Words: Anna Malotova, Madeline Montisano, Sam Aarons, Johnny and Natalie Santamaria Mena | Featured Image: Mini Moody

With a new festive single just around the corner, LDN sits down with bassist and BIMM lecturer Cassie Fox of kitchenqueen collective I Doris to hear a lesson on how not to write a song, reclaiming women’s space in music no matter their age and why everyone should be in a band.

Can you introduce yourself and your band I, Doris?

Cassie: Sure, I’m Cassie Fox and I’m the founding Doris. We have a collective of Doris’ so there are about twelve Doris’ in total.

Who are the other members and why do you all go by Doris? 

C: Well, ‘Doris’ is kind of a phrase that’s used? You know, like Australians will refer to women as ‘Sheilas’? It’s sometimes a dismissive thing so we’re reclaiming that name and the idea that as you get a bit older, you start to disappear. Your identity becomes more transparent as you become someone’s mum.

You mentioned that you describe yourself as the founding Doris. How did you found the group?

None of us enjoyed being in a band led by someone else or a more masculine figure [so we decided that] we wanted to do something that was about having a laugh. The idea is that no one ever leaves. The doors are always open.

How is it being in an all-girl band and was that your aim from the beginning? 

It wasn’t actually. We’ve got people of all genders in the wider Doris collective, it just happens that most of us are women. Our songs are about things like HRT so the women’s head is set to relate.

How do you divide the managerial roles? Do you have any external help or do you guys do all of it?

I say this nicely about myself, I like to be in control of my band projects. I have discovered over the years that it’s just how I am. I like being an independent band. I like being in control of when we release things, how we release things and what gigs we play. We’ve never really sought out a manager, a label, or a booking agent and we definitely wouldn’t want anything like that because we don’t have aims to be number one or have lots of streams. It’s for fun.

Plus, it pays for itself, because we don’t have an agent or a manager. We’ve been offered this opportunity to go to Seattle next spring. At the moment, we’ve got enough in the bank from T-shirt sales which is really exciting.

Tell us about your latest single ‘Do It Myself’, how did you come up with the song and music video, what’s the message there?

This is a lesson in how not to write songs. All of the songwriting tutors here would probably be very angry. We sat around my kitchen table and we decided that we would start talking about masturbation, as you do, and all the different ways that that’s expressed. There are lots of different terms.

We realised there was a bit of an imbalance in the terms that describe female masturbation so we opened up my computer and we made a spreadsheet of all of the terms that we could think of… More wine was consumed and more terms were added to the spreadsheet and then we put it in alphabetical order. We picked out the ones that rhymed and made it into a song and then stole the music from another band (Ed’s note: The Go Go’s ‘We Got The Beat’, incidentally). They’ve all been credited and will get the pay from Spotify streams

As there is more than one Doris and some members come and go, how do you write songs with so many people?

C: Usually, I write things and demo them at home and then bring them to a rehearsal and people put their own parts to it. I write my bass lines but guitar lines, I wouldn’t touch those!

You describe yourself as “mommy core/ riotpop/ kitchenpunk”, and this is a very interesting description. Did you invent this genre? 

Yeah, we describe ourselves differently for every gig we play [but] it conjures up a picture of who we are and what we do. We were described erroneously on the radio once by Melissa Dennett, who’s the BBC Introducing DJ for BBC Sussex as four queer women from Epsom so we’ve totally taken that and none of us are even from Epsom! I live in southwest London, Lucy’s from Stowe and Vic’s in Brighton. When people are describing a band, they like to have something that sums it up in a neat little couplet, like The Cramps meet Taylor Swift or whatever but it’s all nonsense really.

What’s your favourite part of being in this band?

I love playing on stage. It’s the best feeling in the world. Everyone should be in a band. To play songs that you’ve come up with on the bus and then you’re playing them on the stage and people are dancing and singing along or walking out in disgust. That occasionally happens too but it sorts the wheat from the chaff! [laughs]

Apart from Glastonbury, what do you guys see for the future, do you have any gigs or more releases coming up?

C: We’ve got a new single coming out on 15th of December called ‘Merry Menopause.’ It was called ‘Perimenopause’ but someone misheard it, and it was coming out at Christmas so it seemed to be serendipitous. It’s the new Christmas hit, I’m sure, and we were in the studio last weekend with Dunston Bruce of Chumbawamba for a new song called ‘Not Done Yet’, again, about the idea of getting older but still having something to say.

Be the first to stream ‘Merry Menopause’ this festive season and follow I, Doris’ adventures on their Instagram page or find them on Facebook.