Words by Jonathan Stout
Formed in 2022, Girl Gordon is a four-piece DIY indie punk band based in Cincinnati. Coming together as transplants from other music hubs like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Providence, Hannah Blanchette, Jerika Hayes, Cory Linman, and Patrick Mitchell mix the riffs and feedback of 90s alternative/noise rock with a contemporary melodic punk sound. Self-recorded and released last August, the Corruptor EP ensures the band’s place in the newest wave of Cincinnati alternative bands and serves as a great introduction for a band with a lot of inspiration and potential.
Off Shelf: Although you’re currently stationed in Cincinnati, you come from spread out locations like Los Angeles, Chicago and Providence. What brought you to Cincinnati and what brought you together?
Patrick Mitchell: Jerika, Hannah, and I met in grad school. Not long after, Jerika introduced us to Cory. The first time I hung out with Cory and Jerika was at a Knuckle Puck show. During the opener’s set, I spilt a beer all over them. It’s a wonder the band even got off the ground! [laughs]
Jerika Hayes: The band definitely started as a ‘just for fun’ project while we were in grad school. I personally wanted to do something different than I ever had before and I just really missed playing bass. It quickly turned into something more however, and I think our unique backgrounds and the fact we’re all transplants adds something to the band. We also all love Cincinnati and are very thankful we ended up here.
Hannah Blanchette: I always think it’s pretty special that the first time we all must have hung out together was at a Mannequin Pussy show in 2021 – since I know this was the first time I met Cory – and then the first song we ever played live together was a “Drunk II” cover. Everything comes full circle in the end. Or I guess it was just the beginning?
OS: What’s different about this band from your past musical endeavors?
PM: In high school and college, I was in a bunch of generic pop-punk bands. I remember one group in particular was trying to be the next Fall Out Boy. The band spent stupid amounts of money on gear, recording studios, and social media with the hope some big label would throw money at us. Here’s the thing: the music sucked. That group wrote cookie cutter Disney Channel music and it never went anywhere.
For me, Girl Gordon is so different because I actually like our stuff! Lyrics, instrumentation, production, all of it. I love it because it’s a reflection of us. Each member brings something totally unique to the song writing process. It doesn’t feel like we’re writing music with the hopes some rich dude in L.A. will finance us — we write songs we’re proud of and want to share with our community. By the way, if there are any wealthy benefactors who like our band, please contact us! [laughs]
JH: This has been very different for a few reasons, but the biggest is that I hadn’t written with other people before. For a long time, I had a solo project that was more singer-songwriter where I was playing piano, writing, singing, and arranging everything, and although I played with a backing band most of the time it wasn’t the same as playing in a band. Girl Gordon is so much fun and unifying and really special, and I feel like when we are playing a show the energy on stage is just out of this world. I don’t feel so alone like I did before where it was mostly focused on me in a way that wasn’t healthy or sustainable or even really enjoyable if I’m being honest! I was hustling trying to make a career work and it was an impossible uphill battle that broke my heart constantly. This is truly the antithesis of all that, and whatever happens with Girl Gordon in the long run, I can say it’s been a highlight of my creative life.
HB: For me, Girl Gordon is pretty much my first band. I primarily come from a world of classical performance, specifically clarinet, which was something I participated in throughout childhood and went to college for. I’ve played in orchestras, chamber groups, solo recitals. Interestingly, chamber music was always my favorite, which I feel like is the classical equivalent of a band! I loved the intimate way you engaged musically with just a few individuals, how everyone relied on one another and supported each other. There was no conductor, you only had yourselves and the nonverbal way you learned to communicate. There are parts of the classical world I love and that are still a part of me. But there were parts that got tougher as the years went on, specifically the pressures of perfection in performance. I developed a bit of performance anxiety from those pressures and eventually stopped performing for years. Girl Gordon has helped me heal that anxiety immensely. Getting back on the stage and always striving to be my best, but not being too hard on myself if I flub a riff, has helped me fall back in love with performing.
OS: Do you mind if I ask the origin/meaning of your band name, Girl Gordon?
JH: So a few of us were out at Northside Yacht Club – a Cincy staple dive bar – and at that time we were still trying to come up with a name for the band. My friend Abby was with us and was talking about how much she looks like her dad, whose name is Gordon. At one point she said “I’m basically girl Gordon,” and we knew instantly that was it.
OS: How quickly did the songs on Corruptor come together? Was there a lot of fleshing out before recording or did things gel quickly?
HB: I’d say it really depends on the song. Some can just fall into your lap and others make you really work for them. As I recall, “Corruptor” came out of the gate swinging, whereas “The Need” took multiple writing sessions over months to become what is heard on the album. “Chicago Gyros & Dogs 2” was one of the first songs we wrote, and has changed a lot over the years as we’ve grown too. And then “Great American Speeches” didn’t even start with the intent of having lyrics, it was meant as an interlude for live performance to fill time as we retune and switch guitars. As a whole, the songs were written before recording, but they were shaped and molded through live performance. I still make slight variations to what I’m doing live from what is on the record. And that’s the beauty of these songs: they’re written, but they’ll always evolve with us.
OS: Did you go to a studio to record Corruptor or was it self recorded? How was this experience?
CL: Being a newer band with limited funds, we self recorded this project. Our “studio” in our basement is a live room, vocal booth, rehearsal space, and control room all rolled into one, but it gets the job done. We recorded about 90% of “Corruptor” in our basement, but I knew I wanted some specific guitar tones for the songs “The Need” and “Blood’s Dried.” We took the better part of a day setting up in a church sanctuary where I was able to experiment with different mics and positions to capture the guitar tones I was looking for. Since we self recorded, the overall experience didn’t feel as rushed, and we were able to take more time with tone, transitions, layering, engineering, and honestly learning as it was our first big project.
OS: Were there any specific pieces of gear – new pedals, guitars, cymbals, etc – that particularly helped inspire the recording process?
HB: Two pieces of gear that were essential for me were the Boss Digital Delay DD-6 and a Blue Moon bottle.
A couple years ago, I was borrowing the DD-6 from a coworker for a free improvisation group we were a part of, which I was playing clarinet in. I was trying to use the DD-6 to loop the clarinet, which proved harder in live performance than I was ready for. At home, I started experimenting with the DD-6 and my guitar, pushing through extreme amounts of overdrive and distortion to create churning feedback drones. I brought these sounds to band practice and started to incorporate them into our songwriting. I eventually bought the DD-6 from my coworker because it was kind of old and had a grittiness I couldn’t feel with other pedals.
The Blue Moon bottle was a complete accident. While we were talking after band practice one day, my guitar was still plugged in with all the pedals on, and I was fiddling with my empty bottle when it accidentally hit against the strings, creating a sound that would become the shimmery effect in “Blood’s Dried.” I immediately went home, ripped the label off the bottle, slapped a Girl Gordon sticker on it, and admitted it into my gear lineup. I once again started experimenting with it, also creating the screeching sound that you hear right before the first verse starts in “The Need.” The secret recipe: I scraped the little ridges all around the bottom of the bottle over my neck pickup, with overdrive, distortion, and delay cranked.
Overall, the DD-6 and the bottle were tools that helped me create sounds that didn’t really sound like a guitar. They’ve allowed me to push the instrument in different directions and experiment with what the guitar can do outside of riffs and chords, although I love those as well! [laughs]
OS: Musicians are usually inspired by all kinds of music, but are there any fundamental influences for your sound that all members agree upon?
CL: We have a pretty diverse range of influences, which I think is a huge asset to the band and what makes our sound hard to completely pin down. The EP’s influences include foundational bands such as Sleater-Kinney, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Placebo, and Nirvana, and also newer groups like Mannequin Pussy, Wednesday, and Drug Church. If you asked us each to name our favorite five bands you’d get five completely different lists, but we have enough overlap in genres that we make it work.
OS: Times are tough for musicians, with low paying streams and unprofitable tours to the pressures of becoming content creators. What keeps you inspired to continue to create and play live?
JH: If I don’t do this I think I’ll shrivel up and die. But in all seriousness, the world is so awful and dark sometimes, especially in America with the attacks on reproductive and LGBTQ rights, racism in basically every single system, corporate greed… it can all be overwhelming. Being in this band with these incredibly talented people is a very healthy outlet to both process everything and remind yourself of the beauty in the world through friendship, community, and art. It would be very cool to make money doing this, but right now we are content and thankful to get to do it just for our hearts I think. Also If I ever say I’m “creating content” just throw me off a cliff or something.
HB: Plain and simple, I do it because it’s the thing I look forward to most every week. It’s essential more than ever to keep making art that you care about in a society that wants you to churn out content purely for the sake of posting online, for getting hits and views, for cracking into the elusive algorithm. At the end of the day, none of that matters. Writing a song with my friends, hearing us laugh, catching someone’s eye in a crowd as they dance around to your music, experiencing all of those moments of human connection, are what make it worthwhile.
OS: I know you just released Corruptor in August, but are you working on any new material? Can fans expect any new releases for 2025?
JH: We are definitely working on new stuff and have actually been playing one of our new songs at some recent shows. We’d love to have an LP by the end next year, and hope to be writing more in the upcoming months.
OS: Do you have any upcoming gigs or tours that you’d like to mention before we wrap up?
JH: Glastonbury! [laughs] Just kidding. We’re playing at Radio Artifact in Cincinnati on December 7th!
way to go Girl Gordon! So in awe& proud of all your success! Can’t wait to be there on Dec 7!