When French born, South African raised sisters Noemie (Mie) and Camille (Millie) Debray were eight years old, they weren’t dressing up dolls or floating around in pretty outfits. No, they were singing for their supper and selling hand-made soap for charity. After forging an early career as The SoapGirls, specialising in Japanese pop and becoming disillusioned with the lack of creative freedom granted to them by their record label, the siblings took matters into their own hands and started self-releasing their own more punkier tracks and uploading them to YouTube. Now on album number four and with a worldwide legion of fans known as The SoapSuds, the girls are on the UK leg of their ‘Don’t Give A Damn’ tour, before heading off to the US and Japan. We caught up with the sisters before their gig in Birmingham to discuss lockdown livestream shows, liberation and finding musical inspiration in household appliances.
How’s the tour going so far?
Mie– Touring is always crazy but a lot of fun.
Millie – We are very very excited. We started the tour in April and it’s almost August. It’s pretty cool.
Any highlights so far from the tour?
Millie – Oh my gosh this is such a tricky question because there are so many for different reasons.
Mie – We played a show at The Rep in Ipswich, that was a crazy cool show.
Millie – And in Berlin we played in a massive theatre as well. It was insane.
Mie – Also In Italy, the last show of the European leg of the tour, people were stage-diving and going crazy. The Big Lebowski is a whole collective of individuals that are passionate about music and they just ran it and there were all kinds of musicians performing.
You have been playing in the UK the last couple of weeks. What do you like about the country?
Millie – Definitely the people.
Mie – And your sense of humour, it’s very dark. I like that, it’s a lot of fun.
What don’t you like?
Mie – The weather is not so great.
Millie – Even your heatwave was disappointing, two days of good weather!
Mie – Europe was insanely hot when we were there. In Italy I don’t think we had a single day below 36 degrees. But the problem with that is eating food on the road, you don’t really know about refrigeration so it’s easy to get food poisoning.
Millie – I’ll give England that at least, food stays at a good temperature and you can keep food inside the tour van.
What did you do during lockdown?
Millie – We did 420 livestream shows.
Mie – And finished this fourth album ‘In My Skin’. But every single day we were doing a livestream.
Millie – Painting backdrops and creating artwork for different themed shows.
Mie – It was really cool because people from all over the world who maybe wouldn’t have discovered us and our music, did because they were stuck at home, feeling lonely.
Millie – A whole community was built. Before it was a physical community of people coming to the shows. Now there’s a virtual community as well.
Mie – Now our fans – The SoapSuds – there are ones from England who are friends with fans from Texas and friends with ones in Japan and Australia.
With reference to social media, you seem to have a really good hold on everything from the livestreams to the Acoustic Mondays shows. Do you do it through a sense of fun or for promotion and to increase the fan base?
Millie – We love performing. When we are not doing what we want to do which is get out and tour, we bring the tour to our house. Even before COVID we were doing a Monday live no matter what. Even on Christmas Day we always livestream because we know there are people who are very lonely.
Mie– There’s a lot of work that goes into preparing the rooms and changing the backdrops so you can’t really lead a normal life. There’s no time.
The live performances can be pretty incendiary and can get very liberated. What motivates this urge for freedom?
Millie – It depends on the show. Weirdly enough before COVID people were more open-minded. There was a good vibe.
Mie – Now people have gone more into themselves and seem much more restricted, maybe due to the isolation.
Millie – Normally for me, men and women to be topless is the exact same thing. I don’t understand why it is such a big deal. People should be able to do what they want. When you have people at the shows that are open-minded and free you feel it. In Berlin there was a girl and she was so happy and liberated and then there were all these other girls and we were just like f*** it so we took off our tops too.
It could be considered as brave because you may get some unwanted attention.
Millie – Oh no I don’t think it’s considered brave. Weirdly enough when I have ever dressed demurely I have noticed that I get more s*** from people which is funny and I start laughing.
Mie – It’s a psychological thing. When people see someone that in their eyes is hidden maybe, they think this person is shy and isn’t going to say anything if I do something.
Millie – For me if I dress how I want, people are like wow that is one crazy bitch and they stay away. It’s just bizarre. The world’s a weird place. Why is someone’s breasts more offensive than the fact there are people so poor they can’t afford food or shelter. Why is this still an issue. I don’t get it.
The new album In My Skin, has got a bit of a Go-Go’s sound to it and also a bit of The Runaways.
Millie – Yes, people have said that. I’ve never listened to any of The Go-Go’s music. They have done really cool stuff I know that, but I have only heard one of their songs.
Mie – Which one, ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’?
Millie – Yeah yeah yeah. The Runaways are really cool too.
What was the process in writing the album?
Both – Always collaborative.
Mie – Sometimes it’s base first then lyrics. It’s always music first. Except for one song on the album, ‘Wasted’. I was vacuuming the house and I heard a melody in the vacuum cleaner. I was wait wait wait, I’ve got a song.
Millie – Then she did the chorus and then I did the verse
How does the sisterly dynamic work within the band? Have you got different personalities?
Mie – 100%. Very different but on the same wavelength. If we were both like me we would be boring, if we were both like Millie we would be in gaol. We balance each other out.
Millie – Generally I prefer to write verses and she prefers to write choruses.
Mie – She’s the kind of person that if someone did something terrible she would head butt them, whereas I would wait five years and put poison in their tea.
Millie – You would never do that to someone!
Mie – How she sings her growls, I can’t do that. It’s heavy and dark but there’s also some sweetness.
Millie – You sing some craziness and I’m like damn, you should be in the Bee Gees.
Mie – It just works together.
Millie – Light and shade.
Musically who has influenced you most in your life?
Millie – Singing wise Tina Turner and Layne Staley from Alice In Chains. That’s actually my favourite band of all time.
Mie – My favourite guitarist is Lyndsey Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks’ voice is amazing. I also like Tom Morello, John Frusciante, Wes Borland. A whole mix.
Who would you like to support?
Millie – Alice in Chains would be insane.
Mie – Alice Cooper.
Millie – Yeah Alice Cooper would probably be our number one.
We are in Birmingham at the start of the Commonwealth Games. Is there any kind of sport or hobbies that you like doing?
Mie – I like running.
Millie – And she also likes making clothes. Yoga is good.
Have you been doing any running in your downtime?
Mie – No
Just sleeping and partying then?
Millie – No. The exact opposite. I’m the only one who drinks. Mie doesn’t drink at all. Not even coffee. She’s straight edged. It’s just whisky for me.
What is your favourite fruit and why?
Millie – Weirdly I’m a fruitarian and I love sweet melon, some people call it canteloupe, because it reminds me of my childhood and I just love it.
Mie – I like mango, because of the taste and when you dry it, it tastes so good. If you freeze mango chunks you can put them in smoothies and it makes ice cream which is cool.