INTERVIEW: Australia's latest girl group G-Nat!on are bringing girl power back
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Six piece girl group G-Nat!on - consisting of Taylah, Isla, Mateja, Alessia, Emma and Rylee - formed in Adelaide via the Australian Company of Performing Arts. They have recently released their debut single ‘Girls’ Night Out’, an infectious R&B-pop track dripping with attitude and female solidarity. We recently met up with Mateja and Rylee from the band to find out more about G-Nat!on.
Hello Mateja and Rylee, so good to be talking with you. First of all, congrats on ‘Girls’ Night Out’, what a tune!
Thank you so much!
How does it feel to have your first song and video out?
Mateja: Oh, it feels amazing. We've been keeping it under wraps for a little bit, so now that we get to share it with like everyone it's like a breath of fresh air. It's great.
Rylee: It's so exciting for us. It's a big step up from where we first started to now.
Wonderful. What drew you to the music industry?
Mateja: We all just love music and we just have a special place for it
Rylee: And coming from a background of dance and music, it just brought us together
Rylee: We're just really passionate about it and we love what we do, and I think that's what really drew us to the music industry.
On that note, can you talk me through how you got together and what's been your story up until ‘Girls’ Night Out’?
Rylee: About two years ago there was an audition held at our dance company. We all attended the audition and we were successful, obviously. From there we've just been doing local gigs around Adelaide, we did Carols by Candlelight, events like that to help us get out there. Then we started working on the single and an EP.
Mateja: We had a concert at the start of the year, just a little one with all the community that know us in Adelaide. We did two of our songs there, which are going to be on the EP. They really loved the songs and it was really good to get out there and do something.
Rylee: Create a local fanbase basically.
You've got all of Adelaide behind you. I want to talk to you about the tune, ‘Girls’ Night Out’. It’s so catchy and the message is basically get your girls together, get your squad together and a night out dancing away from the boys. How important do you feel this message is for you as young women individually?
Mateja: We feel it's really important because some girls think they need to dress up to impress boys, to impress other people. When really we need to dress up and have a fun time for ourselves. We only live once, have a great time.
Rylee: We're really passionate about the fact that girls should feel confident in their own skin. They shouldn't have to go out of their way to impress other people and ‘Girls’ Night Out’ really expresses that.
Emerging onto the public radar as you're doing now, how is that for you? What are the concerns or joys?
Rylee: Overall it's pretty exciting. It's our first single release and obviously we're very excited for the public to get to know us, our song and where we come from. I guess one of the only concerns we have is getting judged.
Mateja: People are definitely saying what they're thinking about the song, but we're not going to let that bring us down. We're just going to live through it, because if people say that sort of stuff, it's their opinion. We're going to keep doing what we love, so we shouldn't let them bring us down.
Haters gonna hate. It must be quite hard, but you're doing it together, does that make navigating everything a bit easier?
Mateja: Yeah, it's more powerful. It's easier to brush off all the hate. We've got a few comments already, but to us girls that doesn't mean anything because we're so content with where we are and where we are heading. We're just excited. We don't really care what they think.
Rylee: We're all really close, so when we see those comments we kind of laugh it off.
The video for ‘Girls’ Night Out’ cuts between you girls prepping together and then dancing - in, by the way some amazing 90s and late 80s biker shorts and bum bags that I’m digging - that must've been amazing to shoot. What comes to mind when you think back to filming that video?
Mateja: It felt like a real shock. It was like, ‘it's actually happening’. It felt like we're actually doing something, we're actually going out there doing what we love and performing it and showing it to everyone.
Rylee: It was a long 3 days but we were just so happy in that moment and excited for what was to come next.
Mateja: It was great to do it together.
Rylee: It was a great experience and we enjoyed it.
Did you suffer from any kind of stage fright or anxiety?
Rylee: No, us girls were fine with that. You know, as soon as the camera was on we're like ‘right, we're ready to roll’. It's easier because we have all six of us to back each other up. It's so supportive and so when we were on camera, the vibe was there.
Mateja: We know it’s a safe environment around each other. We can act crazy and no one will care.
I want to talk to you about girl bands, particularly in Australia. We had Girlfriend back in the 1990s, Bardot in the 2000s, Young Divas with Jessica Mauboy and Ricki Lee and more recently the Veronicas. Aussie all female girl groups have been great, but I feel they few and far between. Why do you think that is?
Rylee: I think that the music industry is definitely harsher on female pop groups.
Mateja: They're quicker to judge. We feel like it might be easier for a group of boys to go out there.
Rylee: We just feel like they're harsher towards women, and I feel like some of the [female] pop groups struggle with being perceived in a certain way.
Speaking of girl bands - girl power. Spice Girls are like the greatest girl band ever. What does girl power mean to you?
Rylee: The first word that comes to mind is just power.
Mateja: Being fierce and feeling comfortable in your own skin.
Rylee: Confident. Supporting each other, supporting women and really standing up for what you think is right.
Supporting each other. I like that.
Rylee: I feel like in society there's this thing where women degrade each other. Everyone's so quick to judge and have their comment and their say about other women on social media, but what we should be doing is sticking together and supporting one another instead of putting each other down. That's such an important thing for us because if we can stand together, we can get other people to support us and what we're doing. I think the boys are more relaxed and they don't have to feel like they're always going up against each other.
I’m getting the feeling, particularly with who you are and with ‘Girls’ Night Out’ that you're wanting to promote with your music this to younger listeners the theme of ‘stick together, where not against each other, we’re together.’
Mateja: Definitely. We're trying to promote how we girls can do whatever they like. If you want to get a message across, you can.
Rylee: I think that you'll find that when we release our next songs throughout the songs it'll start to become clearer about our message and what we will portray and how we want to leave our effect on the people that listen to our songs. How can we encourage them to feel as confident as we do when we stand up and we sing those songs.
Can you talk me through a little about some other songs or their message that you’ve got coming up?
Mateja: They’ve got a common theme, but it's all very different. All different sounds, all different styles.
Rylee: In particular there's one song called ‘Loving Yourself’ and it's about feeling confident in your own skin and loving who you are and not letting people change that for you. You should feel confident, you should feel proud and just own it.
What are the best things about doing all of this as a squad?
Mateja: Always having your best friends hanging around with you and always doing everything with them.
Rylee: The bond we've created between us girls is unbreakable and I think that's one of the most important things that we've all gained from this experience.
Mateja: We get closer and closer every year.
Rylee: We've gained amazing friendships and we've experienced so much. All these cool events we’re going too and now the single release. We’re feeling really excited about it.
Mateja: I don't think it could have been possible if we all weren't together and all actually just staying together and doing it. If we weren't as close, we wouldn't be where we're at right now.
Who were your musical inspirations growing up, particularly groups of women performing together?
Mateja: I've always loved Beyoncé, Destiny's Child. I still love Little Mix, they’re amazing. They have a great message behind them.
Rylee: We draw a lot of our inspiration from girl groups. Destiny's Child, Little Mix, The Pussycat Dolls, Fifth Harmony, all those iconic girl groups who have the same message as us.
Mateja: But we want to bring our own different twist to the game.
What advice would you have for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Mateja: Do it! Don't hold back.
Rylee: It's really owning what you do. If you have a dream, follow it. Don't hold back. Don't let anyone's opinion change what you want to do. I guess that's what we've learned from all of this. No matter what setbacks. No matter what people say. We are going to keep pushing harder and harder to achieve what we want to do and our goals.
Mateja: It's not impossible. It's very possible if you have the right mindset for it and you just follow your dreams. It will happen if you keep doing it.
What is on the horizon for G-Nat!on?
Mateja: In the new year, we're going to be releasing an EP. So that's really exciting. We're all really excited for that.
Rylee: We’ve worked really hard. We have five or six songs that we've worked on and we've put together. So we're looking forward to that.
And are you going to be touring for that EP?
Mateja: I hope!
Rylee: We can hope for it. It's definitely a goal.
‘Girls’ Night Out’ is out now. You can download on iTunes and stream on Apple Music and Spotify.
To keep up with all things G-Nat!on you can follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
