Sonic Boom Six
Sonic Boom Six are one of the most exciting, relevant bands to come out of Manchester in quite some time.
We caught up with singer Laila K and bassist/vocalist Barney Boom to talk about their tour, new single 'For The Kids of The Multiculture', and to get their in-depth thoughts about the UK riots and political music
-Recently you were back in Manchester for a homecoming show. How was it?
Laila K: It was amazing. Yeah, it was really good, really busy. The vibe was...well, we've not had that kinda vibe for the last few years in Manchester. The gigs are always really good, but from the minute we started the intro, everyone just went mental. They didn't stop - we played like an hour and ten minutes, and the whole time everyone was moving and singing along. There were a lot of new faces.
-What do you think of the scene in Manchester at the moment?
Barney: For the punk stuff we're part of, it's got really, really good. There was a lull for a couple of years where there was a changing of the guard in terms of promoters. Recently, the scene's got really good in Manchester with the rock-side of things. It's on the up again.
Laila: You know it's good, cos every night you get invited to a gig. Two or three days a week there's someone good playing.
-There have been some disappoints on the tour, including the Sunderland show being pulled.
Laila: Yeah, that totally, totally sucked. It was out of our hands - we sold tickets, but the promoter...I don't want to bad-mouth him too much, but the day before, it was pulled. The promoter just disappeared. We are gonna make it up to people. We're gonna head out early next year at some point and play Sunderland, or the North East.
-Moving onto 'For The Kids of The Multiculture', how's the reaction been since the video came out?
Barney: It's been fantastic. We've had more exposure to new people over the last few weeks than we ever had before. We've been on music channels, it's getting played on the radio. We hoped it'd get played, but we thought the lyrics might be a bit too wayward for a lot of conservative radio stations.
It's a good indicator of what to expect from the album, which is more of me rapping, Laila doing the hooks and choruses. In a way, it's a much heavier sound, more metal than the punk stuff we've grown up playing. At the same time, the hooks are bigger and it's more poppier in certain ways as well.
Laila: The lyrical content has stayed very much Sonic Boom Six. We've not strayed a million miles away from what we've written about in the past.
-Well musically, 'Sunny Side of the Street' was a big departure. Were you surprised it was so well-received?
Laila: No, not really.
Barney: It 'Sunny Side of the Street' was something I'd just written in my bedroom. It wasn't something we'd got together and jammed, it was just an idea. We could take it or leave it, but it got to the point where we knew we'd have to record the album, we new we had a summer with a lot of festivals.
It was a point of we know what direction the album's going in - it's going to be a lot heavier and keep the political message in the lyrics, but a bit poppier. Then we've got this song that we all have fun playing, we'd demoed it, so why not do a proper version of it and video, and push it out to the summer festivals.
It's funny, cos that was getting played on The Box! Yeah it's our poppiest and most conventional, but there's still subversive edge to the lyrics.
It's coming from a place where it's not that hard to image us all on a beach around a campfire singing that protest song in an acoustic tradition. It was just something that we hadn't done before, and we did it. It'll remain one of those songs we can always play live.
-In between that video and 'For The Kids of The Multiculture' there were the riots. Does the band have a particular stance on the politics of it?
Barney: Yeah, but I've always sort of loathed to draw myself out and say something in terms of an interview. It's all there in terms of the lyrics on the next album. It's funny, cos there's a song that's called 'Flatline' on the new album. It took the longest time we've ever taken to write a song. We wrote all the music for it, and basically I couldn't write the lyrics, a hook, anything.
Finally, when the whole riots kicked off, I was there that night literally sat on my laptop writing the lyrics. I had to vacate my house, cos there were kids outside on the industrial estate right near us. I had to go to my mates house, he had to pick us up and take us away.
The next day, I finished the lyrics for 'Flatline', and that's basically my stance on it. The interesting thing with the riots, and we tried to put this in the video for 'Kids of the Multiculture', is that anything you said that wasn't "Okay, those...chavs," - not to mention people going "Oh it's all black people", and that's most polite way of saying it.
If you didn't have that stance, it was almost like for that couple of days, people would be like "Oh, they're all bastards, aren't they? All those chavs and blacks that do the riots!" If you went...yeah, but - you were apologising and defending them.
It's that mentality - 'Kids of the Multiculture' was written about a similar thing, blaming Muslims for everything. I just thought it'd be interesting if the video for 'Kids of the Multiculture' didn't have a video about that, but about the riots.
It uses the riots as a backdrop to extend this metaphor, this idea of the riots against the whole Muslim and Islam issue. It's basically about judging people on their appearance, and shifting the blame for the economy and all this stuff going on - it protests everything.
The economy going out of control, all the NHS services ripped to shreds, all these things on people's minds. You can either keep on open mind about it, or blame someone else.
With the riots, there was a lot of that. You label it, you negate it. You put a label on something, and suddenly you're not it - it's someone else doing it. That's what makes me so...just flabbergasted at the EDL and that kind of mentality.
They are so obsequious to the government, because there is nothing more that the government wants us to do. They say they're independent thinkers - no. There's nothing that the government wants more than for us to be blaming ourselves, our own communities, instead of blaming them and holding them responsible.
We might meet somebody from the EDL in the street and think they're a nice bloke - they're not walking around wringing people's necks. It's just disconnecting in terms of the reality of the situation in this country, and what their solution for it is. Their solution is to go "She's brown, it's her fault."
-Do you think it's important, then, that bands like yourselves and The King Blues are honestly tackling these issues, rather than just blaming people?
Barney: Yeah. In terms of the state of the country, it's as much a breaking point as it was in the early '80s. You did have these bands in the radio. It's not a big conspiracy - I don't think us or King Blues have written a song as good as Ghost Town, or anybody else you want to mention. To a certain extent, it's apples and oranges, but yeah.
It's nice that we're getting recognised, and definitely The King Blues have carved out their own space in the industry. I wish more bands...you get bands like Faithless, bands who make great pop music, but then still have the political songs. That's great.
On one hand, I would like more bands to talk about stuff and engage in these kinds of issues, but you'll never sit down with the singer of the Arctic Monkeys and say "Alex, you need to write more songs about the government." It's up to them, isn't it?
We know, from the minute we started being a punk band, that you can have an effect on people. It's a small thing, but it's important for people to engage in. That's what we've always been about.
We're not militant left-wing fanatics telling people how to live their life. It's just...we're all in this together, let's have some conscience and some thought for the way we live our lives, instead of sitting in front of the tele saying “This is the way it is. We are normal, they are not normal."
That's the point, there is no normal anymore. We've been told that we don't look like a rock band, and we're chavs - the way everybody interacts is so unfortunately tunnel-visioned. The band's always been about pushing those walls down and opening things up.
-In terms of the airplay you've been getting, people like Mike Davies have been spinning the new single. What kind of influence does he have on the punk scene in the UK?
Laila: I think he's the only person that has any influence higher up, cos it certainly isn't supported by any other Radio 1 DJs or anything. I went to Reading this year, and we went to the Lock Up Stage - I enjoyed myself.
I'm glad there's someone like Mike Davies who hasn't been pushed out of a major festival like that, and that he can still bring bands and play bands like us, The Skints, The King Blues. I think he tries his best.
Whether he's starting to lose his battle or not, I don't know. It goes through waves, doesn't it? He got moved from the 9pm show to the late show. I think the fact that he's still representing underground punk music is a great thing. As long as he's doing it, it's good for everyone.
-What stage is the new album at?
Laila: It's done. Completely finished.
-Any news on a release date yet?
Laila: We've just got new management and a new team. We're hoping early next year, but that can change. We've pencilled in March, April time next year, but that might change.
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