High school bands are a rare sight in Eugene’s college- and bar-oriented music scene. But in three years of activity, Girls Punch Bears has attracted a loyal following among Eugene musicians and music fans. As a self-described “existential pop-punk band,” its music has proven a great match for bars like Tiny Tavern as well as the punk-leaning, all-ages venue The Boreal, where it’s played numerous times. The band will play again this coming Friday, Jan. 30.
The “existential pop-punk” descriptor came about in the band’s attempt to break from pop-punk stereotypes.
“Pop-punk has bad connotations that don’t really apply to us too much,” said guitarist Nathan Adams, a freshman at Lane Community College and the only band member not still in high school. “We don’t use the same chord progressions all the time.”
“We break the barrier where punk music isn’t intricate and profound,” said singer Ilee Erickson-Walker, a senior at South Eugene High School. “A lot of people think punk is just about being loud.”
Indeed, the band’s style is far more complex than that of your run-of-the-mill punk band. The tracks on their self-titled EP, recorded last year at Telos Studios in West Eugene, feature synthesizers, elaborate dynamic changes and multiple movements. Yet the band is disillusioned with the clean production Telos provides and have opted instead to work with Nick Steiner of Tyranno Tut for their as-yet-undetermined next release, aiming for a grittier sound.
But pop-punk isn’t the only field in which the band intends to challenge conceptions. Erickson-Walker is one of the few female vocalists among the Eugene rock scene, and she often finds herself stereotyped accordingly.
“As a female singer in an all-boys band, I get compared to a lot of other female singers, and all I have in common with them is we’re in [otherwise] all-male bands,” said Erickson-Walker. “Hayley Williams, Gwen Stefani, [Debbie Harry from] Blondie. They all say, ‘oh my god, Walker is a drum prodigy… and you sound like Gwen Stefani!’”
But it’s not just the media. Erickson-Walker often finds herself the recipient of unwanted attention from venue patrons – many of them much, much older than her.
“They’ll shake my hand and put their head almost on my shoulder,” Erickson-Walker said. “I’m just thinking, ‘just because it’s loud doesn’t mean you have to get super-extra-close!’”
Girls Punch Bears sees this as a societal problem, and though the members don’t describe the group as a “political band” per se, they see music as a good way to inform the world of these issues – and if not, as a respite from them.
“There’s a lot of shit you put up with in life; you hurting yourself and others hurting you,” said Erickson-Walker. “With music you’re not hurting anyone. You’re building yourself up, and you’re building other people up too – they don’t have to hurt as much if they can relate to your music.”
And for all the undesirable forms of attention she receives during performances, she still sees the stage as something therapeutic.
“All the time I feel like I can’t breathe, especially with high anxiety,” she said. “I’m always shaking. But when I get onstage, it’s my time to not give a fuck.”