Bison

Are you looking forward to the Nottingham show?
Yes we are! We had a rubbish practice on Wednesday, but when that happens we usually smash the gig to pieces. I always say “bad practice - good gig”. We first played in Nottingham many years ago at a dingy, smoky club called Blueprint, we organised it through mates of mates all the way back in 2004.That was eleven years ago... wow. We then later played The Maze and The Marcus Garvey Centre. We’ve always been well-received, Notts is such a lively place. We have a load of friends in Nottingham so hopefully they will all come out of the woodwork on Saturday.

On your Facebook page you describe yourself as “genre-busting”, what kind of genres do you like to generally bust?
A lot of bands claim to be genre-busting, so it might be a big fat cliché itself. I suppose we have two types of songs that we all write together [there's nine members in total], occasionally someone already bringing a ‘ready made song’ into practice, or there are the tunes that evolve out of a jam. Ostensibly we are a ska band but we like bits of reggae. It is kind of silly really to describe ourselves as anything other than a ska band... but I would really like to say that we sound quite different from anything else because every song has a different flavour. We’re currently working on a song that's very Queen-esque, operatic, and also got a quirky little folk-swing number in the works too. We try to avoid pigeon-holing. The main thing is sticking to making our gigs lively and getting the crowd dancing, that's what we've always been about. 

You've recently entered your new single Barry’s Bar into the 2 Weeks 2 Make It competition, where did the inspiration come from?
It comes from a very Tom Waits-esque place that was completely intentional. It started of as a kind of a waltz with an “um cha-cha um cha-cha” kind of vibe, but with that kind of tune we sort of struggle not to put on a comedy Tom Waits voice over it. That track was a real surprise as I wasn't expecting it to come out as good as that, and it also works very well live. We touch as many bases as we can, without any clunking gear shifts.

What’s the situation like in a band with nine different personalities?
We generally pull in the same direction and also reasonably productive. Even though half of us have kids and jobs these days, we still find the time to go write tunes and perform proper ‘knees up’ kind of gigs (starts laughing).

As a keen bison enthusiast myself, where did the name Bison come from?
It was my idea. Way back in the early days we had a few jams and really surprised ourselves by writing a couple of really catchy tunes and immediately thought of the name ‘Bison’ and we've never really looked back to be honest. I was thinking that there's never been a band called Bison, the name itself contains just two fucking strong syllables, so I just thought of it in massive stone letters. Even though for years one of our band members thought that Bison meant snake. I’m not pretending it’s a great band name because, let’s face it, The Beatles is a shit name, Radiohead is a shit name, and of course Arctic Monkeys is a really shit name. But it doesn't necessarily have to hold you back, the main thing is that people are into it.

So, we can expect a cracking night at The Maze then?
The smaller the better with gigs because it's simply more personal. We've done festivals before where there are obviously barriers between you and the people, whereas smaller gigs such as The Maze, it is all about connecting with people. Were totally pumped about it really, and as we had a really shit practice earlier in the week it should be a really good gig as the general rule goes: shit practice - great gig.

Bison with Hallouminati, Motormouf and Ex-Friendly and Origin One DJs, The Maze, Saturday 9 May 2015, 8pm, £6.

Bison on Bandcamp