More about: Shady Bard

Shady Bard are not like other bands. In fact, it may be true that the Bard do not want to be like other bands. Other bands are bound to release schedules, a set number of band members and in churning out release after release to reimburse record companies for their pay outs. Shady Bard are not. Their early releases were hand crafted; the last copies of their ‘Treeology’ EP are going for £100 plus on Ebay; they are affiliated with a label renowned for its collectability; they are, excuse the lameness of the cliché, diamonds in the ether. Gigwise caught up with them prior to their London outing at Tottenham Court Road’s Metro.

The Curzon cinema foyer café is the quietest place we can find in London’s Soho for an interview with Shady Bard. It is quiet in that studious intellectual manner one associates with the corridors of universities; it is a place where clever types in berets whisper in library tones whilst pondering their lives over lattés or frappicinos, or even the Freudian undertones in the latest art cinema release. Shady Bard are excited by the new Wes Anderson film. We know this because there is a big poster hanging in the window of the Curzon that the band are discussing whilst narrating the director’s filmography. We sit and ponder the latest releases hanging from the transparent outer shell that leads onto the darkened streets of Shaftesbury Avenue, where people with busy lives hurry past late for their dinner dates. To the sound of the coffee machine, frothing milk for our cappuccinos, we sit.

Shady Bard, you see, are a bit of an anomaly. Hailing on the most part from Birmingham, collecting members on their journey southwards, the Bard have been together for over two years and have slowly accumulated an intrigued following of indie intelligentsias. The Curzon is therefore the perfect metaphorical meeting place for our first interview with the band. Their debut album was released in May, to critical acclaim. The Sunday Times has dubbed them “a band it would be easy to fall in love with.” Music Week heralds them “Melodic and thoughtful.” With their highbrow symphonies and orchestral tendencies, the bard have been making waves in cerebrally conscious circles supporting iLiKETRAiNS on tour as well as providing a thought provoking soundtrack for MTV’s climate change campaign.

It would be easy to write them off as Arcade Fire thunder stealers but surprisingly enough the band were around before the incandescent parishioners hit the big time. Lawrence, the singer and lead songwriter of the band finds such comparisons tiresome: “To be honest, in terms of song writing, I never really listened to the Arcade Fire until a good year after that album came out. They certainly haven’t influenced in me in what I write. People always say that we’re like the Arcade Fire because they see a girl playing a violin; but we sing about very different things… it’s really great seeing a band like Arcade Fire do what they’re doing as usually what happens is you turn up to a venue and the sound man tells you that you’ve got too many instruments; but they proves that it can be done.”

Shady Bard are, on the most part, multi instrumentalists. Each band member can play a diverse array of instruments. Take Jas, the outnumbered female member, she provides casio sounds as well as playing the violin and French horn; Lawrence plays electric and acoustic guitars, piano, harmonica, whilst also providing lead vocals; Alex is a cellist, pianist and percussionist; Aidan also plays electric, acoustic as well as bass guitars; Ollie plays bass, keyboards and cello. It is only drummer James, ‘borrowed’ from the lesser-known band Yndi Halda, who appears to be confined to just the one instrument. During their performances they are known to swap instruments in a myriad game of musical chairs. Unlike other bands they admit that the line up is fluid; they want to be able to change and develop as their sound does; they would love to play with an orchestra; their sound is intense; a montage of musical tones.

They were known in the early days for their hand crafted EPs and demos. Was this reflective of their DIY ethos and authenticity? Jas puts this down to circumstance rather than choice: “In the early days we didn’t really have much choice. We couldn’t afford to pay artists to do it for us so we made them ourselves.” Alex notes: “It is reflective of the fact that what we do isn’t just churned out of the machine; many years of blood and sweat have gone into it.” Lawrence agrees: “We didn’t get picked up straight away; we built what we did. When we started out no one was listening; we recorded our music because we liked what we were doing. Why not package it up and get it out there? You don’t have to wait for someone to come and tell you what you’re doing… We made the video for ‘Treelogy’ (directed by Ashley Dean from iLiKETRAiNS) without a budget so it took over a year to make and we missed the release of the EP, but it luckily coincided with the release of the album. Doing these things without a budget means they take a lot longer than they would ordinarily.”

In Shady Bard’s world, writing music is not as simple as three chord melodies, some well placed hair gel and making the right oohs in ooh the right places. Songwriter Lawrence likes to make life that little bit more complicated for himself, experiencing the unique neurologically based phenomenon of Synaesthesia, where he sees chord formations, keys and lyrics as colours. “For me chords and words have colours so you can get some really garish combinations if you put a word that’s one colour with a chord that’s a different colour. That really bothers me so I try and write songs in the key that matches the colour of the lyrics. (For example) ‘Treeology’ is about trees so all the words are browns and greens. The chords are browns and greens. ‘Fires’ is in the key of F which is orange. The key of E is yellow so ‘Torch Song’ is written in that key. The casio bit that also comes in during that song is also yellow…. You can write about anything in anyway so it’s nice that it controls it.”

The Bard are currently on tour around the UK; as they have been touring the UK for two years on and off playing a slowly growing number of songs, they are keen to move onto musical pastures new, working towards a limited edition Christmas release comprised of four new songs. Lawrence says, “We’re not the kind of band to churn out singles from an album just because we’re trying to plug it. We’re trying to avoid doing that.” The album, released back in May is available from all good records stores although as Jas notes: “Sometimes you have to ask for it, but it’s usually there. In Birmingham HMV, we share one of those divider cards; the other band they use our card for is Hard-Fi.” Shady Bard then - the antithesis of Hard-Fi! Unwitting leaders in the post-folk revolution? Possibly. They return to London on the 23rd November at AC30’s club night at Hoxton Bar and Grill in support of Amusement Parks on Fire.

More about: Shady Bard