This week has seen the release of Bad Sign’s debut album ‘Live & Learn’ arguably one of the best albums out this year to date. The guys have made huge waves on the scene with their riff heavy, melodic sound. We managed to catch up with the bands frontman, the mighty Joe Appleford to talk about what makes the band tick and just how they managed to create one of the heaviest, most intelligent albums around right now.
First up we checked in how the band’s last tour played out “Tour was very good! Black Peaks are like our brothers so it was easy mate. This was the third run we’ve done them and they’re an amazing band to watch every night,” Appleford says. And how did he find playing out in Europe? “It was our second time out in Europe, the first time was with Hacktivist in November and people came down to see us at the shows who had seen us the first time around so that whole thing of people coming back and new people checking us out as well was quality!”
It sounds like they had an absolute blast while away but could Appleford pick out a certain show that was his favourite? “Probably Hamburg I think, it’s quite a vibey city and we went into Reeperbahn after and got stuck in.” A lot of bands talk about how well bands get treated on the continent compared to at home so we ask Appleford just what makes their hospitality so great. “Aah man, the spread in Hamburg was banging, massive lunch! Dinner after soundcheck and in the UK we just don’t get that, not even close.”
The band may be better taken care of in Europe what about the fans? Do they really rock harder than over here? “Not necessarily. What I found with Germany is that you get a little pocket that just go for it but a lot of people, especially when it’s their first time seeing you, will just stand and soak it in. They come up afterwards and do like mini reviews of the set and tell you their favourite bits or favourite song which is cool.”
Moving onto the album itself, we asked Appleford what the significance of the album title ‘Live & Learn’ was to them and he had this to say: “It’s basically themed on life experiences and each song is about a different thing. Some songs intertwine with each other about certain events that have happened in my life and also this is the first release where I’ve started writing a little bit of observational stuff about other people as well. So yeah, it’s all about life experiences and whether they’re positive or negative, what you learn from them. All the songs on the album are about what you learn and how that shapes you into the person you are. Not only me as a person but also about what we’ve learned as a band and the things that have shaped us as whole over the last two or three years.”
It’s clear that this record is not only a piece of music but something that comes from the heart for Appleford. “Yeah it’s very personal, I don’t really get people that write about dragons or whatever. I just can’t understand stuff like that.” With every song being so personal to the guys we wondered if Appleford has a favourite track from the album: “It changes quite a lot to be honest, almost day to day. At the moment we’re only playing a few live but there’s a song called ‘Paramnesia’ which closes the record which is probably my favourite. My favourite to play at the moment is ‘Intermission’ and we’ve put in this extended jam bit live because we like to do things a little different when we play.”
One of the most striking things about the album, if not the incredible tracks themselves, is the artwork, which stands out immensely. “Well it was done by Beth Harvey who’s a great friend of ours. I was in Ireland for Christmas at my nans and we were struggling for the artwork. The album is about this sort of constant battle back and forth and learning life lessons and I had this idea that was just two mooses locking horns. And she came up with this mad design which was incredible and I personally wanted it to be platinum white so I loved it straight away and I think it stands out from a lot of stuff that’s out at the moment. Everything’s dark traditionally and I wanted it to be different.”
After the countless hours and endless hard work that they’ve put in to the record how does Appleford feel now that it’s finally out there? “I’m nervous man, very much so. There’s a lot of people out there who chat shit and claim that they don’t care what people think, but if that was the case you’d just stay in your bedroom and write music on your laptop and listen back to it and that’d be you. We write music because we want to share it with people and because we want people to like it and I hope that they do! I understand that not everyone is going to like it but I’m just hoping more people like it than don’t.”
He’s clearly nervous about how the album is received because of just how personal it is to him and the rest of the band. “So yeah I’m definitely nervous about how it’s received. Not so much from the press because I’m sure some of them don’t like us anyway, so for me I care more about how actual people react to it and supporters of the band because if one of them didn’t like it that would upset me but hopefully not and we can live up to what people want.”
The album itself was produced by Neil kennedy so we asked why the guys decided to go with Kennedy on this record. “First and foremost he’s just an amazing producer. He really understands us as a band and his records just sound so different from everything that’s around at the moment. Everything is very clean and clinical whereas everything that he does has got a vibe, whether it’s the Creeper record that has a whole theatrical but punk vibe to it when you listen, it makes you feel something. The hardcore records he’s done with Landscapes were incredible and on our previous EP he just nailed it! He really got what we wanted to do because we’ve got so many varied references that we give him, like Foo Fighters all the way to Deftones and everything in between including some pop references. He gets what we mean when we say this stuff and he’s become a really good friend to us now so we stay at his house and we chill out watching films and we share humour so that makes being in the studio very comfortable.”
Appleford is clearly very passionate and meticulous about the writing and recording process “I write a lot of vocal lines in the studio,” he tells us. “It’s a weird way of working I know but I do a lot of stuff like that in the studio and I feel comfortable singing around Kennedy. Especially when I’m singing stuff for the first time I know he’s not going to judge me so it was just a natural choice to pick him because he’s so on point. Then he’s got some great assistant engineers there, a guy called Daly George who’s also in a killer band called Faux and then he’s got another guy called Dom Wright and they’re just two great young engineers.”
The band aren’t short of followers, including none other than Alex Baker at Kerrang radio. “He’s been so supportive since day one, he’s just a pure legend.” Appleford says “He’s supported us the whole way and still does. He says mad shit about us too, like he said we were one of the best bands in the world the other day and that’s just mad to me. But that’s where we want to be so if he thinks that, and he’s got good taste, then hopefully others will to.”
With Appleford bringing up Baker’s estute taste in music we asked him about his own personal favourites currently out there and he filled us in “All of our friends just happen to be in really good bands,” he proclaims. “Palm Reader, Faux, Create to Inspire, Black Peaks, Heck there’s just so many. All these killer British bands, but my favourite newish band is Holding Absence, they’ve got a real cool vibe and the singer Lucas is an incredibly talented vocalist so hopefully they can stay true to that as they progress because they’re great musicians and having only released three songs it’s just resonating very well. So they’re my hot tip.”
With a spate of very talented friends does Appleford think the future of British rock music is in safe hands? “I can’t really remember a time like it, even when we were young you had Hundred Reasons, Hell is for Heroes, Biffy Clyro all on the emergence and some of them didn’t last. Obviously people like Biffy Clyro did but that was the last time I remember there being a real explosion of talent,” he continues “But I think now there’s a massive explosion and it’s across all areas of alternative music, rock bands, metal bands, post hardcore you name it! Every base is being covered.”
With this emergence of great British rock bands and the release of their debut album where does Appleford see Bad Sign in a year from now? “We look further than that to be honest, but in a year’s time we want to be doing every festival imaginable throughout the UK and Europe. We want to get over to the states and test the water out there and in the mean time just get onto as many support tours as we can get on to. We do want to do some headline shows too but we want to make it special when we do so while we do that we want to play to as big a crowd as we possibly can and get our music out there for the masses.”
But what about the near future? Appleford says “We’ve got a few things planned for later in the year which will round things off nicely for us and we’re already back writing and demoing for another release next year. We want to be consistently putting out stuff.” With the guys seemingly already starting to look towards another record and their writing being so personal and influenced by their experiences we asked Appleford if the experience of creating ‘Live & Learn’ would affect the future record and he told us this: “It will definitely affect it yeah! The last track on this record was the last one written and it’s a sort of prelude to the next record which is going to be more ambitious, bigger and we want to make each record a big step up.”
‘Live & Learn’ is out now on Basick Records and you can keep up to date with everything Bad Sign on the guys’ Facebook