GIRL COLOGNE: WE'RE A ROCK BAND, I GUESS
- EMMA RITCHIE
- Feb 14
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 30
GIRL COLOGNE ON INFLUENCE & IDENTITY
Girl Cologne is indescribable—and that’s in their own words.
The band formed after meeting during their School of Rock lessons. Initially, the four were in rival bands, but upon the start of the pandemic, "we were bored and got back together,” frontwoman and lead vocalist Jenna Seeman says. The group spent their quarantine writing songs, and by the time their first show was finally on the books, they nearly had a full album recorded. The isolation focused them in on their craft—and it paid off.
The band is inspired by a variety of rock acts. Spencer Kmiecik on bass notes their love for Green Day, and lit up when I changed the queue around to reflect it. “They’re the reason I got into music, and I feel like they’re simple, and they’re basic, but they do it so well. Why not like that?” The rest of the shoot was done to the tune of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Hole to best channel the band’s inspirations. Jenna summarizes that the band generally pulls from and exhibits a lot of 90s grunge influence, but notes her upbringing starting from a different direction and how that influences her voice on Girl Cologne tracks. “I listened to a lot of pop music growing up as well, so I do like to not have the vocals match the genre of the music a lot of the time.” The same goes for Parker DiSalvo, the group’s drummer. He notes Incubus and Alice in Chains as inspiration. Guitarist Cade Cubbison summarizes: “Really just the 90s.”
THE CLEVELAND MUSIC SCENE
The Cleveland music scene is as bustling as ever. An outsider would never guess that the city holds such an active DIY scene, but for those within it, it’s really something. Cade recalls the group’s shows in Detroit, saying that they played shows because there happened to be one show at one location. But for Cleveland? “It’s weird when something isn’t happening,” he says. “For Cleveland, there actually is a scene, and it’s actually quite large. I don’t think we know all of it by any standard,” Spencer adds. Jenna agrees. “We know the group that we know.”
GIRL COLOGNE'S LATEST ALBUM: SAY HELLO
The band released their latest album in September of last year. Say Hello is thirty-three minutes of honesty. The band started out by sharing the writing responsibilities, but Jenna usually takes the lead these days. I listened to the album on my drive into downtown for the shoot. I had one turned up louder than all the other tracks. “Some Clarity” was an intensely relatable song about the bare minimum, and one that I knew I wanted to ask about. In an age that is so digital, dating online (or trying to) has seemingly become a part of every young person’s experience, myself included. “Everyone pulls out a different song, it’s so fun!” Jenna says after I asked for the story behind the track.
“If you listen to the first verse, that’s literally how it was written. I was worrying about someone not texting me back and looking outside at the sunset, being like, wow, we could be enjoying this together right now but you’re being a little bitch.”
The frustration of not getting a text back from someone you’re sorta-kinda-maybe-but-not-at-all dating is a uniquely modern experience. It’s refreshing to see artists talking about it.
GENRELESS
I wrapped up thinking of where they fell into the Riot Grrrl Issue. I asked how they would describe themselves. “It’s a really, really, really, hard question,” Jenna admits. Girl Cologne finds themselves at a variety of shows within a variety of genres. “We go to a folk show, and I’m like, we don’t fit in here. We go play at a punk show, and I'm like, we don’t fit in here. We go play on a hardcore bill, and I’m like, we don't fit in here. We’re a rock band, I guess?” Their hesitation to identify themselves within one genre is just as relatable as their music. There will always be someone trying to tell you what you are. There’s freedom in being all of it, or nothing at all.