5 Minutes with Boy Bleach

Five minutes with Boy Bleach

We had a 5 minute chat with east end boy band Boy Bleach ahead of their two day sold out takeover of Camden Assembly.

First off, congratulations on playing Reading & Leeds festivals over the summer at the BBC introducing stage and touring with Only The Poets! What was the highlight of your summer on tour?

“Thank you! Reading and Leeds was a big deal for us - it’s one of those festivals you grow up aspiring to play in the UK for sure. We couldn’t really afford to go until recent years so it was always a bit of a pipe dream to get there one day. As a band it’s definitely one to aim for, being on the bill was a full circle moment for us after going there to watch some of our favourite artists a couple years before, then seeing us on the poster alongside them was definitely a moment we won’t forget. And as for the highlight of the summer, just playing shows every night, the OTP tour was non-stop and we loved that. Fresh off the YUNGBLUD tour as well so we felt so ready to just get stuck in, nothing like the energy of a live rock show.”

Whilst on tour, did you have any songs or albums on repeat to keep you going?

“We’ve curated some intense playlists for tour depending on the mood. We have a ‘GET HYPED’ playlist we made for pre show that just puts us all in a proper mood for the night, with the likes of Limp Bizkit, Evanescence, Rage Against The Machine, Muse, Pistols, Frank Carter etc. but when we’re travelling for this tour it depends who has the speaker! It’s a bit of a blend of things, usually Bon Iver, The 1975, Oasis, Gorillaz, Massive Attack, Depeche Mode, Kendrick, Griselda, Elbow the list goes on. A couple recent albums we’ve relied on more so have been Modus Vivendi by 070 Shake, Wolf Alice’s Visions Of A Life, Clairo’s Immunity and Sling are amazing. Collapsed in Sunbeams by Arlo Parks. The Bends by Radiohead is always a go to. Anything by The Japanese House is great for a long reflective drive. There are so many! When we’re not listening to unfinished Boy Bleach demos to be honest as conceited as that sounds.”

A few days ago you released your latest single, Toxic. Tell us a bit about the track.

“We can’t take too much credit for this one innit, we just love Britney man. She’s on the mount Rushmore of pop. We always wanted to celebrate and pay homage to her and her art, then on tour it went wild so we had to get it down in the studio. She has so many incredible songs but we always saw so much punky potential in Toxic and jumped at the chance to spin it in Boy Bleach’s style.”

Including Toxic, you’ve released 3 singles and an EP so far this year. Where do you get your inspiration from when song writing?

“We just write about what we know. We’ve always tried to be quite personal with our music, and this EP we’ve centred it around who we are and what kind of shit we deal with in that sense, rather than what we were trying to not be as per the previous EP, “or are you normal?”. We wanted to give people a new prism to perceive Boy Bleach through that was more foundational to our backgrounds and fundamentally us. This EP is really homegrown if that makes sense, the concepts transcend the locality of it but it maintains its space in our environment, feels like we’re letting people in our front door with this one.”

You’re headlining Camden Assembly for two sold out nights in a row next week. What can we expect to see from the shows?

“Sweaty chaos. So much chaos. Our shows, our fans, the music all explodes out the gate so you can expect the best Boy Bleach show to date for sure. We’ve got a few surprises for these shows, we wanted them to feel like an exclusive look into the next era of the band so we’re pushing the boat out to make sure it’s a spectacle. We want all of our shows to be a proper experience and we’re making this two day “residency” a step above anything we’ve done before.”

Check out Boy Bleach’s latest music video for their single ‘Dance No More’. Although their next two shows are now sold out, make sure you connect with them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for updates on upcoming shows and releases.