Getting to know Girl Cologne: A Cleveland-based band paving the way through advocacy

By Grace Koennecke, Editor-in-Chief

Photograph by Karina Riviotta

It was a few months ago that I was perusing the internet when I discovered Girl Cologne, a female-fronted band based in Cleveland, Ohio. From energetic photos of their shows at various venues throughout Northeast Ohio to clear and poignant signs of advocacy spread throughout their social media pages, this group seemed to me like the reason behind their steady following was because of their genuine love for performing and welcoming listeners.

Girl Cologne has been around for 10 years now and consists of lead singer Jenna Seeman, guitarist Cade Cubbison, drummer Parker DiSalvo, and bassist Spencer Kmiecik. Meeting during a music lesson at School of Rock in Westlake, Ohio, the group didn’t officially begin playing together under their name until three months into the COVID lockdown.

The group is currently signed to Tragic Hero Records, an independent label that has been around since 2005. 

“We got lucky in that one of the people who I think was interning at the label also did sound at Mahall’s and was just a guy we kind of knew who was keeping an eye on what we were doing,” Seeman said. “He brought us in to do a tour and we talked to the co-owner of the label I believe and we just hit it off. They don’t really have anything like us on the label, but I think that’s cool.”

As they’ve navigated their way through the music scene of Northeast Ohio, and Cleveland in particular, Girl Cologne is aware of the cultural significance of playing in a city known as the “Rock and Roll Capital of the World.”

“I think it’s really good because obviously, it’s like the ‘Rock and Roll Capital of the World,’” Seeman said. “Venues always have a lot of different stuff already going on. With that being said, it’s also a double-edged sword. There’s so many people making music here, and everyone’s great, but it can get a little oversaturated.”

While the group acknowledges the occasional issues of playing in the Cleveland area, they also think these issues are unique and easy to adapt to compared to other areas of the United States.

“We have a very unique problem with having that many venues and places to play, but it’s kind of nice since then we have so many places to choose from,” Kmiecik said. “If we want to play a certain place, it’s not just like we have one venue we always play at. There’s a handful we can choose from, and it never feels like we’re always in the same place.”

Growing up near Cleveland, Seeman talked about the musical influences that inspired Girl Cologne, believing the music she grew up around has caused the band to reference music from the 1990s.

“I think honestly I had a lot of inspiration from both sides of my family,” Seeman said. “Growing up, I would listen to Top 40 in my mom’s car and 80’s music in my dad’s car, and what kind of came out of that was a weird 90s thing?”

Meanwhile, Kmiecik and Cubbison said rock bands like Green Day are some of their biggest inspirations, which you can definitely hear in Girl Cologne’s last few singles, such as “Subtweet” and “Growing Up, Getting Old.”

When listening to the group ahead of our interview, these two singles in particular seemed to discuss the passage of time and holding back in conversations. Seeman said while these themes are definitely heard within these songs, she also believes they tie into her experience as someone with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that causes abnormal increase in heart rate (tachycardia) upon standing, and chronic migraines. 

“I use songwriting to process my emotions,” Seeman said. “It’s not until even when we’re recording – so like months after writing, years after writing – when I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s what I was saying.’ A lot of my writing is about just not feeling heard, not feeling understood, not feeling like I can express myself in conversation and feeling abandoned by people because of that. Also, that does tie into POTS and chronic migraines as well because it’s like a lot of people don’t get that. Especially in your personal life, I feel like you can lose a lot of people at the beginning of that journey, so that was really hard to deal with. It was in a lot of the early writing that we had, but those songs are like five years old at this point, so the new stuff that we’re writing feels more mature.”

Talking about experiences like these as a group is also why Girl Cologne turns to advocacy. The group is known for playing benefit shows around Northeast Ohio in support of LGBTQ+ organizations, with one most recently being a benefit show for TransOhio at Musica Akron alongside other musicians like Aro Girl and 3EVEE.

When asked about the reasoning behind their advocacy, the group said showing up and performing at gigs like these are important to show listeners that musicians of all identities and backgrounds can exist and create music safely and with support. 

“That’s such an interesting question because I’m just like, ‘I just am,’” Kmiecik said. “That in itself is a statement. Me just being alive is enough for some people to be really upset, so I feel like any way for more people to see that people just exist and there’s no preliminary shit. You can just be something. I feel like the fact that we’re musicians and we also happen to be queer and Jenna also happens to have POTS, that’s just us. We weren’t like, ‘What’s marketable? Jenna has a disease. I look like a man sometimes.’ It doesn’t make any sense to do that. I think those topics, even if we didn’t talk about them, would come up anyway just by people looking at us, so they might as well know our opinion about them as well.”

In this current political climate in and outside of the music industry, hardships are bound to occur for musicians that come from different lived experiences. As a female-fronted and queer band, Girl Cologne tries to take these hardships in stride and stay positive, but they shared with me how sexism and heteronormativity is still present in everyday interactions.

Seeman said patience is crucial to getting through these interactions and moments that feel limiting, but that most of the time she doesn’t feel their weight until after the fact.

“Of course, you have the sound guys who try to talk to Cade about the vocal mics and it’s like, ‘Well, why would he know?,’” Seeman said. “Just not getting the same respect until one of the men in the band says something. One of the people we work with at Tragic Hero Records has been reaching out to bands that are coming in on tours and trying to get us opening slots. I’ve noticed he gets immediate responses to things that would take me weeks to get a response to or none at all. I mean, of course it’s Tragic Hero Records, but he’s also a man, so I definitely notice things like that, but it’s not until I sit back and think about them because it’s so ingrained in everyday life, not just in music.”

Even while experiencing tough moments like Seeman mentioned, Girl Cologne also said they’ve experienced so much love and support from their fans in the most unexpected ways. From being noticed by fans to receiving self-made merchandise, the group is grateful for their following.

“Someone made us all perfume bottles and a handmade label and had their dad make incense for us,” Kmiecik said. “I got recognized in a Hot Topic like an hour away from where I’m from, so that was pretty cool.”

As summer fastly approaches, the group is eager to release new music, as well as play at more venues around Northeast Ohio. Girl Cologne’s new single “Crash” drops June 5th alongside a lyric video made by Seeman, and they will be performing with Babe Haven at Mahall’s in Cleveland on June 17th.

A group who puts their authenticity and advocacy on full display, you should keep your eye on Girl Cologne as they continue releasing new music and playing throughout Northeast Ohio. From just speaking with them, it’s clear the group is proud of their Cleveland roots, the power of their voices, and the warmth they’ve received from the local music scene.

You can check out all things Girl Cologne here.