Liverpool quartet Bandit have a chat with CLOSEUP Promotions for our Artist Spotlight feature! Nat, Josh, Evs and Baz discuss the favourite part of creating their music, their perfect festival headliners and some top secret news, which is now not so secret!
Bandit, It’s great to have a chat! We love your music as you well know. We’re keen to know about your live shows, what does a Bandit live show usually bring?
Nat – Hello, hello! Thanks very much! Bandit live shows usually consist of a slightly raucous atmosphere and that’s why WE LOVE IT. Expect to see plenty of up beat tunes, plenty of wit, grit and all the naughty bits.
Josh – A hangover the next day, impending sense of dread, strong smell of red stripe and a feeling of camaraderie amongst not only the band but the lovely lot who come to experience the show with us.
Evs – Pals, Pints, Poems, and usually a few girls from Nat’s tinder from whatever city we’re playing in.
Baz – Lots of f****** energy, balls to the walls indie rock and most definitely a hungover Sunday mornin’
What part of the musical process do you enjoy most, and why? is it performing live, creating your tracks or..?
Nat – Aside from shouting at Baz, for me it’s got to be seeing the tunes come into fruition. Going from being a newly-written-baby of a tune to a brilliantly horrible foaming-at-the-mouth BANGER!
Josh – For me the live shows are the payoff for sitting in a hot sweaty practice room working your way through to create new tunes. I think all of us really enjoy the studio and hearing each individual part come together to form the song with a ridiculous attention to detail.
Evs – For me it has to be the recording process – be that demos or records. As a single man (hit me up ladies) I have plenty of time on my hands to dial in the perfect guitar tones and drum sounds.
Baz – My favourite part of the musical process has got to be performing live. Even though I really enjoy the recording process, there’s nothing like seeing a crowd reaction to your own tunes. Best feeling in the world!
Your tunes have been listened to hundreds of thousands of times across the world as Spotify informs us, Spotify is now such a big player in the industry, how important do you think it is for acts?
Nat – Spotify is great for getting people listening to your music, the main benefit for this is it translates to (I’d say bums-on-seats but its more like) cans-in-hands at gigs. Which as we all know, it’s the live side of the music industry that’s horrendously important these days.
Josh – Spotify is essential, whilst I’m sure there are great examples of artists being picked up for the fact they don’t use Spotify or have made an effort to purposefully not put any music out until the time is right, it’s allowed us to be seen and heard by so many more people than we could ever imagine. The fact that songs like ITAT (I’d Try Anything Twice) has been streamed over 100,000 times is quite ridiculous to most of us.
Evs – Spotify has one big advantage for artists, especially smaller artists, which is that anybody can access your music as well instantly seeing when you’re playing someone’s home town. However, the problem is that your music can get lost amongst the millions of other bands on streaming sites whereas there is a finite number of records in a record store.
Baz – Without this luxury platform amongst others, some bands may never get their music played in different countries and even different regions within the UK. From viewing our Spotify stats, it’s mad to know where our streams are coming from.
If you created a Bandit festival, and could pick three headliners, who would you go for?!
Nat – For me, I’d have to go Fontaines D.C, IDLES and probably Lana Del Ray in the hopes I can be her muse. Lana if you read ICM, add me on Insta – natwaters_
Josh – IDLES, LCD Soundsystem, Elton John.
Evs – Bruce Springsteen, Phoebe Bridgers, Dua Lipa
Baz – Fontaines DC, VANT, OASIS (I’d settle for Liam G)
Tell us a little about what your new music, when should we be expecting it?!
Nat – We’re buzzing to be recording the next two singles with Alex Quinn at Parr St in Liverpool very soon.
Josh – We should have brand new tunes that will be coming in the new year.
Evs – It’s moody as fuck and you’re all gonna be bouncing around to these new tunes at your favourite festivals next year. DRINK ON SISTERS!
Baz – We’ll be getting back into the studio to record two new singles which are personal favourites of mine, can’t wait for you all to hear them. [REDACTED]
Featured Image courtesy of Facebook
