Fast-rising band Babygirl hits the TLA stage Nov. 21

Image | Undine Markus

Fast-rising pop-rock band Babygirl will be coming to the Theatre of Living Arts on Nov. 21 in support of Jeremy Zucker and his nationwide tour.

Tickets and details for the show can be found at venue.tlaphilly.com.

Shortly ahead of the tour beginning, Babygirl released their new single “Born With A Broken Heart” on Oct. 29. Earlier this year, they released their EP “Losers Weepers” via Sandlot Records in partnership with AWAL Recordings, which arrived with their singles “Million Dollar Bed,” “Easy,” and “You Were In My Dream Last Night.” Solidifying them as one to watch, “Losers Weepers’” critically acclaimed tracks were featured on the likes of Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist, Apple’s New Music Daily, and major indie pop playlists. Accomplished songwriters who also co-produced Lauv’s “Canada ft. Alessia Cara,” Babygirl also recently teamed up with Spotify Canada to be featured as one of their RADAR Canada artists, appearing on billboards in Times Square.

Babygirl received immediate love from Spotify for their first-ever single “Overbored” and, with the release of their sophomore 2018 EP “Lovers Fevers” and standout single “Soft,” caught the attention of Grammy-nominated powerhouse J Kash [Katy Perry, Charlie Puth] who signed them to Sandlot Records in global partnership with AWAL Recordings. Sharing admiration for Alvvays, blink-182, JohnMayer, Death Cab For Cutie, and Taylor Swift, Babygirl is made up of Kiki Frances, who also counts Avril Lavigne, KellyClarkson, and Hilary Duff as some of her formative influences, and Cameron “Bright” Breithaupt, who grew up surrounded by music as the child of two full-time professional musicians.

PW recently caught up with Babygirl to talk about their upcoming show and new music.

 

Let’s go back to the beginning. How did you become interested in making music? Who were some of your earliest musical influences?

Kiki: I’ve loved singing and performing since I was a little kid, and I started writing my own songs around 9 or 10. I don’t know what drew me to it, I was just fascinated by music in general and knew that I wanted to make it myself. It was basically the only thing I was interested in other than hanging out with my friends. As for early music influences, Avril Lavigne was huge for me and I love Shania Twain. My mom played The Dixie Chicks and Norah Jones around the house. My dad played Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. I listened to the radio a lot too.

Cameron: Having grown up in a house with two musicians as my parents, it always just seemed like the obvious thing to do. We would sit around the dinner table and my mom would teach us four-part harmonies and my dad would make mixtapes to open up my ears. My grandparents on both sides were musical as well. It’s just kind of the atmosphere of the environment, like, making music is just a normal thing to do every day. So, by the time I was about 9, when I got my first acoustic guitar, I was completely obsessed. Musical influences from that time sort of fall into two general categories: whatever was playing on The Much Music Countdown, and whatever my parents were exposing me to. So, it was like the Max Martin songbook, 50 Cent, Canadian pop-punk bands, but also like Steely Dan, Ricki Lee Jones, and jazz standards.

 

How did you two get together to form Babygirl, and how did you come up with the name?

Cameron: We met at Humber College, where we were both vocal majors in the music program, and we bonded over our shared love of pop music. It was a pretty jazz-focused curriculum, so to find someone else who had a serious reverence for *NSYNC was awesome. At first, we were just writing straight up pop songs for pitching to other artists. But when you really want to be the performing artist, you can only deny it for so long.

Kiki: Basically, when I was young, probably around 9, I started a “band” with a couple of my friends. It was really just me writing songs and asking them to play as my backup singers. That band was called Babygirl. So, when I told Cam that story, he was like “Oh, that’s actually a great band name. Let’s do that.”

 Image | Undine Markus

 

Can you talk a little about your creative process? What inspires you to write?

Cameron: Our creative process is very patient. We brainstorm a lot, and only follow the ideas that really raise their hands as special in some way. Then it tends to be a couple months of writing revisions to even get to the point where we are doing the final recording sessions. Our inspiration can come from anywhere: personal experience, a billboard, an overheard conversation, or, maybe most often, other songs.

Kiki: Production-wise, sometimes we’ll record all the vocals, live with them for a couple months, change a word or two, and do a full re-recording. Sometimes we’ll produce a song twice over completely, learning from the mistakes of the first try. There’s a lot of revision!

 

Your EP “Losers Weepers” came out earlier this year, and your single “Born With a Broken Heart” dropped Oct. 29. Talk a little about how each of these projects came together. 

Cameron: “Losers Weepers” was a unique experience for us. It came together more collaboratively than anything else we’ve ever done. We worked with outside writers and producers on half of the songs – people who have written on hit songs, people who are co-writers on some of our favorite artists’ music, and close friends from home. I feel like it brought a different melodic attitude to the project than our previous work.

Kiki: “Born With a Broken Heart,” on the other hand, was a super-isolated process. We started writing it alone on a small island in Georgian Bay, Ontario. We finished it during lockdown in the middle of the winter in a little converted garage studio near Trinity Bellwoods in Toronto. It feels like that loneliness is really reflected in the sound of the music.

 

After the pandemic shut down live concerts, how does it feel to be back on stage? What will your fans see when they show up at TLA on Nov. 21?

Cameron: It’s been a completely surreal experience. We went from two years off stage, to doing our biggest shows ever, every night. It’s an adrenaline overload. Jeremy Zucker’s fans are super engaged and sweet, and we’re very grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of this tour.

Kiki: As for what they’ll see, our live band for this tour is a three-piece – it’s the two of us, plus Cam’s brother Miles on drums. TLA will be our ninth show of the tour, so we’re hopefully gonna be really in the rhythm of the set at that point – and we might add in something new.

 

What are the best ways for your fans to stay current with what you’re doing?

Follow us! @babygirlband on IG/TikTok.

    • Eugene Zenyatta was raised on old-time Memphis 'rasslin' and strongly prefers the company of dogs to people. His greatest heartbreak came in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic.

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