Interview with BathTub: ‘Olly has all these effects in his mind that he likes to add in’

Stoke-on-Trent new rock duo, BathTub, released their grungily energetic single, ‘Fallin’ Thru’, earlier this month and now have three new singles in the works, including ‘Friday Night’.

BathTub comprises Olly (vocals and guitar) and Brandon (drums). They had a bass player until the release of their album Get Ducked (which humorously also references their duck symbol). When their bass player, Tyler, left the band a month after the album’s release, they decided to push forward as a duo. ‘Olly and I knew each other in high school but we didn’t like each other back then,’ Brandon laughed. ‘I started the band will Alex, who’s left (he was replaced by Tyler). We were in year 9 at school and we put all these ideas into a scrap book, hang on, I’ll show you. (He disappears off camera and comes back with a book and starts flicking through it to show me.) We did all this artwork and we had a long list of names. One possibility was The Smokey Monkeys! We’ve got a duck as our symbol, so BathTub seemed like a good fit!’

‘Fallin’ THRU’ kicks off with fuzzy, grungy riffs and massive drums. It’s hard to believe that there are just two of them in the band, given how huge their sound is. When I say this to Brandon, he laughs: ‘Olly has all these effects in his mind that he likes to add in. This song is more dynamic, we got more aggressive towards the bridge, this song gets me going, the fans give the love back to us when we play it live, we’ll play it towards the end of a set.’

Their clever usage of modern technologies and pitch shifting effects, coupled with infectious bass guitar hooks and hard-hitting lyrics makes the song stand out. ‘Fallin’ THRU’ is also their attempt to bring rock ‘back to the surface’, according to Brandon. The track itself is about a toxic relationship in the past and the track’s relentless pace and aggressive breakdowns perfectly encapsulate the emotions at play. They describe it thus: ‘Sometimes no matter how bad things are, you just can’t help wanting to give things another go.’

As the song goes: ‘There’s been no peace since 1998, who’d have thought three months would be too late? Well, to be honest. baby, I never got tired of you, just tired of the wall that you always left me talking to.’

‘Rock music’s not as popular any more, is it?,’ Brandon said. ‘It’s all about things like rap, which I don’t mind as I’m a rapper as well. In the song, Olly’s obsessing over a girl he can’t get at. He wrote scraps over lockdown. I think with this one, the chorus came to him randomly and the riff came after that.’

‘It’s about going out on a Friday night and experiencing some stuff’

Next up are their three new singles, ‘Citrus’, ‘Friday Night’ and ‘Oiled Up’ ‘We just need to get into the studio to record them,’ Brandon said. ‘I think we might release ‘Friday Night’ first. ‘Oiled Up’ is the longest, it’s about 5 minutes.’ He describes ‘Friday Night’ as being ‘about another girl’: ‘ It’s about going out on a Friday night and experiencing some stuff.’

They released their debut album, Get Ducked, in 2019, a nine-track album, which references their duck logo (it used to be bubbles). ‘The bubbles never really caught on,’ Brandon said. Brandon is certainly committed to their name – at some point during out chat, he rolls up his sleeve to show me his BATHTUB tattoo that takes up most of his left forearm, complete with intermingled scratch mark tattoos. One of the tracks on the album, ‘Two-Way Glass’ is quite reflective and is essentially about your reflection in the mirror and what you really see, according to Brandon.

Brandon says they work better as duo, particuarly in light of Olly and Tyler’s infighting: ‘They used to fall out a lot,’ he said. ‘Once, in a gig, Tyler turned his amp volume down by half and Tyler didn’t notice until halfway through when he turned it back up!’

They have been heavily influenced by Canadian rock band, Cleopatrick. Brandon is also a huge fan of Limp Bizkit, an American rap rock band from Jacksonville, Florida, as well as American rapper, Tyga. He also really likes indie rock band Filth and Animals as Leaders, an American instrumental progressive metal band from Washington. ‘As a drummer, I find their drummer, Matt Garstka, amazing. He’s spent 20 years learning his craft. He’s so dynamic, he’s even better than Dave Grohl!’

If he could tour with anyone, Brandon goes with Nirvana: ‘It’s got to be. Kurt Cobain, he didn’t care, did he? He was unapologetic, he got the crowd going. For me, the music isn’t even so good, how did they get so famous? Did they get elevated after he died? Maybe we should do that!’

(Photo from left to right: Olly and Brandon)