If you’ve been keeping an eye on Charli XCX‘s social media of late, you’d have noticed that she’s been gunning hard for a band called Nasty Cherry. A four-piece supergroup signed to Charli’s label, Vroom Vroom Recordings, and have come together from different parts of Charli’s (extensive) Rolodex.
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Nasty Cherry is made up of singer Gabbriette Bechtel and guitarist Chloe Chaidez (of Kitten) from the US with bassist Georgia Somary and Charli’s old drummer Debbie Knox-Hewson from the UK.
Pulled together by Charli XCX around three years ago, they played two early gigs (one at a house party for family, and a wedding) before they sold out their first-ever real show in LA earlier this year off the back of their first single, ‘Win‘.
Nasty Cherry dropped their debut EP ‘Season 1’ and their Netflix series, ‘I’m With The Band’ this year, and PEDESTRIAN.TV sat down one half of the band for their first-ever face-to-face interview in LA earlier this year to chat about their origins.
“I think she knew Debbie and Georgia the most,” Gabbriette says. “Debbie was her drummer, previously touring with her. Georgia, they’ve been friends for a really long time, but she had no previous history doing music, and Chlo toured with Charli, right?”
“Yeah, I toured with her with Kitten in 2014,” Chloe says.
“I actually met [Charli XCX] on Myspace when I was like 14,” she adds, laughing. “She messaged Kitten and she was like “hey if you come to the UK, we should rage.” And that was it. And then a couple of years later she was playing a show and I said “hey, can I open for you?” and we kinda reconnected.”
It’s these small interactions and working through her networking circles that shows that Charli will work hard when she has an idea for a project she wants to see come to fruition.
In the three years since Nasty Cherry formed, the four women have lived together for months on end, working hard on writing and putting together music, and we’re finally seeing the fruits of their labours come through.
Both singles are effortlessly chill, with the first coming through like an 80’s pop-tinged punk track, harking back to acts like The Runaways and more recently, Hole and Garbage, and the latest single blending the dreamy pop reminiscent of Lana Del Rey or Beach House on a sugar high with visual themes akin to Buffy The Vampire Slayer and The Craft, subverting the idea that women can’t take control of their own creative destiny.
Nasty Cherry is also the first time that half of the band have made music, and Gabbriette (who looks like a 2019 imprint of Joan Jett) says that it’s one of the best things she’s done with her life so far – and she’s done a bunch already, modelling for the likes of Savage X Fenty and Adidas.
“I love it. It’s like I feel like I don’t know what the fuck else I’d be doing now, it’s all I think about,” she says. “I have good support [from the band]. I would have no confidence if they didn’t tell me what’s going on.”
Working with Nasty Cherry has proved useful for Charli XCX too, who tells me that stepping back and letting the group do whatever the fuck they wanted with their sound and their image has encouraged her to get some perspective on her own music.
Perspective is really what I’ve learned; you’ve gotta take a step back to really see what’s going on. But also I’m never really gonna do that because I’m too headstrong and totally invested in what I’m doing and believe everything I say is right so, I haven’t really learned anything.
“They need their own TV show,” Charli adds.
“Like Spiceworld, but 2019,” I laugh.
“Yeah, like Spiceworld! That’s a great idea,” she says, and I can see the cogs clicking behind Charli’s eyes already.
And Charli’s nurturing and influence has given the Nasty Cherry the determination to take up the space that they know is theirs, and the drive that they have has a group of women is powerful and invigorating.
“I think there’s space for us right now,” Chloe says before Gabbriette leaps in
“Space or not, we’re fuckin’ doing it!”
Check out Nasty Cherry’s latest sizzling offering ‘What Do You Like About Me‘ below, and they’ll be playing their next (and second-ever) show in New York on June 18 at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn if you’re in the neighbourhood and want to check ’em out.
Otherwise, watch this space, Nasty Cherry are gonna take it all up.
