Bondax on refusing to be confined to one genre and taking musical risks

UK young guns BONDAX hit the road while still teenagers. But despite success so young, the duo still remain grounded and tight knit.

It’s nice to hear that the things they miss the most when on the road are their family and friends, but it’s always refreshing to interview an artist and have them admit that thinking about who they most admire is still something they could muse over for hours. It proves that a certain level of TLC and intricacy goes into all of their music as though each and every track is a newborn in need of nurturing.

Purple Sneakers had a chat to Adam Kaye and George Townsend in the midst of their US tour, ahead of landing on Australian shores later this month.

Plug into the latest music with our FREE weekly newsletter

You’ve been put in a category pretty smooth array of artists such as Moby, Gorillaz and LCD Soundsystem, but who is it that you fangirl over?

Adam Kaye: I mean those were the big ones.

George Townsend: Yeah you mentioned some of the people I suppose. Um I think it also varies from track to track. There’s not on person that we consistently refer to. I mean there are some people that I suppose have a bigger effect on our music. I mean it’s a really difficult question! In terms of the effect soul has on our music, the obvious people, like RnB artists like D’Angelo and Soulux, even as obvious as Marvin Gaye really have had an effect on what we did initially I suppose now we’re looking a bit further in to leftfield stuff. Who would you say is the biggest influence on our latest track? I could go on about this; it’s quite a difficult question!

AK: Yeah I mean, we’re also into bands and stuff when we grew up we were really into Radiohead and shit like that so that still has a big part of our musical influence, which is why we might have a track that’s instrumental, sounds quite RnB, but then we might have an indie vocal on it. We’re not very honed in by one thing.

GT: I mean recently I’ve been listening to a lot of other things which I suppose have no relation to our music what so ever, but some of the ideas help you progress in the way that you think you about the tracks musically and the structure. I mean we’re all over the shop. There’s a broad spectrum of taste that goes into our music, but I don’t think that’s something that has been fully realised yet, even by ourselves, because we’re quite early on in our careers.

So with all of that in mind, what’s your all time favourite track?

GT: Holy shit, I suppose that would be a very big big thing to say, probably ‘How Does It Feel’ by D’Angelo I guess.

What’s been the biggest risk you’ve taken musically?

GT: That’s a good question, I don’t really know. I guess we try and put a lot of, like, acoustic, and real instruments into our music recently, I mean its not really a risk but to try and do it with electronic is what we’ve been fucking round with for the past year or so, but it’s hard to say, what do you think the biggest risk is?

AK: I think actually really it’s been making the poppier records we’ve put out, because in terms of risk its put us in a position where we maybe can’t express ourselves in the same way that we have always imagined ourselves doing, so I suppose it was a risk going for bigger tracks earlier on in our career because its going to be hard for people to understand we can make deeper music. But then again putting out an album with some songs, some instrumentals and some chill tracks is probably going to be the next risk that we’re going to take.

Are you guys excited to be heading to Australia for the tour?

AK: Yeah we’re looking forward to coming back to Australia, it will be really fun to DJ this time, not just do the live show.

Do you have any expectations from Australian crowds?

GT: Um I don’t know really, I mean last time everyone was just tremendously pissed because it was Listen Out festival, I just hope they party on a good level, not too hard (laughs).

Do you have any weird pre-show rituals? Anything you are superstitious about?

GT: Ummmm I’d like to say yes, but actually we don’t really. We sort of ah give each other a kiss, wave goodbye to our family and friends, and then sort of enter the stage.

AK: I wish we had like a cat, or some sort of animal, that we took round, that we kind of bowed down to before went on stage, but sadly that’s just the dream for now.

GT: We’re usually knackered so we’re sleeping til like an hour before, then go to the venue really excited.

AK: Yeah sleeping is probably the ritual.

What’s the best and worst parts about being on tour?

GT: I suppose the best part of being on tour is that we’re at that age where this is just getting to be sort of playing to people all the time, and enjoying this sort of environment right now anyway, so be to be able to do that, and get to travel the world while doing it, is absolutely incredible. And also meeting loads of people, it must be said that’s an amazing thing. Especially because its inspiring for music to be able to see these places and people that help bring a different sort of understating to our music and why we’re doing it. People can bring a different understanding to the music that you would never have thought of initially which is quite eye opening.

Then the worst side for us at the moment is that we started we getting into a routine of 9-5. Ok its more like 12-9, but we just started getting into a daily routine, and so we have to cut that off and to not be able to make music that easily while touring around can be quite frustrating. And then obviously not seeing family and friends is kind of annoying as well because we have been touring since we were 17 almost non-stop. Our family and friends have gotten used to it but its kind of annoying because we’re the sorts of people that want to be there with them as much as we can.

How do you define your music, do you have a genre you file it under?

AK: I mean we never really know how to answer this, we just say soulful, electronic music. It kind of covers all the answers. But yeah we try not to stay all in one genre, I think most musicians find it hard to try and answer that question.

GT: I think our DJ set at the moment, is the funk summery type of stuff, with a few cuts that are not quite just made to jump up and down to, and more the sort of music that we listen to and want to portray. And then like some new hip hop and stuff.

You guys are obviously touring round north America at the moment, and then Australia, and you’ve been doing a lot of festivals so what’s coming up next?

GT: Um I mean, we have a week left in the states, then two weeks in Aus and then a week in Asia, and then we’re back home for a while in the studio until summer again and then we’re doing a few festivals in the summer and then our album should be coming out towards the end of the year.

What’s your favourite festival?

AK: I mean probably the one we just played in Mexico, called Bahidora Festival, it’s basically a paradise experience. There’s a lagoon around the whole place and you can just go swimming, it was amazing.

You have a variety of feature artists in your tracks, especially with Bondax and Friends, is there anyone in particular, living or dead, that you would love to make a track with one day?

GT: Errrrr James Brown.

Catch Bondax on their Australian tour:

Friday 11^th March

Royal Croquet Club

Adelaide, SA

Saturday 12^th March

Oh Hello!

Fortitude Valley QLD

Sunday 13^th March

Sets On The Beach

Perth, WA

Friday 18^th March