New Music Friday can be a lot. That's why every week we cut it down to the songs you need to hear for PLAY, our new music edit, and deliver a new cover feature to go alongside it. This week... Bimini.
"I've always been a bit of a gob shite," grins Bimini. Their gloriously entertaining drag performances were always politically charged, and they followed up a turn on RuPaul's hit show with defiant debut single 'God Save This Queen', a spunky Britpop-inspired romp that dealt with toxic masculinity, trans rights and queer joy.
They signed with a major label shortly afterwards to release an album that never arrived. The singles that did come out focused more on club culture than on what was happening in the world. "I just don't think they understood who I was as an artist," says Bimini. During a six-hour meeting, they were shown every single thing that had been written about them online. It doesn't matter how thick your skin is; nobody needs that. "There was this pressure to be more palatable," they explain, and when it became clear that things weren't going to change, they walked away from the deal. "Now, independence is the only way forward."
New single 'Tank Top Bum Boys' is the start of that new era. "It's the music I always should have been making." The fiery track clocks in at under two minutes and sees Bimini call out racists, TERFs and Reform UK, playfully stick a middle finger up at those claiming that trans people are trying to indoctrinate the next generation, and demand a free Palestine. "We're in such a polarised time, socially and politically and culturally, it would be inauthentic to release another song that didn't say anything."
It is, according to Bimini, a palette cleanser for their electro-cunt-punk debut album. Inspired by Peaches, Lambrini Girls, Sex Pistols and other artists who don't shy away from saying something, there's a definite "rebellious edge" to the whole thing. And apart from not having a title, it's pretty much finished. It opens with a self-titled song ("because why not") while 'Bend Over' talks about UK politics over a DnB beat. "The album touches on queerness, sexual identity, reclamation and politics. The whole thing is still rooted in dance music, but there's also punk. I loved a lot of the music that I've put out, but this really feels like me."
"When I was with a label, I'd send tracks over and just wouldn't get a response," says Bimini, which was a polite way of telling them to try something else. "I'd go into these writing sessions with strangers and have to bare my soul to try and write a hit. That's not what music should be." In contrast, this new album was created in two weeks. "I wanted to make music that was fun but rooted in my lived experience. I was so excited that I could finally do things my way. And there's no way I'd be able to release any of it if I were still on a major."
'Tank Top Bum Boys', a stream-of-consciousness purge of everything that was on their mind while making the album, is the manifesto for what's to follow. No lyrics were ever written down, and it was finished in under five minutes. "What is sad and really worrying is that I recorded it over a year ago. I thought we'd maybe have to rework lines like 'Free Palestine' or 'Keir Starmer stop the war', but nothing has changed."
"Independence is the only way forward"
— Bimini
The title comes from a column Boris Johnson wrote in The Daily Telegraph in 1998, where he called gay men "tank-topped bumboys". In 2019, Conservative politician Chris Philp defended the "colourful language" as free speech. "How a man like that can then become the Prime Minister fascinates me," says Bimini. "It just shows the inequality."
Bimini was six years old when that article was originally published and has had to deal with derogatory terms like that all their life. "I had a lot of shame growing up, trying to understand who I was in a world that was telling me who I was. Those words held a lot of power. They make you feel smaller, and you start to believe you need to become a version of yourself that is more palatable for society to understand."
'Tank Top Bum Boys' is about taking back those hateful terms. "The world is rooted in shame, but fuck that. You only get one shot at life, so, as long as you're nice and not a dickhead, live how you want to live. I look great in a tank top, I like boys, and I like bums," they grin. "It's a rage track. It's about reclamation, but it's also silly," explains Bimini, who knows joy is an important part of protest and there's no better way to bring people than with a cathartic, giddy electro-cunt-punk banger. "We're in such a horrible time, we need a bit more love and a bit more unity."
"I want equality for everyone, but you can't get there if people are denying the rights of others," they say, highlighting the way that trans people and migrants have been villainised with increased venom in recent months. "We really need to prioritise where we put our energy and anger. The reason you're struggling to pay rent is because of the billionaires who are in these positions of power [across the government and in the media]. Everyone who stands for freedom of speech and freedom of existence needs to rally together."
"The world is rooted in shame, but fuck that"
— Bimini
'Tank Top Bum Boys' comes after Bimini hopped on a remix of Kate Nash's furious pro-trans anthem 'GERM' and they called Donald Trump a "bitch” on Planningtorock's 'Let's Talk About Gender Baby'. "This whole era is no holds barred," they say. "Music is meant to make you feel something. Hopefully, 'Tank Top Bum Boys' makes you feel engaged. Those who will get it, will get it. And if you don't, you don't."
The unapologetic track has already become a highlight in Bimini's electric, chaotic, cathartic live show, which has been so validating. It's a world away from feeling restrained and held back when they were still with a major label. "I did feel like I couldn't say all the things I wanted to say." Whenever they went into the studio, the conversation always started with talk about which other artists they should be emulating, or how best to get on Radio 1. "Now there are no limits on what I can do," they say. "And this is always what I wanted to be doing – experimenting and not playing it safe. If you try to be for everyone, then you're not actually standing for anything."
Bimini's single 'Tank Top Bum Boys' is out now.
