An Interview With Eilish Gilligan

When I checked the How Fitting email inbox at the beginning of the week, I was expecting the usual mail from either Emma or Fiona but to my surprise, I found an email from the ever so lovely Eilish Gilligan talking about her band Frida. To make a long story short, I fell in love with the band, asked Eilish if possibly she could answer some questions for me and I fangirled the entire time. Before I show you lovelies our conversation, I would just like to mention how lovely Elish was the entire time and how I cannot thank her enough for doing this for me. You rock Eilish.
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Who is your musical inspiration?

Our musical inspirations range from all the beautiful goddesses of music such as Kate Bush, Bjork, Joni Mitchell, Florence Welch...to the soul kings, such as Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. We like to describe our genre as a big hot bubbling melting pot of indie pop and funk 'n' soul. 
Have you ever had to deal with hate towards yourself or your music? If so, how has it impacted you?

Never directly...although that's a hard question. People often comment on my clothing but in fairness I do dress pretty bizarrely, and usually people are really cool and open to my silly outfits. I guess you'll always come across 'haterz' in your life, but you just have to brush it off and keep on doing what you know you do best.Does your music have some sort of message or story?

All of our songs generally address a specific story or emotion, or both. I find it relatively easy to write about something I have experienced myself - when you have actually been sleeping outside some one's house in your car, or sitting on the train trying to hide the fact that you're crying after just breaking up with your boyfriend, that real-experience, real-emotion is easily recognised by the listener as real, rather than contrived. 

Who do you think is your demographic?

Umm... I guess I like to think that we appeal to teenage kids, probably with blogs, like the kids that like to stay inside and eat pizza and think about their feelings for most of the day. 

What is your favorite quote in music? Why?

It's really simple, but one time Joni Mitchell said: 'I love to dance.' I don't really know why I love that so much...I think maybe it's because she wrote so many beautifully heartbreaking, fragile, tragic songs in her lifetime - and to say that she likes to dance just goes to show that she understands the beauty of dancing for the sake of dancing and how wonderful it can be. Or maybe I just like it because I love to dance too (even though I'm not very good). 

When you're not making music, what are you up to?

It's such a lame answer but I'm usually listening to music or thinking about making music etc. For most people they have, like, a job, and then a hobby...for me my job is also my hobby and it's really really awesome. I like to read and do internet stuff too - I have a blog which I update on a pretty regular basiseilish-gilligan.blogspot.comWhy did you choose How Fitting to email?

I love love love Rookie Mag and you guys have that vibe - as soon as I saw your page of contributors (all chicks) I couldn't resist!
What do you hope to see in your band's future?

Success and happiness. 

Frida is an amazing band that I could not recommend more! I give a huge good luck to Eilish and the rest of Frida for success in their future. 

-Ann
http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Frida
http://www.facebook.com/fridamelbourne
http://fridamelbourne.bandcamp.com