‘Kids vs Guns‘ perfectly brings in that tie to more recent times compared to past conflicts, is this song a reflection on the general state of the world and its current conflicts or was there something specific that spoke to you.
The album is very obviously a reflection of the troubles of the past and what continues to build in current times, but outside of that theme, is there any specific statement you would want the fans to take away from this album?
I think a statement we’d want fans to take away is that this feels like a real evolution of our sound for us. It’s something we’ve worked very hard on and wanted to show a new side while keeping it somewhat in the “Basht world” sonically. We hope fans hear and appreciate this growth.
‘Terror TV‘, a glaring reflection on the state of current media and it’s fearmongering, ties the taction’s used of the past and the present together of instilling mass panic, was there any specific instances that inspired this song?
I guess one of the main inspirations for ‘Terror TV’ was just some of the crazy stuff we’d be seeing regularly on social media. Being on the road touring, you’re scrolling on your phone quite a lot so it became very normal to see horrible things out of nowhere. I suppose it was a response to the normality of seeing such appalling stuff on a daily basis.
‘Moth‘ splits up the song by being a more melancholic love song, standing alone from the others, what would you say is the main link between the rest of the album and this song?
The main link for me would be the instrumentation and dynamics. Tonally and vibe wise it does initially feel quite different, but it really is quite similar to the other slower songs on the record such as Superchurch or poor advice.
‘Kids vs Guns‘ perfectly brings in that tie to more recent times compared to past conflicts, is this song a reflection on the general state of the world and its current conflicts or was there something specific that spoke to you.
It’s definitely a reflection on the general state of the world. There are of course more personal elements that reflect conflicts of the past, but it was mainly written as a direct response to whats going on now.
Why did you feel this is the best time to release an album with such a strong message?
We’ve been working hard for 5 years now so it just felt like the right time overall. The message within the album is strong because I think we’d always wanted it to be. We’ve spent years writing and playing live and recording EPs so it finally felt like the right time to release a debut record.
What would you say were your biggest artistic influences, was there any artists or specific songs that directly influenced the album?
There were many influences on this album between the four of us. We all have an eclectic range of influences and inspirations across the band. We pretty unanimously saw trip hop acts such as massive attack and portishead as being main influences on this record, particularly because we recorded in Bristol (the home of trip hop).
Are there any artists you are looking forward to touring with, in the future?
There’s several artists we’d all love to go on the road with at some point. Bands like Pixies, Fontaines D.C., The Strokes or Deftones would all be incredible to share the stage with some day. There’s honestly too many to name.
Now that the album is complete, what is the next step for Basht.?
The next step for us would be just to keep doing what we’re doing, writing and rehearsing as much as we can, playing shows and seeing countries we’ve never been to. The exciting thing for us is that we have an opportunity to do this whole album journey again in the future, but use it as a chance to evolve and show our growth. We’re all really excited for what the future holds!
