Baddies Interview

After their amazing set at this year's Summer Sundae Weekender, I chat to the band being hailed as one of the best live acts around...

Rosanna: Hi guys, how did you first form as a band?

Michael: We were all in different bands previously, I was in a band that had one album out, and when that broke up me and Jim [who are twins] decided to do something together... we had experience from previous bands and went about it differently...we did as many live gigs as possible. A lot of bands just stick to their home towns, but we went further afield. Our first gig was actually at The Charlotte in Leicester. We basically kept going and going and worked really hard.

Rosanna: Yeah, you’ve described your new album as the story of your struggle to get to where you are - would you say then that the last two or three years have been pretty hard?

Simon: It should be, you know. It’s not a job that you can take qualifications for - it should be hard work, that’s how you earn your stripes. There’s no other way to do it. Yeah it’s been hard, but it’s been great. You get out, you gig, you write songs, and as soon as you’ve written a new song, you get it out on the road. All of us were working full time, and gigging as much as we could... at its peak all of us were working a 40-hour week and doing two gigs at least.

Michael: And rehearsing.

Simon: We all remember the time when we played a gig headlining at Liverpool Barfly at 10.30, packed down, got home at 4 and went to work at 9.Rosanna: Sounds like a bit of a hard life?

Simon: But it’s what you sign up for, and any band that doesn’t do that, they’re going about it wrong.

Michael: You’ve got to look at it that it’s never anybody else’s fault if you don’t get to where you want to be. We’ll do everything we possibly can to make sure we get there.

Rosanna: You seem to tour an awful lot, and have been described as one of the best bands to see live. What would you say appeals most about playing live?

Jim: I think that it’s the basis of how the songs are, and our rhythm...one person has a rough idea, and we start working on it and writing together...our album is kind of an adaption... we want to be able to re-create that live. Live is a very big part of it for us. That comes first, and when you do a recording, you can add little pieces here and there. But it’s got to sound great live... if you’re crap live, then less people are going to want to come and see you.

Simon: Also, the way that we came out with the record that we have, was by playing live. That record took us essentially a week to record... but the only way we could do that was by playing all those dates.

Rosanna: So it didn’t take you very long to record the album?

Simon: No, because we recorded it live, as a band (and we were very particular about doing that), we were pretty much ready to do it when we went into the studio. There are a lot of bands where the producer has to pull songs apart for them, but we didn’t have any of that. So yeah, it was a relatively painless process.

Jim: It was really enjoyable.

Michael: We had engineers telling our producer how surprised they were at how good it sounded so quickly, and that was good for us to hear. People are quite surprised at us recording live. But why aren’t people doing it that way? People used to in the sixties and seventies – people like The Beatles recorded albums and it all had to be done there and then. So does that mean that everyone’s less talented now? Maybe [shrugs].

Rosanna: So are you excited to see the fan response when you release the album in September?

Simon: I can’t wait. We’ve spent SO long playing gigs like this – relatively prestigious, like Summer Sundae and Glastonbury, but really we’re just a band where people don’t know our songs – an unknown band. We can’t wait for the point where people will be singing along to their favourite song. Of course we don’t expect Coldplay-style adoration straight away...

Rosanna: But you feel like the album’s going to move you into the next stage?

Simon: Exactly. And I think that our live show is ready for that response from people.

Rosanna: And having been tipped for really big things by people like Q and NME, do you feel like the pressure is on to deliver?

Simon: I honestly think that if a band feels pressure when people start telling them they’re good, then again they’re going about things the wrong way. When people start telling you that you’re good, that’s what you’re aiming for! I don’t get why bands buckle under pressure when people start writing about them saying they’re good. We know we are. If we didn’t know we were then we wouldn’t still be here... to have people write nice things about us, it’s not like “Oh Christ, we better live up to what the NME says”, it’s “Oh, the NME agree with what we think.”

Rosanna: You’ve played live quite a lot over in Europe, and apparently out of all the bands in the world you’ve played the most European festivals ever. Do you find the bands over there different to the ones back home?

Jim: Absolutely.

Rosanna: Better?

Michael: Yeah [laughs].

Jim: Continental Europe are very big watchers of what happens in the UK and America, so if they see a band that are from the UK, they’re very excited because that band have made the effort to go over to that country. So therefore they give you their attention, and are very responsive and receptive. If you tell them to clap, they’ll clap. Over here though, it seems people are a bit more spoilt for choice.

Rosanna: And apparently this is your fourth festival this weekend?

Simon: Yeah it is, and we’re doing the same every weekend this summer. The new van that we bought at the start of the festival season has done 20,000 miles.

Jim: We will have done about 32 festivals by the end of the summer, including pretty much all the major ones.

Rosanna: So are you more into the big festival gigs or the smaller venues?

Jim: I think that my personal favourites, although I do like some of the bigger stages, are the medium sized festivals, in other countries... the 15-20,000 size.

Simon: The thing with bigger gigs is that that’s just not where we are right now. Venues like the now-defunct Charlotte, that’s where we are and where we really work best. But we’re working on our bigger festival set.

Jim: Our “stadium set” [laughs].

Rosanna: What would you say is your favourite gig that you’ve played so far?

Michael: For me, it was the second time that we played In The City in Manchester... that was where all the hype came from. There was a thing called “Record of the Day” that went out saying “Baddies played last night and you should go and watch them tonight”...and when we came on it was rammed, with all industry people, and people went nuts. I was so overwhelmed by it... I felt like I was walking on air.

Rosanna: Where would you like to be this time next year?

Jim: I think that we’d like to be doing our second album and be able to still be doing these kinds of festivals... we’ve just got to take it to the next level, with another 15 new songs in the bag, and to be still enjoying it. I’m not really bothered if it doesn’t take off in the biggest way, ‘cause it takes time sometimes – bands don’t get massive until albums down the line. I’m not saying that we’re gonna be massive or anything – as it stands at the moment we’re enjoying doing what we’re doing. To be continually doing what we’re doing now, on a bigger scale, would be great.

Michael: And just to know that we’ve given it our absolute all. We’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices to do this, which is how it should be. And we’re very lucky to have people behind us who believe in us and do so much for free. If we do it, if we pull this off, then it will be such a massive achievement – I don’t think people realise how much we’re coming from nothing... there’s no label that’s helped us out, it’s just friends and family.

Jim: And it will be a bit of a revolution in terms of how bands do things now, hopefully an inspiration to unsigned bands.

Rosanna: ‘Cause you’re releasing it on your own label aren’t you?

Jim: Exactly, so therefore other bands can do that.

Michael: We managed to raise enough money to make the album, and because we’ve got great press people, great managers and great agents, it’s all been pushed in the right direction. We’ve had really good reviews... and there are other bands like Futureheads who are now on their own labels, but they’re doing that off previous albums.

Simon: I think there’s a difference with doing your third album on your own label, and doing your first one. It’s still an achievement, don’t get me wrong, but if we can get to a half decent level, it will literally be that everything we’ve done is off our own backs.

Rosanna: Well best of luck for the future guys and thanks for your time.

Thanks very much to Warren from Chuff Media and Jonny, the band's tour manager.

www.myspace.com/baddies

By Rosanna Pound-Woods