QR Music: Interview with Bad Sounds

At the beginning of February, I sat down with Ewan and Callum from Bad Sounds before their first gig in Ireland supporting RAT BOY in Limelight. We talked about their first time in Belfast, some musical influences and how they really don’t like being called ‘Indie-Funk’.

So thank you for taking the time out to talk to me today I really appreciate it. I saw on Instagram earlier that it’s your first time in Ireland. Do you guys have any expectations for the gig tonight?

Callum: I don’t know, we’re kind of lucky because we’ve sort of got everything to prove? Like having not been here before, there’s no pressure on us to be anything because from our point of view, people have never seen us live here before and have nothing to expect from us. I kind of like being the support band, because you’re either going to really turn someone onto something they love or they’re just going to be like 'nah that’s not for me'. I guess that’s the whole point of being a support band, it’s just to win over people when no one’s seen you before.

So you have everything and nothing to lose at the same time?

Callum: In a nutshell, yes.

I’ve been listening to your music a lot over the last few weeks, but I find it really hard to describe your sound to people. How would you describe your genre of music?

Ewan: I think broadly when we talk about it we just say it’s like mine and Callum’s taste in everything. We kind of take that Hip-Hop idea of sampling a small section of a tune you like, or even one you don’t like. We just try and do that with genres and eras of music. I feel like it’s otherwise hard to pin down because, you might like the guitar in a T-Rex track or really like a drum track and try and mash up all that stuff. Each song it feels like we come at it from a different sound point, so it’s hard to be like ‘these are our influences’ because we don’t even know what’s going to influence the next song.

Callum: Yeah, it’s all about borrowing little bits, it’s like ‘Magpie Music’, just taking little bits from the things that we do.

So you wouldn’t define yourselves to any genre, you just like the freedom?

Callum: Yeah, we really don’t like being called ‘Indie-Funk’.

Oh yeah, I saw an article earlier calling you guys ‘Indie-Funk’?

Callum: It just turns you off immediately right? If you never heard of us before and someone describes us as Indie-Funk, like what?! I understand like people have to put some kind of context around it, but we’ve never really thought that we were an indie band! It’s super cool that that scene has embraced us, which is crazy, but we were never really influenced by that kind of thing so it’s sort of weird to me. Obviously we have some groove-based stuff so I guess that’s why they say funk but when you read ‘Indie-Funk’ don’t you think of some college band, it’s their first gig, they don’t really know what they’re doing.

So you mentioned that the influences you have isn’t like the music that you make, do you have any musical influences that inspire your music?

Ewan: Yeah, loads of stuff, but I feel like it’s more like albums that we tend to get into rather than people. Obviously Odelay by Beck or Paul’s Boutique by Beastie Boys and more.

Callum: I love Marvin Gaye, like we have a couple of artists that we’re just like, ‘they’re great artists’ but even with those artists it’ll be like, 'oh don’t really like that album' but if we’re discussing music we’ll say, 'oh that album' or 'oh that track from that album' we’ll never just say 'oh that guy or that band' because, I know this is kind of shooting ourselves in the foot being a band but you can never rely on a band to be good for their whole career. We’re firm believers of artists taking risks and I don’t lose respect for any artist or anyone who tries to do something that doesn’t work because, they’re way bolder for doing it rather than just sticking to it for your whole career.

The same thing happened recently with Fall Out Boy, they’ve been getting a lot of criticism recently for evolving their sound but I think it’s admirable.

Callum: It happens, like as you sort of learn more about music and you meet new people, they turn you on to music you sometimes might not like but sometimes it’ll be something you’ll really like. You’re bound to take that on board with what you’re doing. I think you’re not really writing for you if you don’t take that stuff in and take that into what you’re doing.

Ewan: Plus, it’s just like you’ll write the same song over and over again, but worse each time.

A lot of reviews of your shows say that you have a lot of high energy. Is there anything you do to get you hyped up for a gig or do you just kind of go out there and wing it?

Ewan: We always have some intro music like you heard earlier, and I think that gets us as pumped as much as the audience?

Callum: It’s like when that drop happens and the adrenaline kicks in and stuff.

Ewan: It’s just like slightly not having very good self-control? I’ve never been able to stand up and like cool for a half an hour so then we just end up beating each other up on stage and stuff. I do feel like that’s our default thing, when a show is going not vibe-y and just goes stale, we just always end up…

Callum: You just always end up on my back or my shoulders?

Ewan: Yeah. We done this show a while back that was a real industry, cold, horrible affair and I just felt like well…I’m just going to start kicking Callum and see what happens?

Callum: For me, it’s like when I watch a band who are really vibing off their own music it makes me get into it way more. I just think you should be able to get into what you’re doing because obviously you’re writing music that you like. It is quite exciting and that feeling kind of just takes over you.

Ewan: For sure. It’s also just nice playing with the band because you vibe off the way Olivia plays drums and Sam plays bass and Charlie plays guitar. It’s nice to have them doing their stamp on it and then there’s a lot of back and forth with the energy on that.

So whenever you were growing up, what was the music scene like? When you’re making your own music and you look at stuff that you grew up listening to, did you think there was a gap for you to make your own music?

Ewan: Yeah because we’ve always been so into music, I’ve always felt like fulfilled by music, I’m just compelled to want to do it. I don’t really think so, I feel like it’s more experiences when you get older and you find more things that you’re into and then that naturally forms what you write, so you end up taking the bits you like. So I don’t know if that’s necessarily a gap, but you just end up putting your own spin on things.

Callum: If anything, nobody’s heard all music ever so the more you learn the more, the more you learn what you don’t know. I would feel incredibly arrogant to say there’s a gap in the music because how could you possibly say that if you haven’t listened to every song ever written? I sort of understand the question as well like in sort of modern or today’s scene, or multiple scenes there’s so many different scenes now we’ve seen with the ease of releasing music, I guess it’s just figuring out how to be heard above the rest. We’ll only ever make music that we like.

Are there any songs that you have made that you’re the proudest of?

Callum: I’m really happy on the mix of ‘Meat on my Bones’. If someone asked me to play one song that defines the song, I would probably pick that song. I would find it hard to say why, but it’s probably just the most like us.

Ewan: Yeah I’d agree. It definitely just feels like we got what we wanted to achieve like it sort of happened very concisely on that one. It covers a lot of the angles of the band, I guess is what I would say.

We have a bunch of local artists here in Belfast who are looking to try and get big. Do you have any advice for any local artists looking to get their stuff out there?

Ewan: I think to be honest it’s good management that’s a massive thing, but it’s also if you really put a lot of effort and time into the music I feel you’ll start to get interest. There’s a lot of people who write a few songs then try and seek out the industry, whereas we found that just doing something and doing it a lot, people just started coming to us. I feel it’s better that way because you have a bit more of a leg-up already, with someone coming to you rather than you going to them with your hands out.

Callum: Definitely good management that you trust because they steer you through the industry, it’s invaluable. And write, all the time. Constantly write. We’re only just starting out in industry terms so I feel like kind of a fraud giving out advice?

So if you guys were headlining a festival, and you could choose three different artists on the line-up, who would they be?

Callum: Alive or dead? Both?

Ewan: My dream festival would be: Gorillaz, Curtis Mayfield and Beastie Boys.

Callum: Yeah, I’d let that run.

Finally, you guys seemed really busy last year between touring and releasing music. Are there any moments of 2017 that really stood out?

Ewan: Well we both started getting to do this full time, so that was a big thing. Callum left his job and that was a massive thing, and suddenly feeling like professional musicians. Professional seems like the wrong word but musicians. We done our first shows abroad as well which was super cool, like we played a show in France and in Spain and that was really cool.

Callum: For me, it was when we done our headline tour at the end of the year and we started it in Bristol. We live in Bath but there isn’t really a music scene in Bath so we wanted to play Bristol because we have a lot of friends on the scene there. There’s a band called ‘Swimming Girls’ who are doing really well at the minute. There’s a girl called Fenne Lilly doing amazing on Spotify. So when we were starting out we were playing with those people a lot. We curated the bill, so we had Swimming Girls playing with us and Cousin Kula in a much bigger venue than we had done a year previously. When we came on stage it was just this outpouring of love from everyone who had come. Obviously we had friends and family who had come, but also people we had never met before that who just came to see us, it was so overwhelming. It was just everything you dream about when you think about a home show. It wasn’t a massive venue, but it felt incredible to play that show.

So what has 2018 got in store for you?

Ewan: We don’t really have any solid plans, but our hopes are we’re kind of writing with a view towards an album. We don’t really have any plans in mind. Also just playing a lot of festivals, and hopefully we’ll do another one of our own tours. It’s just kind of playing as much as possible really. Playing and writing and see what feels natural, that’s our main priorities.

You can listen to Bad Sounds on Spotify, as well as their latest EP 'Mixtape One'. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Check out Bad Sounds' festivals dates across the UK this Summer.

By Jessica Lawrence