UK band Baddies have never had what some might call huge success in the UK, and there is no real reason for it, as far as we can tell. Their catchy hooks and imaginative lyrics work together with powerful drumming to make for great Indie Rock songs. Taking to the stage during blistering sunshine is always challenging, as you’ve got to get the fans out of the shade and look after yourself at the same time. Baddies 2pm set was not a particularly busy one, despite their European following, but they were there to give it their all.
The guys are currently working on a new album, and they played a couple of tracks from it. They have a slightly more futuristic sound mixed with the original Baddies vibe, and they sound promising. Expect more keyboard, but still the angular guitar riffs and solid vocal lines.
The highlight for me would have to be Battleships, which is still an absolute tune of a song, with some truly incredible lyrical work, fitting and shaping words into spaces you wouldn’t think was possible. Very catchy numbers throughout, you should really check them out for a dose of indie.
The Baddies where interviewed by TNC Music Editor Mark Allen at Dour 2010
Mark – Is this your first time playing at Dour Festival?
Mike – Yes it is. We’ve been to Belgium quite a few times, done a couple of festivals and various other cities.
Are you looking forward to your set?
Mike – Yeah! I mean, we did 32 festivals last year (laughs), and this is our first one of the year, so we’re actually really excited to be playing, playing some new tunes, hopefully go down well. To be honest, I don’t think many people know our stuff, so to them it will be all new tunes!
Have you played much in Europe in general?
Simon – We did loads last year, I think out of the 32, 25 were European. We doing a headline tour in October that will have us all over Europe again.
Do you find you get a better reception in Europe?
Mike – Yeah I find it’s better in mainland Europe than it is in the UK for us. We’re not exactly too sure why that is, I don’t really care why it is to be honest. If they like the band that’s great.
You released your album on your own label, what was that process like, and why did you do it yourselves?
Mike – It was kind of like, we had the album ready to go, recorded it, paid for it ourselves. We had a lot of hype around us late 2008/early 2009. We did a few showcases in the city and Manchester, and then we did one in Holland called Eurosonic, and that’s when we got all the festivals. There wasn’t loads of major offers coming in, and we thought ‘we’re not going to sit around waiting for it to happen, we wanna get on our with career’. I think there is nothing worse than sitting there with stale songs. Who are we to expect a major to come and sign us, we just gotta get on with it. We did a little bit of waiting didn’t we?
Simon …You can’t not when you’re starting to get interest. I mean, from the start of the album to the time it came out, we started to get really impatient about it, so it was partly that. It got to being like ‘well, let’s just fucking do it’. It was a conscious decision.
It puts you in good stead as a band as well…
Simon – Yeah I think everyone in the band is envolved in some way with everything that happens with the band. We’re pretty good at knowing what’s going on.
You recently released a track in German. What was the idea behind this and why German as a language?
Mike – I decided I wanted to do another song in another language, mainly because I thought it would be a fun thing to do. We spent a lot of time in Germany, and we really liked it over there. Also, my girlfriend’s flatmate is German, so she could translate it all for us (laughs). We considered doing it in French and German, but we ran out of time. It was a lot of fun, it’s going to be free forever. We included the lyrics as well this time.
So what are the plans for the future of Baddies?
Simon – We’re in the process of writing a second album. We’re about half the way through…
Mike – We’re just going at it, writing as many songs as we can, trying new things. It’s really exciting, slightly more futuristic sound. Just evolving really. Ideally we want to have the album out early next year, then do all the festivals again. If we don’t, we’re not going to panic about it, we want to release the right record. We’ve got about 8 new tunes that are there abouts, but you know, maybe none of those will make it on the album, maybe they all will.
Do you think you’ll look to majors for this release?
Simon – It’s hard to explain any of this without sounding really eager or not caring at all, but it’s half way between the two. We’re not going to chase it that much. One of the things we’ve learnt is there are more important things to be chasing. When you’ve got other things on your side you don’t really need it.
Mike – There are a lot of options out there now, it doesn’t have to be a sign your life away job. With major labels comes major expectation, and sometimes you don’t meet those expectations, and sometimes it’s not your fault. With our own label we’ve got our own ones, so it’s all good.
