Young Girls
Young Girls’ Charlie Tijerina, Pete Tijerina, & Nicholas Dudek; press photo courtesy of the band.
Austin by Houston’s Young Girls released their Austin Town Hall Records album Party Blood, premiering the single “What We Do” that rolls on an upbeat whim and upright attitudes in the face of all frustrations & disappointments. Young Girls’ Charlie Tijerina, Pete Tijerina, and Nicholas Dudek makes sense of their world through all the change-ups, shake-downs, breakdowns, shake-ups, and breakups collected together in a cycle of catchy songs created by the trio. The Girls’ trades the easy path of jaded cynicism for a shrugged shoulder optimism ripped from tales of heartache, hope, and other highway pop hymns heard from the roads that connect Austin to Houston.
“What We Do” bridges the California surf-dream style with east coast leaning DIY-Americana primitive executed with a southern dive bar sensibility. The independent aura enjoyed by the respective left & right coasts are here uplifted in ways that could inspire a bleary-eyed sing along with the barkeep in a Houston watering hole long after the last-call bell has been rung. Young Girls’ “What We Do” is a ballad of the band statement that attempts to reconcile a romantic bond that requests possible reciprocated feelings while maintaining being realistic all the while. The three illustrate the notions of going through all the motions that we all go through (at some point or another), spelling out what they indeed do with an impressive array of fancy chord progressions (and an abrupt fade-out finish that keeps you wondering where that next guitar lead is going). Young Girls brothers Charlie & Pete Tijerina join us now for a discussion.
Between Austin & Houston—what’s good these days here in the spring Texas season?
Pete: In both cities, there’s nothing better than cook outs and drinking beer on a porch.
Tell us about the blood, sweat, tears, & parties that inspired your new album Party Blood.
Charlie: A lot of Lone Star beer and a relationship that didn’t didn’t work out.
Pete: It was a weird time. Putting this record together took a couple of years, but the thing that helped us accomplish it was a lot of support from our friends in town. We were kind of a mess, but our family and people like our producer, John Griffin, and Carlos Pozo, who created all the art work on the record, really gave us that extra push to make this thing happen. Other than that, it was mostly mundane everyday occurrences like breakups and shit jobs.
How do the three of you approach your own writing, and recording processes?
Pete: My brother and I like to improvise and just start making sounds. If we dig a riff, we record it on our iPhones and use that as a template when we go into the studio. In regards to the recording process, we leave that to the engineers and producers. I usually describe a sound we’re looking for and they make it happen.
Charlie: If it sounds good it usually becomes a song.
Young Girls live; photographed by Carlos Valencia.
Tell us how you made the self-asserting song of purpose, “What We Do”.
Charlie: Well, I was pretty pissy about a girl who doesn’t live here, and I just wanted to express that in the song, as well as most of the record.
Pete: I came up with the main riff for this one. At the time, I wanted to add something dark to our up beat style and it just sorta happened. There was no plan; we were just making sounds and the song came together.
Other artists you all are really sweet on these days?
Charlie: Alvvays, I still can’t get enough of that record.
Pete: I’ve been revisiting a lot of Clash and Springsteen records.
Young Girls’ summer preview?
Tour behind the record, travel as much as we can…maybe hit up Mexico for a bit. Buds and beers. That’s a Texas summer.
Young Girls’ new album Party Blood is available now from Austin Town Hall Records.
