Formula Indie Sessions : Interview with Bollocks
Bollocks is a Swiss band with a history of almost 5 decades, united by a strong ribbon of life long friendship. The band was founded when they were just 14, and from 20 to 50 years of age, they made a short break of 30 years to pursue their own interests individually. As their friendship never faded and the passion for music remained fresh and intense, they re-united in 2014.
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
Earliest memories go back to childhood. As I had older brothers and sisters, I always heard music from their rooms. I was basically surrounded by music all the time and that’s how the interest and fascination started.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
When I was a child of three or four years, I started to sing myself to sleep humming melodies I invented, rather than the songs I heard during the day. Later on, teaching myself how to play a guitar, I was intrigued by the fact that I could actually play the music of others. Which encouraged me to create my own music.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
“Bollocks” goes back to adolescence. At the age of 14, we established the band under that same name, practiced diligently and did a couple of first gigs at local venues.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
We have strong Rock and Folk influences, play hollow body / accoustic instruments only and aim to convey good vibes to the audience.
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
I guess we never really completely changed the way we make music. But we made a major change a couple of years ago when we decided to entirely rely on accoustic instruments. Having been a typical Hard Rock act before, that was a significant move, though not easy at the beginning.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Our stuff is old school hand made with no supporting technology like sampling or even AI involved. Accoustic Guitars, Mandolin, Drums, Bass, Vocals. That’s it. But of course we use DAWs and some FX plugins in the recording and post production process.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Something we like is ‘Old Fiddles’ by Fiddler Tim Smith. Honest music with great style and virtuosity. And we’d like to have a fiddle in some of our songs as well, but no one can play it decently.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
Strongly. Probably the same for all musicians writing their own music. Something we find intriguing is that these experiences have been collected over almost five decades. From childood to adolescence to professional lives, raising our own families, to where we are now. Let’s call it ‘maturity’. Slowly but surely approaching retirement.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
Simply stated: Fun. Having a good time for a little while. We have strong opinions about the manifold challenges the world is facing but we intentionally don’t include them in our songs.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
From a musical point of view – authenticity is probably the top value. Trying to imitate hardly ever works, and it’s not satisfying either. From a social perspective: Music can make friendships last forever.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
We used to have dream venues in our younger days. Today, we love every venue where people meet to have a good time. That’s what counts rather than the place itself.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
That would make a huge list, because we are five individuals and each of us would have his own elaborate answer. Mur, as a guitar player, would probably mention Brian May and Keith Richards, while I as a singer would have other people on my list.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
Our web domain is bollocks.rocks. From there you’ll find links to our world wide distribution partner, pushing our stuff out to basically all platforms you can think of.
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
Staying healthy to joyfully continue to do what we’re doing. In terms of measurement of success, we’d love to see a growing community and international airplays. Probably just like everyone out there releasing songs.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way? If they like some of our music, the objective is met. That’s our only ambition.
