Hannah Blilie – drummer from the Gossip: why london is whlwahhh and empowering the shy weirdo kids

words by Anna Leach, pictures by Holly Falconer

“This,” Hannah says, waving a tattooed arm at the Grosvenor Hotel tea room – filled with old gents, milk jugs and some sloanes with Selfridges bags – “is our second home”.

Though the tattooed American punk band seem a little exciting for this Sherlock Holmes-y corner of Mayfair, there’s something in old-school London that Hannah thinks they chime with: “I think people appreciate eccentricity here,” she says. “I love London – there’s lots of weirdos”. Some of the oldies embedded in the upholstery look pretty weird to me, I agree with her.

“New York is almost too cool for school sometimes but London is like whlwahhh!”. Hannah smiles. That was a noise meaning crazy.

The love is mutual: the UK really like the Gossip. The band are big in the States but as AfterEllen puts it they’ve “blown up” in the UK. And the fan girls and boys in Kentish Town last month really showed it.  “The London gig was awesome. Really good, felt like a homecoming.” Hannah says.

Aside from the open fires and armchairs of Mayfair, I ask her about the scene and east London. It’s definitely got the whlwahhh factor.

“When we go, I really appreciate everybody’s crazy fashion,” she says. “Everyone’s doing some crazy art project all the time… it’s very inspiring, it’s cool, it felt very hipster.”

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Rocking a James ­Dean half-frown and a sculptural quiff on the cover of the Gossip’s latest album, Hannah Blilie, the drummer, or the cute butch one, is not sporting that gravity-denying up-do on interview day.

It’s called a pompadour as a matter of fact.  “That pompadour I have on the cover… I can’t keep it up in real life,” Hannah says. “It’s like too much work – you have to have a round brush and a hairdryer and all this product. I can’t do it myself”.

“And if it’s raining… it’s instantly ruined.” She gives me a look.

Apparently Beth Ditto is quite helpful with these things: “Beth doesn’t try to style me, but she tells me when she likes my outfits or my hair, she gives me hair advice a lot.”

Hannah’s a lot more comfortable with drumsticks and pedals than round brushes and hair product. She got snagged on the idea of playing drums from the school band in junior high, where she played the saxophone. A couple of the snare-drummers in the group were girls and 12 year old Hannah was immediately drawn to the drum sets. Then a new drum-playing friend who was into grunge inspired her, “he made think I need to start doing this” his dad bought her a drum set and from then, well the rest is history.

But even before the drum set came along: “I was always…” Hannah drums her hands on the table and makes a tschoo tchoo sound. She smiles. “And my mum’s a music teacher as well, so it’s in my blood”.

Though Hannah met Beth and Nathan back in the nineties in Olympia, she only joined the Gossip in 2004 replacing previous drummer Kathy Mendonca, just before they started Standing in the Way of Control – the album that rocketed them to success.

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On stage, where she’s fenced behind the drum set, Hannah’s a lower-key presence than Beth who’s up at the front of the stage pirouetting, patting security guards, chucking one-liners around and returning underwear to audience members. Hannah thumps out rhythms from the back and giggles at Beth’s jokes, or knocks out an appropriate beat when Beth starts into Saved by the Bell or Amy Winehouse impromptu.

“The only thing that’s planned about our shows is that we play some songs.” Hannah explains of the Gossip’s anarchic live performances.

“Beth is always doing live mash-ups, it’s really entertaining. She’ll do a song and then turn it into a totally different pop song. I enjoy that. It keeps you on your toes. We’re always doing shit off-the-cuff, it’s never an over-produced thing on stage. We just go with what the vibe is.”

Anyway, it’s a treat to meet Hannah in person where she’s warm, direct and funny, easily someone who could take on Beth Ditto. Cuter than the sculptural but severe album photo, she has a wide smile, well-set cheek-bones and pretty bird and flower tattoos the colour of blood and bruises.

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I’m interested by the Gossip’s parts as gay role-models because for me, the Gossip’s banshee shrieks and disco stomp sound has always been a blast of empowerment. Did they go into music meaning to be gay heroes?

“It’s been part of our mission as a band to try to empower people to be themselves. The music’s for all the alienated shy weirdo kids who feel shitty about themselves, or get made fun of at school. We want to let them know that there are people in the world who have had success being themselves.”

That the Gossip would push a political message was almost inevitable: Hannah’s butch boyish looks are as obvious as Beth’s size. “We’ve always thought about the personal as political, so being who you are can be a political statement in the world, especially when there’s a lot of hatred against who you are and who you want to be.”

“It has been intentional to speak our minds about our identity… All of us listened to Riot Grrrl when we were coming of age – Bikini Kill and Huggi Bear – really empowering shit that was all about being yourself. It’s about embracing who you are and feminism – all these ideas that really helped us out of our shitty teenage lives.

“Also the idea that you don’t have to be a classically trained musician to have success, you can be in your bedroom and teach yourself how to play music and you can still have an effect on the world.”

It’s the kind of resounding powerful message that you get out of the pounding, almost relentless bass drums on their big hits like Standing in the Way.

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And from the serious to the sugary, I broach the topic of cakes. Hannah tells me about the cake she had yesterday: “I had a really delicious cake yesterday, it was our merch guy’s birthday, so our manager bought him this amazing pink frosted, crazy chequerboard-on-the-inside cake, it was awesome, it was sugar overload.”

Amazingly Holly has actually brought exactly the same cake that Hannah mentions. It’s like there’s only one type of cake in London. I don’t know how that happened – but the cake you see in these photos is officially the same cake as the Gossip’s Merch guy got for his birthday the day before. This piece of multi-coloured sugar overload is courtesy of Gray’s Inn Road’s Konditor and Cook café, if you’re interested.

But her favourite cake ever in life…?

“Probably my favourite cake though is cheesecake with some fruit on top. It’s delicious, premium delicious.” Hannah says. With a sweet grin.

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Interview with Beth coming soon…

See also: The Beth effect: TMC review the Gossip’s London gig

and  TMC interview: Nathan, bassist for the Gossip talks bullies, Beth and exclusively reveals his favourite cake