Claire White
Bedlam Crooks are a 5-piece Indie/Dance band from South East London.
After releasing their debut EP in November 2011 with much success, the band have played dates around the country and most recently released single ‘Uncouth Youth’.
The band will tour the UK this month in their first official UK tour and we caught up with them to allow the band to introduce themselves to you.
How did you decide upon the band name?
Well we were originally going to be named just “Crooks”, but there are a few bands with that name and we would have just got lost in the abyss of the internet. Zakk saw a billboard with the word on it “Bedlam” on it somewhere and it just stuck. We thought it had a ring to it and that was that really.
Since launching last year, what would you say you’ve learnt about the music industry?
We’ve all been doing this for a while anyway, some of us have been in bands since they were 13 doing shows. You learn something different every time though. Every band has something to teach you. I think this band has been the one where we all just said “no negotiations”. We’ve really worked hard on this band to become this well oiled machine. This time was all about just going out there and making it happen for ourselves. So far it’s not working too bad.
Why did you decide to have a short break earlier this year?
We had some other members who weren’t into the whole DIY style of doing things. I won’t speak wrong of them, that was just not what they wanted to do. So we went our separate ways and it took some time to find the right guys to replace them. With all due respect to the other guys, I think it worked out best for everyone. And our old synth player is now our merch guy!
For those who have yet to discover your debut EP, which track would you recommend to them?
Personally I would recommend giving “Impala” a listen. Its a pretty intense track and live we go mental for it. But “Beaches” is the crowd pleaser, it’s our radio friendly one.
Who would you describe your music to suit ‘fans of’?
I think we’re pretty eclectic. We use a lot of styles in our music but we gravitate more towards Dance, Rock and Hip-Hop. It’s all pretty raw though. We’re not heavy at all but even our nice songs have a certain amount of grit to them.
What’s been your favourite live show so far?
We’ve played a lot of really good shows at some excellent venues, but I would say a gig we did in January at a tiny little venue called Metropolis in Bromley. This place is a 100 people venue. That’s how small it is. Apparently there were 140 people come through the door that night though, the venue was overflowing. The atmosphere was great, we had main support, which is our favourite spot, and the crowd went mental. Loved it.
What could we expect from the band’s typical live set?
We’re quite large believers in a gig being more than just playing your songs like you recorded them. Firstly, we all go nuts. I hate it when you go to a gig and the band are standing there just playing. That is not entertainment. We put on as much of a show as we can, but also we like to do little surprise changes. I wouldn’t like to give too much away (Hint hint… come to a show..) but it’s just stuff like acapella drops or intro’s that make a live set more interesting.
It’s festival season at the moment, which festival would be your ‘dream’ to play?
Reading Festival would be pretty cool. Most of us have been going to that for years so I think that would be the first choice. I’d really love to play at Glastonbury as well, although none of us are going to any festivals this year because we used our holiday time for tour!
What would you like to achieve as a band by the end of 2012?
We’re just trying to branch out at the moment. We’ve done a lot of London gigs and now we want to go to other places and check them out and see what the crowds are like. We only just started writing our new EP, which is going to be 6/7 tracks and if we can finish writing songs, scrapping songs and then recording the best ones by the end of this year that would be great! It’s gonna be different to our single and our last EP though. This is the EP we want to define ourselves by, this is the EP we hope people will pick up and run with.
You can find out more about Bedlam Crooks at the following links:
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
EP’s, singles and merch available here!
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