Girl Group on new EP ‘Little Sticky Pictures’, & why only female bands get the ‘industry plant’ accusation

Anglo-Nordic band Girl Group are redefining genre with ‘brat-punk’ – a hybrid of hyperpop, electronic and indie. They are a North Sea collaboration comprised of Katya Birkeland, Thea Gundersen, Mia Halvorsen and Maria Tollisen, all Norwegian, while member Lily Christlow is from Bridlington, Yorkshire. Each is an alumnus from the prestigious Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, where they met and formed the band. After their hit performances at Reading and Leeds Festivals and gaining support from Elton John and BBC 6 Music, Girl Group speak to Headliner about new songs Rage Song and SuperDrug, and why only female acts ever get accused of being ‘industry plants.’

With four of the Girl Group girls (Halvorsen and Tollisen were already friends from Oslo) relocating to attend LIPA, there was already a kinship there as Scandis new to Liverpool. Once they were all settled and forming a friendship with Yorkshire-born Christlow, they bonded further over their treatment from male classmates, who would largely exclude them from studio sessions, or on occasion invite them, but then essentially ask them to be quiet and not participate at all.

Early last year, the band released Yay! Saturday. While much of their music and lyrics focus on their experiences as women, this debut single is a fun alt-pop jaunt about the messiness and fun of nights out together. The song established the Girl Group sound: pop of a very tongue-in-cheek nature with decidedly un-radio-friendly lyrics, with indie rock elements and instrumentation. A string of singles led to the EP Think They’re Looking, Let’s Perform in June 2025, and a month later, they would be opening for Olivia Dean in Paris. That Summer, their Reading and Leeds Festival performances had the highest BBC Introducing Stage attendances; things are snowballing for this band very nicely indeed.

LIPA is such a prestigious UK performing arts institution, but it sounds like you bonded very strongly over several things besides music when you met there?

Birkeland: It was quite absurd moving from Norway and coming to this place where there were so many international students and so many students who were very serious about becoming musicians. It felt quite daunting. We started because the boys' clubs were quite prominent there, as well as everywhere in music. It was a combination of finding other musicians who burn for the same things as you do, and then also being a bit frustrated at the system, and having the motivation of so many people around you who are constantly trying to make it.

Starting up in Liverpool was very good for us because it's such a nice city for community and supporting each other. It felt so safe to try new things. It's a very supportive community; you can do a lot of events and trust that people will show up. Being from Oslo, there aren't a lot of opportunities for newer musicians. There was just a big shift in coming to a city where there was just culture, music, and life everywhere. We all really appreciated that.

On one hand, the band name Girl Group does exactly what it says on the tin. But on the other hand, you’re almost completely subverting the idea of what people expect a girl group to be — the music and lyrics aren’t sanitised, or created with the idea of getting on the radio without ruffling any feathers. Was this the thinking behind it?

Christlow: We had a lot of very silly names thrown around, and Katya suggested Girl Group. Immediately, we thought it was really lame, and then we all came back to it. We like the idea that it subverts the typical connotations of that. People think of manufactured girl groups and how those are almost synonymous; that seems to be something to make a point about in itself. We see ourselves as very much self-made in that everything is done in-house. Maria's the producer, and we wanted to turn that idea on its head. It’s also quite a naive name, but in the best way.

Another part of that subversion is the choreography you have in your music videos and on stage. It’s fun and playful, but you also intend it to be a little tongue-in-cheek.

Christlow: That was a big part of awakening our inner little girl. It’s a subversion of groups like the Spice Girls and Little Mix, and how they have this on-point choreography that's all synchronised. We wanted to play on that, but it's literally just us making it up in someone's bedroom. The movements are influenced by the words and what we're trying to say with each song.

Reading your lyrics and about your experiences of being women in the music industry brings to mind a notable double standard recently: Wet Leg and The Last Dinner Party were accused of being ‘industry plants’ because they became successful relatively quickly. But when the same happens with male bands who went to some of the most expensive private schools in the country, no one says a word. Is this something you’re conscious of?

Gundersen: We talk about exactly that all the time. One of the songs on our first EP was about The Last Dinner Party and Wet Leg being talked about in that way. It's so frustrating how no one says that about male bands ever. It's difficult to get money without the backing of a label, and then once the band signs, they're completely discredited from all the work that went into getting signed. We literally all wrote our dissertations about this.

Birkeland: It's also very interesting because there are so many male artists or bands who don't get the same accusation. It’s so obvious that bands like Wet Leg and The Last Dinner Party have worked so hard, but there are just accusations being thrown around. People try to say that I'm throwing around misogyny where it isn't, but when we researched what bands have that thrown around, it's almost completely female bands and artists. It's quite ridiculous.

Speaking of things that do what they say on the tin, you recently released Rage Song — which particular machine is this single raging against?

Birkeland: No offence, but men! There was a specific situation going on, and it just awoke some feelings from all of these times that we've been frustrated with partners or acquaintances or fathers, and rambling about that for a bit, which felt nice. It was nice to get all the frustration out in one song. I really love screaming it on stage; it's very fun. Something that I've learned growing up is how much of my anger is suppressed as a woman. You're constantly taught that you're supposed to be polite and pleasing, nice and quiet. There was something very cathartic about that song. You're not supposed to think about what you're saying. It's important for women to know that anger is an important tool to help them stand up for themselves.

One of the singles you followed that up with is SuperDrug. Could you share a bit about the serious messaging of this track?

Birkeland: It was very scary to create a song like that because it was already scary to criticise birth control. When you look at the US, they're starting to take away women's rights and reproductive rights. They’re even talking about banning birth control. For us, coming from countries where we're lucky enough to have access to it, it was more a frustration at women's health and the lack of research around it.

Going to the doctor with questions and being met with the same "I don't know, sometimes this happens, try birth control again." It’s a very nuanced subject to touch on in three minutes. We’ve been wanting to make songs about women's health because it’s such an incredibly heavy thing we deal with all the time, which is exhausting and very sad. It felt very cathartic to make a pop banger from it.

Both of those songs appear on your new EP, Little Sticky Pictures. What’s in the pipeline to promote it?

Christlow: It’s been so much fun; it also came out on vinyl with both of our EPs on. It will be a vinyl with Little Sticky Pictures and Think They’re Looking, Let’s Perform, which we're still very excited about. The vinyl has stickers of us on it, and you can stick them on the front. After doing EP one, we weren't quite done with that world. Being able to do the double vinyl makes them feel like one big project together, which we’ve loved. Next up, lots of shows and festivals, and we’re getting back to writing. It’s going to be a busy year.