Band Interview: The Bateleurs
Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are pleased to bring you an interview with blues-tinged rock ‘n roll band, The Bateleurs.
1. How do you get started as a band?
It all begun with me (Ricardo Dikk, bass) meeting Sandrine (vocals) on a studio session, and a while after we discovered our musical affinities. We were both into retro sounding Rock and Blues, and soon after we invited a couple of musician friends to form a band to play some clubs in our town, doing a set with our favorite Zeppelin, Purple and Janis songs, amongst others of the same style; we realized that a special chemistry was happening, and we soon were trying to write our own songs. After some time, we selected the best three, and went to the studio to record our first EP. And so The Bateleurs was born.
2. How do you describe your sound?
It’s pretty straightforward; we play a Blues tinged Rock’n’Roll, with some Soul vocals and groove.
3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your stile of music?
We have to say the great bands of the late 60s and early 70s, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple being the main ones; We have the Blues side of the question, and we have to say artists like BB King, Buddy Guy, Janis Joplin and SRV. From another side, we also have the classic sound of the Soul, with artists like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, especially on the vocal aspect. Songwriting wise, we love The Beatles, they are an always present inspiration, and one of our favorite bands of all time
4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?
The modern age is a time of awe, because now you have the tools to make your music reach almost everywhere with little or no expenditure, but on the other side it has never been as difficult to make people care. There is a complete overload of information of all kinds, and I think it’s obvious that the internet killed music value as we knew it. There’s simply too much going on, and the majority of the business pillars like labels and promotion agencies don’t really have successfully adapted to the new paradigm; every band is trying to make it on their own, and the greatest challenge of our time is to make you stand out and rise above the background noise of new releases almost every day; we try our best in dealing with all this, hoping that in the end it’s all about the music we’re doing and if it’s relevant to the people.
5. What you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?
When we’re not playing, what we love the most, and we channel all our energy in it, is to travel; there’s nothing better than get to know new places, new people, new cultures, the further from our western one the better, and get a glimpse of this amazing and diverse spaceship that is planet Earth. It makes you be more aware, it inspires you, and gives you perspective on your place in life and the world. Playing music is a blessing, because you can work and travel simultaneously, which is perfect.
6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?
We’re working on writing songs for our first album, and we’ll be hitting the studio this September; we hope to release at the end of the year, and we’re already booking dates to promote it in 2020, both in our country and abroad.
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