Artist Interview: Surgeons Girl

By Resonate | December 16, 2022

Words by Jacob Dowdle

Photos by RuuMedia

“I think at some points it hinders like you aren’t as free as someone who hasn’t been trained at all. So I’ve had to compartmentalise some of those aspects,” says Surgeons Girl, discussing how her conservatory-level piano affects her productions. Her musical training and rich understanding of classical works spill over, somewhat unexpectedly, into her current practice. “I did these pieces by Debussy called Images. They were a collection where each piece is an image where you are given a title, but it’s up to the listener to interpret that and figure out the meaning.” On her latest release Sever EP, Surgeons Girl uses this same concept as inspiration for creating impressive soundscapes and sonic narratives that open the door and carry the listener through the world in which they exist, without imposition.  With popular releases on Livity Sound, Mostart, Inside Out Records and most recently on lapsus, it’s clear to see that Sinead is making waves throughout the scene and has no intention of slowing down.

With her esteemed history of study, classical musicianship and visual creation, it can be hard to see the road that has led her to the techno sound she currently represents. She explains, “My sister and I were living in London for my undergrad … and I just got really into clubbing. I used to go to Fabric all the time, like every weekend, especially on Saturday when it was techno and house.” She continues describing the calibre of artists that would perform “I would see so many cool artists, for example, Ricardo Villalobos, he would come on at like 10am and play these crazy sets, it was just insane.” Recalling this point in her life, she depicts a pivotal point in her musical journey, “There was this really cool girl playing; I wish I could remember her name. She’s probably really famous now. She was playing on a laptop, and it looked like she was just typing, but it sounded amazing. Why am I studying classical piano? This is what I want to do.” The excitement and passion at recalling these memories were written across her face in the same way I imagine it was on those nights in Fabric.

Despite her raving credentials, she most often chooses to scratch her performing itch by opting for live shows in which she recreates her tracks from sequences and synthesisers, as opposed to DJing. However, in her preparation for live shows, a dilemma can occur: “Sometimes when I write something to perform live, the original version and the version I play out are completely different. Sometimes it feels like I’m just bouncing down stems instead of performing, which makes me think, ‘Why am I even doing this one live?’” Because of this, she is making changes in preparation for an upcoming performance at Les Femmes s’en mêlent in Paris, “I’ve made my new live set-up purposefully small, I’m just using a Digitakt box and a Digitone, things like that, so it’s more improvisational.” Those who have seen the constant stream of jams she uploads to her social media will know just how incredible her improvisational skills are and will look forward to her more stripped-down set-up at future performances.

The influences of her club-playing idols combined with her unique approach to live electronic performance create a complex and mesmerising sonic signature that has made Sinead’s music such a staple of the scene since her first release on Livity Sound, A Violet Sleep EP, which features her most streamed song on spotify, Sympathetic Cycle. “The idea for it started when I was jamming on my live set-up” she explains, “If you listen back to the original jam I uploaded it sounds totally different to the released track, but sometimes that just happens.” 

Ever since her debut on Livity Sound, the debate on how the Surgeons Girl moniker came to be has been quietly contested by the community, and Sinead spills the truth behind her name. “Everyone thinks it’s got something to do with Surgeon, but it’s actually a painfully boring story. I was looking through the Wire’s song track list, and there was one track called Surgeon’s Girl.” She continues by outlining a past creative endeavour whereby she created visuals and uploaded them to a YouTube account of the same name, “So I’ve sort of been Surgeons Girl from the beginning.”

Before Surgeons Girl, Sinead had success with her previous band, Face + Heel. Through experimentation and performance, Sinead learned and crafted the sound we hear in her recent releases. But despite her quality, there is still a gendered preconception about talents when it comes to music. “In my previous band, I did the production, and my partner Luke wrote the lyrics even though I was singing. It was a funny dynamic, often blokes would come up to Luke and say, “the production is amazing,” and he would be like ‘it wasn’t me it was her.’ Then they still wouldn’t ask me about the production, but I think that’s completely changed”. 

With increased public awareness of all male lineups, inclusion riders rising in popularity and the idea of gendered creation of music dissolving, we are taking a step in the right direction. There is however a potential for rising inclusivity to be exploited by promoters to portray themselves as more inclusive than they are in reality. In response to the recent push towards equality for women in electronic music, Sinead says, “I still get quite a lot of emails saying ‘we’re doing an all-female event, will you come and do something?’” She mentions the potential for promoters to start booking women as a way to virtue signal progressiveness rather than booking on merit. “I don’t like it, even if it’s for a good cause. I don’t want to be just considered good as a female, although I do really like to support female causes. I want to be able to hold my own with the men,” she continues, “The show I’m doing in Paris (Les Femmes s’en mêlent) has got Chole, Clara 3000, Sophia Cortez and loads more legends, so something like that, where the standard is up there, I’m like ‘Yeah I’ll be part of that! That’s great!’”

While the shift towards more inclusive line-ups and opportunities has been massive in recent years, Sinead thinks the presence of female innovators has always been massively influential in electronic music. “We’ve now got amazing female innovators, past the originators like Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, Pauline Oliveros. To now, where we’ve got people like Sarah Davachi, Ulla Straus and Kali Malone. I think seeing so many cool women do such amazing stuff really helps the rest of us.”

Sinead’s work as a lecturer at BIMM Bristol has no doubt made a lasting impact on the students she has taught. This work to educate aspiring producers, myself included, has cast an ever-growing light on the amazing work of female electronic music innovators across the board.

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