Last fall, I sat down for an interview with Alex Montenegro, the artist behind Dallas band Skirts. We discussed their new single “Run,” touring with wished bone and Why Bonnie, using Tumblr, and being a horse girl.
Do you want to introduce yourself really quick?
Hello! My name is Alex Montenegro. I am in a band called Skirts.
I realized as I was writing questions for this that even though I’ve been a Skirts fan for a while and I’ve always mentally associated Skirts with my time at RadioUTD, you’ve never actually done an interview for the radio station.
Yeah, I think you’re right.
So I was wondering if you could provide a general summary of Skirts, a little Skirts 101.
So, Skirts started off as just something I did in my room with a tape recorder or even the shittiest audio interface you could think of and Garage Band. It was like that for a few years until I met people that are very musically talented and they helped grow my sound, and later became my band and my closest friends. Now, we’ve gone through some transitions as a band and we have some new members. And that’s us, that’s Skirts.
That’s Skirts. That’s the lore.
And we’re still doing stuff at home, like recording for the most part. We’ll sometimes go to the studio next-door to do some piano or drums because it’s kind of hard to do that at home.
It’s just a lot of group effort into these songs I write and we get what we get from that. And that’s Skirts.
I will also say, I think it started off as a 2016 Tumblr project. No one ever look us up on Tumblr!
What did the Tumblr project entail?
It was me and my online friend, her name’s Katie. I just had a lot of music energy and so did she. We were just on Skype doing music together and that’s how we came up with the band. But it kind of ended up happening where she didn’t want to do music in that way and I did, so that’s what happened.
It all goes back to Tumblr. My next question is about how you just spent Fall touring. What was the touring experience like?
Yeah, that was a lot of fun. So, I was able to play two shows in Japan. One in Tokyo and one in Osaka and they were both an incredible experience that I’ll never forget. You just have to go and if you play music, you gotta play a show. Everyone there is so nice and so quiet. It’s so different from a US show. It was just so cool to do that and to see Japan. I had always wanted to go and I was able to do it. I had a year where I kind of just was like ‘screw it I’m going to do it whatever’ and I went for it and it was cool.
And for whatever reason, I decided that I would be able to drive to Nashville three days after I was back from Japan and somehow I did it.
We started in Nashville then we went to Chicago and we just did all of the East Coast. It was honestly such a good experience. I had a new band lineup, so it was me, Joshua, our friend Marlin, our friend Daniel who’s an amazing drummer. It was just all of us on the road and it was a really good mashup of people.
We were also with our friend Ashley of wished bone. They’re one of my favorites. Joshua and I ended up riding with Ashley for a lot of the tour because we needed car space and Ashley was more than down to help us carry our bass amp around and merch.
It was great. It was one of my favorite tours for sure.
I was talking about before how I’m from North Carolina and I saw that you guys did two shows there. I think the Asheville one was on Halloween and I was like ‘shoot I wish I could go!’
That show was really interesting. It was in a basement called Bug’s House. Everyone was really nice. It’s honestly really nice to have the experience where usually you have to sound check at all these shows and then here we go to this house show and we have to do our own sound check. That was fun. It’s nice to remember the DIY spirit.
It was fun. I also had a lot of fun in Raleigh…. Is it Raleigh or Durham?
I think Durham.
Oh my god. I’m sorry it was Durham
It’s okay.
The Triangle, I can’t get it straight.
Sometimes people treat them like they’re one city, just one big city.
I know they’re not, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry, North Carolina, I love you! I love Truth Club!
Do you have any favorite memories from the tour?
We tried something new this tour which was bringing our friends to the stage to sing “Annie” with us. We got to do it with Hemlock and Spencer Radcliffe, who sings in the original song. I don’t know why but that was something that I never thought would actually happen and it did, so that was really cool to go practice in a closet before the show. And we got Travis from Truth Club, we just got so many people to do it.
It was really special to just have that….
Community
Yeah. It was just a lot of fun.
My favorite city was Washington D.C. also, because we got to see the stairs where they filmed the Exorcist. I don’t know, I was just really vibing with D.C. and joking about having to go to work at the Pentagon. It was just really fun and goofy.
It was just all a sweet time. Obviously there were bad days, but overall a great time. I got to see a lot of friends that I hadn’t seen in a while and just have fun.
Sorry if that was a lame answer.
No, I think positivity is a good thing. I also specifically asked what was your favorite memory, not like, ‘please describe the tortures of touring.’
All of them were my favorite memory. Also, just getting to get closer with Ashley. I feel like we were already good friends, but we just achieved a closeness from when you’re in the car with someone every day.
Not to ramble, but we wanted to play some songs with Ashley because she was touring solo. Just in her cute little cabin we all went upstairs and practiced three or four songs so we could try to play them for her set.
Skirts playing with wished bone in Brooklyn
My next question is about the very exciting new single “Run.” Can you talk about the inspiration and creative process behind the song?
I feel like it first started with me being really obsessed with the organ sound in Gretel [by Alex G.], the droney organ, and me trying to have a fun organ thing musically. And the piano, I’ve been writing a lot with piano the last two years because it was a step away from what I’m usually used to.
That’s how the sound started, and the lyrics came a little after. I just felt inspired by this memory of being on our tour in 2022 on the West Coast. The whole time I really wanted to drive out of our way to see wild horses. That’s kind of the first line, just daydreaming about that into the wild moment, like running with wild horses or something. It’s so goofy. As for the other stuff, I feel like my lyrics are very on the nose. You can just be like “I know what that’s about.” But also maybe not, maybe I just feel that way because I wrote it.
You know what they’re about because you do know what they’re about.
It’s a mix of that and also this wavering insecurity of never feeling good enough in a weird way. That’s definitely what the last line rings to me.
But yeah, I love that song a lot. It was a lot of fun. Joshus, my partner, did the amazing guitar that really brought it to life.
It’s so cool, so sick.
It really is such an awesome thing. Everyone that I showed the in-progress mix to was like “yeah we got to turn that guitar up! We need it to be front and present!” I’m really happy with it. Sorry for rambling.
Well, I guess this is a dumb question….
There are no dumb questions
It’s definitely a dumb question. Does “Run” draw inspiration from the Vine sound?
What Vine sound? I loved Vine.
There’s one that goes like “Run!” and then is followed by a breakdown.
Oh my gosh! What if it is subconsciously influencing? Oh my gosh, you unlocked a memory for me.
… I didn’t think so, but it could be.
I think it’s good, it’s like a cool version of the Vine sound.
Why did I do that? Why did I say “run” in the song? I thought it sounded cool, but now I’m never going to not think about the Vine. I’m going to never play that song again.
I didn’t know, I didn’t realize. I think I subconsciously ripped off the ‘Run’ Vine and you just brought that to my attention. And that’s okay, we all have to do that sometimes. Next one I’ll do is “Merry Chrysler.”
Oh yeah, for the Skirts Christmas track.
Another thing about “Run” is that it’s kind of loud as a song. How has the Skirts sound evolved from being very intimate to being a loud, rock band?
It’s something I’ve always struggled with a bit. I wrote all these songs that were very quiet and really sweet, really just ‘go to sleep’ comforting. When I started playing with a band, I had my band come up with all of these really cool, loud, awesome ideas that really didn’t match with the recording.
There was a time when I was really self-conscious because a lot of people would be like ‘I love your music, but you don’t sound like the songs you recorded. You sound really cool live, but it’s not what I was expecting.’ I guess it is fun to have fun, louder songs. A lot of the songs that we’ve been working on, I’ve kept in mind how are we going to do this live and how can we play these songs live and not have people be like ‘oh, wait this is this song?’
I really like how [“Run”] is a little volatile. I honestly feel like we are going to keep going in that direction. Even with Great Big Wild Oak, it does that a bit too. But, “Run” was definitely a statement single. Just like ‘we’re going to kind of change it up a little bit,’ and I’m really happy it’s out.
This is another dumb question, but I have the really cool Skirts sweatshirt that features a drawing of horses and the “Run” single cover also features horses. So, I was wondering if you would identify on the record as a horse girl?
Yeah. Of course, I love horses. Actually, all our merch for our last tour was accidentally all horse-related. So, I can’t say no. I would say, yeah, horses rock.
I once fell off a horse, but horses are cool. Horses are sweet. I like to pet them. And they’re kind of scary because of their teeth, but they’re the homies.
Yes, I’m a horse girl.
That’s good, that’s a strong statement.
I’m not a hardcore horse girl, but I’m a mild horse girl because all our merch has horses on it. My bad if I offend the hardcore horse girl people.
My next question is how do you feel about joining “Why Bonnie” on their Texas tour?
I’m so excited. I love the Why Bonnie crew. They’ve been our friends for a while now and it’s a tour that we knew would happen one day and we’re finally like ‘yes let’s do it!’
We’re really close with the Why Bonnie crew, and I love their music so much. It’s going to be amazing. I can’t wait to do Texas with them. We’re renting a van together, so it’s going to be both bands in one van and we’re sharing gear, except the guitars and stuff. I’m really excited for that.
I love Texas and I love driving around Texas, so I’m really excited to see it again.
It’s a pretty cool state.
I can’t wait. I love that crew. Their new album is so good. Their old albums are so good. And they’re just the homies.
I have one last question. When RadioUTD interviewed Mitski back in 2015, we asked her for advice to pass on to college students. Do you have any advice to pass on to the youths of America?
My advice is kind of lame and grown-up, but it’s just that if you have a good relationship with your parents, call them more and tell them you love them more. And give them a kiss on their forehead.
My mom is 6’2” so I can’t really do that.
My mom is like 4’10” and I’m 4’11”.
Oh, that’s easy.
Yeah, that’s my advice that stems from recent experiences and I really mean it. I feel like I always drop that on my friends now and they’re like ‘…Alex,’ because it’s just so random.
It’s good advice. Alright I think we’re done, this was cool.
Bye-bye.
