When Freyja Blevins shimmies and stomps on stage as the frontwoman for the glamourously unhinged experimental, electro-punk band Bathing Suits, their aggressive instrumentals and her raw, uncontainable energy are so manic you can feel it in your teeth. At six foot six, she commands the stage like it owes her something, headbanging her icy blond tresses, as her voice snarls one minute then sweetens the next. Fresh from shows at London’s 100 Club and Rough Trade East, Blevins has also been busy in her own right – scouted for a Miu Miu pre-casting off the back of a Hedi Slimane shoot.

Originally from Peterborough, Blevins spent much of her younger years alone in her bedroom trawling the internet (like any good teenager), which she credits with sharpening her taste. But it was moving to Leeds for uni where she found her people and her voice – first with the noise band Cage Girl, and more recently with the other members of Bathing Suits – Elise Hughes on bass, and Alex Mulholland and George Dickinson on guitar. Together, they’ve already carved chaos through England and France, creating frenzies among audience members who can’t get enough of anthems like I Can Be a Freak and the philosophical, disconnection-themed Empathy – pounding speakers with techno beats, scuzzy synths and post-punk noise guitars. Ahead of further gigs in the UK, we sat down with Freyja to talk about the ick of unresponsive audiences and how playing gigs feels like sex.

Shana Chandra: Freyja, how are you? You’re playing in Paris soon, right?
Freyja Blevins: We leave for France on Thursday. We’re playing a show tonight, we played a show yesterday, and I had a model casting on Monday. It’s been non-stop since I’ve been in London.

SC: How’s the modelling going? Is that what the casting was for?
FB: A casting director reached out for talent and she put me forward for the Miu Miu fashion show. It was only a pre-casting. I think it was everyone’s first casting.

SC: Was that on the back of being photographed by Hedi Slimane?
FB: Yeah, the casting director reached out to me after the Hedi shoot. That’s how I got into modelling, but I’ve always been really, really involved in fashion in a viewer sense. It’s always something that’s driven everything I do.

SC: I know that the band came together when all of your respective bands fell through. Tell me what makes you guys work?
FB: I will say, we do argue a lot. [laughs] But the one thing that keeps us together is the music and performing. It’s all about how it makes us feel. We’ve been friends for ages. Elise [Hughes]  and Alex [Mulholland] are almost like mother and son sometimes. There’s a connection that overrides everything. Alex and George [Dickinson] will be battling each other, and then ten minutes later they’ll be having a heart-to-heart.

SC: You guys spend so much time together, so getting it out in the open is how you need to be.
FB: One hundred percent. 

SC: Your music has been described as electronic-y and post-punky – was this always the plan? Or did you arrive at your sound by playing?
FB: I used to be in a noise punk band, which was way noisier. There were songs that weren’t songs – just noise. I remember Elise had booked my band for a show in Leeds, and Elise, George and Alex were all there. George said that we were the first noise band they’d ever seen and that we were super inspiring. Not long after that, my band broke up, and Alex reached out [to the rest of us] asking us to put a band together. Originally it was meant to be Alex’s solo project and [was going to] be a lot punkier. After a few rehearsals, we ended up swapping roles – I started to write the music and became the front person. We then entered into this different direction. I feel like I’ve almost been a creative director for the brand in a sense.

SC: In terms of the lyrics, I love the range you guys have. There are lyrics about being an outsider, but then there are ones about Greg being shat on by a bird. [both laugh] What’s a lyric that means a lot to you at the moment?
FB: I think the most important song, lyrically, in our set is Empathy. When I wrote it, it was a philosophical commentary on society, I guess. I feel like everyone has a lack of empathy for others. Outside of the band, I work at customer-facing jobs where I’m serving people, and you can really see how disconnected people are from each other. The empathy just isn’t there for each other, and it’s seeped into every part of our lives. [The song is] about people not having the energy or being bothered enough to try and understand someone.

“There’s this one video of us playing The Windmill and I’m wearing this Christian Dior slip dress that I bought on Vinted when I was seventeen. I’m shaking like no one has ever shaken before.”

SC: You grew up in Peterborough but now you’re in Leeds. I didn’t know much about Peterborough, but when I looked it up I found all these videos saying it’s the second worst place to live in England. [laughs] How do you think these places informed your music?
FB: Peterborough is definitely where I developed my taste, not from Peterborough itself, but just from being so excluded from public life. When I was growing up, it was quite a dangerous city to live in. I got a lot of shit just existing in the public world, so a lot of time in Peterborough was actually spent in my room. I was very online, and I feel that’s where my interest in fashion and art and music came from. Everything that I’ve learned and the things I pull from, I started to develop then, when I was left alone to consume the Internet. Growing up, I didn’t have community, and then when I moved for uni, I feel like Leeds gave that to me. Not specifically a queer community, just a community. I have family there now. There’s so much love there.

SC: You’ve worn bathing suits in your live shows. Do you think it changes your performance in any way?
FB: Yeah. It isn’t necessarily a costume, because when I’m onstage I’m still that person, but it’s almost an exaggeration of myself. I think that’s what it is. It’s almost permission to be crazy and do what I do up there. Now, it’s only occasionally that I wear a bathing suit. Usually, I just do it in my underwear. So I don’t need that permission anymore. Even in Cage Girl [Blevins’s band before Bathing Suits], I was still doing crazy shit. There’s this one video of us playing The Windmill and I’m wearing this Christian Dior slip dress that I bought on Vinted when I was seventeen. I’m shaking like no one has ever shaken before. I watched that video back and I was like, ‘What the fuck.’

SC: There’s so much chat about how powerful you are live. Where does that energy come from?
FB: That’s a very authentic-me energy. It’s a different mode. For me right now, gigs feel like sex. I put myself in this vulnerable position where I’m on stage, I’m naked, but then there’s this release. It’s something that I’m unleashing. When I watch videos back – and I know this sounds self-indulgent – I just get infatuated with myself. I’m watching myself dance up there and I’m like, “Yeah. That’s me.” [laughs]

SC: For Battle of the Bands, I heard you guys agreed to vote for your friends (Normal People) and then split the prize money with them when they won.
FB: We scammed the hell out of the competition. [both laugh] Someone asked Alex where the poll box was and he pointed in the wrong direction.

SC: It worked though, right? You got 500 pounds each?
FB: That was our first summer together as a band and we used the money to go out to France and play two shows.

“Now, it’s only occasionally that I wear a bathing suit. Usually, I just do it in my underwear.”

SC: Did you notice a difference playing to French crowds rather than UK crowds?
FB: Almost every single crowd we’ve played in France, everyone just feels real. In England, there are a lot of shows we play where you have the same feeling, but there are a lot of shows we play where [audience members] are trying to get across this silent intelligence that makes them seem unresponsive. I think the most intelligent thing you can be is responsive. I’m not saying I expect everyone in the crowd to be dancing like crazy, but I need you to be reacting and showing some kind of emotion. Standing there emotionless doesn’t give anyone anything.

SC: When I’m at a gig and I see people being unresponsive, I find it so disrespectful to the artists in front of them. The least you could do is tap a foot.
FB: Literally. [Show] any sort of emotion. Be pissed off at it, be happy at it, be excited at it, be paranoid at it. Be authentic.

SC: Tell me a description of yourselves that you’ve loved or hated.
FB: I think the one I love the most is ‘the Gen Z version of Throbbing Gristle’. I think it’s the most true to us as people. Even in my performance and how I present, it’s so blatant. My least favourite was someone comparing us to Brat, and unfortunately I didn’t enjoy Brat. I loved Charli XCX’s albums before. I think my problem isn’t with the album but the audience’s response to it. [Brat] was so modern and new – and too easy. I want something experimental and weird and interesting, but maybe that’s me being a dickhead. [laughs]