FEATURE: Spotlight: Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard

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THERE are some great bands around…

that one can see being mainstay fixtures in years to come. The Welsh powerhouse Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard are definitely primed for something big! It is sad Glastonbury was cancelled this year, as I imagine the guys would have been there in some form. Maybe they will be invited to play next year, as they have a sound, tightness and power that demands festival audiences! Their upcoming The Non Stop EP (out on 10th July) is going to met with a lot of interest, as they have put some singles out and a lot of people wondered where they would head; whether we would get an E.P. or album this year. The track, Hollywood Actors, was out a couple of months back, and the song and video typify what the band is all about. The video is full of humour and originality, whilst the song has a punch and rousing sound that is very much their own. I am going to provide a link where you can buy that E.P. near the end of the feature but, before then, I wanted to bring in a few interviews; charting them from last year where they will getting a lot of buzz…to this year, when they are more established and many were hoping to see them perform live. I guess the band can put gigs on ice until next year, but it is a shame their E.P. will come into the world, and the guys won’t be able to bring it direct to the people.

In terms of introduction, this interview from The Line of Best Fit from last year sets out some backstory, and we get this insight into rather humble (and slightly ramshackle) beginnings:

“Hailing from Barry and Cardiff, they are Tom Rees (vocals/guitar), his brother Ed on bass, Zac White (guitar) and Ethan Hurst (drums).

Rees went on to play in a local band called Howl, who one fateful night supported Cardiff mainstays The Keys, for whom Newington was drumming. “On the first tune I kicked Dave’s bass drum through, just straight away – the skin went entirely through on the first song, and the gig got cancelled because of it. Everyone was really mad, except Dave because he’s the sweetest person in the world. So that’s how we met, officially.”

Rees went on to play in another Cardiff band called Tibet, gigging in the same circles as Newington and his myriad projects. Now Buzzard drummer Ethan Hurst was also in the band, and he and Rees would write together in the day time when they should have been in college, in Hurst’s parents’ front room. But unbeknownst to Hurst, Rees was also recording whilst his bandmate slept.

“He used to be really lazy so he’d get up at one, two in the afternoon,” says Rees of Hurst. “I used to sneak in after his parents went to work at 8.30am, set up a whole drum kit, set up all the mics and stuff, track, and then set down before he woke up. Like, ‘hey man, how’s it going? I just got here’. And it worked for like, six months,” he laughs. “He’s a very very deep sleeper. I used to bring my mixing desk round, just everything. His neighbours were really liberal, freewheelin’, hippie types who were just fine with it. It was really cool”.

I found the band a few months back, and they have been getting a lot of intertest from radio stations across the country. I have found myself steering more to solo artists as opposed to bands, as I have found that there have not been many (bands) that have caught my ear. That is definitely not the case with Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard. The guys are definitely putting out something special and proprietary, and I look forward to seeing where they head through this year. I was interested in an interview from So Young Magazine and, apologies if some of the questions/answers overlap, but it is interesting to hear Tom Rees discuss the band’s start – and what they wanted to accomplish through 2019:

“How did you find each other?

Ed on the bass is my brother, so I found him (too) long ago, myself and Ethan on the drums have played in a couple of bands together, whilst Zac on guitar was a childhood friend of Ethan’s. The thing about playing (and living) in Cardiff is that it’s so small you kind of know everyone anyway, so we all had met each other a long time ago but only took the opportunity to play together a couple of years back.

What led you to form a band? A particular happening or mutual love for a record or sound?

Me and Ethan used to record a lot in his parents house, and I was just mucking around one day after listening to ‘Spirit in the Sky’ by Norman Greenbaum, an experience that still haunts my memory to this day – I had listened to that tune innumerable times before but for some reason this time when I listened to it, it had a really deep impact on what I wanted to do musically (I had been in an indie-hole for a while) – essentially I tried ripping off that Norman Greenbaum tune and it really worked.

Following this I started digging deep into old 70’s records I loved as a kid but had neglected in my late teens, like Todd Rundgren’sSomething / Anything and Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue, before I had been substituting them for Green Day and My Chemical Romance (forgive me Father for I have sinned). With a fresh love for the 70’s I started working on more bits, and that’s how I arrived at Double Denim Hop, our latest single.

What can we be excited for over the next 12 months?

We’re really excited to be releasing new music and playing more shows – the new single will be coming soon, and we’ve got a few festivals tricks up our sleeve”.

It is a weird time for all artists, and so many have no option but to put material out during lockdown; as they have worked on it and it was ready to go anyway. It is not the 2020 Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard envisaged, but they will still be excited that an E.P. is on its way. I do think they will make up for lost time next year and, even though they are not in action at the moment, their fanbase is growing. It is quite rare to see a Welsh act being heralded. By that, I mean the media still focuses a lot of energy on London, and it is only recently where Irish, Welsh and Scottish bands are getting more attention.

I love the Welsh music scene, and there is so much variety and vibrancy emanating from here at the moment. The band were interviewed by DIY earlier in the year, where they were asked about the scene in Cardiff, and whether there are any upcoming acts that they were being moved by:

“You’re from Cardiff! What do you think of the music scene there at the moment?

Cardiff’s wild! We have a really great community of musicians and bands coming through at the moment, everyone seems to be towing the same “rock is kind” line as well which is great, everyone’s into helping each other succeed which is really refreshing. For such a small city we have such a wild variety of music too, from bands like Private World to the Bug Club, we pretty much cover the entire musical landscape.

Are there any other artists breaking through at the same time that you take inspiration from?

I’m a huge Katy J Pearson fan she absolutely rocks, I saw her at the Lexington the other week and her voice broke me down to a pile of dust I felt like a five year old boy it was wild. I think Private World are one of the best bands on the planet at the moment too, all their music is so clean and calculated it makes me feel born anew.

If people could take away one thing from your music, what would it be?

All I’d ever want is for people to forget about everything else that is going on and have a moment of focussed happiness. We, more than anything, want to be a great rock band, so as long as we can capture people and help them to only think about rock for a couple of minutes, I’m happy, there’s a whole lot else that doesn’t bear thinking about right now”.

I have sort of raced through their career, but I have put some links at the bottom of this feature, and I would suggest people dig their music and follow them, as this is a band that have many more years coming. The Non Stop EP arrives on 10th July, and you should definitely go and pre-order a copy. It looks set to be one of the hottest releases of this year:

“The band aired their debut single Double Denim Hop in 2018 to widespread acclaim from the likes of The Guardian - “Thin Lizzy or T-Rex in the back room of a pub, riffs and tunes intact but with an endearing slacker attitude”- who included them in their 2019 list of artists to watch out for. A BBC Radio 6 Music spin for Double Denim Hop from none other than Iggy Pop, and a session for Huw Stephens on the same station followed at the beginning of 2019. Subsequent singles Late Night City and Love Forever drew airplay from BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac, Jack Saunders and Huw Stephens, and BBC Radio 6 Music. The band also landed a slot at Glastonbury courtesy of BBC Introducing.

Now comes this 10 track mini LP featuring Double Denim Hop, Late Night City and 8 other nuggets”.

I am going to follow the Welsh wonders, and their music is providing me with energy during this rather tough time. If you have not stumbled across this terrific group, then investigate them now. Their music is wonderful, and the brilliant Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard really are…