Everyone can appreciate a good ‘friends-to-lovers’ story, but what about a ‘friends-to-pop-punk-bandmates’ story? Because that is the story of this hit-making duo.
After an extremely full year of touring with Avril Lavigne, Pierce the Veil, and The Used, this rock band has cemented their place in the scene. Girlfriends, often stylized in all lowercase letters, have a clear understanding of the fun, crunchy guitar tones that are synonymous with the pop punk scene, but they put a spin of its production – one that is modern, but memorable. It’s the kind of music that you only need to hear once for it to be stuck in your head all month. This is a high compliment, as it is the pair’s ability to write memorable hooks time-and-time again that showcases just how worthy they are of all the attention they’re getting… and maintaining.
Before girlfriends, Travis Mills (vocals and guitar) had made a name for himself using the moniker T. Mills. He saw massive success on Myspace and in the world ofWarped Tour. Nick Gross (drums) was extremely experienced in his niche and recognized as well for being the drummer for Goldfinger. Together, with their history and stories and contacts and talent, they created a powerhouse of a pop punk group They released their self-titled debut in 2020, followed that up with their sophomore album, [E]motion Sickness, in 2022, and are still gaining traction by the day.
Their latest release was an EP, Over My Dead Body, which came out in May. The Aquarian was able to talk with both members, Travis and Nick, and discuss the amazing year girlfriends has had and their rise to true industry popularity. This may be the first time The Aquarian covers girlfriends, but it certainly won’t be the last! Check out the conversation below before they get even bigger (and even better) by next year.
Over My Dead Body has been out for a few months now. What has it been like to see it’s reception firsthand?
Travis: I think getting to go and tour around and play these songs live for the first time – starting with the Avril tour – was definitely a dream come true. It’s so interesting to play songs that aren’t out yet and then to watch how that reception changes once the music has time to breathe a bit and people are able to actually listen to the songs. It’s been really fun to see people connect to the songs in their own way, learn them, and let them take on a life of their own.
It was super interesting to see guys go with the EP format. I feel like after two full lengths, a third full length would make sense, but you really subverted expectations with that. How come you did that?
Nick: We just kind of looked at it as an interim body of work. I don’t think Travis and I were ready to put out a third album the year after our second album came out. I think, for us, it was giving it some time and space… and we obviously wanted to continue making music. We found a great guy in Andrew Goldstein who we had been wanting to work with for a really long time. We worked on seven songs with him and five made it on the EP. We want to keep the music going for the fans, but now we can look forward into what a potential third album might look like for next year.
So you guys are wiring music constantly; do you have any ideas for a third album or is it too far to tell?
Travis: I think that’s kind of what we’re diving into now. We’ve been on the road since April. The fact that we’re home now… our whole focus is obviously on writing new music. The wheels are always turning, if that makes sense. I think being on the road definitely informs a lot of what you want to do next as a musician. When you’re playing sets every single night, you see what you’re lacking, you see what’s working really well, you see what people are resonating with. That always kind of gets the gears going. “We should do more of this on the next project, we should do less of this, or maybe we try to incorporate something here,” which is definitely what happened with Nick and I.
Is it difficult writing as a two-piece or is it easier? You don’t have five band members all pitching ideas at once, but, at the same time, I imagine it has to be more difficult because all the work falls on just you two.
Nick: I kind of think the opposite. I think it feels a little more simple and clear in the way that Travis and I are able to write music and get in the studio together. I think that sometimes having five or six opinions convolutes stuff, makes things more complicated than they need to be. Yeah, it’s been nice. The whole concept of a two-piece band… there’s not many of them out there. When we were initially talking about girlfriends in 2019, it was like, “Do we make this a band? Is this going to be a four or five piece thing?” Travis was like, “No! Me and you!” I loved that idea. Ever since then we had this two-piece going it’s made it easier and more streamlined in the studio in terms of, I focus a lot on putting the music together and Travis obviously focuses on putting melodies on top of the music foundations. It’s made it really easy.
Travis: Whoever we’re in the studio with, we look to produce with them. We look at them as the third band member while we’re making the music. That’s definitely the vibe that we had with John Feldman and obviously Andrew Golstein while we were making this EP.
That makes sense. If you have that system, it’s a clear path; you know what to expect from each other musically. When you’re playing live, is it tough to fill the space?
Travis: I think that’s a testament to Nick and I growing up, performing, and touring our whole lives before girlfriends, you know? We’ve been playing shows with other projects since we were teenagers. Anything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. We have dealt with it all. That’s the ‘pro’ of it not being our first time. We know what to expect and, for lack of a better word, I think we’re seasoned. It gives us a lot of space and freedom to focus on our strengths.
Nick: It can always evolve. Initially we started our first couple of tours in 2021 with Travis and I on stage. We’ve done those shows, but then we added guitar players. I think we can definitely figure out how the live aspect of girlfriends grows. That’s the beauty of playing live: it can be anything you want it to be. I think you’ve seen it a lot with the Twenty One Pilots guys. This last tour they brought eight people on stage with them, but they’ve also been playing shows as a two-piece forever. It’s kind of about letting the songs speak for themselves, and, to Travis’ point, we try and bring as much energy as a two-piece that we possibly can and I think it shows.
You’ve been doing it for so long separately it’s almost second nature. I do want to ask about this tour with Pierce the Veil and The Used that you recently wrapped up. It was massive and incredible. Bert McCracken was featured on your song “Over My Head” way back in 2020. How was it to share the stage with them three years later?
Travis: It was definitely a dream come true. The Used was a band that Nick and I both grew up listening to. When we started the band and did the song with Bert, that was a big thing to cross off our bucket list. We had always talked about touring with The Used, so when this came up, we were like, “This is incredible!” Pierce’s album is one of our favorites that has recently come out. I’ve known those guys since 2009, so it was kind of like a reunion seeing each other again. It was like no time was lost. The first day of tour, we walked into the green room, saw Jaime, saw Vic, caught up with everyone, then we went on the road and played some incredible shows together.
Travis, we know you have experience from the Warped days, as well. Bringing that Warped Tour ethos in 2023 that you both have inside of you had to be a really cool experience. Even though Warped Tour is done, the scene is stronger than ever.
Travis: I think it’s a testament to what these bands have also built, right? The fact that we’re in 2023 and Pierce the Veil is bigger than ever? Like I said, their new record is absolutely incredible. Nick and I are huge fans. They have a No. 1 song on rock radio. It speaks volumes on the fans and what they’ve been able to cultivate through consistency, touring, maintaining, not giving up. To be able to watch that overnight was definitely inspiring for Nick and I. Any night you’re side stage for The Used and Pierce The Veil is a good night!
Of course! I want to dive into the beginning of girlfriends. You guys talked about starting the band in 2019, but released your first project in 2020, which is a historically weird time to start doing anything – especially release new music. How did it feel to be a band that began in the pandemic era?
Travis: Yeah, so this wasn’t something that was born in the pandemic. We didn’t start this because we had nothing to do. It was definitely something that we talked about a lot because we went into the new year so excited, in the studio making music that we were really proud of, trying to figure out the best way to launch this new project. How do we announce it? How do we tell people about it? Obviously the world changed for everybody. How do you expect people to pay attention to this new exciting thing when it’s chaos all around? It definitely required a lot of patience. The silver lining in all of that was it gave us time to make a record and to figure out who we wanted to be and the music we wanted to make. There was definitely a lot of uncertainty. Here we are starting this band and now touring is off the table? Instead of sitting back and feeling sorry for ourselves, we thought, “Let’s put everything into this album and make the best possible music we can,” so it was definitely challenging and required a lot of patience, but it was something we put a lot of time and thought into.
Nick: Travis always says this – it’s pretty funny. In 2021 we were the test pilot of coming back to play live shows again. We were playing in June 2021 in these underground warehouses in downtown LA. You weren’t allowed to put on shows,. so I think that was our debut show in this wild underground warehouse in the middle of LA at two in the morning with hundreds of kids. It was just a weird time, but cool to come back and be the first people back on the road in 2021. We were definitely anxious to get out and start playing shows.
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