Winners of Glastonbury's Emerging Talent Competition and a favourite of BBC Radio 6Music, She Drew The Gun have been one of best new bands to come out of 2016. Their album Memories Of The Future has been one of the highlights from this year’s débutantes, bringing a dreamy psych-pop sound with political storytelling lyrics that leaves a lasting impression. She Drew The Gun start their UK tour in Brighton, on the lead singer Louisa’s birthday, which gave us the perfect excuse to find out more about the band. I spoke to Lousia (vocals and guitar) and Jack (guitar) ahead of their recent gig in South Korea.

Where did you grow up?
Jack: We both grew up on the Wirral on Merseyside.

Is there much of a music scene there?
Jack: There is not much in the way of venues on the Wirral, it’s all going on in Liverpool really.

Louisa: Liverpool is such a great place for music. There is stuff happening all the time, it is a great place to be and to meet likeminded people.

What kind of music were you brought up on?
Louisa: At first it was country music as both of my nans listened to it and were always singing it – stuff like Patsy Cline. Then when I was in high school I discovered The Beatles’ White Album, and I thought, ‘WOW’. Not long after that, I got into bands like The Stone Roses and Oasis.

Jack: It was the same kind of thing for me, although Patsy Cline wasn’t at the beginning. Bob Marley was the first music my dad got me into and then onto Oasis and that from there.

Can you remember the first album you bought?
Louisa: The first album I bought was the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack – it’s a good soundtrack to be fair. One of the first albums by a band that I actually loved was Jollification by The Lightning Seeds.

Jack: My first single was not that hot, it was by East17. The first album I ever got was What's The Story Morning Glory by Oasis.

What was the first instrument you played?
Louisa: Mine was the guitar. I asked for one for my birthday when I was about ten, but then I realised you had to practice. When I was about 13 I actually started playing, and as I got a bit better at it I became more and more addicted to playing.

What drives you to write music?
Louisa: Lots of things – half of it is having something I feel I need to say, and the other is the enjoyment of writing. I’m inspired by real life and by what other people put out in the world, whether it’s art, music, books or whatever.

When did you start playing music in this way?
Louisa: We have always tried to just make music that we like really, not sticking to one style. The track ‘Poem’ started off life as a poem and I added music to it to make it more powerful. Other songs I will start off with a bit of lyrics or music and then build the song around that – almost like working out a puzzle so it perfectly clicks.

Is there a story behind the name?
Louisa: I was trying to think of names for a while as I didn’t just want it to be a solo name, I wanted it to be something that could grow into more – I thought of the band name first and the band came after. She Drew The Gun has quite a visual aspect to it and you can play with its meaning, that’s why it stuck.

How did She Drew The Gun form?
Louisa: I started off doing a few gigs on my own as I had a few songs, that was enough for about a 20-minute set. I was constantly working on songs and then put a couple of tracks up on Soundcloud which got me more interest as well as some better gigs. I wanted to do some decent recordings to send to places like the BBC Introducing Uploader, and when I went into the studio I asked Sian to join in with the recording. After that she started playing a few gigs with me. I then met James Skelly from The Coral and played him some tunes – he liked them and then we started working on an album together. Jack got involved towards the end of recording the album. Everyone joined in at different times as She Drew The Gun and the songs were growing, it happened very naturally.

How was it working with James Skelly?
Louisa: I could barely believe that I was working in the studio with one of my heroes. He is a brilliant producer and has got a really great ear for music. It was a really good experience.

Have you been thinking of the next release?
Louisa: We have but we have been too busy – being on tour and being a mum has been getting in the way. We have another tour coming up soon too so we are balancing everything up at the moment. We are just starting to demo tracks at the moment.

What has been a musical eye-opener?
Louisa: We did a thirty-date support tour with Fink around Europe. It was just Jack, Sian and I at the time, and there were only two videos of ours available for people to listen to online. No one knew who we were but we got to open up at these amazing venues and travel around Europe. I couldn’t believe we were being allowed to do it! Fink are seven albums in so it showed us what is possible.

Who would be in your perfect supergroup?
David Grohl on drums, Kim Deal on bass, Jonny Greenwood on guitar and Grace Slick on lead vocals.

What would be your perfect line-up of any three acts for a concert you are putting on and where would it be?
Jack: It would have to be somewhere outside on the Wirral. Kate Tempest is one of our favourite acts so she would have to be there.

Louisa: Tame Impala and The Coral to headline.

If you could give any musical award of the year, what would it be for and for whom?
Louisa: We’ve just got back from playing Zandari Festa in South Korea, we’d give the award to Colonel Mustard and The Dijon 5 for ‘best audience feel-good factor award’.

If you could have written any song, what would it have been?
Jack: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen.

Louisa: ‘What’s Going On?’ by the Four Non Blondes.

What music are you listening to at the moment?
Jack: I’m playing Jamie T’s new album Trick at the moment, it’s really good.

Louise: I’m liking Resistor by Lera Lynn at the moment.

Do you get to go to many gigs?
Jack: We saw Father John Misty recently which was really good. It got a bad review but we thought it was great! Also seeing Earth Wind & Fire this year at Glastonbury was one of the best gigs I have ever seen.

What are your future plans till the end of the year and after?
Louisa: We start our UK tour in Brighton on 18th October, so we’re really excited about our first headline show there, and the rest of the tour going to cities we’ve never played before, and some we already love. After that we’ll have some time to think about what’s next.

Website: shedrewthegun.com
Facebook: facebook.com/shedrewthegun
Twitter: www.twitter.com/shedrewthegun