Man/Woman/Chainsaw are a pop punk group from London famous for mixing loud gritty guitars with orchestral sounds such as violins and pianos. After listening to their new album ‘Cannonball’ I sat down with Lola Cherry and Vera Leppännen for a fifteen-minute chat about their music, their influences, their life as a band and what lies ahead.

From talking about the story behind their release, to sharing the songs that inspired them, the talk offered a glimpse into the people who create the music.

One of the biggest themes throughout the conversation was the band’s approach to songwriting. When asked which song on their latest album ‘Cannonball’ best represents where they’re heading next, they explained:

Lola Cherry told me, “All of us would have a different answer, when we wrote ‘Only Girl’ it felt quite… Well there were a few songs we wrote that felt we wrote super intuitively and came together quite quickly and felt really right when we wrote them. Only Girl was one of those songs and so was ‘Something Else to Give’ although they sound different.”

Vera Leppännen adds, “I agree, I would also say like… ‘Nose Dive’ is the most out there song in terms with the rest of the songs on the albums. Maybe we will lean more into that, I don’t know but I definitely think that ‘Canyons’ is like reflective of maybe the EP and that kind of style of like… ‘Here’s the sweet soft section!’ and then ‘Here’s the big bit!’ I think that is something we have slightly moved away from on this album but there’s a little bit of that in that song for sure.”

The question every band has an answer for is about their biggest influences in their style. When asked for an influence of Man/Woman/Chainsaw, people would be genuinely surprised.

Lola explains, “It’s a hard one because none of us as a collective sit down and kind of say like… ‘this is gonna sound like this band or this song or whatever!’ It kind of happens accidentally I guess… It probably changes depending what we are listening to the week of or the day of or even on the way to the studio, you have that in your subconscious, in your head. I can’t say there’s a specific thing, because I mean we like very different stuff. I mean Vera might want her vocals to sound like X and her bass to sound like Y.”

Vera agreed, “Yeah it’s true! I mean like I always just think like, I find it hard to pinpoint specific inspirations because like Lola said, the music that you’re listening to just leans into what you’re playing anyway. I do think one of the first singers I ever heard where I thought ‘wow!’ was ‘Jess Burlington’ and later I had Courtney Love and I was like, shit, this kind of style!”

With six members, creating music really is a collaborative effort,  Vera explains, “There has to be compromise or someone might have to do what they don’t love as much. I don’t think you’d play with five other people if you didn’t want five other people’s opinions. It’s part of the fun… It’s pretty valuable to sort out compromises and satisfy everyone, but it’s equally important to accept ‘Oh I don’t love this or oh I don’t like that and I’m okay with that.’”

Something Lola agrees with, “Yeah, we might have it for ages on a song where we are writing something where it doesn’t feel right… and sometimes you just have to put it away for days, weeks or months and then come back to it with fresher ears and play it like you haven’t before, it’s very easy to get stuck.”

“There are songs on the album we worked on for fucking ages and then didn’t make it, or things that we worked on for ages and did make it. Like ‘The Thing’ took a long long time like there was a completely different version of it and a different like… verse and like all kinds of things going on that didn’t work so they got axed… Sometimes it’s just slow going!!” Vera explains.

Man/Woman/Chainsaw is a London band, and like most British bands that affects their music and outlook on society. When asked how important that ‘North London vicarage’ was to them and their music…

“It was a really cool space… like… it was a place that was very rare to have their own rehearsal space for so cheap, there were lots of people working under us that like our… uhm… it wasn’t really a working vicarage it was lots of different artist studios, there was this little pottery place and Tom who made all of our EP artwork and most of us met him from him having studio there and he came and listened to our songs and made the artwork. Which was awesome so…” Said, Lola.

Vera adds, “Also one of the album covers is shot in one of the rooms there so it was practically super significant because we were very kooky that we had a safe space for equipment and rehearsed there whenever we wanted. We now have a different rehearsal room which is very different but it has been a unique adjustment from the vicarage… which wasn’t perfect! Some of us lived fucking far! It was damp as shit it had no sound proofing, it was either really really hot or really really cold with a beautiful garden to relax in.”

Vera also explains, “Someone said to us in an interview – it was me and Lola in the interview and we were joking about something and this guy just said ‘Y’know everyone always says you guys are super serious and you take yourselves super seriously right?’ – Who the fuck is saying that bro what?!”

“He said that coming into the interview I don’t know who but someone from the magazine said that we are a really serious band and blah blah blah. I think people will often assume that people think you have everything curated and planned out but we are kind of like figuring out as we go along, obviously we take it seriously because we love doing this. But without personal lives we are not trying to build some sort of empire and this crazy marketable – I don’t know it’s crazy.”

“We did an interview for a Uni magazine – I can’t remember what Uni but the lady turned the camera off and was like ‘Oh my god you guys have everything in your lives sorted out’ and I was like, ‘I like didn’t hand in my Uni assignment last week and didn’t pay that bill like girl what are you talking about!

“But I think when you’re in it it’s hard to recognise your progress and the steps you’ve made. Sometimes I find myself forgetting how we’ve had to redevelop bits of our work. I try to sit down and remind myself that this is what I’ve always wanted, I’ve always wanted to be a singer and now I get to do it with my five best friends!!”

And on that note, the interview with both lovely members of the band was complete. This is a group I encourage you to check out and if you missed them at the Wedgewood Rooms last night then they have a few more shows coming up, most locally in London on the 7^th at the Electric Ballroom.