Girl Band apologizes for name, says it'll now be called Gilla Band

Irish noise-rockers Girl Band will now be named Gilla Band.

The band released a statement explaining the decision—and announcing the new, very Irish name—through a press release. The statement reads:

“We are changing our band name. We will no longer be performing or releasing songs under the name Girl Band. We apologise for choosing a misgendered name in the first place and to anyone who has been hurt or affected by it.

When we were starting off it was chosen without much thought, from a place of naivety and ignorance. We had no grasp of the weight of it at the time and in the past few years have found it impossible to justify or explain this choice.

Regardless of our intention the effect of the name has been damaging to individuals. To try and negate any unfortunate role we’ve played in propagating a culture of non inclusivity in music or otherwise, we have decided to change it.

Thank you to those who spoke up about it and educated us on this, either directly or indirectly. Moving forward we will be performing and releasing records under the name Gilla Band. Gilla being a given name taken from Old Irish.”

Though the name was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, the band faced backlash for it, with many questioning why a group of men in a male-centered genre would call themselves Girl Band.

Back in 2015, Aimee Cliff penned a piece for FADER questioning controversial band names. The piece included Girl Band—a band made up of four Irish guys. In an interview with Noisey that same year, frontman Daniel Fox explained that going by Girl Band wasn’t meant to be insulting towards women.

“At the time of coming up with it, we didn’t really think about that kind of aspect of it and it was upsetting to have someone think that about you,” he explained. “I can see where people would be coming from but they are kind of inherently misunderstanding—I think if you met us as people you’d understand where it’s coming from.”

He added, “Some people probably think we are taking the piss out of girls, which we are very much against. It was like ‘Look. We’re really against what you think where we’re coming from.” I’d really hate to think that we put any women off, or any people off. But you could only do what you do and if people choose to get offended, whether they are men or women, they are entitled to feel the way they feel about it.”