Flty Brgr Grl Want to Love You Forever ❤️

photo: @gurosommer / set design: @huemani / hair: @mmalinwalin / make-up: @idastoa / outfit design and styling: @teklalouu

Inspired by 60s vibes, crushes and burgers, Beatrix and Sarah make up FLTY BRGR GRL – a quirky, queer Oslo based duo here to bring you cute garage-pop songs about unrequited love or simply loving too much. Today, on the 24th of September FLTHY BRGR GRL’s debut album, Love You Forever, is out for the world to listen to and love. Ashamed had the pleasure of speaking with Beatrix and Sarah about their new record, representation in the indie world, loving too much, and the power of being messy women. 

Halima: I love how you guys met at summer camp - that is such a dreamy, almost coming of age meeting place. Did you both want to be in a band growing up? 

Sarah: I always knew I wanted to play in a bad. 

Beatrix: I think I always thought It would be super cool, but when I was younger, I didn’t think I could be in a band. But I always loved music and wanted to work in music. When I got older and started discovering all-female punk bands - that’s when I thought maybe I could do this as well. What also influenced my pessimistic thinking when I was younger was the lack of role models; I didn’t and still don’t know of any people with a Pakistani background in a band in Norway! 

S: Where I grew up, I went to this thing called a Rock Factory and started playing in a band really early, when I was thirteen! But I never played in a band that I really loved until I met Beatrix. 

H: What bands made you think that you could do this rock n’ roll thing? 

B: I remember the first time I saw a female-led band; it was Gwen Stefani in No Doubt. That was the first time I thought, “Oh! Women can play in bands.” Then, later on, I discovered more punk music and the punk Islam thing. After that, I loved Bikini Kill and Polystyrene. These are all strong, cool women who are all making music and doing it in their own way. They don’t have to be pretty or perfect - they just do whatever they want, which really attracted me. 

H: Where did the name FILTHY BURGER GIRL come from? 

B: I had an existential crisis, so I took a spontaneous trip to L.A. and quit my job. At the time, I played in another band and quit that, and I had recently just been dumped. So a lot was happening. So, I went to L.A. to find myself, and the last day I was there, I went to In-N-Out Burger because everyone talked about it. So, I was eating a burger, and I felt filthy, and grease was all over my face, and then the name filthy burger girl just came to me. Before this, I had no plans of starting a new band dramatically enough, but when I came up with this name, I was like, “I need to make a band with this name.” So, I started the Instagram account immediately after and tried to figure out who I wanted to be, and then I asked Sarah to join me! 

H: I love how you keep coming back to “un-perfectness” and filth within women. I think we are seeing more of that in the media. Have you guys seen Fleabag? 

S and B: YESSS! 

H: I freaking love Fleabag! She’s messy and chaotic and far from perfect, and I think you guys are emblematic of that. Women do not have to be perfect to be in the spotlight.

B: I also love We Are Lady Parts!

S: We finished it in one day! If we had that growing up, wow! Shows like that are so important. It makes me feel like things are moving forward in this world. 

H: Absolutely! Also, I have to ask - what inspired “Love You Forever?” 

B: Every song is unique - but connected. The album is definitely about early crushes. Some songs are about being able to resist someone. Some songs are about being hooked on someone. When I was growing up, I had a very complex relationship with love. On the one hand, I had my parents culture and their definition of what love should be, and on the other hand, I had the other extreme from what you see on television, like I had such an unrealistic expectation when it came to love. I’m just obsessed with love. It’s my favourite topic. It’s all I think about! I always want to meet someone, and It should be just a small crush, but after I meet someone, I can imagine our entire future together. I always think too far ahead when all we’ve really said is hi to each other. Sarah and I both really love when love becomes quite creepy. 

S: Yeah, I like to think about moments in relationships that look cute when you’re in the relationship, but outside of the relationship look weird or obsessive. Like smelling someone’s hair or standing outside of someone’s window saying, “hi, I can see you!” Yeah, we like to think about the borderlines between sweet and creepy in love. 

B: That’s actually something we spoke about when we met at summer camp, our obsession with unrequited loved and the feeling. I guess that’s what we’re really trying to capture in this album. Like the phrase “love you forever” can be cute, but it can also be creepy! 

H: That makes so much sense, and it leads me on to my next question. When listening to the album, you guys are so comfortable discussing love and simply loving too much. My friend and legend Andrea wrote this article for Uniquely Aligned called Hiding from the Comfort Crowd, where she wrote about wanting love but at the same time hiding from it: “How can someone as parched for love as I am so resistant to it? Why seek comfort from others only to run away when it is given?” People are scared of love, scared to be loved. What makes you guys so comfortable to discuss an emotion that people in our generation seem to run away from it?

B: Everything you said right now is so relatable! I guess I’m not comfortable talking about these things casually, but when we make songs, they just come out. Even feelings and fantasies just come out in the songs. I don’t know why! 

S: Music is a great place to say things you wouldn’t say usually. It feels safe to do in art because it’s art! A place to express yourself without speaking. 

H: What’s your favourite song on Love You Forever album and why? 

S: I’ve had several favourites because we didn’t record the whole album in one go. 

B: I think when we’re playing live, I love playing Sweet Boy, but It’s also a new song so...

S: It’s also my favourite because it’s so fun to play on stage - that song always makes me smile. But I also love Duet. I love performing it because we sing it as a duet and always look at each other. 

B: I also have to mention the first song, Crazy. I think it’s not an obvious favourite - but It’s the song I’m the most emotionally proud of. I feel like I had to tap into some challenging feelings, even if the lyrics might sound simple in a way. Yeah, I’m so proud that we made it. 

H: In an article from the CLASH about your song ‘Slowdance’, you mentioned that you “don’t care much about music rules.” Can you expand on this point? Do you consider yourself rule-breakers? 

S: When we write songs, we don’t think too much about music theory. We kind of just do it. We don’t think too much about what you’re supposed to. 

B: I think we love when things are ugly pretty, you know? So when we have dissonance, which is not perfect a lot of the time for us, it just feels right in our music. 

S: I also believe in art by accident. Like one day, I was playing a tone by accident, but it sounded really cool, so we just left it there. Things like that make the song/ music / rawer. I think it puts more soul into it. When I studied music in school, everyone who played instruments were guys, and I was told I should stick to singing because the boys were better than me. Music kind of stopped bringing me joy because men were just judging me. I just stopped playing the guitar for years. Being in FBG, I gained my confidence back. I realised I could do this, I could play the guitar and I could do this solo. It’s been very freeing. 

H: If you had a magic wand and could change anything about the indie world, what would you change and why? 

B: I take magic stuff very seriously - so I guess I’d ensure all indie girls were able to do what they want. I think many girls out there want to make music, but maybe they don’t believe they can do it because of a lack of opportunities or finances. So I want to ensure that there are no barriers for them. I also want to change the mind of gatekeepers! 

S: Honestly, sometimes I think people only care about the men in the indie world. 

B: Yeah exactly, we need to change the mindset of all gatekeepers, so they understand that we need diversity!

H: What is your dream collaboration? This can be with someone dead or alive? 

B: We have a huge girl crush on this band called CHAI! They’re doing a lot of collaborations. They’re really cool. 

S: I’m on their Instagram every day; omg! 

B: Yeah, they make really cool and fun music 

H: What do you hope the future holds for FILTHY BURGER GIRL? 

B: WORLD DOMINATION! We want to keep making music, making more albums, meeting more people, and doing fun collaborations. It would be amazing to do this full time.

S: I want to quit my day job! I’ve told my boss lol I want just to make music and cut down on my day job! Doing concerts and the creative stuff is what gives me energy. 

B: Yeah, because we’re a DIY band, we do everything ourselves. We send the emails, make and plan music videos etc. It takes a lot of time, and it’s fun, and we love it, and sometimes it’s stressful, but it’s still fun. 

S: And we do think that music and art are essential. Much more important than people may think, so this is all we want to do.

Follow and support FLTY BRGR GRL 4EVA ❤️ 

Love You Forever is out now.