Hot Looks: Dead Gorgeous

Once upon a time, Anna and Tara used to have proper jobs. And money! Now they have no jobs and no money, but they have lots of fun these days, not just making music as half a band, but trying to make ends meet and sharing such things as food and clothes.

According to Tara, who sings and plays synthesizers, “We’ve been best mates since we were 12, so we have this communal wardrobe and we share everything. We have to, since the band’s our full-time thing, really.”
Their band is the fun-loving, danceable, indie-pop bubblegum rock outfit that we know as We Should Be Dead, whose irritatingly fine single ‘Forget Romance, Let’s Dance’ has won the band many admirers since its release last November.
As Anna, who handles vocals and guitar, explained to Hot Press, “We don’t really have any kind of a fashion image as such. We’ve never really discussed it seriously. If we have a look at all you could probably describe us as retro. We just wear whatever we feel like wearing. The two lads in the band, Stephen and Gary, wear leather jackets and jeans. Myself and Tara usually wear jeans and a top on stage. We used to be a bit more adventurous when we had a bit more money. I’d never wear a dress for playing live, Jesus that’d be awful. I wouldn’t be able to run around as much, like. We once tried to plan what we’d wear for a gig that was a bit special, but it was so awful we didn’t do it again”. But she has an airy blue vest that she wears for gigs because she reckons it goes well with her orange hair.
Tara admits to having made some fashion errors in the past, especially when she had money. “I was a bit wild when I was younger. I used to work in a hairdressers and I used to dress nearly like a caricature of myself. It’s that kind of business, and it encourages you to do that sort of thing, but at one time I used to go about the place looking like a Bratz doll,” she confesses.
In keeping with their penurious state, most of Anna and Tara’s clothes are bought either very cheaply or in second-hand shops. The fact that they are vertically challenged at a mere five feet tall (each) makes it even harder for them to find clothes that work. Tara favours a vintage shop called The Edge in Limerick, as well as charity shops, and goes to Topshop for jeans. Anna also hits Topshop, Zara and Penneys, as well as the second-hand emporia. Neither one of them is mad on shopping for particular labels. In fact Anna claims that she’s never been one to worry too much about fashion when it comes to choosing clothes. “I tend to buy something cheap that I like. Then I wear it until it wears out and practically falls off me. I once bought a pair of boots because they were fashionable but they were dreadful. In fact I prefer runners, especially on stage,” she admits.
Neither care what they look like when they’re on their own, but they go shopping together, which isn’t very often, because they don’t have enough money.You might think that two girls the same height inhabiting the same band and living in each other’s pockets since they were 12 would fancy dressing the same on stage, but no. “Apart from anything, I don’t think it’d work,” reckons Tara. “In fact I think it would be really naff. We’re both different personalities and we’d prefer to just wear whatever we feel like wearing on the night. It’s much more fun that way”.

We Should Be Dead launch their debut album Forget Romance, Let’s Dance on February 1 in Whelan’s