Bad Sounds make bangers. As they prepare to drop their debut album 'Get Better', we meet the brothers sitting on 2018's alt-pop motherlode.
Bad Sounds are here to help. Really, they are. Chuck out your crystals and your positive affirmations, because Ewan and Callum Merrett have the solution for what ails you. Well, -ish. Maybe. A bit.
Their debut album ‘Get Better’ opens with Ewan trying out his hypnotherapist voice, urging the listener to ‘take a deep breath, stop what you’re doing, and get better.’ Throughout the ensuing forty-six minute ‘sonic self-help guide’ (more on that in a second), Bad Sounds riff on disappointing paychecks, luck and conspicuously not-sulking, among other things. Everything falls loosely under the ‘Get Better’ theme, the title forming a purposeful uniting thread.
"The last thing we did before the album was ‘Mixtape One’, which was our second EP, and it was the first time we’d written something to be a cohesive piece of work. So we really went in hard on that, about wanting the whole thing to feel like it belonged together," Ewan says.
He’s quick to clarify. "Not in like a derogatory way of the issue, but more about the industry, I guess," he says. "When we had that we started to tailor a few of the things too so that it all came together. I think we were looking for something that could tie it all together and that showed itself."
As a matter of fact, as album track ‘Another Man’ claims, Bad Sounds reckon they’ve "got more flaws than the ceiling sees". If they were different, the track implies, if they were each ‘Another Man’ maybe, things would come more easily. But, they’re quick to point out, despite the title the track isn’t meant to be strictly gender-based or focussed on masculinity.
"There’s definitely nothing masculine about either of us," Callum laughs.
Truthfully, ‘Another Man’ is more about insecurity in general, Ewan explains.
For his brother, the song also speaks to the sense of having missed opportunities that other people managed to catch.
"I think I’m naturally quite reserved, and I feel like there’s a lot of shit I could’ve done in my 20s that I didn’t do. Even though I’m still like halfway through. Never did the university life or anything," he says.
‘Another Man’ is indicative of a more emotional side to Bad Sounds, and one that they delve into more deeply for the first time on ‘Get Better’. ‘Couldn’t Give It Away’ is one of the most affecting of these more quote-unquote serious songs, acting as an outlet for Ewan to sing about grief, loss, and the guilt of moving on.
"Getting better!" Ewan cuts in.
The eyebrow waggle is so blatant it’s practically audible down the phone line.
They both descend into hysterics. When he comes back, Callum says cheerfully: "It’s very easy to see already how awkward we are talking about the more serious tracks."
No kidding. Still, Bad Sounds have got party bangers to spare and ‘Couldn’t Give It Away’ and ‘Thomas Is A Killer’ are a good counterbalance on the more serious side of the album. The latter is an emotionally raw track about exactly what the title suggests, perhaps a little bit more minimalist than Bad Sounds are known for but none the worse for it.
"Why don’t they notice how miserable we are?" Ewan cries dramatically.
Callum sagely chooses not to let that undermine anything he’s just said, though.
"It’s kind of nice to show that we are mature adults and hopefully people like that side as well," he says.
"How we’ve always worked is me and Cal will start a track – on our own or together – at home, basically. We get it about 60 or 70% done in terms of it being a song, and go in and flesh it out and turn it into something more polished. But it was really fun this time, cause because we were doing the album we got to go to a posh studio for a bit, which we’ve never done before," says Ewan.
He laughs. Their recording methods and aversion to posh studios weren’t the only things that changed while Bad Sounds were working on ‘Get Better’ though. Since the early days, the Merrett brothers have been one anothers’ foil, with Ewan interested in hip-hop beats and production, and Callum drawn more to the songwriting side of things. These days, the roles are somewhat different.
"By the end of the album – as neat at this sounds – I feel like we are almost going in the opposite direction from each other, like we’ve crossed. Because Callum’s definitely comfortable with the hip-hop production stuff now, and very in that world, and I got more confident with the songwriting stuff as well," Ewan says. "The stuff we learnt off each other when we first started, I think we both felt slightly incompetent in those areas, so we delved in to get better, and that’s how you become more interested in things."
"Our passions have swapped. And even though, like Ewan said, I’m sort of focused on the hip-hop vibe of production, I feel like it’s still a different flavour from the stuff that Ewan was doing when we first started out. And the songwriting that Ewan’s interested in now is a different strain to what I was interested in. So even though we’re filling each other’s shoes, it’s a slightly different angle on it," Callum adds.
"Their production techniques and style of that era had a huge impact on us when we were starting Bad Sounds, when we were sort of ‘finding our sound’ for lack of a more pretentious phrase. So I think that stuff is so deep in the origins of the band, that’s why the Beck reference comes up quite a lot," Callum says.
There is definitely a touch of the Dust Brothers, and Beck on fan favourite ‘Are You High?’ which is conspicuous in its absence on the album. After the single premiered on Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 show, ‘Are You High?’ became popular so quickly that the band could see it gaining momentum in real time on their 2017 headline tour.
"That was a really weird one for us, because we did this headline tour and it came out literally the first night of the tour. We did the interview with Annie Mac and then 20 minutes later went onstage so it was like, ‘We might as well just play the new single’. Nobody knew it, but they were still enthusiastic, nodding their heads and it was really nice," says Callum.
"Structuring our live show has always been a big thing for us as well, we want it to be a celebratory thing rather than people just coming to watch us play. So it’s going to be interesting for us trying to structure our set so that we can make room for songs like ‘Another Man’ or ‘Thomas’. Like, how are we going to do that? Are we gonna separate our set into different segments or are we just going to only play the upbeat ones? I guess we don’t know yet, but I’m looking forward to trying to figure it all out," Callum says.
"The whole big thing of the album for me is showing sides to us people haven’t seen, so I’m looking forward to translating that to the live show as well, being able to have all these different elements going on rather than just bangers as soon as you walk in the room. You know what I mean?" Ewan agrees.
"Yeah," says Callum.
Ewan doesn’t leave room for confusion, though. "Which it will be. Obviously."
With Bad Sounds, the bangers are non-negotiable. It’s just that this time around some of them might break your heart.
Taken from Dork's Big Album Guide 2018. Bad Sounds' album 'Get Better' is out on 17th August; they tour the UK from 24th October.
Words: Liam Konemann
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