While it’s easy to scoff at any reference to the golden era of New Zealand indie – specifically early-eighties Flying Nun – Lucy Botting’s latest project, Girlboss, has the genial slackness that’s long been associated with kiwi guitar music. It’s perhaps telling then, that she only recently learnt to play the guitar and is already writing and producing quality pop music.
On her latest single, “Kind Face”, she sings about a compliment she once received from a stranger, and constructs a simple guitar melody to revel in the selfless, spontaneous act. Speaking to IMPOSE from her home in Wellington, she explains, “I was at this gig and a girl I didn’t know came up to me and said, ‘you have the kindest face’. She was going on about how I have a kind face and I was just taken aback – it’s such a specific compliment to pay someone.”
The song delivers the same joy we get from listening to Teen Dream-era Beach House – think “Zebra” – or the soaked guitar sound of early Real Estate. There’s plenty of jangle, a hint of reverb and a snoozy vocal melody.
Lucy tells us that the name Girlboss was inspired by a self-employed friend, who she saw hashtagging #Girlboss on Instagram. “I didn’t know much about the girlboss thing until my friend started hashtagging. I was mainly inspired by her… Seeing her hashtag girlboss. In my head I was like, that’s a really powerful word.”
She’ll be recording her debut album over the South Pacific summer with her friend, musician and producer Jon Lemmon. For now, you can listen to the exclusive premiere of “Kind Face”, right here.
