It’s been a busy year for The Bloodstreams. From their April album release ‘How To Be a God’ to their latest single, ‘Jackie’, the British rock outfit seems to have found their sonic identity, often drenched in psychedelic energy and vintage tones. The result is a stream of fuzzy goodness that’s highly eclectic and unique, showcasing the enlightened artistic flair The Bloodstreams have to offer.
Crowning it all, they recently announced an upcoming show, the last chance to see them live before the New Year. Taking place on December 1st in New Cross, London, the event will feature The Boodstreams taking the stage at The Amersham Arms, supported by The Kobras and Wednesday’s Child. A Gotobeat presentation.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with The Bloodstreams to find out more about their artistry and writing process… Interview below!
Hey guys, how is it going? we can’t wait to see you perform in London in December. What can we expect from your set?
JAMES: Bloodstreams, sweat and tears. We’ll teach you how to be a god and we have some new offerings. A show not to be missed.
DANNY: Our set will be a shuffled version of our album, with some surprises here and there. We often meander away from our recorded sounds and arrangements. Live experience should be something unique. There will be some new tracks appearing too.
JASMINE: Expect to see, us the bloodstreams, on a stage with our instruments, we will play the album, we will play it as if we have played it for the first time, with vigour, aggression, passion and a dash of anxiety and a shot of whiskey. Along with a few surprises.
We have enjoyed listening to ‘Jackie’ for the past few days. Your latest effort, released back in the summer, the track is charmingly chaotic and theatrical, drenching the listeners in unwavering energy and understated poignancy. Would you say that the single represents what The Bloodstreams is about?
JAMES: All of our songs are representative of what we are about. Indeed, ‘Jackie’ is chaotic and theatrical and emotive, ‘Jackie’ has something to say as a character and as an extension of our own personalities. We see our songs as fictionalised, alternative realities of our world, our thoughts and feelings.
JASMINE: It does represent us well, The Bloodstreams are unique in that we have three songwriters and four arrangers, no idea from any band member is rejected without fully working it up to what we perceive as the best version it can be, a little of each of us always comes through very loudly on each track as we all equally contribute in a unique way. ‘Jackie’ is chaotic, yes, and theatrical, a band full of ADHD’ers who will always find joy in each track even if it is not quite their thing, some small bone can be found and injected into it.
How should the listener approach your music? Is there a ritual or a situation that would augment the artistic charge of your records?
DANNY: There’s a very energised pump through the first album. It’s a foot stomper, not a chair rocker. You’ll do good to be upwardly mobile when it comes on. It’s got the stomp, it has the pogo, and it has the head-bangability.
JASMINE: Bloodstreams are to be taken aurally and visually at least once every month. Whereas we are enjoyable on a record, ‘How to be a God’ we put a lot of work into that beast and are extremely proud of it, we are more enjoyed in a live setting with other like-minded bands so our audience can truly have the experience they deserve, dancing is encouraged as we have a lot of tracks that are easy to move to, as is watch throwing during ‘Clockwork Man’ our other single that now apparently has audience members lobbing watches at us. Just no grandfather clocks, please.
You have recently unveiled a stunning music video for ‘Jackie’. Could you guide us through the concept behind it?
JAMES: We wanted something that captivated our audience, grabbed them by the scruff of the neck and dragged them through her pain, vengeance and vindication. Hunted becomes hunter. “Take no prisoners” gets interpreted as prohibition and as a killer instinct.
DANNY: This started out as a rather simple treatment. Everything we do and create is very in-house, so we devise and make our own visual pieces from artwork to videos etc… The basic idea was someone just running. As with many of our seeds of ideas, it blossomed very rapidly into a huge mad shrubbery with fruits, wildlife and a few wasps nests for good measure.
A story arc very quickly germinated but it was important to retain that original simple element for universal interpretation. We prefer the viewer to draw their own conclusions as to what the prelude, conclusion and any post-continuation may be. We always like to hide easter eggs around our videos too for our own amusement and hopefully other people’s too, when they see or find oddities littered around.
Thanks for sharing your artistry with us! We’ll catch you on the 1st of December at the Amersham Arm, in New Cross!
JASMINE: We are looking forward to playing in South East London! See you soon!
