ukulele) gets a bad rap, is because there’s maybe four songs that everyone plays! You’re bringing electronic music into the sphere of the uke. 

Gemma: yeah and just all the drunk sing-alongy type covers… so yeah I do try and introduce a bit of myself into the lessons.

With your lyrics 'I feel a little depressed, a little melancholy at best'… do you have a favorite artist you like to listen to when you’re in that sort of state, to embrace that feeling?

Gemma: oh I listen to mellow music when I’m feeling like that. Like Beach House or Cate Le bon or something.

Gemma: No actually not Cate Le Bon when I’m depressed, but definitely Beach house, and Nick Cave.

Maria: I think yeah, mellow music with good lyrics that are kind of more contemplative I guess. I can’t think of anyone off hand.

Gemma: Do you listen to stuff that would really cheer you up, or …

Maria: No, I like to wallow in that shit.

Being a female duo in a male-dominated electronic music scene, are you guys influenced by pioneers like Delia Derbyshire?

Maria: I love Delia, and I love what she does. I wouldn’t say I am influenced by her… I remember being inspired by the way that she used to work by finding inspiration in anything and found sounds and turned those into music. I am influenced by her drive and passion, but she was kind of so focused that she literally isolated herself from human relationships after a while and went a little bit crazy. So yeah, not really influenced by that side.

So you recently played your headline show at the Norwich Arts Centre, I was unfortunately working at the time so only got to see ten minutes of the set. I did however see your full set when supporting Algiers. I even bought the vinyl and got it signed… I don’t know if you remember? 

Gemma: We were probably quite pissed.

I believe it's your favourite venue? 

Gemma: It is definitely our favourite venue…

Maria: I’ve been going there since I was 15 and underage dri…

Gemma: Watching bands…

Maria: It’s just a really special place, they always book good bands and the atmosphere is always really nice.

Gemma: It just feels kind of comfortable there now. Not in a bad way. It’s a community.

... I couldn’t actually stop laughing at that gig. I had some people in front of me… a friend of mine dancing… I thought she was being ironic but she wasn’t.

Maria: You know she’s gunna read this…

Gemma: Shit… no, it was brilliant dancing. It was like animal from the Muppets, a side to her I had never seen before.

Well that’s great that your music could evoke that sort of reaction. 

Gemma: Yeah, I was like thanks for supporting me but... I can’t stop laughing.

From the times I have seen you at the arts centre you always seem to bring a comedic side in-between songs. Is this standard procedure for Sink Ya Teeth? 

Gemma: I think it might be because we are usually a little bit more excited during Norwich gigs. Or because we get quite nervous at Norwich gigs. But yeah, we do sometimes, depending on how much we’ve had to drink before we go on.

Maria: If I need to tune up or something I just hand her the mic.

Gemma: Yeah she’ll go “Tell a joke” and I can’t! I’m shit at telling jokes. I’ll have to get a little book to take on stage. It could be on the back of set list.

When exactly did you guys start? You seemed to have grown really quickly. 

Gemma: I think it was about 10 months of gigging live until we got noticed.

Maria: We formed in the summer of 2015. Nearly exactly four years ago. We played our first gig in the end of 2015… and then we signed in 2017 about a year later.

Gemma: It was at the Arts Centre yeah, our now friend Pete, who used to work at Rough Trade has all these contacts in the industry. James Endicott ended up signing us, he came to Diss out in the country in this tiny pub: Burston Crown.

Maria: Yeah, they were being really London in Diss ha-ha.

Gemma: When you think about it they probably go see bands play in London who already have a bit of a following, and they came out to Diss to watch us in a pub to pretty much them and Pete.

Maria: There were some mums there!

So were you just gigging the local Norwich scene?

Gemma: Yeah, that’s what you have to do.

Maria: We never got the band together to get signed and tour the world. We literally just got it together because Gemma was in quite a successful band about 15 years ago called cater and I had been doing solo stuff for about ten years. I never really got anywhere so for years and years I was just doing it for fun. And then we formed a two piece and didn’t really expect the reaction we got. We’ll go with this and see what happens.

Who are you listening to currently?

Gemma: At the moment we haven’t been listening to much because we’re writing.

Maria: Yeah, I like the Tyler and the Creator new album. I’ve been listening to like Czarface & MF Doom. Just random diverse stuff. Stuff like Tommy Mandal who’s this '80s, kind of cheesy, electro rock… song writer. He writes with these really random scenarios like “We’re pirates oh hoy”. But yeah, I’m not really sure if any of that sounds like my contribution to the band.

Gemma: I was probably listening to stuff people told us our first album sounded like.

What did people liken your album to? 

Gemma: New Order and LCD Soundsystem. Because I wasn’t that into New Order before people started saying my bass was quite a lot like Peter Hook’s, so I listened a lot to see which bit that actually meant; still not entirely sure… apart from like, one song. And now I fucking love New Order. And if I love something, I don’t stop listening to it.

Maria: Well it’s interesting because New Order; we do love them, but there wasn’t any influence on the album at all was there?

How was the KEXP video? 

Maria: That was really nerve wracking.

Gemma: It was horrible.

Maria: It was in this bright room in the day time… no audience to speak of, it was just us and four people they dragged off the street.

Yeah, I guess you would be suited to the ones in Seattle with the dark room and pretty lights. 

Maria: We sound really ungrateful. It was an amazing thing to do but it would have been so much better if we could have been flown to Seattle to do it. Ha-ha. 

So there was no crowd? I recently watched a video of Kamasi Washington talk about each gig being different based on the energy of the crowd and building. 

Maria: Yeah definitely

Gemma: Last year we played a gig in oxford which was something like a 40-person capacity so it was absolutely rammed and we were on the same level as the crowd.

Maria: I think it is just an exchange of energy isn’t it. You give something to audience and they give it back, and that helps you grow a little bit and you give it back to them.

Yeah, and towards the end it just gets ferocious…

Maria: Revolutions starting…

What’s your band name about? 

Maria: Absolutely fuck-all.

Gemma: Gotta a bit of bite to it hasn’t it? Ha-ha.

That’ll be the Facebook quote.

Maria: It was basically a toss up between Sink Ya Teeth and this one that was really, really bad that no one is ever going to hear. EVER.

Can we not get a Slider and The Goose exclusive? 

Gemma: I could be bribed.

In terms of your artwork, you seem to conjure similar striking images of Grace Jones-  Nightclubbing and Living My Life. 

Maria: Yeah that was just a selfie that we did in my hall. We just had a tripod and a camera. We wanted something that was quite '80s. There was a little bit of influence there from Pet Shop Boys. There was also influence from people like Peter Saville who did all the factory records. Just kind of taking that minimal thing. And some influence from Destiel and Mondrian, and that art concept of taking things back to basics. Because that’s kind of what we thought we doing with our music at the time.

So you guys mentioned you are writing for a new album… what can we expect?

Maria: Yeah! Just finishing it up.

Gemma: I don’t know; it depends on the final track listing I guess. I feel it could be a little bit more broad.

Do we have a date for it? 

Maria: We have a provisional date which is February next year. Although things can change.

As always, we finished the interview by offering a bottle of home-brewed beer as a wholesome thank you for their time. Rooibos red ale anyone?

Slider & the Goose.