The Bulls
In and out of the blur & focuses with The Bulls; photographed by Juan Azulay.
Following up last year’s Small Problems EP, LA’s The Bulls return with today’s release of the single “Prudence” and our premiere of the Supergrass cover b-side “Alright” featuring Cecilia Della Peruti of Gothic Tropic. Frontwoman Anna Bulbrook (of Airborne Toxic Event, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, etc) readies the return of her Girlschool event expanded to a festival being held January 29-31 at LA’s The Bootleg theater titled Field Day that brings the rock n’ roll girls camp concept to a larger stage and forum. The future frontwomen of tomorrow here are celebrated through rounds of discussions on the industry, performances, participation, and more in a supportive and safe environment that in many ways debuts the artists that the rest of the world will be singing and talking about tomorrow.
On the debut of “Alright”, Anna, Marc Sallis, with Cecilia re-sort the arrangements and expressive aspects of Supergrass’s fun-loving original to become a vast cinematic affair. The Bulls orchestrate an atmospheric baroque audio environment for the song to enjoy, with Cecilia providing some half-awake & half-baked viscous bass dollops as Anna provides a dreamy-breathy delivery of “we are young, we are free” sentiments that gently float like clouds seizing the day’s sun (while in no hurry at whatsoever). The Brit pop legend is slowed for an added degree of sophistication that serves as the perfect opening to that cult rom-com blockbuster that snubs the pragmatism of the status quo for the seasons and sensations that simmer beneath a summer’s sky. Cecilia from Gothic Tropic said this about the making of the Supergrass cover:
I heard The Bulls’ rendition of “Alright” and I wanted to play to the languid qualities, so I did a sloshy dragged out simple melody with plenty of fuzz. The track reminded me of everything I like about Sonic Youth’s cover of “Superstar”.
This single sits between The Bulls’ album Small Prolems and Anna Bulbrook’s Girlschool festival called Field Day (January 29-31 at LA’s The Bootleg Theater) and features the more prudential aspect of The Bulls sounds that savors in the most delectable and desirable of synth tones and subtly psych-kissed sections.
We had the pleasure to catch up with Anna Bulbrook the other day to talk everything about The Bulls, Girlschool Field Day fest, and more in the following interview session:
Take us through your adventures and journeys from Boston to LA, from Airborne Toxic Event to the beginning of The Bulls, and from playing the violin, to writing your own songs.
I grew up playing classical violin in a pretty bucolic suburb of Boston. My parents took us to music school every Saturday for almost as long as I can remember. (My brother is also a violinist, but in a classical string quartet.) But in the classical world, people don’t tell you, “Hey, go write some songs! Follow your heart!” They tell you, “Hey, go practice and play this stuff that this old guy wrote in fucking tune. And once you can do that, now put some feeling into it.” It’s a terribly beautiful, but also vastly perfectionist and highly specific, discipline.
So I pursued violin through college very seriously, but by the time I graduated, I knew the constraints of classical life weren’t going to suit me. But “the violin” had been such a part of my identity that I had to kill the classical violinist in me for a while to make some room for new things. So I showed up in L.A. on a whim, I guess, and didn’t play. I went to shows; I listened to indie rock for the first time; my tastes grew and changed. And the Arcade Fire first happened around that time, and I remember thinking, “Oh. Of course. Yes.”
Anyway, I ended up staying, and I wandered and worked and listened for a bit. And then one day, the singer of Airborne (whom I already knew from around town) asked me if I wanted to play with him. And that same weekend, I got a call to fly to Aspen and play a weird gig on the side of a mountain with Kanye West. So I went from not playing the violin at all, to standing behind Kanye, to having a revelation about a new way I could be musical outside of the classical realm, to joining the newly-formed Airborne Toxic Event almost the moment I got back to L.A.
Then there was this insane period of time when I was working a more-than-full-time job, rehearsing and recording and taking all my vacation to tour with Airborne, and I was making a record with a band called Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (their first record!) at the same time. I love that band to this day, but I really don’t now how I did it. Time must have moved at a different speed then!
So now, several years into my time playing in other people’s bands (which is really fun, don’t get me wrong), I realized that I’d grown from being just a player in a band to having some things I wanted to say on my own. I’m just a late bloomer that way. So I started experimenting with singing in my bedroom, and writing music, and then releasing some of it under the moniker the Bulls…and now it’s today.
Anna Bulbrook silk screens, Warhol-style.
How did your experiences at LA’s Rock & Roll Girl’s Camp set the stage for Girlschool?
Have you ever had a 9-year-old look you in the eyes and confidently ask you who your feminist rock icon is? Or tell a boy in your band that his ultra-long hair is really pretty?—Because I have! Rock camp is just the happiest place on earth. Girls learn to take huge risks, like coming up with a lyric idea, or playing a brand-new instrument on-stage in front of an audience of their peers, in the most loving and supportive environment you’ve ever seen. It’s a special experience to witness or participate in—and the being there rewired my brain the instant I showed up just to sit on a panel and talk to the kids about whatever. So the afterglow of being in this incredibly positive, mutually-supportive, celebratory environment was very much in the back of my mind when we started planning and booking The Bulls’ Monday night residency at the Satellite. And that became the test-run for Girlschool.
What hints and artists and events are you excited about for the upcoming Girlschool Field Day festival happening at the end of January?
Well. Hints? Ha. We have a special guest on Friday night that I’m very excited about. And it may sound corny, but I’m completely excited to see 100% of these bands go out and slay it.
However, I think this is the piece I’m the most proud of: we are kicking off the weekend with a panel discussion by some seriously established female leaders in the music industry—and that includes everyone from A&R to music licensing/supervising to booking agents to music journalism—first thing on Friday night. Girlschool isn’t just a bunch of bands playing in a row; it’s an opportunity to create a loving community and celebratory little nest for people to connect with each other via the festival format.
Women have taken over the industry and are finally receiving more recognition as some of the most innovative and talented artists in the game. Why do you feel this sea change and turning of the tables and tides have occurred?
Has it occurred? There are definitely some incredible women being recognized, yes. And there are other extremely powerful and successful women out there crushing it in the industry. But I recently watched an interview with Alanis Morissette from the 90s when she was lamenting how alternative radio programmers had “one slot” for female vocals. And nowadays, I’ve heard a programmer say that we’ve gone from having “one slot” to “two slots, and one of them is Lorde.” So we’ve gotten somewhere, but the rock world, which is the one I come from, is not exactly wide-open just yet. I think there is plenty of work to be done, and plenty of talent to mine—I just want to set women up to encourage and support each other so that in a few more years, we can see a few more female faces doing whatever they want to do. In music, or in any other field, for that matter.
The Bulls, photographed by Josh Giroux.
Tell us about what prudential items and more inspired the perfect pop of “Prudence”.
Ha. That’s very kind. Prudence is a very loose ode to one my oldest friends who is named, well, Prudence! She has been a bit of a muse for me, because she always seems to be running towards and away from the finer things in life, and there is a beautiful tension to that. She also is forbearing enough to let me take wild creative license with her life. I wrote it a couple of years ago when I was teaching myself to sing by imitating David Bowie, so it’s also a bit of an ode to him—which is a little bit tragically timely.
Describe the process of re-envisioning “Alright” originally by Supergrass and transformed into a cinematic screen gem theme made by The Bulls and Cecilia from Gothic Tropic.
I thought: what would Phil Spector do? Now, what would I, a 90s-child who loves fuzzy guitars and plays the violin, do? And then I smashed the two together and really didn’t think much more about it.
A coastal moment of pause with The Bulls’ Anna Bulbrook.
What is next in the canon for The Bulls?
I’m writing a record right now, and it’s just the most exciting period of musical growth across the board for me. I can’t wait to make this thing.
Report on the states of the LA scene?
The L.A. scene—the one facet of it that I inhabit—is like a little, never-ending, warm hug. But Girlschool is kind of giving me a new, broader scene, and I just can’t fucking wait.
2016 wishes & hopes?
There are too many to count. I’m not going to be taking any vacations for a while to come, but I’m good with that.
