With their EP “Slummer Time” hitting on May 14th via Hive Mind, we are ecstatic to interview Melbourne, Australia’s 8 Bit Love. This trio of men is one animalistic band and we mean animalistic with love.
They exude that crazy excitement and fearlessness that Animal from The Muppets showed every time he was on the screen.
One can’t help but be in a better mood after listening to or watching 8 Bit Love. They possess that fun, party charm of Andrew WK and the sound of 80’s British punk like that of The Clash and we want everyone in the Universe to take a moment and let us introduce you to the greatness that is 8 Bit Love.
Simon Findlay (drummer, occasional yeller, and cowbeller) of 8 Bit Love was kind enough to sit down with us for an interview.
For those who happen to be reading this, introduce who 8 Bit Love is?
We’re a dance punk trio residing in Melbourne who make garage, grunge and thrashy synth music for the world.
How did 8 Bit Love come together?
We formed when high school finished after having been in previous bands together, which was about 5 and a half years ago.
We have to ask about the name 8 Bit Love because we, well, love it. How did you guys come up with the name?
We like 8 bit games like Mario and when we were thinking of a name, we were throwing around some words and it just came to us.
Describe the essence of 8 Bit Love in five (5) words?
Cowbell, sweat, cowbell, party, cowbell.
Some people may look at your EP titles like “Super Mario Lovers,” “ Rock The Digressers,” or even your song titles “Hurlfriend” and “Hands Say Clap Clap” and ask, are you three a serious band? How do you get that person who doesn’t think you’re a serious band to stop a moment and listen to you?
Haha, we’re not a serious band. If we took ourselves seriously we’d be boring and probably sound like Nickleback. In terms of getting people to listen to us, we trick people by getting them to watch our videos because there’s nudity in them. What we are serious about is making music and making gigs heaps of fun.
Listen to “Rock the Boat”, one of our favorite songs by 8 Bit Love
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/23815590″ params=”color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Where does the responsibility fall for writing songs and music?
To all of us, we’ve been jamming and playing together for years now so we all do it.
How does a typical 8 Bit Love song come together?
During a band practice one of us will sit down, this makes the other two play something angry to reflect their frustration. We jam it out for about 20 minutes and record the idea. In about a month we’ll come back to it, flesh it out, then add words about something that happened recently to us that involves alcohol.
You are releasing Slummer Time EP coming in May, how long have you worked on the EP? Release Date? Why an EP and not a full length?
We started working on the songs and committed a whole weekend to song writing jams last December. We recorded everything mid February over three days at Bed Rec Studios in Melbourne. It will be released early May. Previously we’ve released (in chronological order) a four track EP, a single, a double A-side, a five track EP, an ABC-side and now we’re about to release a 6 track EP. If we were to do a full length LP it’d take us about a year to finish because of how we write. We find it much more beneficial to consistently release music every 6-8 months to maintain a musical presence online and offline.
Listen to “FOMO” from the forth coming “Slummer Time” EP
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/143975494″ params=”color=00aabb&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
In this day and age, bands are socially active; do you think that an online presence is important for fans to find you and critics to find your music to write about?
Definitely, blogs make up a very large market of reviews and this is one of the major ways people find out about new music. It’s also just as important to maintain a great live presence and radio presence.
Do you have a preference of one social media platform vs another? (Ex: Twitter over Facebook, etc.)
Despite Facebook being evil, it’s the most useful because we can post links, photos and status updates very easily and cohesively.
What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why? If no, why?
We give our singles away for free in the hope that it lures people into buying an EP or two. We charge very reasonable prices for our music mainly because the cost of recording/mixing/mastering/physical needs to be covered. There are the two sides, you can give music away for free and potentially become more popular in doing so. On the other hand by charging a small price, the money you make can help pay for expenses and aid in touring which leads to inspiration and better music which in turn leads to bigger and better things.
You can download “FOMO” on Bandcamp at name your price. So forgo that expensive coffee and buy your ears something good.
With artists having the potential to rise and fall with a blink of an eye, do you find it harder to make a name for yourselves?
We’re consistently writing better songs, performing to bigger crowds and touring more places. Because of this we’re not worried about blink of the eye stability.
How do you guys as a band in this day and age connect and make a fan for life/stand out amongst the cookie cutter bands?
We make them dance so much that they sweat their clothes off.*
*EDITOR’S NOTE: This will happen if you listen to 8 Bit Love
After listening to your EPs, I get the feeling that 8 Bit Love may be Australia’s answer to Andrew W.K., does it bother you to be compared to other artists or is a compliment?
It doesn’t bother us to be compared to other bands as usually we really dig the bands we’re compared to. It can get a bit annoying when you are only described in terms of other bands, but as long as there is also depth it’s all good.
Favorite artist/band(s) you have shared the stage with?
Regurgitator, definitely the best band we’re shared the stage with.
Artist/band(s) you want to share with the stage with?
Queens of the Stone Age with a David Bowie cameo.
You’re hitting the road in May, what date/location are you most excited to play?
We’re most excited to play The Bird in Perth. Because it’s far away people appreciate the distance you’ve come but also because we’ve found Perth really dig music. And the sunsets over the beach is a good plus.
Show Info: 5/24/14 @ The Bird | Time: 8:00 PM | with Apache and Electric Toad
When will there be a full length by 8 Bit Love?
No one can say, maybe early next year if we hit a good run or sing writing, otherwise there will be another EP.
What are 8 Bit Love‘s plans for 2014?
Our plans for this year is the tour in May and to start writing for our next release. Perhaps tour again before the end of the year, make some cooking videos and work on a full length yoga work out.
Need more 8 Bit Love: Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud | Twitter | Youtube | Website
Watch the video for “FOMO”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmps7M1VXMA?list=UUiFEzY0H7ZR8RpRzi6oCdFw]