Barefoot Confessor chat to Glasswerk

• 1st Oct 2008

Is it harder to be a frontman with a guitar in your hands?

It definitely took some getting used to, it was almost like learning to be a front man again. It has been worth it though as an extra guitar adds so much to our sound. This is a new band and a whole new sound that the acoustic really suits, and it’s great to be able to beef a few songs up with another electric.

How have your festival experiences been this Summer?

We’ve played a handful of small festivals this year which have been really good fun. They’re a great way to play to new people who haven’t heard of us before and try to win them over. It gives you extra incentive to get up there and give everything you’ve got and get people into it and dancing.

You're a West London band. Do you feel there is a local community of bands (a kind of Thamesbeat for 2008) that you feel a part of, or do you prefer to remain independent and just get on with things by yourselves?

There aren’t enough good venues in west London so we end up playing more in central and north London where the decent venues are. I think we’ve always been conscious of not ending up in any scene; if it goes down, the band tend to go down with it. We are just doing our own thing and don’t feel we need to be part of something.

Who have you played alongside recently whose music you have enjoyed?

We played with SixNationState at Redfest who are a great live band. They get everyone going. There are a lot of bands out there but most sound like different versions of each other, it’s always nice to play with someone who’s kind of on their own.

What was the last CD you put on the stereo?

Kings of Leon’s new album. At first we were all a bit dubious about it but it is definitely a grower and a great album!

What’s the most memorable BC experience you have had to date?

Well we’ve only been together for 5 months and we’ve spent most of that holed up in our garage writing and practising so it’s still a bit early for a question like that! We’ve played gigs over the last month or so in front of rooms full of people who haven’t never heard us before and they’ve been getting up to dance and trying to learn the words and sing along. That’s always nice.

Any venues you really want to play that you haven't played yet? Plymouth Argyle FC?

Haha, yeah Home Park would be cool for sure! Not sure we could do that at the moment though, I think we’re still at a Burton Albion / Crawley Town level at the moment, maybe next year! We actually have a gig at Scala coming up towards the end of October which we are all looking forward to. That’s a venue that we have all been to as punters and it will be a real buzz to play it.

Is the current crop of UK bands coming through the system anything to get excited about or has it all been done before?

As far as UK bands go, there is nothing at the moment that really gets us excited. It seems to us that everyone is just regurgitating the same stuff and are all a bit pre-occupied worrying about the tightness of their jeans and colours of their necker-chiefs rather than the music.

What are BCs plans for the next six months or so? Any releases, tours?
We are gigging as much as we can to get as many people to hear us as possible. We’ve just recorded 5 demos with John Fortis which are on our Myspace etc, so yeah, we’re just pushing the band as much as we can really to get out to as many people as possible.