We first introduced you to these nogoodnoiseniks back in Pulse #14, and ever since they’ve been worming their way in and around our brains more and more ferociously. Oh, and said worm is covered in razorblades, splash-painted Technicolor, and as prone to epileptic fits as fits of rage. Sure, that might sound painful, but by golly gosh if it isn’t strangely liberating to have your brain all carved up and coloured to mush.
The four piece bring the noise, and generally hold on the funk, via ‘sunny’ Birmingham, and brandish their instruments like depraved chefs dishing out delicious dinners of disjointed and disorderly derangement. I do wonder sometimes if I overkill on the alliteration and mixed metaphors, but then I don’t.
Anyhow, Cal Banda recently dropped their debut EP, Another Minute Made Fiasco, which delivers succinct cuts of multicoloured mathcore, noise rock, hardcore, punk, and even indie (but not really). We caught up with the band for an enlightening little interview of smartarsery. Enjoy.
Hello and who the hell are you? Though, also, because I’m polite, how the hell are you?
Kiss your mother with that mouth? We’re Cal Banda from Birmingham, and feel a bit sick to be honest.
You cropped up in a recent edition of our regular music feature Pulse, but for those who didn’t catch it, how would you describe Cal Banda in your own words? The noises you make and what you’re all about.
We have very short attention spans and like heavy music, which leaves us with a mix of big ol’ riffs and fast-paced tracks. Have you seen that famous photograph of Johnny Cash sticking his middle finger up? We like to think of ourselves as the audio equivalent.
It’s fair to say there’s quite a lot of ingredients going into the angry-fun melting pot that is Cal Banda. What would be some of your biggest influences, and your littlest influences too?
We listen to the likes of ‘And So I Watch You From Afar’, ‘Reuben’, ‘Blakfish’, ‘Refused’, ‘Every Time I Die’, ‘Blacklisters’, ’68’… generally anything loud and ballsy. But mainly we take influence from the church band who rehearse in the room below us, and the homeless people who fight on the doorstep of our practise space.
When it comes to making the music you make, how do you approach it? Free for all jamming, or meticulously constructed piece by piece?
The songs usually come together through a mixture of the two. It usually starts with an idea that AJ (guitarist and mastermind behind the band) has after too many late night shandies. That’s roughly recorded then taken into the lockup where we chip away at all the unnecessary nonsense until you get to the real, raw idea at the core. Then it’s just a case of belting it out as loud as possible.
You recently released your debut EP, Another Minute Made Fiasco, how’d it all come together and how has the reception to it been so far?
The EP was all self-funded and organised, which meant it took considerably longer than we’d hoped to get out there. But reception so far has been great, loads of positive feedback which means we can focus all our energy on live shows.
Speaking of releases, are there any others in the pipeline yet, or a little too soon to tell?
Sam recently released something in the practice room that almost made us throw up, if that’s what you mean?
However if you’re talking music we’ve a fair whack of new stuff, so there’s more than enough to make another EP. The plan’s to try some of it out at the next few gigs to see how it goes down and take it from there.
On record is all well and good, but from the sound of your music it’s in a live setting that it will really go off. Do you have any dates coming up we should know about it?
Our next show’s being put on by ‘Buttonpusher’ in Nottingham at the end of July, where we’re playing with ‘Mothers’ (https://www.facebook.com/motherstheband) and ‘Blind Wives’ (https://www.facebook.com/BlindWives). After that there are a fair few dates floating around the whole of the UK, so we should start to build up momentum pretty soon. That’s the plan at least.
Aside from yourselves, are there any other bands our readers should be getting to know? Bands you’ve played with or know of coming through with you?
There’re loads of great bands out at the moment. Local boys ‘A Pig Called Eggs’ (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Pig-Called-Eggs/213811792005078?sk=timeline) and ‘To The Wall’ (http://www.facebook.com/tothewallband) made up of members of ‘&U&I’ and ‘Shapes’.
Further afield from the Midlands we’re loving ‘Classically Handsome Brutes’ (https://www.facebook.com/ClassicallyHandsomeBrutes) and ‘Irk’ (https://www.facebook.com/irkband) from Leeds, ‘Emilio Largo’ (https://www.facebook.com/EmilioLargoBand) from Edinburgh as well as ‘Alright The Captain’ (https://www.facebook.com/alrightthecaptain) who we’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with.
Outside of the music, what else floats the band’s boats?
We don’t have boats. We should totally get a barge though and take advantage of those canals we’re always hearing about.
Lastly, and obviously most importantly, if you found yourselves in possession of a pet vulture that were especially cultured, what would you call it? Ours goes by Voltaire.
Lunch.
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