Onstage, Camille Debray does things that most bass players can only marvel at. Whether it’s lacing into riffs while being in perfect splits or playing her basses behind her body as she back bends touching her head to the ground, her performances are as much visual art as they are auditory experiences. As one half of the sister duo The Soap Girls, the French-born South African, most commonly known simply as Mille, electrifies audiences with her contortionist abilities and fearless stage presence. 

But don’t let the Cirque du Soleil moves and bold show attire fool you. On the sonic side, the music of The SoapGirls is a vibrant blend of alternative, grunge, punk, pop, and rock that even borders on metal thanks to Mille’s guttural screams. While it’s hard to label their sound, her adept playing is easily recognizable. Equipped with her collection of Ibanez Destroyer basses, her fast finger work drives the music alongside her sister, guitarist/vocalist Noémie “Mie” Debray. Using a mix of distortions and gritty effects, her bass is in the forefront of the music, showcasing her rhythmic command.  

The pair’s recent album, In My Skin [2022], mixes rock riffs and alternative anthems that encapsulate the evolving sound that they’ve been cultivating for almost two decades. But Mille and Mie’s musical journey began long before that, when the two started performing on the streets of Cape Town at the ages of 8 and 9. Now, with a revolving door of touring drummers, The SoapGirls spend most of their time on the road touring the world for festival crowds and eager fans who await them at every venue.

At the moment, Mille is back home in South Africa after a year of touring, which is where we caught up with her. Despite her non-stop and rigorous schedule on the road, she’s already hard at work on their upcoming album, not letting jet lag or the frequent power outages of South Africa get in her way. While she might be immensely flexible when it comes to her stage moves, she has no bend when it comes to her daily writing and practice sessions.

You’re currently back home working on music, after a world tour. What can we expect from the new material? 

We’re hoping to surprise even ourselves with this album. We have no particular direction we’re pushing into, but this last tour had many heavy moments, so those emotions will inevitably be shaping the music. So far the songs are completely different from any of the previous albums we’ve done. There’s about six that we love the sound of, so far.

Do you typically test out new songs live, or wait to record them and then unveil them in their final form?
I actually prefer testing them out live before we record them. The songs take on a life of their own once you start playing them for an audience. Maybe you start playing faster or you add new parts, so I kind of prefer testing it out before we record, but you don’t always get the chance to do it.

You released In My Skin last year, what was that process like? 

That was the album we had the most time with because we wrote a lot of it during the pandemic. All of the isolation, confusion, fear, and sadness was inspiring and definitely fueled the material. South Africa is facing a lot of terrible power outages as well, and recording that album was pretty difficult. We couldn’t ever get a full day in any studio because the outages kept disrupting everything. That definitely added to the angst. But we were able to test them out live by streaming them, so the songs had a lot of our live show elements to them.

Your tone is effected a lot throughout that album. Are you heavy on effects use? 

Very. I’ve always loved distortion that never diminishes the low end. On our last album I was very particular about what tone I wanted, so that the bass wasn’t lost in the mix. When I like something, I’m very loyal to it, which is how I am with my basses. But when it comes to pedals, I approach them more like perfumes. If you wear the same perfume everyday, you eventually stop appreciating it because you can’t smell it anymore. It’s the same with pedals. It’s good to swap them out so you can hear them again and appreciate them. I’m always changing the pedals on my board. It also helps me creatively because each pedal brings out new ideas.

How does being in a band with your sister impact your songwriting? 

It’s the best feeling creating songs with my sister. We balance each other out and bring different elements to the music. We don’t always agree on everything, but we have a deep respect for each other and such a strong connection. We are yin and yang in every way. My sister is absolutely amazing with melodies and music. It’s easy for me to come in with songs because she’s already created this insane magic. Sometimes I come in with ideas on bass and she’s like, Hang on a second, and I’m like, Hh my god, that sounds amazing. I love the fact that she has such a great ear for melody. Sometimes we’ll each have a song that we’re writing and we’ll put them together and that’s it. Your half and my half. Easy.

Your style is a mix of ’90s alternative, rock, punk, and metal. How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you? 

Both my sister and I are obsessed with ’90s alternative rock but we do also have extremely different tastes. Really, the only music that we both find a middle ground on is grunge. We both love L7, The Butthole Surfers, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Mudhoney, and The Melvins. But she prefers classic rock. She loves Fleetwood Mac, which is awesome music, but I would tend to listen more to Lamb of God, Marilyn Manson, Napalm Death, and heavier music, in general. We both appreciate each other’s taste, but I think it makes an interesting dynamic in the music. We also have a weird telepathic connection. I can simply look at her and she knows what I’m thinking, and vice versa. So in that sense, we don’t have to discuss styles or riffs much.

The heavy influence makes sense because you get some brutal bass sounds. Tell us about your playing technique. 

I’m completely self-taught. I hear and feel where to go with the bass in songs. It’s a subconscious pull and with every album we do I get more experimental in my expression through bass. I play by ear and follow my instincts. I never ever restrict myself to any one way of creating bass lines. I don’t think about it, I just do it. It’s an instinctive thing. The same goes for my technique. I dig in on heavy parts and attack the strings. When my sound needs to be rounder to fill out areas of songs, I pull back a little bit. I never think about those things, they just kinda come out as I play.

You recently released the single and video for “Kill Breed.” What inspired this song and your heavy playing and vocals on it? 

As soon as we feel strong emotions about something we pick up our instruments and the music starts expressing our feelings. Lyrics are always last after the guitar and bass melody. During the pandemic we saw a lot of government sanctioned violence and it felt like many in society were losing their sense of humanity and obeying those in power without questioning. It’s a very aggressive song so I made sure to find a filthy, distorted tone to add a hard punch to the track.

You’ve always played Ibanez Destroyer basses. What do you dig about them? 

I’ll never forget seeing the Destroyer for the first time. It caught my eye in a warehouse full of basses and as soon as I plugged it in and started playing it, I knew I would never feel the same with another bass. I love the aggressive tone. It’s very punchy and stands out immediately. I felt an instant synergy and it definitely impacted how I play.

You also added a Flying V bass to your arsenal on this last tour. 

I had been curious about Flying Vs for ages but couldn’t find a long scale one. Then a few months ago I was gifted a medium scale ESP Flying V. The first time I tried it was at a show. I wasn’t sure what it was going to sound like, but it was even better than I could’ve imagined. It has a massive sound with insane tone in all the best ways, and it’s even heavier than the Destroyer. I’m definitely adding it to every tour from now on.

How and when did you first start playing bass?

I started out playing guitar and then realized that I’ve always been drawn to the bass in all the music I love. My sister was already playing guitar, so I thought it would be better for one of us to play the bass. As a result, ten years ago I got my first bass and never looked back.

What was your first bass?

It was an Ibanez GSR010LTD. It was black and yellow, very quirky looking, and super punchy. I love that bass.

Growing up in South Africa, how has the rich music and culture of the region influenced you as a musician? 

Truthfully, we have to say that none of it has had any influence on our music except the challenges of living here are reflected in a lot of our songs. We were always interested in the music we heard on the radio and the albums that our mom would listen to. There’s a ton of amazing music in South Africa, but we’ve always been way into rock, grunge, and metal, so we’ve always looked elsewhere for it.

You started out as street performers around eight-years-old. How did that help to sculpt you into the musician you are? 

It taught me to get out of my shell and grow thick skin. It was a crazy experience, especially for a couple of kids that age. But it also cemented my love of entertaining people. Even back then I knew that this was what I wanted to do.

You made your first album at the age of 12. What was that experience like? 

It was radical and I’m grateful that we didn’t allow the people we worked with to kill our spirits and passion for music. We have so many crazy memories from then. One sound engineer had a gun and would threaten us if we had to do a take more than once. He was a cocaine addict and his mood swings were so erratic that you never knew what you were going to encounter. But we were so excited to be creating music and we just kept on.

Wow. That sounds like a highly traumatic experience. 

It was! But again, it helped to thicken our skin. A lot of our experience as musicians and entertainers has some kind of trauma attached to it. But as anyone who has been in this industry long enough knows, you just have to keep going.

Would you say that experience is all the more difficult being a female musician in the industry?

For sure. We get judged and underestimated and objectified every moment. But we don’t care about that because we’re doing what we love. It almost makes us want to act out against it more. For example, we often perform in only our underwear, and everyone thinks that it’s some hypersexualized thing that we’re doing to get attention. But to us it’s far from sexual. We’re just displaying our freedom and standing proudly in our bodies. We have young girls come up to us after shows who admire us for it. I’ve never understood why someone should be ashamed of their body or anything about themselves. We try to show that you should embrace yourself and feel proud in your own skin.

Speaking of your energetic shows, what is a SoapGirls performance like from your perspective? 

Energy is everything. We want the audience to feel comfortable to be themselves and know that our shows are a place of absolute freedom. Right now rock and roll feels watered down and stale. You look at shows in the ’80s and ’90s and they were unpredictable and raw. To me our shows are absolutely insane and liberating.

When you play, you bend into all types of wild positions. Is that how you naturally feel the music? 

It’s impossible for me not to move when I play. If I don’t move, then I know I’m not locked into the music. I’ve always been very flexible and it feels more comfortable to contort. I’m never that conscious of what I’m doing onstage because I’m very in the moment. I can look back on a show and be like, Wow, I guess I jumped off my amp during that song. I like keeping the crowd entertained and guessing.

You also sing, which is a difficult thing to do as a bass player. Have you always sung and played? 

It’s weird, but when I used to play guitar, I never felt comfortable playing and singing. It felt like a weird battle in my head. But as soon as I picked up a bass I started singing and playing effortlessly. It felt as natural as breathing. From day one bass and singing went hand in hand.

Who are your main bass influences? 

That’s hard, but I’d have to say that my top five are are Chi Cheng [Deftones], Jeordie White [Marilyn Manson], Emma Anzai [Sick Puppies], Eric Avery [Janes Addiction], and Mike Inez [Alice in Chains]. 

Why bass? What attracts you to the instrument? 

It’s the instrument that always grabs my soul and captivates my mind when I listen to music, even back when I was a little girl. It’s like love at first sound. Everything else fades into the background. I’ve never felt the same connection and love with any other instrument. –BM

Hear Her On: The SoapGirls, In My Skin [2022]

Gear 

Basses: Ibanez DTB400B, Ibanez DTB100, Ibanez DT600, ESP E-FV 103B

Rig: Ashdown ABM 600 head, Ashdown ABM 410 H and Ashdown ABM 112 cabinets, TC Electronic RH450head, Ampeg SVT CL head, SVT 810E cabinet (for festivals)

Strings D’Addario XL & NYXL  

Effects EarthQuaker Devices Hizumitas Fuzz, Plumes, Hoof Reaper, Afterneath; Darkglass Microtubes B7K, Two Notes Torpedo C.A.B. M+

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