She Drew The Gun unveil Sweet Harmony as GIT Award 2017 winners plot future plans

She Drew The Gun collect The GIT Award 2017 cheque from Getintothis’ Peter Guy at Parr Street Studios

GIT Award 2017 winners She Drew The Gun return with new track Sweet Harmony, Getintothis’ Peter Guy catches up with the band in the studio to talk globe trotting, Kate Tempest shout-outs and future plans.

It’s been a long, eventful and exciting road, since She Drew The Gun dropped off their debut demo CD at the Getintothis office.

The purple-inked cover image of a woman running hand-drawn atop of a stiff brown cardboard case stood out amid the postman’s pile of promos. Finely crafted yet sparse in detail, the imagery left much to the imagination. You could say it reflected the artist herself. It did the job and reeled us in.

The music revealed more – much more – enough for us to select the then solo She Drew The Gun aka Louisa Roach to play at the Aintree Grand National among a number of other Merseyside emerging artists. Louisa proved the star turn; here was someone with a special gift.

That was 2013. Push forward several years, and She Drew The Gun is now a four-piece blossoming beyond imagine having played almost every major festival across the UK and Europe plus cornerstones of the world circuit including SXSW in Texas and Korea’s Zandari Fiesta.

In between they’ve released their debut album Memories of the Future on James Skelly’s Skeleton Key label, conquered Glastonbury and been the toast of literally every festival in their home city of Liverpool; their hard work, commitment, passion and friendship shining through to make them firm favourites on the live circuit. Rarely does a band unite critics, fans and musicians alike.

Read a full chat with She Drew The Gun on their whirlwind year

After a remarkable 2017, which saw the band tour relentlessly, play Jeremy Corbyn‘s Liverpool Labour Party Conference and be included in BBC Radio 1’s Best of BBC Music Introducing playlist, the cherry on top saw them win The GIT Award 2017.

With the Award came the customary £1000 prize plus studio time at the legendary Parr Street Recording Studios.

She Drew The Gun at the GIT Award 2017

After an action packed summer, the band were finally able to record their cover of The Beloved‘s Sweet Harmony – a version they debuted GIT Award 2017 event at Constellations in May and soon became a festival favourite.

Getintothis was kindly invited to spend much of the day with the band, Sian Monaghan (drums), Jack Turner (guitar) and Jenni Kickhefer (keyobards) and Louisa (vocals, guitar), in the studio under the watchful eye of producers James Skelly and Tom Longworth.

After a full day in the studio it reaffirmed for us what a special gang of people She Drew The Gun are – dedicated and driven, yet full of humour and a zest for life. It was a real treat to share in the experience.

Here’s the results…

Afterwards we caught up with Louisa for a quick chat.

Getintothis: How’s everything been since The GIT Award 2017 – tell us some of your summer highlights?

Louisa: It’s been a brilliant summer, we always like to get involved, see what the people and places are like, go see as many artists as we can and bring family and friends whenever possible. Its been a trip.

Performance wise there’s been everything from The Park stage at Glasto to a tiny secret festival in someone’s rather large back garden, but I love them all. Personally, watching my son Cole walking up from the beach at BoardMasters after his first surf lesson with a group of beach babes carrying his board for him, was a pretty impressive moment.

Fan girl wise, getting a shout out from Kate Tempest while watching her headline set in the torrential rain at Deer Shed, or being in the crowd for Chic at Glasto while partying with The Sundowners singing ‘We are Skeleton Key’. There’s been the odd low light too, sniffer dogs, lost van keys and spandy holes, don’t ask.

She Drew The Gun

Getintothis: As part of the prize you recorded in Parr Street – tell us about the choice of song and the experience.

Louisa: When The GIT Award was coming up we felt like doing something different so we had a go at a fave of mine, Sweet Harmony by The Beloved.

People really liked it so we took the song, along with Ste Powell playing saxophone, on the road with us this summer.

It always had such a good response we thought it’d be the perfect way to round off a boss summer. The experience, well its always a pleasure to record in Parr Street anyway, and I’ve been following the 25 years at Parr Street series and loved it so far – it’s really nice to be part of it.

She Drew The Gun – Sweet Harmony

Getintothis: You’ve got the cash prize too – tell us what you may spend it on?

Louisa: We’ve been building a little home studio – somewhere to write and make demos so it’s helped out with that.

But the main thing I want to use it for is a springboard to do something a bit different with an event in the community – the idea at present is to put on a female focused event in the next year; plans are in the pipeline. Watch this space.

Getintothis: Lastly, any future plans – you’ve been so busy – aren’t you due for a rest!?

Louisa: Yes, and yes, but I’m in the studio next week starting recording some new material. Its been busy but time is upon us and there so much to do. The next phase needs to begin.