Bosh
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Today we have the honour of interviwing Dave Griffiths frontman of rock band Bosh, keep reading to find out about brothers in a band, festivals and atmospheric songs.
Bosh have been a band since 1996, tell us a bit of history about the band?
Bosh began life as myself, my brother Mike on drums, my sister Amy on keyboards and our Dad adding some electric guitar. We recorded a song together in a studio my Dad and his mates had built in a garden shed! I called us BOSH after 'The Book of Bosh' by Edward Lear, which I was reading at...
Read More Today we have the honour of interviwing Dave Griffiths frontman of rock band Bosh, keep reading to find out about brothers in a band, festivals and atmospheric songs.
Bosh have been a band since 1996, tell us a bit of history about the band?
Bosh began life as myself, my brother Mike on drums, my sister Amy on keyboards and our Dad adding some electric guitar. We recorded a song together in a studio my Dad and his mates had built in a garden shed! I called us BOSH after 'The Book of Bosh' by Edward Lear, which I was reading at the time. I was 12, Amy was 10 and Mike was just 9. After that Amy decided she didn't really want to be in a band with her bossy big brother and so Mike and I continued to write and record little musical experiments on home recording kit like the Tascam 4-Track Portastudio. We'd do loads until we had enough to fill 2 sides of a TDK D90 Cassette tape, then I'd laboriously copy them on my hi-fi and give them to friends. We did two 'collections' like that in 1998 and then friends from school started to join in. By the Spring of 2000 there was six of us in the BOSH collective and we'd started to play live by then. We did a third cassette as this collective and then a new season began. The band scaled down to just myself, Mike and a school/church friend called Mark Tompkins.
I worked and saved all summer and bought a digital 8-track recorder and so the following 2 collections were home recorded on that and instead of tapes it was CDR's that were copied onto and given or sold to friends. By 2003 we had become fairly competent as a band and recorded a strong set of 5 songs in a studio down the road from us. Shortly after this, James Grant joined the band on bass so we could begin to gig more regularly and promote the last of our self copied 'collections', 'Looking Up'. In early '04 Mark left the band after four years of being a massive part of who we were. A young man I had befriended who was at Uni in Bournemouth, but came from Taunton, joined the band in Mark's place. Matt Gainsford brought a very different angle to our sound, which suited the way my writing was changing. We began to gig very regularly after Matt joined. We had struck up a close friendship with a band based in Yeovil called Brother John. They took us under their wing and gave us loads of opportunities to play. We were still pushing 'Looking Up' at this stage, and shifted about 600 in just over a year. Brother John had started their own label called 'Risen Records' and asked us to be the second band to join it. By the end of 2004 we had found an excellent keyboard player in Grant Howard who, to our delight, decided to commit to BOSH.
We recorded a mini-album which would be our first 'proper' release with a record label throughout the winter of 04/05 and released 'VII' in July 2005. We gigged that album until all 600 copies were gone and then recorded a limited edition live album called 'Middle of Somewhere' on our tour of the same name in late '06. It wasn't long before all of those were gone too, and by the summer of '07 we had written a stack of strong songs which would form a full studio album. At this point, I felt very clearly that God was leading us to make this album and then make sure that all could hear it, no matter how much money they could afford. So, we recorded 'Sound the Alarms' in late '07 and early '08 with a cracking team of engineers and producers using pro studios, mixers, and mastering. We pressed thousands of them and since it was released in April last year, we have given thousands away and the response to it has encouraged us that we did the right thing. This brings us up to date really, we're still gigging regularly across the UK and have received lots of radio airplay for some of the tracks from 'Sound the Alarms' as well as TV spots etc. It's been an absolute ball! It's mad to think of where we've come from, but somehow we're still here as BOSH and the journey continues!
Do you find it hard having a brother in your band with you?
Not at all. If anything I find it easier because we've played with each other in so many different situations over the years, not just in BOSH but in church bands, covers bands, other peoples bands that we had a deep musical connection and I think that forms the base of what BOSH is. He's an incredible drummer, an excellent guitarist and very much an up-and-coming producer. Check out his work with Tom Whitman!
How has the band changed since 1996?
Well, many have come and gone from the collective. It's been so wonderful to have the line-up we have now since 2004, and really get into the rhythm of being a band, letting that connection and intuition grow and grow. Musically, we started off as instrumental, almost unlistenable lo-fi sketches. Then I began to sing about funny little characters and things, trying to emulate my hero's, blur. Then I got into Pink Floyd, as did Mark, and we went very atmospheric. Very progressive and bloated at times, lots of lead guitar and synth pads. The lyrical content changed dramatically in 2000 to being songs about the faith I was finding in the life and love of Jesus. After 'Looking Up' and onwards, we have kept a mainly rock sound, with funky edges and certainly an anthemic and at times atmospheric texture. Now we are sum of many parts and influences which is really satisfying for all of us.
Eight albums in, has the way you write and record the albums changed over the years?
Most certainly yes. We started literally as children learning the ropes with basic recording techniques and equipment, a lot of which was broken and very old anyway. It started as the smallest of ideas being jammed around and recorded. Mike and I would do an hour here and there in 'the playroom' at our parents house where we grew up. Then as others got involved, we took the four-track or later, the 8-track to other locations and recorded there. It was always about jamming around ideas and then very quickly putting words together, or shoe-horning previously written lyrics into a chord-progression or something like that. I began to write more fully formed songs as time went on and then other would then add their parts in. It happens that way now. Sometimes parts lead off in to whole new parts for the song, it's certainly more collaborative now than it was, and much better for it.
Tell us a little bit about your latest Album?
'Sound the Alarms' is sort of a weird cross between a 'best of' and a 'debut' album. Some of the songs on it have appeared previously on BOSH releases, but going into the studio to make our first full length studio LP, we decided to take our 11 strongest numbers in. In the end only 10 made the CD version of the album, but the one left off is available on the digital version of the album on itunes etc. We call it our 'flagship', because it really is the best we could do, and it blows everything else we've done out of the water. We knew it had to be that way. We had notched up so many gigs, met so many people, and shifted thousands of CDs, and yet still didn't have something we knew deep down was the best we could offer. We are confident that 'Sound the Alarms' is that offering.
The reason it is called 'Sound the Alarms' is because a lot of the songs on the album are very challenging to the listener. We really wanted to highlight the need for all people to access where they are at with God. We wanted it to point the way to his love, but also to raise issues such as drink, drugs, sex, shame, material wealth, media and hopefully encourage people to review their lives and attitudes in relation to God and his love for them. There's a lot about freedom in there too, and about freedom from fear, shame, our selfishness. It is ultimately a very hopeful record.
Where is the best gig venue you have played at?
We were a founding force behind the Nth Degree community and it's annual festival 'Nth Fest'. The last three years it has run, we have played and it had been electric each time, the audience were just incredibly encouraging. Also, our album launch at Bournemouth's Pier Theatre was very very special too. We also love Creation Fest for the good-time vibe.
Which do you prefer playing Live or recording albums?
They really are so different. You can have amazing gigs and frustrating gigs; and you can have exciting days in the studio and very boring days in the studio. If I had to only do one, it would be recording, because the end result is playable forever, whereas a gig only lasts a night.
Do you enjoying playing the festivals?
We love the festivals! We love the community aspect of them. We have a lot of friends out there in the scene and often a festival is a great time to be together and listen to each others stuff and generally chew the cudd. It's a great place to give and receive respect and love.
Whats on your I pod at the moment?
Some very very delicate, fragile, minimalist stuff like Anthony and the Johnson's new album 'The Crying Light', Ryuichi Sakamoto and a lot of post-rock, in particular a band called This Will Destroy You. I am digging PJ Harvey and John Parish's new stuff and Talk Talk's later albums like 'Sprit of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock'. I think it's where I want to go with some new BOSH material, a radical departure from our previous sound.
Your stuck on an island, its hot, you only have enough battery life left to listen to one song on your mp3. What track is it?
That's a really hard question! Err. 'Coming Back to Life' by Pink Floyd. It would lift my spirits.
What does the next year hold for Bosh?
Well, we've got a great summer schedule taking shape. It's hard to say after that. We have booked some studio time in May to begin recording whatever comes next, whether it be the beginning of a new album, an EP or what, I don't know yet. We certainly feel that we want to push our sound on and expand our musical horizons. I don't want to be known as just as out and out rock band, I think there's more to us than that. I'd like to tour again in the autumn time and do a few more club dates. We'll see!
Listen
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