“I felt that a story needed to be told through me”
Energetic, mysterious, cult. If you had only three words to describe GUNMOLL, you would get part of the way there, but nowhere near the whole picture. The band, founded by vocalist/guitarist Jolien Grünberg and guitarist/producer Bram Bol, crafts an energetic blend of surf inspired rock, Balkan colours and pop driven hooks. On their debut album Kill Your Darlings the band sketches twelve scenes from the life of a “gunmoll,” a female accomplice to a gangster who hides behind shifting masks. The music would not feel out of place beneath the most gripping chase scenes from your favourite cult movies.
The first spark for GUNMOLL appeared when Jolien leafed through an old photo album from the Romanian side of her family. It radiated a cinematic and dangerous mobster atmosphere; the portraits looked like characters from a film noir. This cast certain events from her childhood in a new light. From that came the idea to write songs from the perspective of the gunmoll. “I felt that a story needed to speak through me,” Jolien says. The cinematic and shadow filled tone draws inspiration from films by Scorsese, Tarantino and Lynch, and from the music of Morricone and Dick Dale. Dark humour and a cult sensibility are woven throughout GUNMOLL.
The first spark for GUNMOLL appeared when Jolien leafed through an old photo album from the Romanian side of her family. It radiated a cinematic and dangerous mobster atmosphere; the portraits looked like characters from a film noir. This cast certain events from her childhood in a new light. From that came the idea to write songs from the perspective of the gunmoll. “I felt that a story needed to be told through me,” Jolien says. The cinematic and shadow filled tone draws inspiration from films by Scorsese, Tarantino and Lynch, and from the music of Morricone and Dick Dale. Dark humor and a cult sensibility are woven throughout GUNMOLL.
To bring the band to life Jolien reached out to Bram Bol, with whom she had already developed a strong creative connection during a previous project called Miss Pussy. Although the writing sessions long remained a creative playground, together they shaped their musical language. They explored Balkan music and other Eastern influences to weave in Jolien’s Romanian heritage. “Those writing sessions were often hilarious,” Bram says. “We had so much fun digging into the stories and translating them into music. We often left the studio completely stoked and buzzing.” Elements of surf rock also appear, “but with the intensity and wildness of a brutal storm session, definitely not the mellow mood of Malibu,” Bram adds. With a powerful rhythm section consisting of Koen van Bemmelen on bass and Bas Janssen on drums, who replaced Pim de Roij halfway through 2024, GUNMOLL became complete.
The debut album Kill Your Darlings presents twelve action scenes from the life of the gunmoll. It is not a chronological story but rather a mosaic of moments that together reveal this complex character and her world. The band deliberately leaves open whether these scenes are moments from her actual life or symbolic battles taking place in her mind against inner demons and imposed roles. “The songs offer glimpses into her life, fragments. As a listener you receive puzzle pieces, but the full picture is something you need to piece together yourself,” Jolien explains. Is the gunmoll therefore a layered alter ego? Perhaps. Jolien draws in part from her own experiences, but at times also gives voice to her own inner demons.
In this way the band uses the dark narrative as a mirror for the audience. Think of the masks we all wear, the struggle against limitations placed upon us either from within or from the outside world, and the universal search for authenticity, for the true self beneath all the layers. It raises the question: are we not all, in some way, a gunmoll?