INTERVIEW: Badger

Image by Amelia Read

“I love the fact that my brain can’t figure out if they are techno, rock, electro, industrial, doom, post-punk. It’s fucking ace.”

When you have Sleaford Mods smothering you with this kind of praise, you know you are making something worth creating, and that’s exactly the situation noisy alt. pop duo Badger have found themselves in.

The duo have crafted a swirling blend of sound with a plethora of influence and ideas, which melt into their biting debut album, A Gifted Kind of Stupor. The long-awaited release feels perfectly formed and fully conceived, with vivid imagery smashing against heavy industrial beats and broody music electronics. With a sound so chiselled and crafted, it is no surprise that this debut has been a long time in the works. “This is the definitive version of each of these tracks, we’ve been gigging some of them relentlessly for nearly a decade,” admits Simeon Soden, one half of Badger. “We’ve finally reached a point where we can put them to bed, the original versions we’re sketches of what they’ve now become.”

Lyricist and frontman Chris Maltby expands, saying: “Gigging a track always develops them, breathing new life into it. You are learning where the spaces sit and where they can grow.”

The tracks are potent, not dissimilar to the minimalistic angry tangents of Sleaford Mods, but with a mounting sense of discontent. A track like Where Seagulls Dare is dazed, lost in the multitude of ever escalating sounds. “I don’t know if a song is ever truly finished, people grow and develop, as should their relationship with the song. But right now, in this moment, the songs are a perfect capsule of where we are and what we are.”

Tracks like Sadboy and Narcasm have been there since the birth of Badger, born in the moment where the band fully understood the direction they wanted this journey to take. “We didn’t know what we wanted to be at first, it was a synth pop band at one point, until the penny dropped. There wasn’t so much an inciting incident, it just felt right on the right song.” The wash of sounds is fundamental to what allow Badger to be such a unique act, as engaging as they are polarising. “Promoters don’t know where to put us, it’s a difficult pitch to try and explain.” Simeon confesses with a smile, before Chris doubles down: “We get to a point about halfway through a gig, where half the audience walk away and half the audience lock in, understanding it. We’d always rather that – it’s better to be divisive than dull.”

At the heart of the tracks I’m calling for conversation, it’s encouraging opinions instead of giving answers

Former flatmates, and both well connected in the local music scene, Badger formed as the pair spitballed ideas during a hungover morning. When the songs started coming the duo put their creative success down to “a gentleman’s agreement of sorts” they confess with a nostalgic chuckle. “Neither of us are too precious, and sometimes it’s alright to kill your darlings. We’ve known each other long enough to tell a shit song that it’s a shit song. For every 100 tracks we write, 10 see the light of day – but you can guarantee that they are 10 that we are happy with.”

Coming from an IDM background, it’s Simeon’s expansive palette that keeps the tracks erudite and acerbic. “We may have started with just bass drums and lyrics – and they are often the tracks that drive a message home the most effectively – but I can’t help myself building and expanding some of the tracks. Shifting dynamics, layering in trombones or synths – it’s utilitarian – whatever we have in our arsenal we can find a way to use! There’s no hard and fast rules, it’s whatever we want.”

Between the volatile rising instrumentals the other cornerstone of Badger is the lyrics. Having dropped out of a creative writing degree, Chris is reluctant to delve too deeply into critical analysis, stating: “I always struggled with the degree as it was entirely subjective, as it should be, but trying to craft something objective wasn’t what it was about, and that’s not what Badger is about. Reactions and opinions can be so knee-jerk and reactionary these days, and these lyrics aren’t. I think at the heart of the tracks I’m calling for conversation, it’s encouraging opinions instead of giving answers.”

Where some outfits may be delivering a grand philosophy, Chris steers away from political lectures and hones his storytelling on snapshots of his reality, painting out his observations and leaving the morality of it all in the hands of the listener. A track like Poison Apple is constantly shifting perspective, tearing into similar situations from a myriad of angles, trying to understand it. “It’s what I see, ultimately,” continues Chris.

It’s no secret that Badger have amassed an audience avid for their sound, and have supported and performed with Sleaford Mods, who have undeniably influenced their sound. Something amongst the growing adversity and tenacious confusion in our current climate has allowed Badger to give a sense of understanding with their music, and their anger resonates with a crowd. It’s bold, it’s exciting and it’s clearly impacting.

Badger host an album launch at Newcastle’s Zerox on Friday 11^th July, with a host of exciting local talent including the heartfelt ambiance of Summer Night Air, the relaxed yet challenging existential poetry of SQUARMS and the raging, energetic anarchy of Spelk. It’ll be a phenomenal way to celebrate this milestone in one of Newcastle’s most interesting bands’ journeys.