Bazique 2025 is ready to ignite every one of your senses from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th March, at the beautiful Buffalo Drift near Gouda – around an hour and a half’s drive from everyone’s favourite city, Cape Town.
Bazique is more than just a festival; it’s a three-day art and music utopia lovingly built by 11 legendary party collectives, hundreds of artists, and a community of free spirits who believe in pure creative expression. Think epic large-scale art installations, immersive performances, riverside swims, golden sand beaches, and sunrise-to-sunset magic – all set to a soundtrack of the most hypnotic beats from across the globe.
Speaking of beats, this year’s carefully curated lineup is stacked. Expect the likes of Superpitcher, Oliver Koletzki, Omri, Frida Darko, Mimi Love, Freudenthal, Kususa, and FKA Mash hitting the decks. In total, we’ll have seven international and 110 local DJs tearing up five mind-blowing stages.
And when you’re not groovin’? Pop-up parties, workshops, and interactive experiences will keep you entertained and the adventure rolling.
Want to learn a bit more about Bazique? We caught up with their marketing team to hear more about Bazique’s vibe.
What makes Bazique so special?
Bazique is an unusual hybrid of a Burning Man-style event and a commercial festival. It has many participant-generated art installations and interactive experiences, as well as six stages featuring a wide variety of electronic music.
The festival is presented by a unique, once-a-year collaboration of ten of Cape Town’s best party promoters and spearheaded by one of the originators of the legendary Glade Festival UK, which won Best Dance Music Festival 2008 at the UK Festival Awards.
How has Bazique changed or grown over the years?
Bazique has quadrupled in size since its beginning. The scale and ambition of the site art have increased, but what’s most fun for us is that the Bazique production family has blossomed. We’re a great group of people with a common goal of creating the best art and music festival in South Africa.
How does Bazique support local artists and creatives?
A huge part of Bazique’s raisin d’etre is being a benefactor to Cape Town’s arts scene. That’s whether it involves finding up-and-coming local music producers, developing installations, or creating bursaries with the Cape Town University’s Art Dept and Theatre Dept to create a platform for new talent to emerge.
Also for the first time this year, the esteemed Bridges for Music Academy based in Langa township has got its own stage, shining a spotlight on the music and art bubbling up off the streets of South Africa.
Do you get many international visitors?
Yes! Last year, we had over 400 international party people from 32 countries.
Convinced yet? Gates swing open Friday 7th, at 11 AM, with the music kicking off at 3 PM and continuing till Sunday 9th, at 5 PM. There’s no Sunday camping unless you’re living the glamping life – so plan accordingly. We hope to see you there!
The Coral frontman James Skelly took time out before their Saturday evening slot at Wychwood Festival to speak with Summer Festival Guide about plans for the future, or lack of, and the different challenge of selecting songs from their extensive back catalogue for a festival slot.
How do you go about putting together your festival set from over 20 years of material?
Well we had a full set for the mini tour we did in the Spring which was about an hour and twenty or whatever, so we then pretty much just knock out the ones that are hardest to play and whatever’s left becomes your festival set!
Or you know, the ones that might not translate without a soundcheck. Sometimes more acoustic ones but you’ll have toms in that you might not hear as well in a festival – so you go for the main songs and then the ones that come across in a live setting if you’re in the trenches in a way.
It’s 22 years since the self titled LP The Coral came out and since then there’s been more of a concept approach to the records. Is that a trajectory for going forward you think?
No – I think the concept is not to do anything for a little bit. But we’ve always had a loose concept to all the albums just a bit more obvious with it on these latest ones.
But not really looking, got no plans for a new album or anything. Just looking to play live and enjoy it for a bit – you don’t want to put stuff out for the sake of it.
We’ve done a lot over the last few years and I don’t think anyone’s going to be that interested if we do one now.
(with a smile) Readdress in 2030 and see where we are then, see where the landscape lies by then.
Do you feel like you’re bringing along old fans with the new music or have they struggled to warm to it?
No, no. Our fans seem to love the new stuff. We turn up we play all the sort of the quote “Hits” or whatever you want to call them, we play quite a few off the first album. We play a good selection because if you like a band like us and you’ve followed us you want a selection over the years so, it’s a fine line. You don’t wanna be a nostalgia band. With playing a festival there are people there who might never have seen you, so you want to play your best stuff over the years really.
The world’s leading Beatles tribute act took time out before their set at Wychwood Festival to talk to Summer Festival Guide
My name’s Steve White, I play Paul. My name’s Paul Canning and I play John and I’m Steven Hill and I play George. And we are The Bootleg Beatles!
The Bootleg Beatles well established tribute act and have been touring across the world for years, but how does it differ playing a festival rather than in an auditorium?
SW: From a festival point of view it’s always a scaled down show because we’ve a much more limited slot. So we kind of gloss over as best we can, it’s probably an early era set and then a late set and that’ll be it. Obviously the costume change mid way through – whereas when we’re in a theatre you get several costumes and lots more guitars and so on and so forth. So it’s definitely a scaled down version.
SH: You think it’d be easier wouldn’t you because it’s only an early and a late era show, but you’ve still got to be good! It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing if you’re not playing and singing well it’s bad!
SW: And of course at a festival people are here to see everyone, they’re not just here to see you. So you haved to sell yourselves to everyone, whereas in an auditorium when they’ve come to see your show you’ve almost won before you’ve gone on you have that to think about with a festival.
PC: You do the hits more aswell when you do festivals. In a theatre show you can afford to put some album ones in and the lesser known ones, well they’re all well known – y’know. But the ones we do at the festival are generally more the hits, the singles and the odd not single but still massive song – they’re all good…it’s a good catalogue to choose from…
How do you whittle down that kind of set when you’ve got such a breadth of material to work with?
All: It’s hard!
SH: You kind of know after doing it for so long. You’ve got the hits, the singles and you could do that and people would be happy. But you’ve only got 45 minutes or an hour at some of these festivals so you can whittle it down. As long as you’ve got those main ones, whether it’s Help, Hard Day’s Night, She Loves You – you’ve got to put those kind of songs in and Hey Jude at the end and you’re happy to do that.
It’s easier than it sounds really. And it all depends on your voices on the day as well. If you’re touring for weeks, months on end and your voice is gone you’ve got to try and work around that and sing one that’s a bit easier but still a hit.
Are there any particular highlights from a personal perspective that you really look forward to playing?
PC: I like doing Come Together, that’s a good one to do as John. And I really like doing Here Comes the Sun especially when the sun comes out which ain’t often – but when it does it’s great.
SH: Well I love Help so I’m biased. I love playing Help, it’s my favourite song I think. Not just of the Beatles you know, of anything.
SW: I don’t think I have a favourite. I like them all too much to be able to choose.
PC: He likes doing Yesterday because he’s on his own!
SW: Ah, yes I do!
PC: He’s good at it actually. Gets to play with the crowd a bit and muck about, it’s really good.
Would you say with a festival crowd you’ve got a bit more of that back and forth to play around with?
SW: Oh gosh, absolutely yeah. I mean, obviously when you’re doing an autditorium it’s almost scripted you’ve got to show particular periods that you’re trying to perform. So you have to get a certain amount of information over to the crowd, so there’s key bits of dialogue that you have to say.
When you’re in a festival you have to make other people enjoy themselves and of course building them up for the next act to follow you know? That’s key, keeping the crowd up ready for the next band to take over. Nothing worse than killing an audience and the next bands got to work them up from flat so that’s what we try to do.
PC: Not actually killing them. We don’t kill the audience Steve.
SW: Well I do!
If you were to sell seeing The Bootleg Beatles to people maybe thinking about seeing another band on at the same time, what is it you’d say to bring them to you?
PC: Well you can’t be big headed and you can’t sell yourself short can you!
SH: We pride ourselves on giving 100% at all times and you’ve got to go with the reputation haven’t you?
SW: I tell you what I’d say, if you want to come and see a band where you know all the songs, come and see the Bootleg Beatles.
SH: Yeah you’re not going to be sitting there going “Whats this one? I don’t know this one!” you know? You’re gonna have a good time no matter what – but we do it well.
PC: We’re the world’s premiere Beatles tribute band and there’s a reason for it. Because they’re all great songs but you’ve got to play them well and you’ve got to care about it and the devil is in the detail and we put a lot of work into it.
SH: You’re right you know, you’re gonna have a good time no matter what.
PC: It’s been going since 1980 and people keep coming back to see it because it’s good and the standards high. So come and see it, I would. I do. I’m in it! Bye!
The legendary Mr Motivator (real name Derrick Evans) joined Summer Festival Guide after leading a high energy morning workout session for the Wychwood Festival crowd to talk about the power of movement and his top tips for beating the blues.
This morning you’ve been up on the main stage at Wychwood leading what can only be described as a fun filled, energetic performance this morning and so many people coming out of their tents to join in – how does it make you feel getting up in the morning and bringing that energy into people’s days?
You know what, movement is a wonderful medicine and if you do it in a fun safe way then everybody can participate and my whole drive, and it’s been like that since being on television 30 years ago and I started exercising 40 years ago, I know in my later years how beneficial movement is – but it’s got to be fun! And if it’s not fun I say “don’t do it!” that’s why I’m not into doing press ups, star jumps and burpees – yes I’ll do it – but at the end of the day what really gets people going is music it’s the attitude it’s the laughter it’s the stories.
During Covid you did a lot of motivational stuff on socials and you’ve talked openly here about mental health. Beyond the fitness side of things, how important is that mental health message?
About two weeks ago I spent a whole day in a studio having conversations with all these radio stations from all over the country phoning in to talk about mental health awareness.
I think it’s great that we’ve moved the goalposts, that people can feel a little bit easier to talk about it. Because we call need to talk about it. In particular men, and men don’t wear their heart enough on their sleeve. They think “if we cry that makes us weak” but no, when you cry it makes you strong and so my message is to give people little tips they can put in place if they’re feeling stressed or they can’t go on, if you’re feeling like things are really rough, there are a number of things you can think about.
One is every autumn the tress out there lose their leaves, but the tree still stands up tall. Why? Because it knows in the Spring it’s going to flower again. So whatever we’re going through that we think is really bad, it’s only a bad moment it’s not a bad life. And if we’re patient and we talk about our problems and we really deal with it in terms of taking time out or getting away from it we’re going to get the benefits of getting stronger mentally and that is the important way we’re going to deal with life going forward. To get emotionally, physically, mentally strong.
And what are the things for you that if you’re having one of those down days that help you personally?
One of the best things is movement, for me. The moment I move my body – in fact the thing I did when I did all those interviews we talked about “moving the mood”. And it does! It doesn’t mean you have to do what I do, you can be just going for a walk or a swim, riding a bike or whatever it is, that helps you release those happy hormones and make you feel better.
One thing that works for me is the old photo albums. Because if you take an old photo album it’s only ever got good times in there. We don’t put picture which are terrible. And those memories allow you to escape sometimes from the reality of life and when you come back you come back feeling so much better for it. But if you incorporate movement it actually makes you feel good not just for when you’re doing it, but for hours and days afterwards.
Corrine Bailey Rae sat down with Summer Festival Guide after coming off stage at Wychwood Festival 2024.
You’ve just come off stage, how do you feel the reception from the crowd was?
It was great! You know it’s so good to be playing old songs, but also new songs aswell. I really want to share what I’m doing I don’t want to be just a “heritage act” when you’re sort of playing cover versions of your old music – and I would never want to be that.
So I always like it when you can try out new things so you can see what people are into or in a festival you can just see if it’s reacting – are more people at the end or less, and I always love it when you can just see the crowds getting thicker and thicker and denser as the set goes on so I feel like we’re doing the right thing.
Your latest album, Black Rainbows, marks a bit of a departure from what people maybe expected from you in terms of the inspirations, the sound of it – people in the crowd reacting saying they didn’t expect this from her.
How does it make you feel when you’ve perhaps been pigeon holed as a certain type of performer and then coming out with something that’s completely different and drawn from inspiration?
I felt with Black Rainbows it was always going to be a side project you know? I thought I want to feel free and I don’t want to feel boxed in by peoples expectations of me- and then I thought as the time went on how crazy that was that I was internalising these limits for myself and I thought “No”. I will just say that this is my record, I’ve been working on it for seven years or something so really glad to just do more guitar music – that’s where I came from I came from indie, I had this band called Helen and whenever we play jazz festivals we always put in a few spanners in the works or the other way round.
I like to play a festival and do a quiet jazzy ballad or something. I just think it’s important to push out the edges for yourself and make room for yourself I think and not be your own covers band.
Is that a vision you see for the future for the next record? Is it trying to draw on an inspiration and use that as a running theme throughout?
I think that since doing this record I feel really free. My last record before this I felt really pressured to make a certain kind of song.
We really wanted to have a radio song and everyone in my team and at the label said “just do whatever you want for the rest of the record but we need three radio hits” and it was always so hard. By the end I didn’t even have to ask them what they thought.
If I was just starting the song and I thought to myself “this is too slow” or “this isn’t universal enough” or “this isn’t catchy enough” and I felt like I was policing all my own ideas and so many songs were just falling through my fingers and I really didn’t want to do that with Black Rainbows I wanted to have no pressure and just make something creative.
I feel like now that I’ve done that I will always do that because it’s so satisfying not worrying what people think you know? I really think there will always be an audience of enough of a size for me to travel round the world like I get to do and I’ll always have my old songs which already connect with people but I really always want to make sure it’s exciting and real for me and challenging, inspiring.
And how about the rest of the summer and 2024?
Summer 2024 is SO busy and I keep saying to people “what month is it?” because I’ve been planning these last few months for so long!
But we’re playing at Glastonbury, playing We Out Here festival, Latitude – we’re playing a bunch of festivals in the US, we’re going to China. I’m going to Brazil and Mexico in November! I’m doing a lot this summer, doing a lot of festivals so just getting acquainted with the grass and whether it will or not rain and bumping into other artists backstage that you didn’t expect to see and that’s always really good fun. I love festivals for that, they’re a proper testing ground.
Sunday 3rd November was a day that I had waited to experience for a long time. I was going to see a music act that I had been excited to see perform live since I was around 10 years old! That act is nineties and noughties boy band A1.
The band originally formed as a quartet in the late nineties. Consisting of band members Mark, Ben, Christian and Paul, they had seen huge success around the world after releasing well known singles Everytime, Summertime, Like A Rose, Same Old Brand New You, Caught In The Middle and the huge hit Take On Me – a cover single of the well known classic by Aha! A1‘s version of the track actually went straight to number one in the UK music charts while Aha only reached a number two position! In that time the band had also released three albums. Sadly, around five years into their expanding career and shortly after the release of their third album ‘Make It Good’, band member Paul Marazzi had announced his departure from A1 due to personal reasons. The fan base were left feeling concerned for the future of the band since the news broke.
Thankfully, remaining band members Ben, Christian and Mark had come to a decision to keep the act going under their original band name as trio. Since then they have seen a huge increase in fans over in Norway and Asia. They have also since released a few more albums and worked on their own solo material too.
Just a short time ago, in mid 2018, former singer Paul decided to reach out to band member Christian during A1’s brief period of appearances in the UK at the time and had asked arrange to meet the guys to catch up, in which they all did. Thankfully for both original and new fans, the band decided to reunite as the original line up and hit the road once again. So A1 The Reunion Tour was announced including shows in three UK locations. The guys had purposely chosen to play at smaller venues with just a few select dates as they weren’t sure just how well the Reunion shows would be recieved in the UK as they hadn’t fully persued their careers there for a number of years. Oddly enough, due to popular demand a fourth show was added to their UK dates, which to the band’s surprise, later meant that all of their UK shows had completely sold out in just four minutes!
It’s very clear that the guys of A1 and their management team were keen to really make the reunion work, they seem happy and enthusiastic about the future of the band. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to meet and interview them before they went on stage at their second London show, the Islington 02 Academy. Honestly, all four band members seemed very comfortable with each other and quite at ease and excited about all of the reunion shows in general. It appeared like Paul had never even departed at all. Upon first meeting the band, our photographer and I were greeted by management and taken to the VIP lounge where the meet and greets were taking place before the show. And there they were, all four original members of a band that I had admired for years just standing by the bar smiling for photos.
It wasn’t long until the two of us were introduced to the band and then taken downstairs to their two small dressing rooms to conduct a full interview. Now, I have only done a handful of interviews before as I’m usually too nervous to bring myself to actually do them, let alone perform in a professional manner. And in all honesty this is the one I was most anxious about doing. However, I’ve never been made to feel so welcome, calm and relaxed at a show that I have attended and reviewed. Ever! I have never met a nicer group of people! Christian provided us with traditional Norwegian spiced Christmas biscuits and bottles of water, I had discussed parenting and the wonder of baby wipes with Paul, Mark made sure we were comfortable by moving things around to make room for us to sit down on the leather sofa within the dressing room and Ben was talking to us as casually as you would speak to your best friend while doing his hair for the upcoming show. Fortunately, I was able to record the chat I had with the band as I asked them a variety of questions about their reunion, performing again as four members on stage and the potential of new music and future tours. I have used our photographer’s photos to create a video showcasing the live show and the interview that took place. Very kindly, both management and all members of A1 were happy to allow me to publish the audio recording for all of you to hear. The audio clip video and images will be linked in with this review, but here are a segments that I have picked out to share with you!
I expressed how excited that fans (including myself) were to see the original line up back together and once again performing live too. So of course I had to ask them how they felt about the big reunion.
Q: So how are you feeling about it being back as four? Ben: “It feels great! It’s a bit like riding a bike, it was a bit strange at first, Christian, myself and Mark had continued on for ages and ages and it had been about fifteen years since you joined (looking at Paul), initially it was a bit like oh, ok it feels a bit familiar and a bit weird, but like no time had passed really.”
Q: How are you feeling about all of your reunion shows? Mark: “Really good!”
Ben: “Really Great! The fans have been frickin brilliant because we’ve been tryingto work out what to do with the set, it’s funny, we’ve had big songs that were different in different countries so one song has been number 1 in the Phillappenes and over here (UK), they’ve never heard of it. So we just thought lets do everything! Everybody knows the words to pretty much every single song and that’s the beauty of Spotify and things like that now.”
Paul: “We knew it was going to be big as it sold out so quick.”
So now over twenty years on since the beginning of A1, of course I was curious to know how being in the band differs now compared to back in the day. Christian: “One of the biggest differences is that before, we would literally wake up to a sheet coming in under the door of our hotel rooms saying what we are going to do that day, starting at like 6am! Then we’d have dinner while doing other interviews getting ready for another gig and then fly to the next country. Now we are much more in control of our day. Generally we now have more control over our lives and what we say. We also have a better attitude this time around as there was a lot of pressure and money invested in us, so there was a lot expected from us.”
Ben: “Now, no one expects anything”
Christian: “Everything is just a bonus now and we are having a lot more fun. We are better songwriters now and better musicians than we were twenty years ago.” Just like any other A1 fan, I of course have my favourite tracks. I expressed to the band that I remember spending a lot of time in my bedroom during my early teen years playing ‘Caught In The Middle’ on my acoustic guitar, but there is one song of theirs in particular that will always have a special place in my heart, their ballad ‘Like A Rose’. So I was intruigued to see if the band members themselves had any preferences of their own.
Christian: “To me, it’s always ‘Everytime’. It was one of the first songs that broke us internationally, I remember so clearly when we wrote it and the thoughts that we had. I remember this dream I had in my head thinking wouldn’t it be so awesome if one day this melody and these lyrics that started in our little heads, if someone on the other side of the planet knew them, and that’s what happened! We had the biggest dream come true moment!”
Q: What else have we got to expect from A1? Ben: “The Boys Are Back tour next year, a new album, then booking in more and more concerts and we love doing the full hour and a half concerts with all the songs that fans want to hear. They don’t just wanna hear the hits, they wanna hear all the album tracks, all the B sides and everything like that.”
Christian: “It’s quite mind blowing that people still want to hear us all over the world. Over the years A1 has become a bit of a side project for us, but now it’s taken over as the main project for all of us.”
So there you have it, it’s official. There’s still plenty more of A1 to come!
The Reunion Show As the gig was completely sold out, this meant the venue at the London o2 Islington Academy was completely jam packed with excited fans! Both newcomers (including partners that had clearly been dragged along to the event, admit it you know you had a great time!) and original fans from all twenty years ago. Originally, a support act was planned to get the crowds ready for the main event! However due to unforseen circumstances there was a cancellation of their appearance. However many didn’t mind as this meant that A1 were due to come on stage earlier in the evening.
Around 9pm, the lights dimmed, a screen at the back of the stage displayed a variety of graphics and a gentle accapella tone could be heard, Yep! This was it! Time for Ben, Paul, Mark and Christian to open their long awaited reunion show! The band opened their show by performing before even appearing on stage with their beautiful ballad ‘Forever In Love’. As the track faded out they appeared on stage with lots of enthusiasm as they continued on to perform one of their biggest hits ‘Same Old, Brand New You’ with original chorepgraphy while under bright flashing lights, which was quite something to see!
The band went on to perform ‘Be The First To Believe’ and ‘Summertime’ before taking a moment out to talk to the audience and welcome back Paul to the line up. He proved to be very popular with the audience and all were glad to see him return. He was applauded and met with screams and a lot of appreciation. Marazzi then introduced a song of his choice that he was really looking forward to perform back with the rest of the band. And he made a good choice (yes, slight pun there), he chose the title track from their third studio album ‘Make It Good’. All four members interacted with the fans with such ease, continuously checking in with everyone there, asking where fans had travelled from, encouraging interaction through choreography, the works!
Of course we got to hear all of the hits as expected which included ‘No More’, ‘Everytime’ (which was met with a room of swaying lights from torches on mobile phones), ‘Ready Or Not’ and many more, but when the band had told me in their interview before the show that they had tried to fit in everything, they weren’t joking around. I’ve never been to a live show for a band where they have managed to perform as many tracks as A1 did there that evening. One clever way to fit in so many of their songs was to perform a medley, but no ordinary medley. They titled this selection of tracks ‘The Songs We Never Did’ a play on words referring to their track ‘The Things We Never Did’. This medley included ‘Here Comes The Rain’, ‘Tomorrow’, ‘Make It Through The Night’ (which was brought to an abrupt, yet amusing end as singer Ben decided he “didn’t like that one much”), ‘Learn To Fly’, ‘Living The Dream’, When I’m Missing You’ as well as a the more upbeat songs ‘Hey You’ and a snippet of a personal favourite album track of mine ‘Scared’. You see? They really did put in a lot of effort to get everything in, which of course went down very well with the audience there that evening.
For the majority of the medley,the four members were sat on stools, and one band member decided to share what we were all thinking during this segment of their set. Yes, Ben Adams made that very obvious musical link to Irish based band Westlife. In his own words he announced “I can see why Westlife like to do this!”. This simple and amusing statement was met with a huge roar of laughter from the crowds stood before him.
What was great to see was that the band performed the songs that the UK fans know very well and love too, however to show how they have progressed as musicians they also showcased some of their material that was released in other parts of the world which included their singles ‘Don’t Wanna Lose You Again’, ‘In Love And I Hate It’, their latest release – the beautifully written ‘Armour’ and also a brand new track which was exclusive to their UK reunion shows. The new song ‘Can We Go Back’ is very personal to all of the band members as it is a song about looking back on past fond memories. This composition was so exclusive that we were politely asked not to film or record them while performing it.
In an attempt to round off the night’s performance A1 performed one of their biggest hits to date, ‘Caught In The Middle’ before then exiting to the right side of the stage. I say an attempt to bring the evening to a close, as everyone there that evening had realised that there were a couple more very well known A1 hits that hadn’t yet been mentioned. The entire audience were very much in demand of hearing more music as the room was taken over by fans chanting “We want more!” and “three more songs!” As we had anticipated Paul, Mark, Christian and Ben returned to the stage once more to perform an encore segment of their set. This segment included the stunning ‘Like A Rose’ and most likely their biggest hit to date ‘Take On Me’ which brought the show to an actual close.
This show had everything that I had expected it would, great music at a huge variety, fantastic lighting and graphics on stage, amazing audience interaction, nostalgia for many and most importantly four happy, energetic and very talented band members that fans clearly still adore twenty years on! All A1 band members, management and their families should feel incredibly proud of these reunion shows, not just in the UK but all around the world. And I for one am so excited to hear new material from them in the future! Thank you A1 for being “The Same Old, Brand New You”.
Thomas Sanders, took some time out to talk to us ahead of the Teleman show at The Cambridge Junction on the 23rd April. As their support band, Uh, were running through their souncheck, we adjourned to the salubrious surroundings of the car park, to talk about their latest album, musical direction and the difference between touring in Europe and the UK amongst other things.
Kane stole my first question when he was shooting a few pictures, so this is not your first time in Cambridge then?
No we’ve played here, I do not know how many times. We have played quite a few headline shows over the years and with other bands. In fact I remember playing cricket in this car park with The Maccabees. We have played smaller venues in Cambridge too. We have played the Portland Arms at least twice.
Your latest album is entitled Family of Aliens. Does this represent you as a band?
Yeah, to an extent. I don’t want to speak for everyone in the band, but sometimes it is a kind of feeling of being a bit detached about everything that is going on around you, and you kind of feel, where do you fit in all this? It is often hard to relate to the stuff that is happening in the world, like politically. You assume that the majority of people are on the same planet as you, and then you realise that there are people living on a completely different planet. You start to question where you belong, where they belong, where do you all fit in?
The new album seems to have a different sound to the other two.
Yeah it does have a different flavour. Each time we go into the studio, we try and push the boundaries a bit further and be a bit more playful. As a writer I have moved away from the guitar quite a lot. Just because I got a bit bored playing the guitar all the time. I still love it and play it in the shows. We do not want all our songs to be focused around the guitar. In fact a lot of our new songs,on what will be our fourth record don’t really have any guitar in. We may have gone to far.
So more synth based?
Yeah, and just anything really. I have been writing on the piano a lot which I really enjoy. Trying to not let yourself get tied down to traditional habits. The way I have been writing my whole life has always been the same.
It is a conscious decision to move then?
Yeah it is definitely. I like to challenge myself. I kind of come from an indie and Britpop background. That was the music that I loved when I was a kind. Those are about the verse and the chorus, a very formulaic structure. Then the second chorus a double chorus and then you get your middle 8. For years I thought this is how you have to write a song and it got so ingrained that I really struggled to move away from that formulae. I guess it is the same with anything you do, not just music. In any creative process you can get in this groove of habit that can be difficult to break. So I have been enjoying writing to one groove that doesn’t change.
I am not talking about more recent contemporary music that is lute based. Songs like Iggy Pop’s The Passenger, doesn’t change, its just one riff for the whole song and it just gets better and better. You don’t get bored, and it is not until someone points out that you realise there are no chord changes. Some Fleetwood Mac songs are the same. A couple of their songs only have a couple of chords, and they are such great songs, that you don’t even notice.
There is beauty in the simplicity then?
Yeah and it can be so hypnotic about hearing the same thing again and again, and if you are loving it for 4 minutes, why change?
What are your influences, you mentioned Britpop?
Britpop is what I grew up on, but I would never call it an influence or a conscious influence on what I am doing now. I am not really aware of anything that is influencing me. I have been listening to some New Order recently and I really admire the way they interweave guitar into music where you wouldn’t really expect guitar to come in. Like music driven by drum machines and synths, it’s quite a fine art. It often sounds quite awkward when you try and fit in a guitar into music that is focussed around electronic music. So that’s quite a good lesson to be learnt from those guys.
You have just got back from Europe. What were the crowds like there?
Europe is very different. It is a very different experience touring Europe. On some levels it is much more enjoyable. The hospitality is great and you are looked after better. A lot of the time the people in the towns you play in genuinely appreciate that you have come to their town. They are really made up. In the UK we have an over saturated music scene. I do not mean that in a negative way. Any band you want to see, you know that they will playing in a town near you soon. The competition is high, and the standard in venues is often very low. There is no government funding, or very little that I know of.
A lot of smaller venues, are shutting down aren’t they?
Yeah exactly, for various reasons. But when you play in France, or you play in Holland, the government is putting money into venues across the country and they are astounding, like beautiful places too play in and there is definitely a difference. There is something about playing to a UK crowd that is very special though. It’s much more raw and there is a higher level of energy in the room, I have never really found that in Europe.
So what can we expect from one of your shows?
There’s going to be a lot of energy and there will be material from all of our albums. We kind of rework some of our songs to give them a more interesting twist for live. We don’t really like our songs to sound like they do on the record. I am always a bit disappointed when I go and see a band and it sounds like I have just put a CD on. I could just that at home. It is really nice when you get another angle at a live show I think. We try and make sure that everyone has a unique experience whether they know our songs or not and that everyone has a great time.
Indie-rock, dirty pop, lo-fi garage sounds, these days it’s getting harder and harder to characterise a good band – something the guys of Get Inuit find slightly hard to do themselves. Described as dirty pop, I asked Ollie and James, two of the boys in the band, about how they would choose to label their own sound.
‘I guess we would say it’s poppy, dirty pop. People tend to shy away from that term and lean towards indie or rock, but I think our songs are quite catchy and they do quite fit the genre, we describe it as a dirty guitar pop.’
When asked about their influences, the answer was just as mismatched. ‘As a band we have a lot of different influences, which I think is good, it comes through the music and gives us our sound. We’re all fans of the American grunge rock scene, bands like Nirvana and Sonic Youth, but we also differ on a lot of bands as well, bands like the Beach Boys, and also really cheesy bubblegum pop, guilty pleasures like Katy Perry.’ The band adopta similar carefree attitude when it comes to the meaning behind the band name. 'It's kind of a joke, it came to the point where we just wanted something that was going to come up on google. I don't know how we actually settled on it. It's like a play on get into it, but it's actually in an episode of Spaced. It was Jamie's [lead singer] fault really, blame him.'
After being together for about two and a half years now (on their watch) it’s just in the past twelve months that they’ve really perfected that ‘fine-tuned fuzz’ sound they now execute so beautifully in their live shows. Riding the wave alongside bands such as Spring Kings,Vant and The Magic Gang, the band have certainly had a lot of up’s this year, which doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. They’ve just finished a tour with Spring Kings before the start of festival season, and are now tearing up the summer; stage after stage. With an electrifying, energetic show at Leefest, making myself a true convert, a Friday slot at Reading Festival, and an upcoming tour starting October with old friends Spring Kings, the boys have a lot to look forward to.
‘That will be a pretty big one [on the Spring Kings tour] much bigger than the one we just left, we’re playing much bigger venues, we’ve got KoKo in London as well as a couple of academies, so that’s going to be fun to play, plus the guys from Spring Kings are so lovely, so it should be a really good tour, we’re looking forward to it.’
Leefest itself showed the kind of hype the band is getting. Though a tiny festival tucked away in the Garden of England, it’s clear the southeast is Get Inuit’s home turf, the amount of merch floating around and buzz around their set shows the band is definitely headed in the right direction, even though they stay humble and a little surprised when asked about it.
This weekend is a big one for the band, as it sees the pre-release of ‘Teriyaki,’ their electrifying new single. Catchy, but with a rocky, distorted edge, Teriyaki is an intense track. Bursting with energy that’s reminiscent of their live shows, the guitar and drum work compliments each other perfectly, and songwriter/lead singer Jamie delivers on a lyrically mesmerising pop-chorus, that will have you singing ‘I can’t remember who I was before’ way after the song has finished. Listen to it here via Soundcloud before it’s official digital release on September 2nd.
Preorder Teriyaki now, set for release on September 2nd and limited edition 7" on September 30th via Unlabel.
With a list of dates lasting well into October, I fully recommend catching these boys live. With support from DIY, NME and Gigwise to name a few, I’m sure these lovely, joking lads are going to go from strength to strength, so see them before their shows sell out.
Backstage at Leefest, Ella caught up with Corey Fox-Fardell, who fresh after playing a set on the mainstage was ready to discuss his new musical direction, Brit school and what would have happened if he hadn’t have pursued music.
Ella: So you just played a set on the mainstage, how do you think it went?
Corey: yeah great, quite a few people there, yeah loads of people, people moving, it was like a mad rush before I went on, my drummer said he didn’t have a click in his headphones and I didn’t have a lead, so I had to run backstage to get one, then the stage manager was like you have 30 seconds to get on, and I hadn’t even touched my guitar yet, but I think we got through it.
Well, I was there and I really enjoyed it! So you’ve been playing music for quite a long time, what made you want to be a musician?
I’ve always been playing the guitar, since a young age, I was in school bands and that kind of stuff, then I went and studied music for a couple of years at Brit school.
How did you find Brit school?
It was amazing! It was two years, full-on music, every day, which was great. It was just such an amazing experience and I met so many amazing people, musicians that I still, that come and play with me today. It was a crazy couple of years actually.
Was there a time where you wanted to be anything else?
Yeah actually, I was homeschooled for a couple of years when I was about 13, and in those years I did a lot of guitar playing, but also I really got into magic! I used to love, and still do, Derren Brown, David Blaine, all those magicians, so I started to really want to be a magician, then I really got into filmmaking, and wanted to make films, but then I got into Brit school, and that was a big thing, so if I didn’t get into Brit maybe I would have done film, but that was it- you get into Brit, it’s gotta be music.
You said this is one of the biggest stages you’ve played on, have you been doing any other festival touring this summer and do you plan to?
Yeah, I did a tour with Hannah Trigwell, early summer; we did a mini UK tour where I was supporting her, I also did a festival a few weeks back in Kent which also had a Neverland theme, so that was a bit confusing!
Maybe there’s something about Kent and Peter Pan!
Yeah maybe! I’ve actually been doing mainly London shows, playing a lot of venues.
Are you local to London?
No, actually I live on the south coast. – But I spend so much time in London, so I kind of spend half my time in London and half down there.
I guess if you want to be a musician then you’ve got to spend a lot of time in London!
Yeah, well there’s just so many places to gig there, there’s a lot of stuff happening, it’s exciting. But Brighton’s a real ‘hubby’ place as well, for music.
Do you have a favourite place to play?
Corey: Yeah, at least I used to! I think my sounds changed a lot since then. I used to be a lot more acoustic and folky, so I used to play in smaller venues, there was one venue called the troubadour, that was such an intimate, beautiful venue.
Anywhere in Brighton that you played that you really liked?
Well I played the Great Escape this year, at the Fiddlers Elbow, which is a great place, I’ve played the Hope and Ruin as well, I haven’t actually played many venues down in Brighton, just every year at the Great Escape really.
How would you describe your sound now?
I describe it as half electronic and half natural, it’s got elements of soul and hip hop. You know, I'm influenced by so many styles of music, but within using those different elements, I try to put my stamp on each track so it feels like me.
Do you have any strong artist influences?
There’s so many, again, if I had to choose maybe one, I used to love Eminem when I was younger, he was my biggest idol. He got me into the lyrics, I used to rap as well.
Really! Would you ever incorporate rap into your new music?
No, no, I used to, but no.
Why not?
Ah well, you never know, maybe one day. There’s so many other people I’m inspired by, Prince, D’Angelo, Alabama Shakes. I’m loving Jack Garrett at the minute, Kanye West. Such a mix! At the minute actually I’m actually loving older, more funky stuff, George Benson, the brothers Johnson, Stevie Wonder, Al Jerome, I’m loving all that.
I think that comes through, if you listen to a lot of different styles, you’re able to create your own personal take on everything. Have you got any new music coming out?
Yeah, actually I do have some new music coming out, I’ve been in the studio recording, producing, we’re putting out a new single next month, it’s been a couple of years since I released anything. It hasn’t actually got a release date yet, but it will be out end of August.
So everyone’s going to have to stay tuned otherwise they’ll miss it
Yeah exactly, I meant there’s some big changes, new music, new name.
Well we’ll definitely be looking forward to that, have fun and enjoy the rest of Leefest,
Yeah, I’m really excited, and I will, thanks!
Corey Fox-Fardell will be releasing new music at the end of August, stay updated with him and his music via his website http://www.coreyfoxfardell.co.uk/
Ella caught up with Hannah Trigwell backstage at Leefest this year to talk about her growing success, new music, and how an English crowd compares to a German one.
