Interview by Arnold van der Walt
Bondax is a name you’ve probably seen during your music scouting excursions. Consisting of George Townsend and Adam Kayle, Bondax have blown up since 2012 and have since garnered more than 54 million views on Youtube on channels such as the influential Majestic Casual, Elctroposè and The Sound You Need and they’ve received even more streams on Spotify due to the global success of tracks like their rework of Backstreet’s ‘No Diggity’, ‘Giving It All’, ‘All I See’, ‘Temptation’ and their remix of Alunageorge’s smash hit, ‘You Know I Like It’.
Their eclectic sound crosses all genre-norms as they refuse to be put into a single box. Their music draws influences from disco, hip-hop, jazz, soul, and house (just to name a few). It’s evident that the world has fallen in love with Bondax, which is why they’ve decided to grace our ears with their debut album, ‘Revolve’ which was released recently via Recur Recordings. The duo also recently launched their own imprint, founding Recur Recordings with plans to sign loads of artists that fit their sound that might not be able to get recognition elsewhere. Not ones to let the grass grow beneath their feet, while they were busy recording the new album and setting up their own label, they’ve also been regularly releasing their very own podcast, Bondax presents Recur, which sees the duo dive into their expansive record collection alongside names such as Maribou State, Andreya Triana, Shy Luv, Crayon and Jadu Heart.
We sat down with Bondax and spoke about their debut album, their imprint Recur Recordings and how the duo manages to create their genre-crossing sounds.
Hey there Bondax! Thank you for chatting to The Playground! What have you been up to today?
This morning I woke & cycled out into the Yorkshire Hills, now I’m preparing music & information for our Recur podcast.
To those not familiar with your diverse soulful soundscapes, how would you describe your sound?
Mainly inspired by funk, soul & UK dance music, it’s an amalgamation of the styles we love & listen to.
Seeing as you’re a duo, what does each of you bring to the table of Bondax?
I (George) am generally more interested in the sounds & Adam in the melodies, but our roles are fluid. We each take different creative positions in each song we make depending on its meaning.
You recently released your debut album, ‘Revolve’. What has the reaction to this been like?
Amazing and a pleasure to hear people enjoy something that we’ve worked hard to release independently too.
What was the creative process behind ‘Revolve’ like?
The songs were accumulated over a long period of time, so the process has been fairly drawn out. It’s heavily based around our home however the concept gave us a broader structure to fit the songs into. Creatively it’s been about finding a way to explore all the sides of musical personalities & parallel them with experiences in our lives so far.
Is there a specific song on the album for each of you that’s more special than the others?
Yes, but in a way I think it’s unimportant because for the listener this isn’t something we think they need to know. Hopefully there will be something in there for whoever chooses to listen!
The album covers a wide array of genres, constantly bleeding into hip-hop, disco, soul, etc. How did you manage to fit such a wide variety of styles on a single album?
By allowing the arc concept to dictate where the songs lead. Following the form of a day we felt gave us the free roam to explore sides of the project we hadn’t previously experimented with. Each track fits a different part of our day & a different memory so the songs represent all kinds of moments in our lives, to do this in only one genre didn’t make sense to us hence the eclectic nature of the record.
The album features a lot of collaborations from all over the music scene. How did you manage to end up working with each of these artists?
It’s a combination of friends and artists whom we already loved. With the support of our team, we made these hypothetical ideas reality!
Take us through your songwriting process. Are there any particular steps you take when putting music together?
Knowing why you’re making the piece of music is the most important step, from there the process becomes fluid. The technical approach becomes truly exciting when the core of the idea exists & we can start experimenting with unusual sounds on our synthesizers, guitars, drum machines & so on, but without a feeling to build the song around we find we’re often trying to pull emotion from a machine.
Gary Numan is quoted as saying: “I have always been far more interested in sound than technique, and how sounds work together, how they can be layered. I think electronic music, (in its infancy anyway) allowed us to create music in a way that hadn’t really been possible before. It created a new kind of musician.” What are your thoughts on this statement?
Extremely true and relatable although it could be said of many styles of music in their infancy.
Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, which do you prefer?
I’m not sure, I love both but maybe the studio in the fact that the creative process is endless and gives me a sense of worth that performing doesn’t always provide.
You started your own imprint recently. How did Recur Recordings come to fruition?
It’s been an aim to bring back an imprint since we started our first label ‘Just Us’. It felt natural to progress and bring a new label to support sounds we feel are not being given the support they deserve.
To anyone not currently listening to your podcast: what do they need to know, why must they listen and what have they been missing out on?
The podcast is different from month to month. We have a chat about why we’ve picked certain records, what touring entails & general ramble. We bring in a new artist every month who is given a cheque to go and grab a bag of records which we play on the show. All the tracks that can be streamed end up on a Spotify playlist on our channel so you can add them to your personal collection or go buy the vinyl itself.
Any new artists on your radar? What 3 songs do you currently have on heavy rotation?
New Artists: JGrrey, Bobby Oroza, and Nick Dorian.
Our heavy rotation:
Bobby Oroza – Should I Take You Home
Franc Moody – Pheromones
Durand Jones & The Indications – Is It Any Wonder
Before we say goodbye, what does the future hold for Bondax?
More music, more shows & a little more funk shit
Famous last words…
Hey up sexies.
Follow Bondax:
Facebook // Twitter // Soundcloud // Instagram // Spotify
