We chat to Wille Edwards of Wille and the Bandits ahead of their Bodega show

Wille and the Bandits are noteworthy in the range of instruments that they play, not least Wille’s lap steel guitar which adds an ethereal atmosphere to some of their songs, and is reflective of their rural Cornish roots. They come well recommended as they have played alongside some of Rock Music’s greatest including Deep Purple and Joe Bonamassa, the latter praising Wille’s expertise on the slide guitar. They were also listed in the top-ten must-see bands at Glastonbury by BBC Radio One.

How did you come about your name?

I mean, Cornwall has been known for centuries, for bandits and pirates, so basically back in Victorian times, and before that, royal carts wouldn’t go much further than Exeter, because as soon as they got into the moors, the carts would be robbed by bandits, and the name plays into that really. Not that I’m at all into robbing people, it’s just a bit of the history down this neck of the woods I suppose.

Tell us about the band’s lineup which seems to be very fluid, apart from yourself of course...

There’s a lot of pressure with tours that mean worldwide travel, where we’re away for big chunks of the year, like in India, The States and sometimes Australia, and it can be difficult for some guys due to family relationships at home to commit to being away for extended periods, it can be a very brutal thing that can make or break you. The current lineup is probably as strong as it’s ever been with Stevie Watts on Hammond keyboards, who is phenomenal and UK blues musician of the year; Harry Mackail is still here on bass and we’ve got a guy called Zac O’Loughlin on drums. He’s just another level drummer, so we’re in a very good place musically which is really positive going forward.

Can you tell us about the upcoming tour?

We’re on the road in March, we’re really excited to be on the road again, and we’ll be playing new songs from our upcoming album which should be out later this year or early next year. We’re super excited to be
taking the show to all the venues in the UK, it’s probably our most dynamic show so far featuring music from gentle acoustic riffs for a couple of songs in the gig as well as the usual rocking bluesy numbers.

What are your favourite venues? 

(Ha ha ha!) I mean I really love the little local venues like The Bodega, Greystones (Sheffield) and The Flowerpot (Derby) that have a real friendly vibe to them are run by people who really love live music and not big faceless corporations like your O2s...

How are you feeling about your upcoming gig at The Bodega in Nottingham and could you tell us about some of your experiences and memories of playing there and other venues in the city? 

I always enjoy Nottingham and feel it’s a proper music city. I’ve been fortunate enough to play Rock City, Rescue Rooms and The Bodega; all have been fantastic shows! The audience are always up for it and we wanted that close personal vibe so have gone with The Bodega as its always a great energy in the room with audience up so close.

Your lap steel guitar gives a really ethereal sound to some of your music that seems to be really reminiscent of the rural Cornish landscape...

Yeah, I think that there’s a real connection between with like slide guitar and wide open space, if you think of the Southern states of America, you associate a lot with the slide, it’s because of open space and rural living...it creates that ethereal sort of thing, it’s like a subconscious thing. I remember an American musician coming down here and saying "Man it’s like the deep south down here!" it’s got that vibe to it where there’s no big cities and people jam in barns and I think that gets channelled into your music.

There's one video where you're doing the old Peter Green Fleetwood Mac number Black Magic Woman and the slide guitar definitely added that spookiness to the whole thing.

We really love covering Peter Green, he’s a great artist, and yeah it’s definitely got that kind of vibe, and it has a lot of percussion on it, and really has a lot of that jamming around the fire kinda vibe about it.

Are there any other influences in your music?

Oh yeah, heaps. Peter Green was a big influence, Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, I like the slide playing David Gilmour does, it was a huge influence on me, and then Mark Knopfler’s also been a huge influence, he plays with his fingers in a similar style to myself. I love John Martin as well, and a big influence at the moment is Chris Stapleton, also Rival Sons, and you know I’m lucky enough to be on the road with Beth Hart, doing shows with her at the moment. She’s mind-blowingly good. I’ve always been a huge fan of her. I’m also into Marcus King at present, Marcus King is fantastic. There’s really some great music about.

What was the first gig you ever went to?

You know all the time I’ve been doing interviews no one has ever asked me that! It’s crazy isn’t it. It was actually Reef. They were down this way, it was actually Somerset, I remember going to watch those guys, they pretty much blew my mind, they just had this great vibe about them. I remember going crowd surfing, two or three times!

Are we right in saying that you’ve played Glastonbury?

Yeah we did! A few years ago now we were listed as one of the must-see bands at Glastonbury. We has a great time but we unfortunately we clashed with Stevie Wonder, so we were headlining our stage, OK, which was great, but unfortunately we were missing possibly one of the biggest geniuses ever to play music, and every time I stopped playing with a break in the songs, you could hear him in the background - it was a great experience that I’ll always treasure, but I was slightly dratted that I’d missed seeing Stevie
Wonder.

And you've had plays on the radio... 

Yes, we were A-listed on Planet Rock on our last album or the album before and we’ve got a new album coming out end of this year start of next year; we’re hoping that’ll get airplay on Planet Rock. Radio Caroline have played us a lot as well, I think that it’s a great radio station, I’d love it if it got bigger - it’s got the right ethos. John Peel and Johnny Walker were great DJs and Johnny played us a few times on his rock programme. Radio plays have been really useful to ourselves down here Being so far away from the industry, it’s taken a lot longer to get noticed and getting the exposure on the radio so people take notice so it’s really nice in that regard.

Wille and The Bandits perform at the Bodega on 8th March.