One of the wonderful things about festivals and Rebellion in particular is discovering new acts. Enter Bite Me who blew a lot of people away on the RIS stage this year. With a fresh upbeat sound and an engaging stage presence a lot of people who saw them will want a swift return in 2023. Gary Trueman had to sit down for a chat with the band to find out more about them
First up would you like to introduce yourselves to Devolution readers.
“We are London who is the lead vocalist, Ruby does guitar and backing vocals, Naomi plays bass and Jessica is our crazy drummer.”
Your music is based in punk but encompasses a lot more. It’s a trend we’re seeing in a lot of great new bands at the moment and the way music is progressing.
“We think so. It’s important these days to experiment with what you like. Music is what makes you feel, it’s not a genre thing. We just write what we want and we’re not a pop band, that’s not our direction. In our music we focus more on the messages and what we feel we want to project rather than it has to be this or that. All of us have different backgrounds and you can hear that in our music. It’s not just punk or whatever.”
You’re also seeing festivals having to diversify to keep up with how acts are evolving.
“There’s such a mix of styles at Rebellion. Everyone is walking around with mohawks and it’s as punk as fuck but then you walk into somewhere and there’s some bluesy things going on, and a bit of a reggae vibe going on elsewhere. It’s an awesome inclusive festival. We didn’t know what to expect and we just dug it. We’re not typical punk but everyone dug it and everyone is open minded here which is amazing.”
Will it ever get to the point where they have to drop the ‘punk’ word out of Rebellion because of how it’s covering such a wide range of music?
“Never!”
Or if not then has punk changed and what Rebellion puts on is reflecting that?
“Rock itself changes, music is fluid it changes all the time. A genre will get influences by another one. You can see that in the major bands as well and that’s fine.”
You’re quite a young band and you see older bands as you said change too. Not a punk band but Bring Me The Horizon very noticeably have changed their sound which has been a big topic of conversation with fans with some older ones hating it but they picked up new ones too. Do you think that’s just a natural progression and maturing? Can you see Bite Me changing in the future?
“It’s not a band’s job to appeal to an audience. It’s a band’s job to make the music that they feel they need to create. People don’t need to be so bigoted about music. Music is supposed to make you feel something. Also it’s impossible for a band to do the same fucking song all the time.”
Unless you’re Status Quo.
“Hahaha, yes! Our songs are all so different and the cool thing is we can play any type of festival. We can play sleaze, rock, heavy metal but Rebellion was the punk dream. It’s such an incredible festival.
Do you think that diversity within the band writing comes from your own personal moods when you’re writing?
“Definitely, everything we write about is experience. We can’t write a decent song about something we haven’t experienced or gone through.”
Where are you in terms of recording and putting music out?
“We have ‘Deviant’ out at the moment which is our first single. Everyone should watch the video, we’ve just hit 1K views. The next step would be releasing our second single ‘Born To Die’.”
What about an EP?
“It’s just about the recording. We’ve got all the songs, we’re doing it bit by bit. We’ve done one music video and we’re working on the next one. Then back in the studio again and get recording again. We want to get our music out there as quickly as possible.”
You’re seeing a lot of bands put a lot more effort into singles and videos. Do you think now when you put an album out it’s generally streamed and fans can skip songs and pick what they listen too?
“There are a lot of bands where you can say I like the greatest hits. We have seen bands put in tacks that you can only listen to if you buy the whole album. But it is more common now to do it single by single nowadays. It’s the way the digital market has influenced sales. Everything that will be on our EP we play live so fans will know what to expect anyway. But when you record songs it has a different vibe from the live sound. That’s why you see bands do a whole live album, because it’s such a different vibe.”
Let’s wrap things up by asking you to pick a band you’d each like to share a stage with?
London: “Queen, and I would be attached to Freddie Mercury.”
Naomi: “Also Queen. They are the reason I picked up a bass guitar.”
Jessica: “The Sex Pistols because they match our craziness and energy on stage as well.”
Ruby: “I could have said the Rolling Stones from the 80s but I have to go for Rammstein because no only is Til Lindemann really hot but their stage show insane. Their music is great.”
Interview and photos by Gary Trueman