For Interview #14, I got to chat with the amazing band Bam Bam! It was a lot of fun. We talked about how they started, their newest album, and future goals and some more fun facts! Check it out here:
trtlz: Hey! Thanks for doing this interview! I really appreciate it. Let's get started!
trtlz: Tell me about Bam Bam. Who are the members? How would you describe your sound?
BB Dave: Hello! Neil & me. Guitar punk/pop? Neil?!
BB Neil: Yeah, that’s probably right.
trtlz: How long have you been Bam Bam? Is there a story behind the name?
BB Dave: We’ve been doing Bam Bam for around 2 years in some form. Neil came to stay at mine for a weekend, we recorded some songs (badly) and that was the beginning. No story behind the name - we probably should have picked a better one!
BB Neil: I’d moved away a few years before and had struggled to find people to play with that didn’t want to play cover versions for money. So who you gonna call? David, basically... that weekend was a much needed.
trtlz: Do you have any specific influences as a band or individual influences?
BB Dave: Most of our favourite artists come out of the 90’s rock/indie (Pixies indie not Oasis indie) scene but we both have very eclectic tastes. We’re always recommending new bands we’ve discovered to each other.
BB Neil: Yeah, we share loads of Influences, too many to mention really. Life is a massive influencer, the things you see and hear.
trtlz: How long have you been playing/making music?
BB Dave: Neil and I have been making music together for the best part of 20 years. We’ve been in 2 serious (ish) bands together prior to Bam Bam and countless other short-lived adventures.
trtlz: I always get so excited when I hear how long the members of a band have known each other and have such a solid friendship. 20 years is amazing! I think that's a huge part of what makes your band great (besides the awesome music, haha).
BB Dave: haha! I know a lot of great bands do/have created great music when the relationships within the band are volatile, but I couldn’t work that way – too much stress! Neil and I are friends because of music, we’ve never not made music together.
trtlz: What is the writing process like? Who writes the music? Who writes the lyrics?
BB Dave: Neil writes the songs (guitar & vocal) and sends me the track to a click. I take his track into a music making software and add all the other bits. I then send back what I’ve done (minus his track) and Neil mixes and masters it. 9 times out of 10, very little changes are made after that. The original track Neil sends me usually stays as his final track (warts and all!).
BB Dave: The only difference with the 3rd album is that we’ve tracked live drums (the 1st 2 albums were programmed drums). I went to Neil’s place, we hired a little room and recorded 14 drum tracks with 1 mic in about 2 hours.
BB Neil: Lyrically for all the Bam stuff I’ve tried to tell stories that are mostly loosely based on personal experience, some just plucked from the air or the odd line from a conversation I’ve had with someone. Try to keep things light hearted where possible. I’ve no idea if the songs are any good. Dave will soon say if what I’m sending him is shit. But that’s surprisingly rare. Sometimes I do get asked to rewrite lyrics as they’re inappropriate or whatever. But I send stuff to Dave that is pretty rough and somehow what he does pulls it all together and they sound like great songs.
BB Neil: Guitar wise it’s easy to get stale so it’s a case of trying to find different shapes and textures without making an album full of power chords. It’s important to progress and get better at it. The things we’ve both learned doing things the way we do, rather than just getting in a room and jamming out ideas intended mostly for love is shocking! It feels like the approach to song writing etc in all those other bands we’ve done was quite naive.
trtlz: I think as long as the lyrics are real and relatable, it's ok for them to be brutal at times haha. And I totally agree, learning and doing things to get better and progressing is key. I also think it makes things more fun and interesting to try different things.
trtlz: And I love that you used live drums on this album! Since you didn't do that on your previous albums, now that you have, so you prefer that? Do you plan to do the same for future albums?
BB Dave: We would have always preferred live drums, but we didn’t think it was an option. It took the first 2 albums for us to work out how to do things whilst not in the same room. First and foremost, I’m a drummer and I miss hitting stuff. Live drums also give so much more feel to the songs – you just can’t get the dynamics with programmed drums. I can’t see us going back to programmed drums (unless they feel right for a song). We used a combination of live and programmed drums on ‘Happy Ending’ (the song with the recorder solo – recorded in my toilet at work by the way!) which worked out quite nicely.
trtlz: You released a new album in the beginning of June! I really like it by the way. Was this something in the works for a while? Or did it happen quickly? Was it a smooth process?
BB Dave: Thank you! The majority of the songs for the 3rdalbum were written and finished (minus live drums) in about 3 months. It took us a little while to find a weekend where we were both free to record the drums. It’s always a smooth process minus the odd creative blackout every now and then!
BB Neil: Thanks!! Yep, the majority of it came really quickly, like the first 2 albums did. You can overthink these things can’t you.
BB Dave: To quote Jay Reatard, “it’s better to release 3 shitty albums in a year than wait ages for 1 shitty album”
trtlz: In your opinion, how has the response for the album been so far? Were you able to accomplish everything you wanted with it?
BB Dave: We like it – that’s the main goal. It’s always nice to get positive feedback from people we don’t know but that’s not why we do it. We always wrote the songs with the idea of live drums being put in at some point, so we wrote differently this time round (tried to keep everything a bit simpler). We’re really happy with how it’s come out.
BB Neil: We made an album that we think is better than the last. My youngest son says it’s the best we’ve done and I trust his judgement. It’s not something we invest much money in at all and we do everything ourselves. It’s like a £40 audio interface and free software so to be able to produce music that gets played a bit on the radio is an achievement I reckon.
trtlz: Neil, That's awesome you have your youngest to give you feedback. He is probably the best person for the job! And I'm actually surprised with the little resources you did have, because I feel like it seems like there was much more to it! Definitely an achievement for sure!
trtlz: I really like "Like We Used To Do" and of course you know, "Fuck Off" since I wrote about it haha. Can you talk about those? What inspired those songs?
BB Dave: Neil?!
BB Neil: Blimey! Ok, "Like We Used To Do" was the first song we’d written for this album. Everything is generally more exciting right at the start. A relationship can still be amazing years into it but you still miss those early days of finding out about each other and how the simplest things feel exciting just because you’re in a certain persons company. When you know everything about someone you don’t have those feelings the same way so it’s basically about trying to keep things fresh because it’s easy to get stuck in a routine... I’m a romantic deep down, what else can I say?
BB Neil: "Fuck Off" isn’t meant to be offensive. I’m sure everyone at some stage has had someone that just gets on your tits a little at times and no matter how many subtle hints you drop they don’t get the message. You end up just having to be brutally honest and say, “ok, enough is enough!” Not because you want to upset them or offended them but because you just can’t put up with it any longer.
trtlz: What is your favorite track from the album?
BB Dave: I don’t have a favourite!
BB Neil: Every song when I listen to it is my favourite. Then the next track plays and I’m like “actually THIS one is my favourite”. I can’t decide. At a push I’d say "Man Flu".
trtlz: You guys recently released a video for "Lion", right? Can you tell me about that?
BB Dave: Neil & I went for a walk the morning I was going home (after recording drums) without a plan to make a video. It was a spur of the moment thing. I think it took us about 5 minutes. Neil had the song playing on his phone and I was filming whilst running backwards. It helps that where Neil lives is beautiful! As neither of us have any video editing skills our rule is that the video has to be a one take affair. Too much faffing otherwise!
trtlz: haha! I love that! So spontaneous! And amazing you filmed running backwards and didn't fall or anything. Or did you? Haha. And for sure the scenery was a nice bonus.
BB Dave: Running backwards is not something I’ve practiced since I was about 5! There was almost a collision with a lamp post but other than that it was smooth sailing.
trtlz: Have you played any shows? Do you get to do that a lot?
BB Dave: we’ve played 2 gigs in total: 1 which was fucking awful (but fun) and 1 which was semi-decent (with a little help from a bass playing friend). We only see each other in person 2-3 times a year so playing live isn’t something we think about too much - geographic reasons rather than not wanting to do it!
BB Neil: We’ve played a lot of gigs over the years in various projects. It doesn’t seem important anymore. It’s fun when we do but even if we did play live regularly, we probably wouldn’t write so many songs. We’d be spending time rehearsing those and it’s nice to keep things fresh and moving forwards. Don’t get me wrong, we could roll up somewhere tomorrow and play a gig. We know the songs inside out and know each other inside out but logistics and the need to keep things fresh far outweigh the urge to play a gig.
trtlz: If you could play a show anywhere, where would you want to play?
BB Dave: for me it would be The Cartoon in Croydon. It was a shit hole in a shit area but always fun. A really good scene, and you could play as loud as you wanted.
BB Neil: Yeah, the cartoon was always fun. It’s where we met. Didn’t it get closed down because of a cockroach infestation?
BB Dave: I’m not sure but that’s definitely a possibility.
trtlz: Are there any other artists you hope to be able to meet or play with? Do you have any favorite artists you already love playing with?
BB Dave: The not playing live thing probably answers this question! However, we would love to get other people involved for album number 4 – different singers, maybe a guitarist who can properly play a solo (sorry Neil!). I’m not really into meeting bands that I like – never meet your heroes!
BB Neil: Cheeky sod! He’s right though. Any solos that are on our stuff are reluctantly done because we think it’s what the song needs. I’m a reluctant singer too so other singers would be great (if anyone is reading this...) just different tones and textures. We’d learn more from getting other people involved too. I’d love to write a song with Sia but let’s be honest, that’s not going to happen, and I’d probably not be able to function in her presence.
BB Dave: even if you couldn’t see her face?
BB Neil: hahahaha! I’m a fan of the wigs to be fair. Probably more intimidating though.
trtlz: Ahh haha. I don't know much about guitar, but from what I hear, Neil's solos are fine. But either way, it's always cool to have a different perspective and uniqueness added once in a while. And you never know with Sia. Stranger things have happened...
trtlz: What is it like being in Bam Bam? What are the best parts about it? Are there any challenges you deal with from it?
BB Dave: I get to make music with one of my best friends! Anything goes and neither of us tell each what to do (most of the time). Zero challenges for me. Making music should be fun and easy, if it’s not, you should walk away.
BB Neil: I think Dave has the final say which I’m quite happy about. It’s nice to be led sometimes by someone you trust and it just so happens he plays a mean recorder solo, so who am I to argue with a man who has skills like that? I think he’d describe himself as “passive aggressive” anyway hahaha!! My only challenge is to try to write songs that are different to what we’ve done before. The day I feel I can’t better what we’ve done, is the day I decide to be Stone Gossard in a Pearl Jam tribute.
BB Dave: hahahahahaha!
trtlz: Do you have any specific ideas or goals planned for Bam Bam's near future?
BB Dave: Album 4! No idea what it will sound like. I’m still waiting for the first track to be sent through (get your arse in gear Neil!).
BB Neil: more videos for the tracks on this album while writing the 4th. The songs will come. I just need to get this one out of my system first. Something will click somewhere along the line and then we’ll be flying.
BB Dave: hurry up
trtlz: Haha! Dave is ready for Album 4! I agree more videos will be really cool and definitely a great way to promote this album.
trtlz: Do you like cake? What is the best cake flavor?
BB Dave: Not a massive fan of cake BUT I’d go for chocolate fudge cake if you’re offering!
BB Neil: I love cake. I was a baker for a fair few years. Carrot cake or a good lemon drizzle will do nicely thanks.
trtlz: Yo that's awesome you were a baker, Neil! Dave- that is really a shame you're not a massive fan of cake, because that would be a really great perk for you haha!
BB Dave: Maybe I was a little harsh on cake.
trtlz: Last question. Is there anything else you would like everyone to know about Bam Bam or anything you'd like to add?
BB Dave: thank you to you and anybody else who’s chosen to listen to us given the infinite amount of music you/they could be listening to (which is probably better)!
BB Neil: This is it. When you think, albeit, not many people, but people all over the world have streamed some of our music it’s pretty cool. I think we should play a gig Dave...
BB Dave: Florida?
trtlz: You know, I gotta say I am really liking that idea Dave! Totally backing you up on that. If you ever need any suggestions on where to play in Florida, just let me know! Also, thanks to you both for this interview! I really enjoyed it and so glad I was able to get to know Bam Bam a little more!
You can check out Bam Bam's music on Spotify here: http://tinyurl.com/y2dkrogj
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