Have you played with Kagoule or heard of them before?
We played with them during The Great Escape in Brighton at the Hate Hate Hate Records showcase. HHH are putting out our first single at the end of August. The idea of sorting some shows together was forged after we’d watched each other there.
You’re new to many people in Notts, tell us a bit about your music and what we can expect from a Bad Breeding show?
We all work full-time, so Bad Breeding has been the product of an intense and concentrated climate, given that we only have a few hours each evening to put things together. You’ll get something that's honest and vulnerable in equal share: we get twenty-odd minutes to convey our art, so we put everything on the line.
You keep a low-key internet presence. Is this because you can’t be bothered with it or are you trying to keep an air of mystery?
The internet is a wonderful communicative tool, but its capabilities are so often squandered and put to waste by our millennial generation. You can see that in most of the viral litter and meretricious trends that develop online, which only go to showcase the kind of cultural zero we’ve reached as a society. We’d prefer to use the internet to broadcast what we believe in and the best way of doing that is through our music and choice of related art – whether that be videos, photography or literature. It requires a website and a platform for broadcasting, not a network to tell people about how many Harmony Korine films you’ve watched.
Have you played in Nottingham before or is this your first time visiting the city?
As a band it will be the first time. We’ve only been together for around ten months, but I think each of us has visited the city at some point in the past.
Are you aware of any of the music coming out of Nottingham at the moment?
We’re aware of Sleaford Mods. You also had London Grammar at one point, right? Obviously Kagoule, too.
Burn This Flag has been played by Zane Lowe on Radio One. How weird is it knowing that millions of people have now heard one of your tracks? Do you even care?
Not really. The most important thing is that people who enjoy the music take something away from dedicating two minutes of their time to us. It’s not about names and labels, but more about what we can give and do for people who take an interest.
You’re all from Stevenage. What’s it like being a new band there? Is there much of a scene and opportunities to play?
The town has a lot of bad press, and rightly so in most cases, but it’s often forgotten that most people who live here are making the most of the lot they have been handed. Being the first new town built after the Second World War – a place which time now seems to have forgotten – it’s difficult to carve out opportunities to play as there isn’t much of a live circuit… more wedding covers bands on a Thursday night.
When was the first time you noticed people taking an interest in your band?
We released a song called Age of Nothing a few months back as our opening gambit, so I’d say since then.
Where do you want to take your music and the band?
We started Bad Breeding because of a lack of creative opportunities where we live. We’re all born inside a rather tatty commuter belt where you’re the product of either an aspiring middle class, or a working class who are usually left floating in the margins. As a result, we find ourselves on the end of extortionate train prices because of privatised networks. This hampers young people from developing a prospective career in London, while opportunities for progression in Stevenage have been limited ever since the recession took hold. Add to that the impact of cuts to arts funding; finding room to be creative or productive is increasingly problematic. In light of all that, we just want to get out and play to people.
What do you get up to when not in the band?
We earn a meagre living in construction and labouring.
Why should we check out Bad Breeding?
You’ll get something human, something of significant weight.
Bad Breeding and Kagoule, Saturday 8 August, The Chameleon Arts Café, Angel Row, £4, 7pm.
Bad Breeding on SoundCloud
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