The Bads: well and truly So Alive
Shortly before the release of their new album So Alive, Analiese Jackson spoke to Dianne Swann of The Bads about the history of The Bads, their musical inspirations and a little place called Helensville..
Although you may not have heard of The Bads, Dianne Swann and Brett Adams having been collaborating and creating music together for a number of years. The two first started working together in 1992: “We were both already in bands; we were quite young. I was in a band called Everything That Flies and I was the main songwriter and Brett was in a band called Mocker … I’ve always really loved the way he plays guitar and we always got on well. A little bit later when I went to the UK, I found out that he was there and that his band wasn’t together anymore; they’d split up once they got to the UK, and I was wanting to form a band in the UK, so we did that. The band was called The Julie Dolphin. That was the beginning of us working together …”
Under The Julie Dolphin, the duo received much public acclaim: “We toured a lot with lots of different bands. The album was on an independent label, but we got some very good reviews and quite a lot of really good stuff, actually” reflects Swann. During this time, not only did they open for major acts such as American pop-punk band Green Day and British rockers Oasis, but they also collaborated with Radiohead during the recording of Radiohead’s second album, The Bends (Swann appears on the track How Can You Be So Sure, which appears on the Collectors Edition). So, what was it like working with people like Thom Yorke? Wouldn’t have that been incredibly exciting? “Yeah, but you gotta bear in mind that, at the time, it was just stuff that we were doing; it wasn’t like ‘Oh My God! It’s Thom Yorke!’” says Swann. “We were playing with bands like that all the time, it was more like working with your peers…I don’t mean that in an arrogant way, it was just a ‘busy doing what you were doing’ kind of thing. Because we were in the industry there… it wasn’t like an idolising type situation, so, it was exciting but it wasn’t overwhelming. It was just one of the many cool things that we were doing.”
Swann and Adams returned from London in 2002 and recorded, under their new name, The Bads, their first album Earth from Space. “When we came back to New Zealand, we just released… [Earth from Space]… under the name of The Bads; just a quiet sort of release. We called ourselves The Bads because, basically they’re our initials: Brett Adams Dianne Swann…it’s quite funny because people say to me “Oh you’re the Baaaaads!”…. I mean, it could have been Dsba, but I think The Bads probably sounds better!”
Swann has previously been quoted as calling the genre of music that The Bads produce as “Rockin Poppin Altin Country”. I ask her about the meaning of this, and she laughs: “Well, it’s really hard because I wouldn’t call it country music. I know that there’s that tinge in there, or whatever, but we really like bands like Wilco and, like, Ryan Adams. There’s quite a few duo sort of acts around at the moment, like The Eastern …but the point of difference for us, quite a major point of difference is that we’ve always been quite rock based, we’ve always loved having a live rock-out. Recently, we did the support for Lucinda Williams, but we just did that as a duo, but that was a really, really cool experience because it explored that other side of us …”
Which begs the question: how did Swann first enter the Alt country scene? “The person that’s stayed with me as far as my taste and passion goes has been Neil Young. My older sister had Neil Young albums and I mourned when she left home, not because she left but because she took the albums with her, so that was kind of like “Oh no!”. When I think I was about twelve I had to buy Goldrush …My mum kind of looked at me like “Are you sure this is the kind of think you should be listening to?” But yeah, he’s probably been my major influence throughout my life and to me he’s always had that alt…well, he’s the father of alt country really, isn’t he?” Yeah, he most definitely is, I remark. It seems as though Neil Young’s made a bit of a resurgence here in New Zealand recently, what with headlining the Big Day Out earlier this year, it’s opening up this genre of music to a whole new generation of people. “Well, he’s always put out fine records, and for any reference point in our music it would be him, as far as our style goes” states Swann.
One of the tracks on The Bads new album, So Alive, particularly stands out to me. Helensville is a beautiful and lyrically moving piece that evokes images of desolation and loneliness, not to mention Helensville, the place, isn’t too far away from our little campus. What significance does Helensville have to Adams and Swann? And why write a song incorporating it? “Well, we live about 12 minutes away from Helensville…it’s just this strangely haunting place…it’s got this neat but strange feel about it. That song …we wrote it about… both Brett and I had a couple of friends in the past who have lost it a little bit…and because they lost it they just walked, walked and walked. I had a friend who did that, and we knew someone in London who did the same thing…and they kept walking. I kind of wanted to write a song about that, and instead of basing it in the actual true place the song, we pictured this person …[this] combination of the two people that we actually know…being near Helensville. It just sounded very cool, I don’t know why, the picture in my head was them walking down State Highway 16 and people finding them. It’s a fictional thing but it comes from a true life experience….”
Having been on the New Zealand music scene for quite a while now and having worked with a number of musical acts and musicians, Swann has rather a lot of insight into the evolution of the New Zealand music scene over the past few decades.
Swann has previously been a producer at Kiwi FM and is incredibly passionate about music created in New Zealand. When asked about whether she thinks that New Zealand music has evolved or improved over the past while, Swann is quick to defend the integrity of the calibre of music produced here: “…People say “Oh, hasn’t New Zealand music got good?” and it kind of makes me mad, you know? Because it’s been good for a long time” say Swann. “With all the funding and fantastic opportunities through the New Zealand Music Commission and NZ on Air, which are both government funded… and also the awareness of New Zealand Music Month, all of this stuff is really, really good. But I still believe that New Zealand music hasn’t just got good, you know, it’s been good for a long time. It’s now that a lot more people get to hear it…for some reason, I don’t know whether it’s the isolation or what it is, but New Zealand tends to breed quality songwriters”.
Given that New Zealand has so many fantastic musicians, what sets The Bads apart from any other musician, be it Kiwi artists or those from abroad? “I don’t know what sets us apart from anybody else, really, but we’ve been through a lot within being in the music industry and the fact that we have means that we have a pure love for it. Any kind of false ambitions towards just being stars is … not there. Therefore hopefully the aim and purpose of our music is quite true and real” says Swann with great sincerity. With 17 years experience behind both Adams and Swann, the music produced on So Alive truly does reflect this sentiment.
The Bads So Alive is released 27th April on Mana/Warner Music