FRONT BANGS
What makes music so important to you?
Music is one of the most best things in life, it's amazing how no one in the world will have exactly the same taste. It's such a good creative outlet and it's crazy how much it can alter your mood.
What can fans expect with the new single 'Stray' and is there a release date?
We think that 'Stray' is our best work yet (maybe a little biased..?). The lyrics go deeper than anything we've released so far, written about inner battles with anxiety and the way it can distort our view as human beings as to what is important and how big things really are. Musically the song takes a more psychedelic trip, lasting just over six minutes, whilst keeping our funky zest that we have developed over the last few months. We put everything we possibly could into the production of the song, with producer Tom Joy really letting us go wild with it, listening to all our wacky thoughts and trying out some really experimental stuff.
What is the Norwich music scene like ?
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The Norwich music scene is really great. We got our first ever gig through the "Sonic Youths" programme run by Annie Catwoman, giving 14-19 year olds the opportunity to perform their original music. Since then we've been grabbing every gig possible in and around Norwich. Our next gig in Norwich is an event called "Homegrown" on the 29th of January and Bermuda Bob's Rum Shack and Hi-Fi; an event organised by Ben Street of Pizza Club Promotions. The event showcases original music by local acts, something that looks like it'll become a regular thing at Bob's.
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How does music make you feel and has it ever been your therapy?
Music's been my therapy for as long as I remember. For a lot of our gigs recently we've been playing "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" by the Chili Peppers beforehand to pump ourselves up, I just think it's mad how music can do that to you. One of the most enjoyable things is jamming with the boys, coming up with new riffs, making music, just everything. When I was younger I had seriously bad stage freight but now playing people our music live is literally my favourite thing in the world to do.
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How did Front Bangs Begin?
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Front Bangs began when we were kids really, we knew and played with each other in various bands through school - we just started using the name when we started making our own songs about a year ago. Writing our own songs started off as a bit of a laugh really, at the start I (Brad) would just write some words with a few chords or whatever and go and show Alex it and he'd make some musical sense of it. But I'd show my mates the odd thing and they seemed to like it, or they were just pretending. It's just the best thing playing stuff that you've written as a group. As for the name, "Front Bangs" is what our friend said his hairstyle was, refusing to believe that the hairstyle was just called "bangs". There's nothing dirty about our name as most people seem to think. Say what you want about the name, but you won't find another band with the name!
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Who is your main musical Influence?
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The three of us have such different music tastes as individuals. Our drummer Alex studies a lot of classical music and has even scored parts for whole orchestras for shows in Norwich; while our bass guitarist Rich is really into Hip Hop and Jazz. One of the only bands that we all have a big shared passion for is Red Hot Chili Peppers, who we are often likened to and I'll take that any day of the week.