Bondax Interview

An exciting duo on the electronic music scene, Bondax have awakened us with uplifting house mixed with soulful groove, to produce a sound far more sophisticated than you’d expect from their young age. Following tracks like ‘Gold’ and ‘Giving It All’, we had a chat with 20-year-old George Townsend and Adam Kaye to discuss production, progression and Disclosure.

Hi Adam, George, how are you?
Hey, we’re good, how are you?

Very well, thanks! Did you have a good weekend?
Yeah, we’re feeling the effects of it right now! We had a really fun weekend!

Excellent! So, it’s been a really great past 12 months or so for you guys and you have such a distinctive sound. One of my favourite songs of yours is ‘Gold’, how did the track come to be?
We made the instrumental in George’s bedroom and he made this beat that had the sound of someone throwing money on the floor – it was funny – and we made it sound melodic and then we sent it to our friend Joe Janiak who smashed it. I actually wrote a poem weirdly before, so we already knew it was going to be called ‘Gold’, and we asked Joe to elaborate on our initial idea, and he’s just such a talented guy, he’s ended up being one of our good friends. At the time we actually didn’t know him that well, so we put our trust in him to write the top line, which is not really how we work anymore, but we did that for ‘Gold’. People underestimate how good he really is; we were pretty pleased with that one.

There’s a very uplifting quality to your sound, is this something you purposefully want to put across?
Yeah, we always went on the basis that we were making music as an escapism rather than a reflection of our situation or opinions. We think that’s how electronic music should be the majority of the time. It’s not literal, people can’t relate to the sound in the sense that they hear it on a day-to-day basis, because they don’t. It’s important that music creates that feeling of escapism and we always wanted to do that in our music. We feel like we have to develop that because it can become a bit boring, just to constantly give “nice” songs. We did always try and make it an escape from wherever you were so you could go into this dreamy space.

Your production seems so sophisticated for your age, how have you come to master this so young?
We have to give a lot to the Internet, to be honest. We made music and put it out, we were lucky that it developed quite fast. We realised that we were making the right music at the right time when the ball started to get rolling and we went with it. There’s a real house music base in England right now, which was not really what we ever intended to do, so we took a step back from that and tried to incorporate our sound in the background. We have to thank Soundcloud, and then just, when a wave comes, people hear your music and that carried us through and gave us the chance to reach a lot of people. We’d never be coming to Australia without the Internet, that’s for sure! We have a small fan base out there without ever going there!

So, George, you dropped out of your A Levels to commit to music and getting contacts in the industry, while Adam continued with his. Was this a mutual decision and was this the point where you decided it was going to be serious?
Adam: I would have liked to have dropped out but it wasn’t really an option for me – my parents wouldn’t have let me! I had to ride it out until it finished and then we got signed as soon as I quit so it was obvious that I didn’t have to go to uni.
George: With me, I’ve always been quite sure of what I wanna do. It was funny because my Dad’s the head teacher and I had to fight against education. I didn’t do badly so everyone was like, “Why are you leaving?” but I could see where we were developing and I realised my whole life was going to be spent trying to get back into the same middle class house that I already lived in, so I thought “why do the same as what a lot of people do?” I just thought, “Fuck it – I’m gonna get this ball rolling!” Even if Adam couldn’t join me yet, I would make sure that when he left school, we were ready to go. And it worked out! You realise that taking the risk and going for it is quite a big thing to do at the time. You’ve just got to take that step if you really love something.

To look at you both, there’s a striking similarity to Disclosure, and you’ve commented that you make slower electronic music in order to not sound like them; do you have to be conscious of setting yourselves apart from anyone else?
I don’t think we ever made it to try and be different to them, but we’ve been mates for years now, even before they had any success. It was purely a case of wanting to do our own thing. Disclosure were already far more developed; they came before us, so they were already a lot further ahead. I guess we’re just very conscious of not becoming just another act. We’re always proud that we make this sound and no music exists like it. It was a fresh idea, now it sounds less fresh because there are a lot of people that have copied it, the idea of it. We’re just trying to make an extension of ourselves.

What are your musical backgrounds personally?
Adam: I started playing guitar when I was about eight, and grew up listening to typical ten-year-old stuff like Green Day, Blink 182, and that changed into indie music and that turned into dance music. As we started making music, we started listening to what we have sampled, like soul music. It’s definitely been a transformation –
George: [Laughs] “A transformation”…
Adam: From Green Day to – it’s quite a big joke! [Laughs]

What about you, George?
I played trumpet when I was in primary school and then I didn’t pay any instruments for a few years. I was actually pursuing being a professional footballer, and then I hit about 15, and hadn’t really hung out with Adam properly and started producing on my own through my cousin who listened to electronic music, and then I found it for myself. I showed it to Adam and it developed from there. We found a world of soul and R&B and folk, and it just came from there.

Are you working on any other projects outside of Bondax?
Not officially. We both make music separately, but we respect each other so for now we just want to make this music together. In time, maybe we’ll make some further projects, potentially.

Which of your heroes have you met since Bondax took off?
We met MJ Cole, which was a big thing for us. We’ve always been into garage, which is a very UK thing to say! But he is a bit of a legend. That was wicked. We met Just Blaze as well, which was pretty cool, a legendary icon in hip-hop production. You do meet a lot of your heroes in this business so it’s pretty amazing.

Who are you yet to meet but would most love to?
There are many, many that we’d love to meet. We’d both love to meet someone like D’Angelo. Although, I have to say, it’s amazing being able to meet your heroes, but sometimes it is quite nice to not meet them on a personal level, so you don’t lose that perception you have. Music’s all about your own interpretation, and if you meet the people that made it and they’re not thinking the way you thought they were, it doesn’t kill it, but it can change the way you perceive the music, and that’s not always the best thing.

Watch Bondax ‘Gold’