Interview with Bantams: ‘It’s pretty different to ‘Coronaville’ and everything we’ve worked on so far, we wanted to make people dance’

Philadelphia and Nashville-based indie pop band Bantams is working on their third album, which is set for release early next year with a new single, “Sucralose’, out soon.

Bantams comprises Chris Rathke (Philadelphia) on lead vocals, keys, guitar, percussion and bass and James Hoag (Nashville) on guitar, bass, keys and drums. They met on their first day of university in Nashville in 2017: ‘Chris got talking to me and was like “Do you know what’s going on?” and we bonded over similar taste in music but then I forgot about Chris (laughs),’ James said. ‘My roommate had taken his number and we reconnected when we started classes.’ Together they spent the next two years writing and producing their album, Gettysburg Sorority (2019). I would never have guessed the provenance of their name: it turns out that it’s a reference to the nickname of the West Yorkshire football club, Bradford City: ‘I’m a huge soccer fan and I really liked their yellow/maroon uniforms!,’ Chris said.

They describe the upcoming album as sounding like ‘death goes to the disco’. Their next single – with the working title of ‘Sucralose’ – marks a new direction for the duo: ‘It’s pretty different to ‘Coronaville’ and everything we’ve worked on so far, we wanted to make people dance,’ James said. Chris nods: ‘I’d say it’s a true pop song.’ James jumps back in: ‘I’d been working on the instrumentals of this song and said to Chris, “If you like it, we can work on it.” I left for 2-3 hours to do something and he finished the song.’ Chris describes the track as being about ‘having fun and being mad at the world’: ‘When we were thinking about this album, we’d been inside for eight months, we were like “Let’s go outside and do some dumb stuff!”‘.

‘Coronaville’, which they released as a single last year, epitomises what everyone has lived through in the past year: ‘Chris sent it to me as a demo and I wasn’t sure about it,’ James confessed. ‘But it did pretty well on Spotify. I have the name rights to the song!’

‘My goal is to make stuff that’s accessible but technically holds its own’

Gettysburg Sorority, their second album, neatly encapsulates what they’re about: ‘I’m from Pennsylvania, Gettysburg is there, so it represents the college culture and going to college in the middle of nowhere and being swept up in all that,’ Chris said. ‘People assume it’s also a reference to the speech (President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in 1864), so there’s that aspect, too.’ James interjects: ‘Chris, with Gettysburg – haha, I’m interviewing you now – did you know you wanted to write an album at college?’ Chris laughs: ‘Yes, I transferred and we were working on new songs. I like us to be called indie pop, my goal is to make stuff that’s accessible but technically holds its own, it’s that intersection of accessibility and trying to be smart.’ James is nodding: ‘Chris is very theory-orientated but my brain doesn’t work that way, so we try to meet in the middle, I hold him accountable!’ Such an approach is also hugely beneficial to Chris: ‘It’s easier to write stuff that’s more experimental because now I have someone to tell me when something is terrible!’ James is laughing: ‘Oh, I do tell him and he tells me, too!’

For me, one of my favourite songs on Gettysburg Sorority is ‘Noise’, which lives up to its title, opening with a grungy bass line, feathery drums and a pan-pipe sounding synth. ‘Actually, we wrote it the first day of college,’ Chris said. ‘James was playing the ascending riff and his roommate Liam helped out. We didn’t leave the room for three days! It’s about any noise, really. My thing is that I like to keep things open-ended, lyrically. I like to write moods and generalise so that people can put themselves into it.’ James joins in: ‘Chris is being modest, I think his writing is very referential to the media we consumed at that time. Chris will write almost all of the lyrics and I’ll say “You should throw this in a song” and he’ll put it in to please me.’

As the chorus goes: ‘Dead of night, passing home, separate cars, one way phone. Is it better off quiet? All the noise is setting me on fire.’

James describes Nashville as ‘oversaturated’ when it comes to music: ‘I hail from Phoenix, Arizona, where you have three or four genres but in Nashville, there’s everything. I love Gnarwhal here (a math-punk band), they’re incredible musicians, I’d love to see them play tonight.’ Chris would like to go to a Briston Maroney gig : ‘He puts out alt-pop, radio friendly songs.’

‘Every time I hear a song, I want to use some of it in one of our songs’

Growing up, Chris listened to artists such as Bruce Springsteen – his parents’ favourite artist – as well as Billy Joel and The Beatles: ‘Personally, I also listened to a lot of Modern Baseball (a Philly rock band), Bleachers (a New York pop band). Jack Antonoff (the lead singer of Bleachers) is my god. I’ve also been influenced by Tito Fuentes and other Latin jazz artists. Every time I hear a song, I want to use some of it in one of our songs.’ Other factors also come into play: ‘A common theme is that we find characters in music inspiring, even if we don’t like their music,’ James said. ‘Like Bret Michaels in Poison for his energy, that aura, more than the music.’

James grew up listening to a lot of classic rock: ‘I had a pretty huge obsession with Rush but as I got into high school and playing in punk bands, I started discovering a lot of really unique bands that were doing really cool things,’ he said. ‘I’d say the musicians that have had the most influence on my style are Ruban Nielson of The Mint Chicks and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Zack Schwartz of Glocca Morra and Spirit of the Beehive, and a lot of artists off of Exploding in Sound like Porches, Ovlov, and Pile.’

If he could hear one of their songs on any TV show, James plumps for Chef’s Table, the Emmy-nominated Netflix series where some of the most renowned chefs in the world share their personal stories, inspirations and unique styles. ‘I’d like to hear ‘Fairmount Park’ on that. It was a very cathartic song for me, I wrote the guitar riff before college and Chris fleshed it out and brought it to life.’ Chris picks Nickelodeon show, GUTS, officiated by English actress Moira Quirk. ‘It was like the American Gladiators in the 90’s but with children,’ he joked. ‘The kids would all compete with each other on these crazy obstacle courses.’ If he could collaborate with anyone musically, Chris is quick to say Stevie Wonder. ‘You didn’t even have to think about it!,” said James, looking amazed. ‘Yeah,’ Chris grinned. ‘We’d make him look so much better! I’d love to be on a Modern Baseball tour as well, or with The Police.’ James is still trying to decide who to pick: ‘That’s a tough one. Spirit of the Beehive, they’re out of Philly. My guitar part is heavily influenced by them, so to tour with them would be cool.’