Bondax Cite Africa as Their Muse for Music and Spill About Upcoming Album
BANDUNG (03/09) – George Townsend and Adam Kaye from UK’s electronic duo Bondax found fame when they released singles like “All I See” or “Giving It All” in 2013 and 2014. Together they have released two EPs “Baby I Got That” (2012), “Gold” (2013) and one compilation album “Bondax and Friends: The Mix Album” (2014). During their latest visit to Indonesia for Lalala Fest 2018, we sat down with the adorable duo as they gushed about their latest single, their trip to Africa, their new direction for upcoming album, as well as their unrevealed projects. Let’s get down to it!
The Display (TDP) : Hello Bondax, it’s been a while since your last visit to Indonesia. How long has it been exactly?
Bondax (B) : We were here in 2014 for an event, so it has been four years.
TDP : So, let’s skip the trivial question as we’d like to ask you about your latest single “Neo-Seoul”. It was released back in February and it got a pretty soulful vibe in it. Who’s your biggest influence or muse on composing that single?
George Townsend (G): Good question, actually it was a sample from an African record. We went out to Africa last year, not for music officially, we weren’t playing there. We spent a little bit of a time. So I suppose there was a level of influence from there in music and the experience of getting away from our culture completely.
Adam Kaye (A) : A lot of percussion is actually quite African. But it’s also inspired by soul itself. We’ve been to that place (re: Africa) for quite a few times since we do music. So yeah, it’s kind of an homage to that place.
TDP : Is there any sampling in the song?
G : Yes, but I can’t legally tell you what it is, hahaha…
A : Yeah we can’t tell you. There’s some sample, go find it *chuckles*
TDP : Well, okay we won’t dissect any further into that haha… Moving on, you guys were highly popular after releasing “All I See” and “Giving It All”, is there any burden afterwards for your next endeavor? Do you set a specific level of success that is similar to those records?
G : We could do that (re: reach the same level of success) on ourselves. But the album we’ve made, we haven’t really. We’ve made it without worrying about that (re: commercial success). We haven’t really made any singles or such, it’s more of a concept or ideas.
A : Because it has taken so long (re: since their last album), I think the pressure to ‘you have to put out a song now and it has got to be massive’ kind of dissipate a bit. So, we kinda had a chance a bit to put our heads together and just make music that we really want to make and not think about the commercial success.
TDP : So can you spill any details about upcoming album?
G : Yeah, the concept behind the album is essentially a day. It goes like… it is structured in a chronological order, from waking up to the birth of the next day. Um, it sort of travels from quite chill music, to dancey-er music. Then into the night time, then went into sort of dreamy state.
TDP : Music wise, is it going to sound like “Bondax and Friends” or any album you’ve made previously?
A : It’s quite different actually I’d say. It’s not like we’ve completely left our sound behind, but we both wanted to mature the sound. Since we both got a broader music taste, we wanted to get the influences and apply the influences to the music. There’s quite a different style in it so hopefully the idea is to have the Bondax sound but trying to incorporate bossanova, hip hop, disco or something else as the base.
TDP : Since you’ve been together for quite some time, are you thinking about branching out into solo projects?
G : Not really. I think the move outside what we do now would be producing for another people. Then I might do more beats and stuff, and maybe Adam might do more of the live stuff. We’ll probably still work together for now.
TDP : We miss your remixes though, would we see another tunes coming out in near future?
A : Yeah, there’s already remix for Milky Chance that have come out last year. There is also one for The Avalanches that has come out recently, so you could check them out.
Interviewer: Novita Widia/Photo: Hanif Ardhika
