Man/Woman/Chainsaw - Post ‘Film Club’ Punk

Man/Woman/Chainsaw is Clio, Lola, Emmie Ben, Billy and Vera

Born out of a failed Acid House project and a Film Club friendship, Man/Woman/Chainsaw are one of the most exciting bands coming out of the London scene. Having played various gigs across the capital for over two years now, including many stays in the cult Brixton venue The Windmill, the band has developed a reputation for stormy, sweaty and spectacular live shows. After a rehearsal and on the eve of their second single release, all 6 members of M/W/C sat down to chat about the music, Jason Derulo and what exactly M/W/C is.

My first question is, where does a name like Man/Woman/Chainsaw come from, what's its significance?

(Ben) Billy and I were in a film club together and one of the books was called 'Men Women and Chainsaws' and we thought it would make a cool title. Neither of us has read it though

Do you know what it's about?

(Vera) It's a feminist book about gender roles in horror/slasher films, one of us should get around to reading it sometime.

How did the formation of the band go?

(Billy) Me and Ben originally planned on doing an Acid House project that didn't work out so we got guitars, then a cello, and then a drummer and slowly the band took its shape. We played as a four-piece for a while with our old drummer Layla, she left back in January but we now play as a six-piece.

How did you guys find the change in formation?

(Ben) It took some getting used to as we'd written and recorded these songs with a 4-piece and adapting them to fit a 6-piece was a challenge, but we've improved from the change.

Any Given Sunday, the debut single from Man/Woman/Chainsaw released in September 2022

The Conversation moved on to the debut single, Any Given Sunday, which is 2 minutes of angry punk and theatrical shouting making it chaos from start to finish, but incredibly enjoyable.

This track lyrically is jammed full of pop culture references and instrumentally is bedlam, how did writing this song come about?

(Billy) I must clear up that the track is in no way connected to the film it's just one of the lyrics in the song, nor is the line "Bodies, Bodies, Bodies" a reference to the film. I wrote the lyrics by myself and brought them to the band where we put the instrumentation in. Again we wrote this as a 4 piece and the version we perform now is changed from the studio version, but We're still very proud of the track.

The line "The drums they swing low and the trumpets they go!" is taken from Jason Derulo, Are you guys big fans?

(Vera) Doesn't he do Tik Tok now?

(Ben) have you seen that picture of him?

(Ben is referring to a certain picture of Derulo in undwear, for your own sake, please don't search it up.)

How is performing the song live?

(Billy) It's definitely fun to play that track live, as per mentioned it took a little

getting used to playing it with 6 people and honestly we prefer the studio but Any Given Sunday is always a crowd favourite. (Vera) My section screaming the lyrics either gets people saying "Wow nice" or "Why is this bitch screaming in my ears". I'm having lots of fun performing it personally.

Are there any more tracks like this one?

Plenty! Too many.

Fuck Yeah.

Back/Burden, the second single from Man/Woman/Chainsaw released in March 2023

We then move on to Back/Burden. This single sung by Vera carries rage and frustration and adds powerful lyrics about hookup culture and a shallow man using sex to deal with his issues.

This song is led by Vera, what does the song mean to you and how did the writing it go?

(Vera) The song began as a piano ballad actually, that must seem weird from an outward perspective. I definitely prefer the punk version, as for the concept, I think it's a powerful track, it shows frustration and anger towards men in general and the concept is true to its name, don't put your burden onto my back!

How does it feel to perform it?

(Vera) It's fun being the lead, vocally it's similar to Any Given Sunday with a lot of screaming but obviously, this track is more personal to me.

We then talked about the band's live performances. When I mentioned their live reputation, they seemed surprised at the hype.

You've played the Windmill a few times, this is such an important venue for the recent rise of Post Punk with Black Midi, Squid and 'Black Country, New Road' all coming through the venue, did it feel different to the other venues you'd played?

(Vera) It was definitely cool because we got the offer and I thought "I've seen this place on youtube" but it felt normal to us, maybe because of the number of gigs we've done

What would you say your favourite venue to play at is?

George's Tavern, shout out to The Windmill though.

Final Question, drink of choice for everyone non-alcoholic or-

Red Stripe, all of us.

All of Man/Woman/Chainsaw's socials can be found here https://linktr.ee/manwomanchainsaw

Steam their new single Back/Burden.