Favourite Girl – An Interview On Identity, Reinvention & Their New Album.

Favourite Girl is the new project led by British songwriter Katy Vernon. Katy has been performing original melodic folk pop for over 25 years in the Twin Cities and in the UK. This new project builds upon her catchy songwriting and turns everything up to 11! Best described as Feminist Resistance Rock, this almost exclusively female powered rock band performs bold and exciting songs with a feminist and timeless approach. Taking on the old boys’ music club and having fun with it, Favourite Girl will have you dancing, singing, and leaving audiences feeling empowered to be their truest selves.

The debut self-titled Favourite Girl album will be available everywhere on 4.10.2026.  PRE-SAVE

An Interview With Katy Vernon of Favourite Girl

Interview Contributed to by Krista Vilinskis of Elephants and Flowers Media. 

On Identity, Reinvention & Naming the Project

You’ve said that naming the band “Favourite Girl” was an act of reclaiming yourself at this stage of life. What did it take to arrive at that mindset, and how does it shape the way you show up creatively now?

One of the first songs I wrote for this project, before I even found my bandmates, was “Favourite Girl”. It was all about wanting to be someone’s favorite person. I wanted to put together a new band and for it to feel like a new relationship. When you think that the person is the best and you just adore everything about them, before you start taking each other for granted and only seeing each other’s faults. I was very aware of my own faults too and wanted to learn from the breakup and not fall into the same patterns. The double meaning of choosing to be your own favorite person was right there even though it took me singing the song a few times to realize that part. So often we don’t talk to ourselves kindly. I would always fangirl about other people or compare my lack of success to someone else’s radio play, writeups, gig opportunities, and I didn’t want to do that anymore. Even though I didn’t quite believe it yet I told myself that I was going to love myself more. Fake it till you make it self-help talk: ) It then made sense to call the band that name too. I also think it’s funny to call my band anything associated with the word GIRL as I was so worried about aging out of the music industry and the word girl can be used as a put down. I am reclaiming it. You’re damn right, I sing like a girl!

How does this project differ emotionally and philosophically from your previous work as Katy Vernon?

It’s not really different at its core. It’s just more evolved. Everything that I was trying to say and learn in the Katy Vernon Band has grown into Favourite Girl. The naming of the band and the lineup of talented women just puts those thoughts and words into action. I don’t have to announce that we are a femme rock band because when you see us it is evident that is what we are. You come to a show or put on the record and you can feel the feminist power of women being super great at playing their instruments and singing together and it makes all of the empowering lyrics come to life. It feels great to have that energy on stage and on the recording.

On Sound, Evolution & Feminist Resistance Rock

You describe the sound as “Feminist Resistance Rock.” What does resistance look like in your songwriting—subtle, confrontational, joyful?

All three, I hope. It shouldn’t be political to declare that women should have equal rights to men but here we are! I am trying to hold up a mirror to the patriarchy, speak my truth, and show how silly and cruel it is to deny people the right to be themselves and make their own choices. After every political event I do, and especially after the release of “Not Going Back” and more recently “They Lie” I have been targeted on social media and even via email by some vicious hate messages. In the past I know I would have felt scared or defeated by that. At this stage in my life, I feel buoyed by it. Don’t ever mess with a Gen X woman! I don’t enjoy being called names but I feel strong in my convictions. If people hate me because I am an immigrant, a woman, a person who defends others, a ukulele player! then bring it on. You have only given me more purpose in life. Songwriting is a very internal and sometimes self-indulgent act but once a song reaches other people enough to make them feel good, or even bad, then you know that the song is touching people. I always like to have some humor in songs too. I want to show that you can speak up but not by putting others down. Unless it’s my song ‘They Lie’ which might be the angriest song ever written on a ukulele. I didn’t set out to make a political record. I set out to stand up for myself and encourage others to do the same. That only feels political when you live under oppression.

The album leans more into electric guitars and a fuller band dynamic. What did “turning everything up to 11” unlock for you creatively?

As a former people pleaser, it just feels really powerful to sing loud and take up more space! I also knew that I wanted a woman up on stage next to me to really lean into the Rock God lead guitar pose which is SO often male coded. Allie Pikala was a bass player prior to this band and she had always wanted to play lead guitar. I love that it’s not just me evolving and growing on stage. It fits my self-imposed mission to have other women on stage that are also growing stronger in their own art. It’s so fun to watch her play and she just crushed it in the studio. Likewise, Alyse Emanuel is the most powerful drummer I have ever worked with. She just takes charge on the instrument in a way that leaves people’s jaws hanging open! Plus, she is the most joyful human to watch play. Then along came Daisy Forester, a great young songwriter herself, who is a fantastic bass player and I have to pinch myself that this is my band! They were all raised on music and the MN based SheRock Grrls camp (Which my ABBASolutely Fab tribute band friend Jenny Case has run for years) and they all bring such a knowing confidence to playing music that I love being around. There is a mantra in that camp that everyone says “You Rock” if you ever make a mistake on stage. No need for apologies. We all embody that as a band and that has been a crucial part of my recent musical growth. To be surrounded by women that make it ok to mess up and to always lead with encouragement to try again is something I wish I experienced in my 20’s. For my younger bandmates it has never been their experience to be the only women in green rooms, practice spaces, or tour vans. Making music with other women has always been natural for them. I love that I can have that experience now. It has been healing.

On Songwriting & Themes

There’s a thread of resilience running through the album. Was that intentional from the start, or something you recognized in hindsight?

As soon as I wrote “Favourite Girl” and then “Not Fun Anymore”, I sent the songs to Paul Odegaard (Trumpet, and former Katy Vernon Band member) and asked if he thought they were too sad and angry about the band breakup. He said “No, let them have it!” as a joke, but also as a message of support that if I was sad and angry then I should write about it. If people were pissing me off, I should tell them. As I was writing the songs in late 2021, I saw friends of mine going through divorces, and there was so much grief still from the pandemic. I felt a little silly feeling sad about a band break up, but I realized that I was also going through a lot of that real world heartache and on top of it I was experiencing crushing self-doubt and the loss of my musical dreams. Making music feels trivial at times of huge upheaval, but it is also a life raft. I needed to sing myself back to joy. I have been though a lot in life and suffered years of intense mental and physical health challenges. Even on my darkest days there was a spark of resilience and I had to remind myself of that. I would survive because I always have.

Songs like “Confetti” push against comparison culture. What personal experiences shaped that message?

Social media is a huge influence on this song. The feeling of always one upping each other, reducing music to content clicks, and the bizarre Black Mirror episode that we are all living though of monetizing our lives has really gotten me down. I wanted to snap myself out of that mindset. I never want to look at other women in music and feel like I am in competition with them. Everyone is on their own journey and to always want to win in exhausting and ultimately empty. It’s the greatest trick capitalism has ever played on us all and I am attempting to self-select out of that. The most successful people in life can be absolutely miserable. Watching idols die is the ultimate reality check. So, whatever you think you are chasing it might not be the thing you need. Celebrate waking up each day and being a good human. That’s a win.

“Not Going Back” feels like a turning point anthem—what are you leaving behind, both personally and artistically?

It really was. I have to pinch myself that a song I wrote about the 2020 pandemic and my wish for the world to evolve into a kinder place has become a rallying cry for the resistance and a song that I have now performed for thousands of people at marches. We recorded it as the second single after the phrase ‘Not Going Back’ started to enter the political landscape. It was weird to have already written a song called that! I knew I wanted to make a video for it so I reached out to friends on social media to ask if anyone wanted to hold up a sign saying, ‘Not Going Back’. Dozens of people responded and it was then that I saw how much this phrase meant to other people and not just myself. It was a very literal evolution of writing my feelings as a little ukulele song to then finding my voice resonated with millions of other fed up and empathetic people. Truly a humbling experience. I literally was just on the same bill as Bruce Springsteen singing a song that I wrote in my living room (No King Rally St. Paul).

“Thank You” opens the record in a more vulnerable space. How important was it to begin with softness before moving into bolder territory?

I like the idea of pulling people in with a gentle sound. I have been lucky enough to find a place within the ukulele community and I know a lot of my longest and most supportive fans enjoy the sound of the uke. It felt like a gentle way to start the record but then hit people over the head with the full band. The song is about the mansplaining that I, and so many women, have to deal with, but with a cheeky nod to humor. I love seeing the look on people’s faces when I start the song because they anticipate where it’s going and everyone can relate. If you can’t laugh at the audacity of men then the patriarchy wins!

The lyric about “getting back to the girl I used to be” is striking—what parts of that younger self have you reclaimed, and what have you consciously left behind?

I was such a confident and happy little girl but then experiencing my mum getting sick when I was 9 and then dying when I was 12 made me feel broken. It felt like I had to grow up overnight and I lost that security and feeling of love and support. I chased that, left my country behind and married young. I created a family that brought me the stability and love that I lost. I am so grateful for the life I built and I love that I have made a career out of writing about grief, mental health, sobriety etc., but I also wanted to reconnect to fun and playfulness. I am at a stage in life now where my daughters have moved out and I have some time to explore what I want to do and say. I have a lot of fun performing in an ABBA Tribute band (Truly the best pop songs ever written), and I wanted to learn how to bring some of that fun to my original music. I decided that I don’t want to age gracefully. I used to view getting older with fear and it really clicked for me that my mother never got that chance so I want to live a life that would make her proud. I want to live out my bonus years being creative and learning new skills and encouraging others to do that too.

On Collaboration & Community

This is your third full-length record with Kevin Bowe. What makes that creative partnership so enduring and generative?

My biggest struggle as an artist is confidence. Kevin has never let me put myself down. Whenever I am insecure or doubting an idea, he always listens and encourages me to lean into it. Even if we try something and it sucks, we can laugh and try again. With a great producer you find your own language around sound and feel and can anticipate each other’s ideas. Once I found that with someone it made me want to keep going back. I love sitting side by side as he does the final mixing and I get to make every suggestion that comes to mind. We try it and often it works out. I would love to do more producing in my future.

You’ve spoken about the importance of finding people who elevate your voice. What does true artistic support look like to you now?

It is incredibly vulnerable to share a new song with people. You just hope they listen, give honest feedback and then help to add something to it. I am blown away by the talent of my bandmates to listen and learn a song at break net speed. We will literally play a song twice and everyone jumps right in and plays their part. I haven’t experienced that before, even though I played with talented people. There is just a different level of comfort with these women. I now find myself writing songs now that I know the band will sound good. Rather than writing acoustic songs and then wondering how to make them fit the band. It has given my music a sense of purpose knowing I have such a fun outlet.

With so many vocalists in the band, how did you approach harmony and shared voice as a storytelling tool?

All of the women in FG can sing, which is such a gift to any band. We are still experimenting and having fun with that. Alyse Emanuel (Drums) was pregnant for much of the recording so we have her singing on ‘Not Going Back’ and ‘Favourite Girl’ but then she sat out the other sessions. We got all her drum tracks done early on so we could record around her availability. We also added Daisy Forester to the band once those two songs were released, so it was fun having her and Allie Pikala come in and do their parts together. That was one of my favorite days in the studio. I gave some suggestions but mostly just marveled at their ideas and how unique their voices are. I have always recorded my own backing vocals, so it really blew me away to hear different parts that added so much to the record.

On Age, Industry & Defiance

The music industry often sidelines women as they age. How has turning 53 informed the confidence and urgency of this record?

I have a song on my 2015 record ‘Present’ called 23. That song was about how I auditioned for a record producer when I was 23, and he said “You have a pretty voice, but we have studio tools that make that not matter, you have nice original songs, but we don’t need you to write, so what we really need is the full package, and you’re not that” as they looked my body up and down. If it wasn’t my voice or my songs, then it had to be my face, my body? I felt like even at 23 I was not IT. I have never felt like a pretty girl. I was teased at school for my looks and all of my insecurities only worsened after that producer’s words. I decided to get off the treadmill of the business and I reclaimed my music for myself and made fun of the toxic expectations and throw away culture that it supports. Even after I wrote 23, I still felt too shy to really speak up about what the song meant to me. I was still susceptible to the expectations of the music industry and gave up on the idea of ever being as big an artist as I dreamed of being. All because I felt unattractive and then eventually too old. That really hit me after my band broke up. I was facing turning 50 and still hadn’t “Made It” so I felt like no one would wanna hear from me. Oooffff that was a lot of internalized agism and misogyny and I was ashamed to admit that I let the patriarchy get to me. Then something funny happened, I realized that I NEVER felt like I fit the mold of the industry anyway, even when I was young, so I needed to find my own way or give up. When you let go of societies’ expectations and turn it around you can choose to never again let myself care about not being pretty or young. There was a huge amount of growth once I said that out loud.

There’s a sense of defiance toward “patriarchal stamps of approval.” What does rejecting those systems look like in practice for you?

I decided not to center men in my music or my life. Not to let their opinions of me or my music dictate how I feel. I am happily married to a man, and I love working with men, but I enter the room with my songs and my words first. I have done the work to become a better musician and be more prepared. I don’t blame any of the men I have worked with in the past. They have been supportive and helpful, but I let them take charge. I didn’t have the confidence to always speak up and say how I wanted things to sound. I don’t write a song and then put my instrument away now. I make the charts, I record the demos. It is still a collaborative process but I feel more fully formed when I bring a song to the band and then there is creative space for everyone else to add to it. I might feel frustrated that no one helped me reach a higher level in the industry, but I also don’t owe anyone anything. I own my songs, my image, my power.

On Visuals, Nostalgia & Girlhood

The album artwork references your childhood—making up musicals with dolls and a flashlight spotlight. How does that imagery connect to the music itself?

I have been singing and writing songs my whole life. Since I was a little girl, I always had melodies running through my head and I loved to make up songs. I would make up never ending musicals and act them out with my dolls. At some point I realized I was never remembering them and started to write out my own version of notation simply to remind myself of the tunes. Songwriting felt like a hobby, a game, and not something I could do for a real job. This artwork came out of necessity, scheduling a band for a photo shoot on a tight deadline is never easy, but once I started to sew the clothes and style the dolls as band members it reconnected me to my childhood self. Which felt perfectly poignant. The blond doll that is meant to be me is a Sindy doll, which I grew up playing with in London. The rest are Barbies (and one Ken) which is a nod to the band being American.
I have always loved to create, whether that is musically, or sewing and crafting, this album art bought all of that together. Traditionally a lot of women’s art has been overlooked or viewed only as craft, I also love that it is a nod to the diy esthetic which I always think is pretty punk rock!

Is this album, in some ways, a conversation between your younger self and who you are now?

Yes! Especially the song ‘Kissing Boys’. That is a song I never thought I would write. It is about how when I was 12, I had just been through the death of my mother and I went to church camp for a week. During that time, I was targeted, groomed, and molested by a camp leader. I was a loud, show off, flirty girl, and all of that was made to make me feel like I had made it happen. My confidence was so broken by that man’s actions and I felt deep shame for many years. This song takes the story back and is a defiant declaration that I am not broken. I want every talkative, bossy little girl to know that those are OK qualities and should be encouraged in girls, not put down and erased.

On Impact & Audience Connection

Your music is described as both empowering and fun. How do you balance joy and resistance without one overshadowing the other?

It’s something that I think about only now that the songs are all done and how it feels performing them. At the time I was just writing through my feelings and trying to be truthful. I worried that the songs were all just angry break up songs. Pretty early on I knew that I didn’t want to stay in a place of anger and sadness. I wanted to channel Gloria Gaynor and declare victory! I would survive the breakup of a band. I could survive years of depression, anxiety, getting sober, living in the USA! All of these things that I battled had been won by others and could be won by me. Even on the days I didn’t believe in myself I thought about how other women and girls needed to hear that message. As I started to share the Favourite Girl songs at solo shows, even though they were acoustic and not rocking like I hoped they would become, I could see that they were already connecting. Women would laugh at some of the cheeky lines and also see themselves in the heartbreak. I always wrote for myself, but there is no better feeling than when people share that the songs feel like they are about their own experiences.

What does it mean to you when audiences say they leave your shows feeling more like their “truest selves”?

If I am up on stage saying and singing things that reveal my vulnerability but then show that I am having fun, calling out bad behavior, dancing around, and being fearless, then THAT makes it ok for anyone to do it. That is what I hope people feel at a Favourite Girl show. Singing in an ABBA tribute band has led to a side hustle as a Glittery Disco Queen and that has not only brought a lot of joy into my life, but it has also loosened me up on stage. I got myself some kickass flower Doc Martens for my 50th birthday and that inspired the look of the band. I feel really stompy and brave when I wear them. So that is my armor up on stage and no-one can make me feel small. Not even myself. I want audiences to know that you can be joyful and silly but still share empathy.

On Growth & What Comes Next

The closing track, “Favourite Girl,” feels almost like a manifesto. What do you hope listeners carry with them after hearing it?

Choose yourself to be your own favorite. Don’t give up on yourself. If you have wanted to try a new hobby, job, trip, artistic expression then go for it. It may never make sense to anyone but you and that’s ok. Life is truly not a dress rehearsal so do the thing.

You also released “They Lie” separately—what made that song exist outside the album’s world?

The album was done and CDs were already delivered when I wrote ‘They Lie’. I had been walking around for at least 3 weeks feeling so overwhelmed and stressed by ‘Operation Metro Surge’ in Minneapolis. I work in a Somali area of town and began to dread my daily commutes. I came face to face with ICE on more than one occasion and felt such grief and heartache for my adopted home. The day that Alex Pretti was killed I was home alone with my dogs and as I watched the news, I just kept thinking, how can they lie. All the time, every day. When we see the actions of ICE and are experiencing it daily. It needed to be called out. The song was written in less than 10 minutes and I knew I wanted to get it recorded, released, and used to raise money for the ACLU-MN as fast as possible. From feeling so emotionally stuck to feeling a wave of rage and then purpose was a wild ride. I knew the band was busy so I went straight to producer and friend Kevin Bowe and asked him if he thought we could rush it. He loved the message and the cause so we recorded it right away. Even though I was in a rush I knew I wanted Paul Odegaard on it and luckily it all worked. At the same time a friend of mine, Jason Chaffee had been out daily showing up wherever ICE was targeting and I knew he had a lot of footage. He made the video in a week and I was so grateful to everyone that donated time and talent to make it. The band will play it at the release show and it feels like a Favourite Girl song now.

Now that you’ve fully stepped into this bolder, louder era, where do you see Favourite Girl evolving next?

I was so depressed and creatively stuck before this band became a reality that I never even thought about where to go from next. It was a dream just to make one record. Now that we have such a great feel together as a band, I truly hope we just get the opportunity to play some fun shows together. I can’t dream beyond that yet. I am just living in the moment and have so much gratitude that this dream came true.

FOLLOW FAVOURITE GIRL

Website: Favouritegirl.com
Instagram: @favouritegirlband
Facebook: facebook.com/favouritegirl