Posted by South London’s Bamily are long-time friends Tim, Charlie, Louis, and Benjy. Their latest EP is called ‘Family With A B’ to give you a sense of their tongue in cheek nature. The four-piece have made music together for around seven years together although they were an indie outfit under a different name before becoming what Bamily is today.
“We’ve known either for ages. We were all at school with each other at one point or another, except Tim and Benjy,” explains Louis before adding: “We realised that, actually, we want to modernise our sound and we have so many influences from such a wide range of genres… We decided that getting rid of the drum kit and having Benjy out as our front man and using DJ decks in a more hip hop-y way would be a better way forward for us”.
This change in direction enabled the band to use their wide range of influences more than they had been able to previously. Indeed, Bamily’s influences range from J Dilla to Frank Ocean and Bruce Springsteen to Beastie Boys, depending on which member you ask.
Their latest single is ‘Together Whatever’ with which they continue to push boundaries and fusing genres when it comes to their sound. Benjy says: ”It is a tune about your squad, your nearest and dearest. It started off with me and it was kind of like a love letter to Bamily, as it was”.
Cue the other guys playfully interjecting with “Awww”s…
Benjy continues: “It’s kind of about hanging about with your crew on a night out and that kind of feeling of euphoria when you’re with your nearest and dearest”.
When asked to describe their new EP ‘Family With A B’, Tim and Charlie immediately respond with “Banger!” (And they’re not wrong).
“It’s a good expression of everything,” Tim adds. “I thought it was a nice range of songs. It was nice that we had music that was like living room kind of ‘singer songwriter’ stuff but also (we had) the big anthems for live shows”.
Benjy picks up on this: “I think it hopefully sounds like hanging out with us…”
The band have hosted some epic ‘Bamily Affair’ nights and they hope these nights will continue “after all this madness”. They started these unconventionally located (from club venues to forests) and sometimes secret gigs and parties in London using drum kits and live DJ sets.
“They started as kind of an idea of…Well, basically, because most of us and our mates we weren’t really going to gigs, we were going to nights and we’re often writing music for nights out so we kind of wanted to have an event along with the gigs we were doing so it was kind of that – it was a night out,” insists Benjy.
What’s next for Bamily? The guys are in a period of writing at the moment and “honing down” the songs they have been working on. And of course, looking forward to “throwing some more parties”.
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Words: Narzra Ahmed
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