Beautiful People 2010: Girls

"I don't really know about the 'beautiful' thing," says Girls' singer and guitarist Christopher Owens of appearing in this issue, several hours into a van ride with only country heartrender George Jones's 1980 album I Am What I Am for comfort. "It's frustrating when I look in the mirror now--I'm like, 'Man, if they would have gotten me ten or fifteen years ago, they really woulda had something on their hands!'" But ten or 15 years ago, he was en route to Amarillo, Texas, after a mercilessly over-reported childhood overseas in the Children of God cult. He'd fled the cult for Texas at 16, after growing up busking on the streets in Europe and living in dorms around the world. And he might still be in Amarillo now if it wasn't for Queen's "Spread Your Wings," which pushed him out of his cushy gig working for much-loved local millionaire Stanley Marsh III and toward the big city for a job (per Freddie Mercury's lyrics) "sweeping up the Emerald Bar." "'Take a bad job to have some adventure and be happy,'" paraphrases Owens. "No matter if I have to give up my good job in Amarillo. And that's what I did."

So Texas exile Owens and multi-instrumentalist and producer JR White became Girls in San Francisco in 2007; then 2008's debut single "Lust For Life" on impeccable indie True Panther Sounds scored huge numbers from Pitchfork and their debut album high-bounced them just about instantly from "break-out" to "breakthrough." That's why Owens is in the van today. Like George Jones, he knows the four chords most likely to melt a human heart--CAm- F-G--and like George Jones, he is what he is: "I don't hold anything back," he says. "I don't even know the idea of writing anything different. It's funny-- people say 'hopeless romantic' but I think being a romantic is the most hopeful thing you can have."

(L-R) JR wears a vintage sweater, t-shirt by American Apparel, and jeans by AG Adriano Goldschmied. Christopher wears a sweatshirt by Nike Sportswear

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