For many people, breaking the music industry can be a lifelong pursuit. But for Texan trio Not Ur Girlfrenz, they’re living out their dreams in their early teenage years! With Liv Haynes (15) on vocals/guitar, Gigi Haynes (13) on bass and Maren Alford (15) on drums, these girls have turned the heads of rock fans everywhere! With their insane talent combined with management from Bowling For Soup’s Jaret Reddick, Not Ur Girlfrenz couldn’t have asked for a better start to their career…
As most bands do, Not Ur Girlfrenz had quite an unusual introduction in to the world of music. They began as a ‘fake band’ created for one of Liv’s short films, both Liv and Maren were able to play the instruments that they do now, however Gigi didn’t know how to play the bass.
Liv said: “Maren used to have a band before us, and me and Gigi used to do little acoustic gigs.
“Then we decided we actually wanted to do something when our acting coach saw the short film and asked us to perform for some industry guys that were coming in to town from Los Angeles.”
In preparation for the gig the girls learnt two covers, ‘Bad Reputation’ by Joan Jett and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock and Roll’. As well as this, Gigi learnt how to actually play the bass in an astonishing two weeks!
After the success of their first gig, Not Ur Girlfrenz decided it was time to release more content, so they recorded a music video for their cover of ‘Bad Reputation’, and followed this up by contacting The Track Studio and arranging to play their Girl Power show three weeks later. This trio then spent their winter break learning six new songs in preparation for the performance including names such as Green Day, Nirvana and The White Stripes.
Liv said: “We played the gig and came out with a wad of cash! It was so unexpected! Usually a band’s first gig isn’t great, but all of our friends showed up and it was so great! And the rest is history!”
To state the obvious, their age is a particular talking point surrounding the band. Most young people their age are struggling with homework and writing essays, while these girls are writing their own songs – something that many beginner musicians struggle to tackle.
Liv said: “Ever since I was little I loved to write, it was my favourite subject in school. Then once I finally decided I wanted to write songs I unlocked this part of me that I never knew I had.
“I love writing, it is very therapeutic for me so I’m usually doing that in my free time. I’ll be on my guitar or my piano. I have around 800 voice memos in my phone of just mumbling, I have around 600 notes in my phone of words that I hear somebody say like at the grocery store, or when I overhear my mum talking to somebody, or if I’m reading, or if I just have a random thought in my head, or if I’m mad I’ll have a little rant. Any chance I get, I’m writing.”
Not only are these girls writing incredible songs, they’re also touring the world! Every parent wants their child to succeed but surely watching them tour at such a young age would be quite a nerve-wracking experience? Nevertheless, their parents bit the bullet and helped their daughters to achieve their dreams.
When asked about their parent’s concerns Liv said: “We have very supportive parents so we’re very very lucky. Of course they’re still cautious because they’re good parents!”
Last time the girls were in the UK in 2018, their parents came with them and drove a van with all of their equipment the whole time they were on tour. Despite a few near misses while driving, all went well!
Maren said: “Our parents know that this is our dream, and they believe in us. So they say they’ll do whatever it takes to do what we want to do.”
As mentioned earlier, Not Ur GIrlfrenz’s ages are one of the factors that make them stand out, but this works both in and against their favour. On the one hand, it’s a unique selling point that makes them stand out, on the other, it opens them up to a world of prejudice and patronisation.
Gigi said: “It is an advantage because most of the people we play with have been playing longer than we’ve been alive! But also, sometimes people tend to underestimate us.”
Elaborating on this, Liv said: “We’ve definitely been underestimated a lot, that’s what our song ‘No One Asked You Anyway’ is about.
“We’ve had sound guys ask us if we’re going to be lip-syncing, or ask if we’re going to be playing to a track, telling us to get right up to the mic so that everyone can hear us, asking if we know how to plug things in, so there’s definitely downsides to being girls and young.”
But anyone that has seen these girls perform can reiterate that these comments are irrelevant! Not Ur Girlfrenz perform as if they’ve been doing it their whole lives, they play with a talent that most musicians don’t have until way in to their careers. They’re constantly turning heads and proving unsuspecting people wrong.
Gigi said: “We were once at this gig and loads of bands had written on the walls, so we were writing our names on the wall. Maren went last and this worker came up to her and was like ‘You can’t do that’. We thought he was joking so Maren carried on, and then he came back and told her again.
“We stopped and we played the gig, then when we were backstage the guy came back and tapped Maren on the shoulder. He was like ‘Hey, I didn’t know you were in the band you can finish writing on the wall, I didn’t know you were about to play Warped Tour!’.”
The music industry/touring is unpredictable, there’s a lot of things that don’t always go to plan. As well as having a case of the ‘English flu’, Not Ur Girlfrenz also had their flights out here cancelled three times and on the first day they didn’t have their guitars so they ended up borrowing one of Jaret’s!
As Not Ur Girlfrenz have succeeded in music so early on in their lives, it leaves the question of if this is something they can see themselves doing long in to the future? Do they have other aspirations/careers that they would like to pursue? Reference to ‘college’ was met with a resounding no as they laughed and spoke confidently about their plans for the future.
Liv said: “I might try online college while on tour because I feel like a degree in business or something might be useful in music, but I definitely want to keep pursuing a career in music no matter what I’m doing.”
No matter what age you are, touring and a career in general can take up a lot of your time. One cliché question that the girls get quite a lot is if they feel like they’re missing out on anything, in particular school dances, hanging with friends etc.
Liv said: “We have time to hang out with our friends, we always make sure that we can still do that. But I don’t think that I’m missing out on all the regular teenage things. We are literally on tour, most people our age are wishing that they could be doing that.”
Gigi said: “We’re home-schooled so there’s not a lot of time for socialising because of our job. But we have our phones so its not like we’re completely cut off. We also go to acting school so we have friends there.”
As we break in to a new year, exciting things are on the horizon for Not Ur Girlfrenz! Having just released their cover of My Chemical Romance’s ‘I’m Not Okay’, and releasing their single ‘Song About You’ in 2019. Not Ur Girlfrenz plan on releasing a new single after their UK tour with Bowling For Soup and Simple Plan. The new single has been played on the tour and has so far received good reactions from fans. They’re also getting ready to tour with The Dollyrots in the US, it’ll be their longest tour ever at 18 dates! They’ll also be touring with the Nixons in Dallas, so keep Not Ur Girlfrenz on your music radar!