Bad Nerves - 2000 Trees Interview

All the punk stuff was like people couldn't play, that was the joy of it. And that's not to diss the Ramones, they're, they're amazing, but accessible for everyone. Yeah, and they weren't like exceptional players necessarily, but what they did was amazing. I'm John from Bad Nerves, and I'm Bobby from Bad Nerves, and we're here at 2000 Trees with Andy Guitar. We find you in the middle of festival season and apparently you've had a wild 12 days. Tell me about it. We started off playing year on air. Which was the hottest day recorded in Dutch history. And then we drove through the night to the Czech Republic and played Mighty Sounds. We did two headline shows. Our new elephant. I know, and our new guitarist Jimmy got a heat stroke and vomited in a bag. We played with Offspring. We played with The Offspring that I. Luxembourg, two stadium shows with Totenhosen. This sounds like one massive brag and it's not it's fair play, we wanna know about it because to earn that brag. Yeah, it's great to see you guys doing so much stuff and often we're, we see you in the UK as often as we can because you guys gallop to South America, North America, wherever, you're doing amazing stuff, but we've we've got a new single out network. Yeah. 3 whole minutes long, Bobby 3. It's an epic. When the last single was literally 1 minute or maybe even 59 59 seconds, we kept it under 1 minute, deliberately, a bit cooler. Where's all this coming from? There was a lot of uh slamming cupboards loudly at home, wasn't there? Which has inspired this. Trauma, traumatised, it's uh yeah I I, it was really fun to do a track that was so heavy, you know, and I wanted to do the vocals in a way where I like, How I would probably end up doing it live, you know, cos I end up I end up singing things more nicely in the studio. I was like I don't wanna do that, I want it to be more like how I would sing it live, um, yeah, and people seem to like it, I think, don't they, so far. You never know. I don't really anyone to be honest, you put it out, you don't really know if anyone's gonna like it, but it seems like they do. This latest thing of, you know, recording songs. How you play them live, you know, influencing how you record them as well. Yeah, I mean, I think, to be honest, I think all of us are still learning how to do any of this, you know, you do feel like a bit of an impostor sometimes, especially if you're having a bad gig, but I don't know, I think some of the bands we toured with, for me, singing and whatever, you sort of pick up things from different people. And I just think having fun is kind of one of the biggest things for, for, for me, and I think people, people feed off that. People have fun if you're having fun and. Sometimes, sometimes, I wasn't having very much fun in the 40 degree heat the other week, but oh, it's the whole thing. Who'd have thought, has, has Europe been hotter than South America was when you were talking with, yeah, it was hotter than South America. I mean South America was hot, but that was, you don't expect that, cos obviously like Netherlands and wherever else, like, it's not set up for that kind of heat. So there's no escape, you know, there's not like aircon, they don't really have air con everywhere, you know. Same as England really, but, but for the uh for the. My performance, I've got to give you a shout out, John. You are one of the best rock star jumps. Oh thank you mate. I, I, it's hard to get a photo of it for me, but the photographers, that's how they earn the money. They capture it. Do you remember the first time you sort of learned I'm going to give it a bit of that or what that stage craft where that comes from a bit of the punk heritage? No, actually I've got no idea. Yeah, I jumped out of the womb, mate. Like um. Oh yeah, John Bennett. It's like bark at the moon, isn't it? Jumped out, yeah, jumped out of the womb, yeah, um, I know, I know, no, um, probably. But I, I think I, I was watching like, just like a lot of seventies bands and like, you'd have the front man doing their thing, but I, I'd watch these bands and like the guitarist would be pulling all these like really extravagant show off moves and I thought, oh that looks a bit, that looks a bit good. You know, playing bass, you don't get a lot of credit, so. Well, it makes me think of Pete Townshend and John Entwistle. Like one of those guys gives a much better photo and has all the stages. Exactly, yeah, exactly, and John Entwhill's just standing there. You seem a bit of the. You know, guardian of the, the or bringing the punk heritage into bad nerves, like flying the flag for that. I mean that's very nice of you, only cos I can't afford new clothes. I think I think I I think that's pretty much what it is, it's like if I could afford better clothes, I probably wouldn't be flying the plane. But no, you know, you know your stuff with with all this heritage. I I've, I've listened to punk since I was a kid and I've, I've never really like, I've never really branched away from it, you know, and uh it's, it's my one true love, so I kind of just er will always be there. I'll be there for punk and punk's been there for me. Anything that made you go for bass and not guitar or it's easier. At the time I couldn't play either, so I thought that's got less strings. Bass is more fun though in a way, and like guitar, I love guitar, but bass, I find bass like there's something about it just being those sort of, you know what, so many strings in one. I, I feel like with bass it's kind of underrepresented because in guitar, you've got all these people that like you've got, you know, showmen, you've got amazing technical players, and you've got that in bass, but like the only ones you really see are guys that look like dorks. You're like, ah, I like I want someone cool, like Paul, Paul Simmon from The Clash was like cool, Didi was cool, you know, like Didi wasn't like, he wasn't the best bass player, but he was, he was still, he wrote a lot of songs and it's not easy doing what he does, but like it's, it's kind of hard to make bass look cool, you know, so that, that's, that's what I've been trying to do. Many of the best guitar riffs are actually bass riffs as well, especially your Led Zeppelins and even. Even a lot of the riffs from like The Cure are actually, it's the bass you're listening to. Them talking about the jam the other day, like the jam songs wouldn't be the jam songs without Bruce Foxton. What about Fle? What about him? What about Fle? Well, when it comes to the guitar though, I've gotta say most of my students online or in person, they don't like bar chords. Bloody hell you love them. Bar chords is all we know. I don't actually Will does a couple of shows. in Can't Be Mine. Yeah, well he does like can't be, right? Yeah, and he does like little finger up here and it's, it's hell, even our new horrible, our new guitarist was like, yeah, when I found out what he was playing there, I, I weren't sure if I was gonna be able to do it or not. And I was like, you mean, I I couldn't do it. You have got quite good at guitar though now I think. I, I mean, I'm just from playing, I'm self-taught, you know, so my, my techniques are probably a bit. Silly, but I'm like, cos I'm a drummer, a lot of the harder stuff that I do is rhythm, is the rhythms are hard, not so much like the shapes, you know, the shapes, as you rightly joke, are mostly the same thing. Yeah, pretty, pretty much, like I have learned a few little things from watching Will play actually, just little inflexions, learning to like, take your finger off and just put it somewhere else. Put it back on again. Yeah, pretty much, yeah, but um. Yeah, uh, but no, me, me, me and Will jammed a lot of that first record together, so a lot of the stuff you hear on that first record is Will's, you know, some of it's a bit weirder, but then the second one is mostly my stuff, which is why there's, there's no weird stuff, but there is like weird rhythms, you know, like, and weird, weird, weird drumbeats, you know. Uh, the second album in particular, you really see the progression of the band, songs like Television. Um, still, still a lot of, you know, 3 minute bangers, um, straight to the adrenaline here, but so that confidence to go a bit longer, I, I, I think it's something you should really be proud of, it's brilliant. Well, I think you have to try, you do have to try to do, you know, just experiment with certain things. Sometimes it sounds shit and other times it sounds alright, you know, it's quite fun, it keeps it fresh, you know, not just for us but also for people listening, just, you know, just trying new things. Are we expecting perhaps album three or is. Uh, when, when, when do you think the songwriting for that might end at least? Yeah, well we didn't have, well, I say we didn't have loads of time, obviously we've been touring a lot. It wasn't like loads of time of like, it pretty much felt like we got to January this year, and it was like, right, you need to record an album. And we were like. Oh, OK, we didn't really have any, we didn't not have any, but we had all I had was like ideas, you know, bits of ideas, and you can have 100 great ideas, but a great song is much, you know, it takes a lot more, you know, and great ideas. The amount of great ideas I have that are just bits that I just can't figure out how to make them into great songs for some strange reason. And what do you think makes a great song? I find with songs it's like, I don't know, there's obviously a catchy melody, you know, a fast, a beat that gives you that feeling, that that's also, it doesn't necessarily make a great song, I guess it's when you have the, You know, every little element adds up and into, yeah, into something that you just wanna listen to again, you know, but I quite like it, you know, when certain, I always talk about tension and release, you know, when you build the tension like you've got like just one chord, I mean, don't stop our song Don't stop, you know, it's like, it's just one, the whole first bit's one chord, and then when it changes you get that release and you feel, I don't know, it gives you like a feeling, you know, like you can't really describe it because like it depends on the mood of the song, but I think that's, that's a little bit of what goes to. Towards making a good song, it's that getting that tension and release right, so you feel something, you know, favourite song on the set right now, this tour that you'll play this evening. Like maybe Network at the moment cause it's kind of new and the first two times we played it my bass broke, so uh it's really the string no everything. So yeah, like we couldn't cope. It was like the first gig of the tour and like my bass just cut out, so I was like oh I'll get the spare, picked up the spare and that fell apart. So like I was going into the next few shows with no bass. It was just in pieces. Well we'll buy some merch so we can put it towards we went and we went and bought a squire. I'm not, I'm not they're alright mate, they're wicked. I've I've been using it ever since, I love it. Yeah yeah yeah. Yeah. The cheapest guitar ever played at that, yeah, yeah, I'm bringing it back, I'm I'm representing the squires. The squire King. It's like a Game of Thrones Game of Thrones or something, yeah, I don't know. To play, I think my favourite ones to play are. I really like playing Loner just cos it's like I don't have to be like, am I in tune? I can just be like, um, and then uh, but I don't know, I like, I like the ones, I like USA You've got the nerve, all the ones that are like really driving. I do enjoy the other ones as well, but it's like they're just more like I have to, you know, have to think of it more. I don't like thinking, I just wanna not think. You forgot all the words to a song the other night. We did Wasted Daisy, the oldest song that we, we used to play all the time. What's funny is I always, in that song, I had a bit of a problem where I kept forgetting the lyrics and the verse, and we were playing the song, and I'd get this voice in my head, something, well my voice, I'd just start thinking to myself, you're gonna forget the words, you're gonna forget the words. And I was sitting there and I was like, I was sort of singing the song in front of all these people, laughing to myself in my head about how I'm gonna forget the words, didn't forget the words, got to the chorus, forgot the words in the chorus. And I was like, what the fuck is going on? I was just, it's just crazy. I was just like uh uh yeah, I was looking around at the drums, I was like, where, where, where someone in the front row that oh yeah yeah, that's what I should have done. Yeah, yeah, yeah, go on over to you. You know, it does happen though, but you know, I, that's something I think is like messing up live. When I was younger, the thought of messing something up at a gig was like, you'd, I'd feel so bad and I'd be like so like ashamed, and I'd go home and I'd be, I'd feel so like, you know, and but now with us it's like, you just play and if you fuck up, it happens. It don't matter. Like you know everyone does it at some point, but when you're young it's. Scarcity, I've only done 3 gigs, so that's the only 3 gigs I'll mind. But it sucks the fun out of, it's if you go on stage being like, I've gotta play perfectly, it sucks the fun right out of it, you know, if you go on stage and be like, do your best, if you fuck up, don't worry about it. Oh my God, the amount of relief that gives you. Yeah, have you ever fucked up before? Never. See that's the thing, he never has. Quick fire round, right, these are 10 questions. First one, music or lyrics. Oh, bloody hell, that's not easy. Music. Major key or minor key? Major. Most of yours are actually major, aren't they? Uh, valve amp or amp. Well, valve amp until about now. Album or single? Album, rhythm guitar or lead guitar? Rhythm, rhythm. Because we can't do a lead. No, there's one, can you play guitar like Will Power, and he's got a couple of solos in there but a studio or live performance? Live, live here. Big riff or big chorus? uh, that's hard, isn't it? I'd say big chorus, but I think a big riff is important. Yeah, I'd say probably a big chorus. Yeah, just. practise or talent. No, we don't have either of them, of them. What is the third option? What comes to mind though? Um, was it practical or talent, uh, uh, I would say, I would say practise. We hate practising, so it feels really disingenuous saying that. Music theory or ear training, and music theory can be rhythms as well. Well, I'd say ear training, but, but that doesn't mean it's not a good thing to have. I, I wish I had. The the music theories so that I could draw on when I, when, when the other side sort of runs dry, but I've got no idea about theories, but I like everything that I've done with this band, same with Will, so like any of us, it's all here. Yeah, like I I literally learned the first few Ramones records and just bla jammed along to it. Yeah, yeah, cos I I feel like again and again, right? Yeah, and you get like a feeling for like where stuff is and like you don't. have to think as much when you do it like that, you know, like you can learn songs really quick after that. I learned a load of Beatles stuff and that kind of helped me with, but that would help me more with songwriting, you know, kind of making you think you don't have to do these rigid formulas, you know. The final question, best musician in the room or the best songwriter in the room? Oh, songwriter, definitely, yeah, cos I know loads of great musicians who can't write songs. Yeah, and they don't. Up on these stages, right, yeah, the songs are what make you some of the best songs ever are written by people that aren't great musicians, ideas, you know, yeah, like all the, all the punk stuff was like people couldn't play, that was the joy of it. And that's not to diss the Ramones, they're, they're amazing, but accessible for everyone. Yeah, and they weren't like exceptional players necessarily, but what they did was amazing, you know, like. I know C, I know C, D, G. And then the good thing about a barcode, once you've got it, you've got them all. Just move it around. It'd be like, yeah, fucking hell, it's like Pokemon. Oh, this is it, this is it. That is cut that out. Guys, you've got a beautiful slot on the main stage later on. We're really looking forward to it. Thank you so much for talking with us pleasure. Thank you. Thanks for teaching people the guitar. That's what we need. Oh yeah, over here. I use his channel to learn guitar. So does my brother. Everyone does, yeah. Happy days. Thanks for chatting, pleasure.