Blackbud Interview

Blackbud

Interview

Contactmusic.com caught up with all of the boys from Blackbud.

How are you all doing?
Good, great! Well we are all jolly anyway!!

You're show in Camden sold out the other night didn't it?
Yes it did! We were all a bit hung-over the morning after. It was amazing. The Alterkicks were supporting us, they've supported us a couple of times before. The other band actually wrecked my drum kit, well I say wreck, and they just decided to go a little bit too rock and roll after their set and they trashed the stage with my drum kit.

You're on the road at the moment gigging around the UK; I guess it's anything but un-chartered territory for you guys having been on the road so much in the past?
Well, yeah we have done loads of gigs up and down the country at various times in the past but we haven't really done many tours. When we started out we were only playing venues in the West Country. We were playing very regularly but still trying to keep it pretty local. We started touring about a year ago, just doing short 2 or 3 week tours. Lots of bands like to do long 6 week solid long tours but we like to do shorter ones but more regularly. I think this way it gives you more to write about too. I mean, your main inspiration won't be sitting in a room with the rest of the band. It helps create stories other than; "I'm sitting in a van with my acoustic guitar"!!

Yeah, writing about the poor sod that has to sit in the middle on the back row!! I guess only being a three piece you guys won't have that problem?
Well actually there are about 8 of us in our entourage, we have a nice splitter van, and we manage to evade getting too squashed!!

How did Blackbud begin?
Well we all got together when we were at school. Joe and Sam were in a band together and I was in some other band. And both our bands were playing a gig together when our lead vocalist didn't show up. Well, it kind of screwed things up for our band without a singer. I can't remember how exactly it came about but Joe knew a load of our songs so I asked him in the morning of the show if he could sing for us. He said yes, and it was the greatest show of our lives!?!? We are still trying to top that performance now! The show at the barfly was nothing in comparison to that show.

So you've been in bands before, what do you think makes it work for you guys?
I think it's just a connection that we all have. The first thing that we played was chameleon by Herby Hancock. Joe wasn't even singing vocals on it but we were all smiling and we all just felt really happy. It was after the band formed that Joe started to learn how to sing and became our singer.

Do you mind singing Joe??
No I don't mind it. I was probably the one with the most experience; I had done little bits of singing now and again whilst I was on my own. You know playing guitar and stuff so I was maybe the one most naturally able to sing. We've all developed into singing harmonies together now.

How long have you been signed to Independente for now??
We have been signed for almost a year and a half now. It was quite an awkward position for us to be in really, it was flattering but hard because lots of companies wanted us and it was difficult for us to choose. It came down to us deciding who to go with on the individuals that were in the companies. I guess we thought we got on best with the guys at Independente.

You released your first single through fierce panda didn't you? How did that come about?
To be honest, I'm not sure how the whole fierce panda thing came about. I know why we decided to go with it and release a single though, that was because we wanted to be able to put something out quietly and be able to concentrate on our song writing. I think we were at a point where it was quite easy for things to start to move too quickly and we didn't want that. We just wanted the press to get a taste of what we were like and to know what was to come.

How have things been going for you guys since then?
Good!! We have been playing so many shows and sure some of them haven't been so well attended I just don't think many people knew about us, now we are having a few sell out shows, and it is really good fun. This whole tour has been really good!!

What's happening with the album guys?
We're still in the process of recording it. We've recorded all the main parts but we need to do some little touch ups & all the vocals still need recording but that shouldn't be such a hard process. We are going back for another two weeks which will be nice because we can take time with finishing it.

When can we see it on the shop shelves?
March next year hopefully!

What's next for you guys?
Well, we will be doing lots of shows down in the southern half of England. We are going to do quite a lot of stuff in America over March. We are doing South by South West and some shows in New York & LA.