Hit Like A Girl
Meet Hit Like A Girl
Nicolle Maroulis has a solid right hook — I think. Maybe.
TBH I don’t really know or condone violence, but their music sure throws a good punch.
Under the moniker Hit Like A Girl, the New Jersey-based project helmed by Maroulis makes a poignant cocktail of emo/indie/pop tunes, debunking notions of femininity and helping us all find our voices. These pals are doing good werk.
Below, we chat to Nicolle and her bassist pal Joe about the catharsis of writing, a coconut dream, and the soothing properties of blue food.
Get yourself some smurf-colored snacks and give this one a read!
PRIME TIME GOSSIP A Mad-Lib by, Hit Like A Girl
Handsome BORIS and his co-CAR INSPECTOR, the GENEROUS KRYSTA raised FINGAZ when they were seen kissing BACKWARDS at the screening of their FAITHFUL TV movie. The ABLE couple deny it's a romance; they say they are just HONEST friends.
Here's another DAMAGED tidbit... love must be in the HAWAI'I. ERIC ANDRE and FELICIA who had only DAPPER words for each other last week, were seen holding DOLLARS and whispering in each other's NOSE HAIRS at this week's benefit for adopted DOLL HAIRS.
Would You Rather
get a full back tattoo of Garfield or Alf? Please explain why.
For sure Garfield. Who can't relate to just stuffing your face all day while eating delicious food? Also Garfield because of the fact that I'm currently making lasagna(almost done by the way). -Joe
Some Questions with Hit Like A Girl
What motivates you to keep making music?
Joe: The literal endless possibilities to make any sort of sound you could think of, and make total sense out of it. And then for people you don't even know, who could take what you've made and construe it any which way they can is mind blowing to me.
What is the significance behind the weeping shadow figure on your two recent singles?
Nicolle: There really isn’t one to be honest! I had my friend Zoe Reynolds from Kississippi design them for me and I told her I just wanted two things that are emo that correlate with each other and that’s what she came up with and I loved it!!
Is writing a cathartic experience for you?
Joe: Writing will always be without doubt, a cathartic experience. It's the only reason I haven't gone completely mad yet haha
If you had to eat food that was only one color for the rest of your life what color would it be?
Joe: I'd go with a nice mellow blue. Blue is a calming color, so whenever you have a rough day you could always sit down and relax a bit.
What is one thing you would want to change about the music industry?
Nicolle: I want smaller bands to get the same opportunities as some other bands based on the craft of their songs and put an end to bands only getting opportunities based on their spotify streams and stats. there’s bands who are just lucky and look good on spotify and get handed better opportunities and don’t work nearly as hard as the DIY band with 100 monthly listeners who all work 3 jobs to tour all the time and break their backs just to be heard.
Who are your favorite bands active in NJ right now?
Joe: Mandancing. Fire Is Motion. Dutchguts. Well Wisher. Bravely.
What the ideal scenario for someone to listen to your album?
Nicolle: It’d be cool if people listened to the album while they were in the middle of a long drive. I think that means they’d be more inclined to be paying attention to it more. If someone just put it on while they were cleaning or making out with someone, they probably wouldn’t be paying attention to it and it would just be “background noise.”
If you had the power to turn into one other person whenever you wanted who would it be? What would you do?
Joe: That is a TOUGH one. I'm gonna go with the Texas Rattlesnake. STONE COLD. Mainly because I could just go around shouting HELL YEA at people while they toss me free beer and nobody would bat an eye. And that, my friend, is the bottom line.
Who was the first audience that you ever played? How did it go?
Nicolle: The first Hit Like a Girl show was at Stevens College in Hoboken, NJ opening up for Sorority Noise back in 2017. That was pretty cool. My first time playing in front of an audience ever though was at an open mic night at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park. I was like 17 or 18 and drove down with a group of friends, my now bassist Joe included. It was fun but it was the most nervous I’d ever been.
Was your musical style developed in a vacuum or could you site any other major influences?
Joe: Personally, it was a mix. I never took any sort of lessons for anything so most of the stuff I'd come up with was from the top of the dome, which kind of gives you your own style; which is nice. I've been in love with Dallas Green for some time, Murder By Death, Mars Volta, The Mercury Program…I could go on all day. Influences are never ending.
What is your favorite song that you have ever written?
Nicolle: Let You Go. it’s the second to last track on our first LP “You Make Sense” and we always play it last in our set.
What is the most comfortable pair of shoes you own?
Joe: I'm gonna have to go with my Lakais for shoes. It's like floating on a cloud.
Did you dress up for Halloween? What did you do?
Joe: I did! And I was dressed in a turkey onesie that you could see for yourself on the Hit Like A Girl Instagram!
If you could live in any era of time when/where would it be? What would you do?
Joe: Don't think I would change the era honestly, just because of how far everything has come from over the past 100 years. But, I would however move on down to Maui and sell coconuts off the road to Hana. Maybe start a sweet little skateshop or restaurant. Either that or move to the woods somewhere in North Carolina.
Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)
Hit Like a Girl is touring to/from SXSW in 2020 so be on the lookout for that announcement very soon!