What do you get when you mix two music fan pals with some video recording equipment? A podcast. But not just any old podcast — enter Another Goddamn Fangirl. The insanely fab show is run by Hannah and El, who I scooped a recent interview with. We chatted all things fave bands, podcasting tips and fantasy festival headliners. There’s even a plea for gig ticket freebies in there…

RECORD WEEKLY’S INTERVIEW WITH ANOTHER GODDAMN FANGIRL

Hey Hannah and El, how are you? 

Hannah: Lockdown is honestly taking its toll on me, I just can’t wait to have a drink in a bar and stumble home at 4am… but yeah, I’m good. Currently binge-watching all Ink Master episodes, so I’ve decided I’m going to get covered one day. All in all, I can’t wait to get drunk in a bar and get tattooed… but not at the same time, obviously.

El: Tell you what, that’s a loaded question in the current climate, isn’t it? But I’m good, just carrying on. I’ve started watching all the Avengers films in timeline order, so that’s exciting.

Yes guys! It’s a mad time but it sounds like you’ve got your priorities right. So, you’ve been running your incredible podcast, ‘Another Goddamn Fangirl’, since November — is that right? Where did the idea spring from? 

Hannah: I will set the scene… Imagine a very bored Hannah driving around in her car listening to different podcasts, and she thinks to herself, “God, Hannah, wouldn’t it be cool to have a podcast and interview bands like you used to?”. And then I was like, “ah shit, that’d be pretty cool actually”.

When I looked into a bit more, I noticed there weren’t many female-hosted podcasts to do with music, especially rock-indie music. I rang a few of my pals to see if I was sounding sane and, when I got super-positive feedback from everyone, I went round to El’s and essentially proposed a podcast marriage.

El: I had no choice but to say yes, she’d already asked my housemate for his permission. But all joking aside, why wouldn’t I say yes to chatting about music with my mate?

Literally the ultimate podcasting duo idea, and now you’re live! Tell us a bit more about how you met and got into music.

El: We met through Facebook in 2017 when we were trying to move back to Manchester for final year of university. They say you shouldn’t meet up with strangers through the internet, but it worked out pretty well for us. I can’t speak for Han, but I decided we’d be best friends from our first WhatsApp conversations.

I’ve always fangirled over anything music-related. My mam would play a massive range of music in the car on the way to drop me off at school, which was ace. I think the first band I got obsessed with was Queen thanks to their ‘Greatest Hits’ album — we’d play that one in the car until it got scratched to pieces and you could barely hear ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’. Then I got really into musicals in high school (I was, and still am, a massive drama geek) and anything emo. Meeting Han helped my music tastes as well; she got me into Don Broco (Rob Damiani, will you marry me?), Slaves, Nothing But Thieves, etc., all of whom I’ve seen live now thanks to my dear co-host!

Hannah: Where do I start?! I’ll try to keep this succinct… My sister took to me my first gig, All Time Low, in London. She managed to get us to meet Yellowcard AND All Time Low, we got photos and they all signed my ticket. I blame my sister for awakening the fangirl within me.

At school, I was always that kid with a camera, and then I started taking photos at gigs and absolutely loved the excitement of it all. When I got to university, I started working on the music section of the newspaper, where I started getting press and photo passes for gigs. I did this the whole way through university and, in my last year, I was even appointed Music Editor, which was RAD. I got to meet Kasabian, Wolfmother, Blossoms, Eagles of Death Metal and so many more. So, when the university dream ended, as did the press passes (*cry*).

I worked for the O2 Ritz in Manchester as an in-house photographer, as well as working full time for Jägermeister, which worked super well as they have strong ties to music. I have managed to keep up the band photography but really missed talking to musicians. I think that was another reason why I wanted to start this podcast. *BREATHE*

Describe your podcast’s vibe in three words.

Both: *Start Googling adjectives* 

‘SUPER, SUCCESSFUL AND LAME’

‘Our mothers approve’

‘Obsessing over people’

‘Chaos, under-researched, nonsensical’

‘Unprofessional, profane, ridonkulous’

You’ve interviewed a range of artists now — who’s been your favourite? And who’s been the funniest? 

El: As any mother would tell you, it’s hard to choose your favourite child. But I have to say, I always have the most fun when we all end up completely off-topic and chatting absolute bollocks, like when we played ‘Would You Rather’ with Bellevue Days and grilled The Howl and The Hum about their favourite meal deals. But honestly, the majority of interviews have been like that for us, so we’ve been very lucky!

Hannah: They’ve all had their funny moments, to be honest. I LOVED interviewing Skindred. It was also amazing interviewing S’appenin podcast, as they were such a huge inspiration for starting the podcast in the first place. They know how it goes, so it was great to bounce off other podcasters who know how to keep the pace up.

Do you contact bands directly or are you getting a lot of interest through DMs? 

El: All the important stuff like this is Han’s domain, so I’ll leave this to her…

Hannah: Initially, I called upon the people I used to work with in my Music Editor days, and luckily I work with a guy called Tom and I’m not joking when I say he knows everybody in the industry. He’s been a huge support from the very start and one of the first people I rang when I thought up AGFG. As time has gone on, a lot more bands are sliding in our DMs… which must be exciting because I imagine it’s the most action El’s DMs are getting.

El: …Yeah, I’m afraid that’s she’s correct. 

DAMN, she’s gone there! But there’s no judgement here. Let’s change the subject for El…

If you curate a fantasy festival, who would be your three headliners?

Hannah: Thing is, we ask this a lot ahaha, so you would have thought we’d have our own answers nailed down here. I would go for: BRING ME THE HORIZON, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, DON BROCO and like, Dolly Parton, to break it up. Oh, can I have four? I’m having four. 

Record Weekly: Go on, Hannah, you can have four.

El: I feel like I’d want the biggest range possible, so I’d have Elton John, Paramore, and maybe rope One Direction in for a reunion. The main thing for my fantasy festival though is that the food would be reasonably priced and anyone caught littering/ leaving their tents behind would be tasered.

Aside from podcasting, what else has kept you busy during the lockdowns? 

El: Uni’s kept my adrenaline at an all-time high, but when I don’t have any assignments breaking my spirit then I whip my sewing machine out and make clothes. My recent projects have been a lace dress and a jumpsuit (I’m crafty like that). Other than that, it’s been a steady stream of TV, rum and the occasional walk when my dog feels like it (he’s a tired old boy).

Hannah: I have my gorgeous pug, Herbie, and she has been an absolute godsend. It’s nice to have a reason to leave the flat three times a day to take her out, instead of festering in my own bed. I have bought a range of shit to keep me busy. Most recently, I bought a Nintendo Switch and sold my life away to Animal Crossing. I also tried running… didn’t go very well or last very long, but hey, God loves a trier.

Who are you most excited to see at a gig post-pandemic? 

El: If My Chemical Romance actually end up doing their tour that they announced ages ago then I’d sell my left ovary to see that show. I’ve been obsessed with them forever and, after recently jumping headfirst back into my 11-year-old emo phase, I’m kind of dying to go see them. Aside from that, literally anyone from the podcast who’d be willing to give us free tickets to their shows… (this is a hint and I am poor).

Hannah: I’m actually meant to be going to see Biffy Clyro in Austria later this year. So I’m going to say that and fingers crossed that it actually happens. I really want to go see WARGASM. It’s gonna be such a riot.

Have you got any tips for people interested in starting a podcast?

Hannah: ‘Scratch your own itch’ but also do your research. I did a lot of planning and research on other podcasts before we got started, and I decided how I wanted it to look and feel. Podcasting can seem daunting but it’s nowhere near as bad as you think it is, it’s almost therapeutic, I think. Also, I would just like to mention (as we always do) that El and I are electronically inept, so our podcast would just be recordings that would never have left Zoom if we didn’t have Pippa. What a fricking angel! BUT, as Shia LaBeouf would say, “JUST DO IT”. 

El: Have some bloody fun with it. Chances are, if you like something/think something’s interesting, there’s gonna be at least one other person in the whole world that’ll think the same and want to hear you talk about it, so it’s worth it. Making sure your co-host is a good’un also helps.

While we’ve got you, can you tease any upcoming projects? 

Hannah: We do have a lot lined up actually! Our website is very nearly ready to go, so we can put up album reviews, opinion pieces and, when the time comes, live reviews, too! It means we can cover such a larger scale of different music as we know that not everyone can come on the pod. We have some really exciting names in the pipeline for the next few weeks, which is amazing. 

El: We also have some merch that is just being finalised, so keep an eye out for that!

Both: Stay safe, look after yourselves xox

Well, I couldn’t be more excited to see where Hannah and El take things. Could you? If you’ve, unsurprisingly, got the urge to catch up with all their previous shows, you can find their podcast on Spotify and get all the goss on their Instagram.