Backstage with Bare Jams: The Genre-Bending Band Coming ‘Full Circle’
TOPNOTE interviews six-piece Bare Jams. Image credit: Bethany Cordery
‘We’ve put a lot of time and energy into our craft. And I think it's opened up a lot of doors. We can express ourselves… we can do kind of anything we want now.’
Bare Jams might be easier to describe live than it is to pin down their decade-spanning catalogue, a melange of music styles, members and motifs written and recorded across two studio albums and too many EPs to number. What you can say for certain is that a ticket to one of their shows will have you coming home in a better mood than the one you left in. Producing a thick and textured fluid sound between the six members (and often more than six instruments), their diverse crowds of all ages and dynamics frequently feel compelled to dance.
Spanning pop, indie, reggae, dub, jazz and funk to name a few, one thing Bare Jams have always been is independent — having produced and promoted their music ‘in-house’ since the band’s inception. Just over a month out from their next album release, ‘Full Circle’, the collective have revisited some of their roots, honing their craft in the process and returning to the music they love to make.
Performing as the latest guests at Colours Hoxton’s monthly ‘Nest Sessions’ last Thursday, TOPNOTE had just enough time to squeeze in a quick chat (and a game) with Dave Tyler, Jake Heath, Ols Coombs, Ben Vize, Seb Skelly and Craig Sellar – or the newest line-up of Bare Jams.
Find the interview below, Plus, watch ‘Bare Jams’ play ‘How Far…?’, and check out the best photos from their London performance.
TOPNOTE live at ‘Nest Sessions’ at Colours Hoxton. Image credit: Bethany Cordery
Interviewer: So, you guys are from Bristol?
Seb: Roughly. Some of us…
Ols: We’re more London now.
Seb: For the sake of argument, yes. We know Bristol very well.
Ols: Myself and the old drummer and the old keys player lived in Bristol for like four years…. now the majority of the band’s in London, and myself and Dave live in Dorset… deep and dark Dorset.
Jake: Yeah, we need to update that.
Let’s talk about your upcoming album! What can you tell us about that?
Jake: So the album’s called ‘Full Circle’, and the date of the release has changed… because of [our upcoming release with] The Free Label. It’s coming out end of July. But nearly 1,000 people have pre-saved it… nearly. So we need to get to a thousand. Otherwise I'm just going to change the date again. I'll just log in, I'll log in and just move it because that's how easy it is (laughing)!
“Lyrically, being honest and talking about your feelings is something that has always been a constant. I think the biggest change is just the capacity of what we can do musically.”
What's the journey that we go on? Where do we start? Where do we finish?
Ols: So it was the first album we've recorded with this band, this lineup. It felt musically like we started with a kind of pop-y, indie sound. And then we went into a reggae, dub-y sort of sound, and it feels like we've kind of come back around to that. I think sonically it’s a more mature version of what we started out as. And I think as people as well, we're feeling more comfortable and confident in ourselves and it's a nice way to round things off.
You’ve been releasing music for over a decade, and your lineup has shifted around in that time. What’s the core essence of Bare Jams that’s stayed the same, and what’s the newest quality of your band?
Ols: I think being silly. Lyrically, being honest and talking about your feelings is something that has always been a constant. I think the biggest change is just the capacity of what we can do musically. We’ve put a lot of time and energy into our craft. And I think it's opened up a lot of doors, we can express ourselves. We can do kind of anything we want now.
Seb: I think we've always been a band that touches on so many different styles and genres. And now I think at this stage, with the work we’ve put in behind the scenes, we're even more able to easily touch on these other styles and have it be even more convincing than before, which is nice.
Bare Jams’ third studio album, ‘Full Circle’, comes out 31st July.