Pink Stik Get It Going

Wed 28th Dec, 2005 in Features

Whether it’s a bunch of feminist wannabes or some ill-talented guitarists, it seems everywhere you look girl bands are being hired simply because they happen to have breasts. But this is not the case for up and coming Port Macquarie youngsters, Pink Stik.

With rhythm guitarist Corina McGuire who can growl with the best of them and bass player Leal Turner who has more energy than your average energiser bunny, my call is that it won’t take long before these girls will develop their stage presence to be a sought-after act. That’s right – they actually have talent. FasterLouder spoke to the girls after they’d played the first set of the day at Festival of the Sun on Decemeber 15.
 
It was a far cry from when they recently played the Sydney Taste of Chaos, headlined by The Used. “This crowd was a lot more chilled (at FOTSUN),” said lead singer, Naomi Wright. “There was a lot more anger in the Taste of Chaos crowd. We were there first local band to play there, so most people didn’t really know what was happening. They thought it was just the big bands and didn’t know local bands played in the middle.” According to Corina, the girls copped a bit of flack for being chicks. “They were really shocked to see a girl band up on stage. A lot of people said to us that when we got on stage they were ‘oh, that’s a girl band’, but when we started playing they thought ‘wow’. It can be really hard because people judge you really harshly because you’re a girl band … but we want to make it for our music.”

Corina, Leal and drummer Lauren Cooper formed the band in March and searched long and hard before Namoi appeared with her attitude-laden voice. Renee Gibbons was then enlisted to take up the role of lead guitarist – and so the band was complete and started hitting the live circuit. For a band so young and fresh, they certainly have their shit together. Pink Stik describe their music as ‘rock meets girl, with distinctive lyrics and hardcore riffs with a passion for distortion and heavy beats.’

And that’s pretty much spot on. Not only is their sound developed, they are already peddling their talent in live shows from Sydney to the Central Coast and everywhere in between. They even made an appearance at the Big Exo Day at the Sydney Tennis Centre, with a crowd of around 10,000. Then there was the Port Macquarie Christmas Carols, which the girls assured me was ‘a lot cooler than it sounds’.

There’s no doubt the girls have only started (Corina only learnt how to change guitar strings the day before Festival of the Sun), but they will go a long way as they develop their own attitude – particularly if Naomi gets angry and follows the sound of her voice with her stage presence and as they become more comfortable with each other. But with a MySpace page they are already developing a fan-base and with an aim to take the band full-time and get an EP out next year, good luck to them.