My First Time are taking the piss with purpose
When introduced to My First Time’s discography, the thrashing drums, post-punk guitar riffs and grungy basslines are enough to draw you in, even before frontman Isaac Stroud-Allen comes in with his twangy, attitudinal timbre. However, it’s the lyrics that make you come back to the Bristol-born band for a second, third — or in my case, roughly ten-thousandth — time. Situated in a fame-driven laze of a music scene, the twisted elegance of Stroud-Allen’s penmanship stands out as poetry for a Gen-Z audience. Where less authentic counterparts present lyrics as ‘interesting’ as — like the frontman sings in ‘Man Of Ill Repute’ — wearing a “tight top and skinny jeans on Friday night”, My First Time offers up a generational commentary. The band covers themes that almost anyone in their twenties can relate to: the eternal push and pull between wanting a well- paid job, a happy relationship and a stable home, or opting to get drunk, sniff drugs and get laid. Often.
The band will be the first to admit that there’s a heavy level of piss-taking involved in their music. Their latest single, the ironically-named ‘Picture Of Health’, comments on “popcorn lungs” and being “addicted to pornhub” from the perspective of a performative male — yes, he’s even reading Wuthering Heights — who finds the whole thing hilarious. Meanwhile, ‘Man Of Ill Repute’ features some elite My First Time lyrics: “Turn around and slap your arse. Have a look at my business card”, evoking the “boys will be boys” philosophy that’s so prolific amongst the finance-bro crowd. Then, there’s ‘Workwear’, which speaks of coveting the latest designer garments and incessantly seeking out “something shiny off the internet” at the expense of body-image issues and the benefit of industries that turn low self-esteem into profit.
What makes My First Time so ingenious, however, is their awareness of how to make music that strikes a chord on more than one level. Politically satirical as their songs may be, lines like “I’m here to get laid, you want meaning, I want money, I want the fame”, are, to put it simply, bloody catchy. They allow Gen Z-ers — arguably the most nonchalant generation of all time — to tap into the desires they’d usually be too ‘cool’ to admit to. Even Stroud-Allen, guitarist James Mellen, bassist Naia Jones and drummer Jordanna Forsey have to concede to their own dreams of fame and fortune. But that is counteracted with dry, self-deprecating humour. When I truthfully tell the band I listen to them every day, Stroud-Allen asks if it’s when I’m putting on my washing machine. “Like, drowning it out sort of thing?” he smirks. Ultimately, though, My First
Time must believe they have what it takes to make it. “My dream is to walk out and get to play to thousands of people,” the frontman admits. After all, no aspiring artist pours blood, sweat and tears into their work just for the shits and gigs. Except Forsey. She just really likes playing the drums.
Scarlett Coughlan: Could you tell me how you met?
Naia Jones: Yeah. I knew Jordanna in college in Cardiff, went to Bristol, met James in uni. Isaac saw my insane talents and knowledge of the G-string — and other strings — and then we started a band.
SC: In a previous interview, you said something about meeting on a clinical trial. Is that bullshit?
NJ: That is bullshit. Before you asked that question, I was going to say we met at a cheese tasting exercise, but I respect you too much to lie.
SC: And what about the name? How did you come up with ‘My First Time’?
Isaac Stroud-Allen: I was in the pub with my mate and I was talking about band names. One of his was ‘Mummy’s Boys’. I’m so glad we didn’t go for that one. I wanted to have a band name that’s used in everyday conversation so, subliminally, you think of My First Time.
James Mellen: Even now, I’ll listen to a podcast and someone will be like, ‘Oh, it was my first time doing whatever’, and it’s like, ‘Oop, clock it’. Do you know what I mean?
ISA: I don’t know if other people do that.
JM: I do. I’m fucking conceited.
“We’re all just fucking hypocrites.”
SC: I didn’t know if the name was to do with an ‘it’s my first time on earth’ kind of thing.
ISA: Well, I guess it falls into place with the sort of the songs we’re writing. It’s all about being young or making mistakes, or that excitement of doing things the first time.
NJ: Navigating stuff basically.
JM: It might not work when we’re 50.
ISA: Yeah, that’s really creepy.
SC: Let’s talk about your lyrics a bit more. I think you said in a different interview, James, it’s part of being ‘generation fucked’.
JM: Maybe I said that.
SC: Well, online it says you said that.
JM: The internet doesn’t lie.
ISA: The state of the world is definitely something that’s always going to be prevalent in your mind when you’re songwriting. You can’t really avoid that shadow looming over.
SC: Your lyrics are really clever — which I’m sure you’re aware of — but where does that come from?
ISA: I’m not very well read. I have a Google Doc sheet, which has got about 300 words that I like. I like lyrics that are a bit, I guess, visceral. Or just a bit dirty or grimy, or offputting. And then a chorus that’s normal — and then back to a verse that’s horrible.
NJ: A lot of the artists that I’ve listened to recently, they’re kind of playing it safe. They want to sound good or they want it to come across in the right way. I think Isaac’s not really…
ISA: He doesn’t want to sound good and he doesn’t want to come across in the right way!
NJ: He’s not afraid to really embody characters.
SC: Are there any lyrics you have a particular affinity with?
JM: We have an unreleased number and the opening lyric was: “Hook a Red Bull to my catheter.”
SC: Are you actually going to release that?
ISA: I don’t know. If the label lets us.
NJ: The one I find the most clever is in ‘Workwear’, where it’s like, “Boohoo, you Pretty Little Thing, I couldn’t give a CK…”
SC: Another clever thing about your lyrics is that they’re satire, but also about the things everyone secretly wants.
NJ: People shy away from their own shadow a lot. A lot of people are thinking, particularly in a song like ‘Much Better’, ‘Of course we’re in a recession, we’re in a financial crisis, of course everyone wants to be better off’. Everyone wants the glamour and the escapism that money can offer.
ISA: When you’re growing up, you pine after success or fame or adoration or respect. But it’s taking those things and putting steroids in them.
NJ: We’re all guilty of the things addressed in the songs and there is self-deprecation in the lyrics, like: ‘I’m guilty of this, I’m sure you are too’. I think that’s what separates us from other bands because, to a level, it’s a mockery of the audience. Are you taking yourself seriously? Are you clued into the things that you’re thinking? Are you seeing yourself in the song? I mean, the reason I like the music so much is because I see myself, or the parts of me that I don’t want to address, in it.
SC: As a band, obviously you’re not just doing this for the shits and gigs, so your music does have that self-deprecating element.
ISA: A hundred percent. My dream is to walk out and get to play to thousands of people.
NJ: Hypocrisy in the highest degree.
ISA: Yeah, we’re all just fucking hypocrites.
SC: Your songs also tap into the Gen-Z demographic in that we’re famously selfish, and these songs are about being an individual, not being in love.
ISA: When you’re writing in your twenties, I think you do tend to write more about that because you’re learning about yourself. I got all those love songs out the way from 13 to 18, so I have a shit-tonne of those, don’t you worry.
“I see the parts of me that I don’t want to address in it.”
SC: You also have an interesting stage presence, where Isaac is sort of manic, and the rest of you are all super aloof. What goes into that?
NJ: In the most wanky way possible — speaking for myself in this — it’s a form of meditation in a way. You’re not really in your own head thinking, ‘Oh, how am I moving on stage? How am I looking to the audience?’ You’re immersed in it. It’s a symbiotic relationship between you and the song. It’s fucking powerful, man.
ISA: I think their nonchalantness is not nonchalant. I think they’re just focusing on playing.
SC: Do you think being a mixed- gender band adds anything creatively?
NJ: Behind every strong man is a woman.
ISA: That’s very true. What about weak men…?
NJ: Having the feminine touch adds a roundness to the music and to how we come across. It’s very hard to write about the full human experience when you’re only seeing one side of it, so I think it helps. A bit more yin and yang.
SC: We should probably talk about your EP.
ISA: Ugh.
JM: The what?
SC: It’s your first collective body of work. What’s the throughline?
JM: These four songs are kind of a cross-section. It covers all of what we do. I feel like it’s kind of a…
ISA: …Smorgasbord.
JM: A buffet.
ISA: I guess it’s a taste of what the album will encompass. The main thing in this band is that we don’t want to be boring. We want to be really varied. Varied in the topics in that it’s really personal or really character-based. And I think this EP is just a perfect taste of what’s to come. It generally tackles themes of being in your twenties. There’s so many different pathways for your life to go and it’s looking at it all. But we wanted to put these four tracks together ‘cause there’s such a big span to them. It’s a brilliant taste of how far we want to spread the butter on the toast. I dunno, I’m trying to come up with a good metaphor about a really long loaf. A really long loaf of life.
NJ: True. It shows our versatility sonically, lyrically and thematically. To me, the undercurrent of it is seeking validation or confidence in yourself through external sources. You have a song like ‘Celebrity’, where you’re getting fulfilment from shagging someone with high prestige. And then you have ‘Wellington Boots’, where you’re looking around at people moving on with their adult life and you’re like, ‘where do I fit in that?’ ‘Picture of Health’ is seeking it in your vices. ‘Kids Are’ is, you know, finding yourself for yourself.
SC: What do you want people to take away from listening to My First Time? I’m going to end the interview here, so say something profound.
NJ: What was the question again?
JM: That was a shit answer.
NJ: What I want people to take away is the same fulfilment that I’ve gotten through being in the project, which is having those feelings you can’t necessarily put into words in your own head. Having someone else lay them out in their own way kind of makes it easier for you to understand and digest for yourself.
JM: For me, music is a form of escapism. I’d like people to take that from My First Time. Come to a show and whatever’s going on at home, whoever’s blowing up your phone, having a go at you, is irrelevant. Just 45 minutes of whatever the fuck. Enjoy yourself.
Jordanna Forsey: We want people to have as much fun as possible.
ISA: I guess it’s that excitement of the unknown — something being your ‘First Time’
Save the My First Time EP here.
- PhotographerEva Pentel
- StylistCaitlin Robb Brown
- WriterScarlett Coughlan
- Make-Up ArtistJessica Summer using MAC Cosmetics
- Hair StylistSandra Hahnel at Caren using REDKEN
- Fashion AssistantsCarmel Anderson, Isabel Ulatowski
- Hair AssistantJoel Salla
- Movement DirectorAyo Babatope
