'Scuzz' Rockers Body Type On Writing Nick Cave Into Their New Album

Body Type are your atypical cool girls: An all-female 4-piece punk band located in the emerald city of Sydney: Sophie McComish, Annabel Blackman, Georgia Wilkinson-Derums and Cecil Coleman.

Since 2015, they’ve been making their mark on the boy-sy band scene of the Australian east coast – and worldwide, too – lapping up support spots with illustrious artists like Fontaines D.C., Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Australian psych rockers POND.

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Their debut album Everything is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising, an end of May release, encapsulates everything the girls have been working on for the last two years – with intriguing inspirations. From observing Nick Cave in a boujee Beverly Hill restaurant, to being chatted up by an anti-#MeToo creep.

Honestly, they’re the best type of interview: Chaotic, modest, genuine, intelligent. They’re not scared to call bullshit, and unlike some big-time artists that give the same answer over and over again, they’re entertainingly unfiltered.

VICE: I read in your press release that the album is a bizarre tale of sandpiles, burning spines and floatation devices. What does that mean?

Sophie: Um, Georgia?

Georgia: What? Say it again?

VICE: A bizarre tale of sandpiles, burning spines and floatation devices.

Georgia: Yeah, I don’t think that means a lot.

Sophie: Georgia’s just woken up. That’s a lyric from Buoyancy, it’s the opening lyric. Right? George?

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Georgia: Yeah. I guess it’s intentional cause the song doesn’t make any sense so I think wherever that quote came from, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, so just have fun with it.

VICE: So your songs don’t usually have meanings?

Georgia: It’s quite funny how people don’t know what the songs are about. And we’ll be like “oh, yeah we played that for seven years and we still have no idea about what it actually means”. So we all have these twisted narratives about what the song is about.

Sophie: I think there’s lots of meaning, obvious and hidden, behind our songs. And I think artists that say “oh I’m not going to tell you what this song’s about” is wanky. Bullshit. Shut up.

VICE: Let’s talk “Flight Path”. I think it’s my favourite song. But I heard you wrote it cause you met Nick Cave…

Sophie: No…

Georgia: No, we didn’t really meet him but we saw his black toupee – his black plugs from afar.

VICE: So no conversation?

Sophie: I’ll tell you the whole story. It was Georgia’s 26th birthday and we went to the Chateau Marmont in Beverly Hills in Hollywood to have a real fancy, expensive time, drink heaps of champagne and suddenly we looked over and within earshot was Nick Cave. Some of the words that he said…I don’t know if I’ll get sued if I admit this…but they became the lyrics to the song. And then there was a moment – cause I was sitting in a position where I could see him with his partner Susie Bick – who is also a massive source of inspiration. And there was a moment where Georgia was a little bit tiddly on the champers and I saw Susie get up and go to the bathroom and I was like “Georgia, you have to go to the bathroom and say hi”. And now we have an amazing photo with her in the bathroom at the Chateau Marmont.

VICE: And in the song you say there was a greasy haired egoist?

Sophie: This slimy egotistical snivelly twat that we met in the foyer on the way out. We were just trying to have a nice conversation and say “hi” to someone, like you do when you’re out. And he just turned out to be a giant prick who proceeded to tell me how the #MeToo movement was stifling for men and how he touched a woman on the arm once and she called him out for abusing her and how unfair the movement is on men and I don’t know… he was a moron.

VICE: Was he trying to pick you up?

Georgia: You make a good point. Maybe he was trying to pick you up Soph.

Sophie: Well he did a very bad job of it.

VICE: Last question about that song. Who did you steal the pen off?

Sophie: Yeah I stole the pen. It was in that moment that that twerp shat me [pissed off]. I took one off the lobby desk. I still have it somewhere.

VICE: One thing I’ve read a lot about you guys is that you’re “yes women”–

Indistinct voice enters the chat: Hi Soph!

Georgia: Scarlett says “Hi” Soph

Sophie: Oh hi Scarl!

Georgia: That’s my housemate.

Scarlett: Sorry!

Sophie: That’s Scarlett, our friend who plays drums.

Georgia: Where did you read that? Yes we are yeswomen! We said yes to every show the first few years. We played two shows a week for a year or some shit.

VICE: Good practice.

Georgia: I listened to something recently. Oh yeah, I listened to a Camille Paglia interview and she was like “You know musicians these days they don’t have a chance to hone their craft cause they play like one show every two years” and I was like… true. We actually did the groundwork.

Sophie: I guess, why would you say no? Yes is so good.

VICE: So a lot of shows. Who’s been your favourite band that you’ve played with? Fontaines D.C.?

Sophie: Yeah, that was really crazy but that was pretty situational. We were playing our first ever show in New York with the Fontaines at this amazing venue. That was pretty special.

Georgia: Yeah, I love them, I reckon they’re incredible. They’re probably my fave.

Sophie: We’re lucky to have a lot of friends. Female friends that play music. The Dianas are probably my favourite band in Melbourne. And they’re the first band that I saw with all women on stage, probably 10 years ago, so the fact that we shared a stage with them was very special.

Georgia: The best thing is playing with bands that are friends or that you genuinely love.

VICE: One last question, So you’ve been together since 2015 but you started writing the album in 2020?

Georgia: We started writing before but recorded in 2020.

VICE: How did you reinvigorate yourselves after the pandemic to re-write then release this album?

Georgia: How did we find energy after the pandemic? I dunno, it’s actually a really strange thing that artists and musicians go through when they’ve created a product or a piece of art and have to revisit and put it out when they may have moved on. It’s cool that we’re still proud of the body of work, even though it’s like 4 years ago we’re talking now, and it probably comes from circumstance. Like, the whole world has been ground to a halt. That gives you energy

Sophie: And George has been in Western Australia, so we haven’t even been in the same room for two years.

We’ve been rehearsing once a week but Georgias is coming back for the first time this weekend. Oh my god. So just the thought of our four bodies being in the same room feels electric.

VICE: Reunion party!

Sophie: Yes, it’ll be very explosive.

VICE: Well, thanks guys for that short interview. I especially liked the part where we met your housemate, Scarlett.