INTERVIEW: Passive on their highlight of 2018 and new single ‘Like This’

INTERVIEW: Passive on their highlight of 2018 and new single ‘Like This’ INTERVIEW: Passive on their highlight of 2018 and new single ‘Like This’. London’s currently teeming with young talent, and North-London newcomers PASSIVE are without a doubt, no exception to the trend. Gaining some decent press on previous single ‘Premonitions’ from the likes of Gigslutz and more, as well as some recognition from London-based tastemaker radio stations, securing slots at numerous festivals across the country and packing out esteemed London venues like The Camden Assembly and The Water Rats; exhibiting their buzzy live-performance they’ve already in check, they’re now releasing their second official release.
Hey Passive – welcome to BBM. What’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to each of you this year?
Kieran Trippier’s free kick against Croatia without a shadow of a doubt, being in walkabout covered in carling, desperado and god knows what .
For those who haven’t heard your music yet, how would you best describe your sound?
We always say indie rock, which is what we believe, but sometimes it’s what people might find quite typical. Recently however, some have said we’re indie-grunge after seeing us live, which we are cool with. Our set-list at the moment certainly has a lot less synths, which may be the reason for things sounding a bit harder.
Can you tell us the message behind ‘Like This’?
Like This was a song that Elliott wrote about a particular relationship a long time ago. Originally, the song had quite a positive meaning – that ‘when (relationships are bad) it’s like this, I’ll do what I do best (to fix things of course)’. Upon reflection, Elliott may have been putting his head in the sand a little. We wanted the album art to represent this. The Burial of Atala by Roussy-Trioson depicts a man who’s closing his eyes, gripping his partner’s legs and hoping for the best.
How did the project Passive materialise?
We’ve all known each other since school and have been playing with each other and have been growing our musical tastes together for nearly 5 years now, however ‘Passive’ only started in July 2017. Since then we’ve been playing a London show every month, if not more.

INTERVIEW: Passive on their highlight of 2018 and new single ‘Like This’ Where do you all tend to write your music, do you think it influences your style at all?
If the song is written by one of us in the band then it tends to be quite a personal space such as your room or somewhere comfortable and alone. However, we are spending more and more time in practice and recording studios. We’ve found that if we use a similar set for gigs, then practicing them isn’t too much stress and we use that spare stress/time to write and work on new material. I think it’s important a studio looks and feels like it has a personality, and we find that the best ones do, and that definitely influences our style and mood of writing. It also means we walk away from God worthy studios like RAK, Strongroom, or Tileyard and can say “we wrote that banger there”.
When was the last time you guys had a proper holiday and where did you go?
Amsterdam! It was great. The dream is to go back there and play a gig one day. A couple of us should be going to Berlin early 2019 which we are excited for. The best thing about going away with the band is that you automatically want to see the underground or small ‘music scenes’ of different cities, which is what we intend to do!
Who would be each of your dream collabs?
I recently listened to one of George Ezra’s podcasts, and I have to say Elton John would be a great person to collaborate with and I can imagine only a select few get the chance to do so. Phil (guitarist) would say Anderson Paak, and Matt (drummer) would say big Noel G. Josh (Bassist) would say Thundercat.
Each of you, name a record you couldn’t live without?
Phil: David Gray – White Ladder. It’s been the top CD in the car from an early age.
Josh: Palace – Break The Silence. Chillest vibes ever.
Matt: (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? It made me wanna join a band.
Elliott: Billy Joel – The Stranger . . couldn’t live without.
Stream ‘Like This’ below.

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