Up next is Louis from the band By a Damn Sight (AKA B.A.D.S).
Who are you? Tell us a bit about your music:
My name is Louis. Our band are a kind of surf-drone-pop hybrid, communicating lyrically through vague dramaticism, visual cues and cheeky humour.
What have you been working on lately? Any new tracks or albums on the way?
We are currently preparing to record an E.P. with my work-mates.
Where is the best place people can follow you & find your music?
Bandcamp and Facebook. We are also on Spotify & Instagram.
What were the 3 most influential albums to you growing up?
Harvest – Neil Young – as the first album that was gifted to me, hosting some of the first songs that I learnt on guitar around age 9…
Astral Weeks – Van Morrison – beauty…mystery…poetry…it encapsulates the qualities that I aspire to in song-writing
Dick Dale – King of the Surf Guitar – cuts from my favourite guitarist, unique and powerful
Which other Wellington musician (s) would you most like to work with?
Personally: Thomas Lambert, Deakin Palmer, Marco Vinten (and I have “worked” with all three)
Arrangement-wise: Some string players, a Children’s Choir (goals for some of the next E.P. songs)
What’s your favourite Wellington venue to play in?
Perhaps San Fran…
In your songwriting or composing (or the band’s songwriting) how do the compositions and songs take shape?
Ideas will begin as a song title, a few lines or a musical phrase that I like.If the ideas are strong enough, I will hold on to them as potential touch stones for a new work that will emerge over time. Another approach has been recycling the best parts of pieces that weren’t so effective in order to create a better, stronger whole. It is as if I were throwing spaghetti against a wall…if the idea is ready then it will “stick”, if not, then it is back to the pot to simmer for longer. I will bring almost completed songs to the band. They will give feedback and we will begin to work on arrangements together. I will leave room for them to create their own parts or use my rough ideas as a spring-board for their own. Technology is not conducive to my song-writing process, so I leave it out of the picture. I prefer instead focus on “pen to paper” and “fingers to strings” while also trying to improve as a vocalist and guitarist. I have no interest in engineering my own recording projects for the same reasons (for now).
Where/when is your next gig?
Moon bar in June, with friends’ bands supporting, provided the situation in New Zealand with Covid-19 allows it to happen.