“They’re here, they’re weird, now deal with it.” The Boygirls are out to make a statement with their unique brand of hip-hop, steering straight for the issues that they feel strongly about and nipping them in the butt. GayCalgary.com first ran into them at Prance, the pride youth dance this June. Since then, the band has launched their first Album entitled But Aren’t We All?, for sale at Megatunes, Sloth Records and Fameless.
Their group currently consists of 4 members. Lana Bentley is the group’s rap-artist, Lara White provides backup vocals, and Cam May helps to augment their vocal talent by contributing instrumental backup and knowledge of sound production. Recently they added a new member, Blair Lipkind, who plays bass. In fact, the front pamphlet of the CD features a cartoon in which they allude to their past search for someone to fill this position.
The burning question seems to be whether or not their music is just political activism in disguise. According to the lyrics in their song Ism Prism, “I’m not an activist…I’m not a passivist…I’m a new school sit-on-my-fat-assifist.”
“Nope [we’re not angry and political]. We’re happy and observant. Some songs have a really clear political message however; we didn’t form the band to depress people. You can be thoughtful and entertaining all at the same time,” commented Bentley.
May and Bentley take credit for writing most of the group’s current lyrics before White and Lipkind came on board. Indeed their songs Take Back the Night, SUV, Ism Prism, and Three Wishes deal with serious themes like crime, social inequality, homophobia, women’s rights and safety, and degradation and demoralization in the rap music industry. While these may sound like fairly heavy topics, they manage to deal with them in a light-hearted manner without losing their underlying message.
“We’ve been compared to everybody and everything. The Philosopher Kings, Lauryn Hill, Moxy Fruvous, the Arrogant Worms, the list goes on. We might describe ourselves as ‘Indie-hop’, Indie pop meets hip hop. …We love bands like Junior/Senior, Bran Van 3000, and Franz Ferdinand. Cam really digs Peaches, Le Tigre, and anything electronic. Lara’s in to rock and I like anything that incorporates rap or hip hop. That being said I dig bands like Nathan and the Trews.”
Another mandate of the group is to “keep it ridiculous”. Their song “Poo Poo” is a clear demonstration of this. They took a sound clip of them messing around on the microphone and overlaid instrumental tracks to create a really catchy tune. Too bad it ends so abruptly – I can see it taking off into a happy-hardcore mix if they’re not careful! In addition, the hidden clip at the end of Latin Humiliation where Lana checks her voicemail just totally cracks me up!
“I write about what the things that happen to me in everyday life. The only song with a neat story is Sushi Chef. Cam and I went for sushi with my friend Catherine who had just returned from the Pan-Am games. We decided that we should write a song about her so we went back to Cam’s house and started working on ideas. We were still really full from dinner and kept talking about the sushi. We were so distracted by the sushi that we stopped writing about Catherine and decided to write a tribute to one of our favorite foods.”
The group will continue to play shows in and around Calgary to promote sales of this first album, so you can expect to see them out doing what they love best – having fun and supporting various social causes around the city.
“I have already been working on material for the next album so hopefully another CD will be available in the new year. In terms of becoming big, rich, rock stars, I do not know if that’s in the cards. Some people measure success by money, ending up in the tabloids, and awards. We measure success by longevity and quality so we’ll take that instead.”
The Boygirls
“But Aren’t We All?”
Available at Megatunes, Sloth Records and Fameless.
www.cardboardboxrecords.com/boygirls
