Joe Taylor, Sam Nadel and Adam Newton, winners of last year's Glastonbury unsigned competition reflect on the last year and the year to come.
R13:What are BlackBud currently obsessed with?
AN: Stop motion animation. It's the latest thing I've got into, that seems a bit random actually, but anyway it's when you animate an object by taking a single frame of it, then moving it a bit and taking another frame of it. It's how they animate Wallace and Gromit and Morph.
SN: Pretty random Adam.
JT: Our other obsession is writing songs.
SN We're writing and recording the album at the moment. We actually have done a couple of EPs and some of those songs are on the album. That's basically what we're doing with our lives at the moment.
R13: It's been a year since you won Glastonbury unsigned and signed a record deal. What have been the highlights of the past year?
JT: It's been a fairly slow build. The record company hasn't pushed us really hard which is a good thing. We've done a lot of touring, a lot of work. I guess one of the main highlights was recording at Olympic Studios, which we just did and we recorded the first EP in Rockfield, Wales (nr. Monmouth). That came out a couple of weeks ago. When we do a really good show then that's a highpoint.
SN: A good show for me was when we played in Holland about two months back, Amsterdam, there was some kind of national day...
AN: Queen's Birthday.
SN: We played in a festival called London Calling with bands like Kaiser Chiefs, Nine Black Alps and Tom Vek. We played to a packed venue. The whole city was drunk I think and partying. It was wild.
AN: We all met a hero of ours, Jimmy Page, a couple of weeks ago in London. He came to one of our gigs and really enjoyed it, as we spoke afterwards.
R13: Off to play at Glastonbury in a couple of days. What can the crowds expect from Blackbud?
SN: Working on that now.
JT: Some new songs and nudity on stage.
SN: Stunts, crazy stunts and we're constructing a stonehenge structure.
R13: What about hybrid instruments? [note that Adam had an acoustic guitar-melodica instrument]
SN: If he uses that on stage I'll kill him...
AN: It might make a debut at Glastonbury, I'm not sure yet.
JT: You'll probably find Adam sitting in a random tent playing a cross between a bass and a melodica.
AN: A melodi-bass, the only one of it's kind!
R13: Is there anything over the past year you've regretted saying 'yes' to?
SN: I think some of the freshers balls haven't been the greatest gigs. We don't mind playing to people that just want to drink and have a good time. I've casually watched a gig when I'm drunk. But some of the freshers balls we did last year, there were just thousands of people there with absolutely no intention of listening to you.
JT: We were just competing with the disco.
SN: So you're trying to do a really gentle emotional moment in the song and in the back ground it's just ch ch ch ch ch.
AN: It was character building though. It helped us learn about the songs really. If you're in that situation you really learn about what's going to grab someone. Even if you know it's not going to make a massive impact you have to try as hard as you can to make everything great and significant, just try and get people to listen. I don't know if we regret them but they weren't very good gigs. But the new thing for us will be gigging when we've got some releases under our belt. We're just hoping to play to audiences that have heard our recordings. That's the next stage for us really.
R13: Do you have people singing back to you at shows yet?
JT: Yeah, they are, it can be a bit off putting but yeah!
SN: Just locally really.
AN: No, we've had it all over the place like you remember Scotland?
SN: There's always a few. We've only just brought out our first national release.
AN: We went to this tiny little place Liverpool, no no no...[confers with friend]
JT: We have some really loyal fans.
AN: Where was it that we found that 'Fuck-Off Machete' sticker. Derby, that's it!
R13: So what advice would you give the band that won Glastonbury unsigned this year?
AN: If they've won they probably don't need any advice.
SN: We talked to the band that won it actually, The Deadbeats. They won the place on the stage this year and they seemed quite grounded and really excited. I guess for people entering is that Glastonbury's such a great festival it doesn't really matter. A lot of people think they'll be too heavy or too soft and that's the great thing it's so eclectic and so many different styles that everthing goes really.
R13: What are you looking forward to at Glastonbury?
AN: A band called The Infadels.
SN: Willy Mason.
JT: Probably when I get there I'll see what I want to go see, there's so much to do.
SN: Willy Mason.
R13: As you're only young, when was the last time you got IDed?
AN: The other day in London. In fact I got IDed twice at the System Of A Down gig. It was annoying.
JT: I guess when we started everyone was saying how young we were but two years on... We're still a young band but with a lot more experience. We've done a lot of gigs and worked hard for people of our age.
R13: Our site gave your EP 3/13 review, stick up for it!
JT: I think the music should stand up for itself. A lot of people write a review because they want to be funny, or make a name for themselves.
AN: Not that we're saying Roomthirteen does that by the way.
SN: I think people make their own minds up though.
JT: A bad review is still going to make people think, wonder why it's so bad. Publicity is good for a band even if it's a bad review. I guess most people will like it because it's got a general appeal, across the universe.
SN: Human or otherwise.
R13: If Ozzy Osbourne and Michael Eavis had a wrestle 'for peace' who do you think would win?
AN: Well it'd be Michael Eavis anyway wouldn't it. He's like a big strong farmer and Ozzy's an old man.
SN: Is Michael Eavis hard? He's got a bit of muscle on him. When he unleashes his anger he's probably quite strong.
AN: All farmers are strong.
SN: Especially if you're on their land.
R13: Except for Glastonbury, what are Blackbud currently working on?
JT: We're about to start recording the album. The new EP is available on our website.
SN: Another EP coming out in September, that's going to lead to a single.
R13: Any names you can let us into?
SN: We haven't got a name for anything yet. It's just being mastered today.
JT: The 'Livewire EP' is the one out now and the next one is either going to be... 'Steal Away' or 'Heartbeat' is going to be the single track. We haven't decided yet. But we're playing both of them tonight.
R13: Future gigs?
JT:Glastonbury at the weekend, a couple of shows over Glastonbury, one in late and live on Saturday night at 2.00 in the morning or something like that.
SN: Doing festivals, Hyde Park, Wireless. One in Sweden called Malmo, T in the Park. We're not doing many but next year we'll be doing more after releasing the album..
A review of Blackbud's 'Livewire EP' can be found here.