There are some bands out there that make you want to just take to your feet and applaud them for what they do. With a combination of brilliant songwriting and a bold attitude towards lyric writing, Kids On Bridges are a rather impressive outfit that do just that. The Merseyside-based band have already featured twice before on WCT due to their excellent tracks ‘Walls‘ and ‘Bankers To Feed‘ so I thought it was about time to find out a bit more about them, what better way to do so than in the form of an interview with frontman Christian Bragg;
Who are you, what are you and where are you?
Christian Bragg, Liverpool fan, in the studio working on a remix for Galactic.
Why did you start making music? Who were your first great inspirations?
My Mum and Dad were my first big inspiration as they both encouraged me to pursue my dreams. Originally though, the thought of real life scared me so I thought music would be a great way to escape it.
Musically, I was brought up by my brother’s record collection of David Bowie and his thirst for discovering new music. He was really always on the pulse discovering the cutting edge of new music whether it was rock, electro or dance music. He was way ahead on that scene before anyone and took me to raves in the middle of fields in Southport!
U2’s ‘Achtung Baby’ had a big influence on how I wanted to make music. The production on the album was like nothing I’d ever heard, it had rock guitars, dance beats and distorted vocals. I’d never been a fan of them up until that point, but that album and ‘Pop’ really were my early inspirations along with Beck, Bowie and Prince.
How would you describe your sound?
RDM – rockatronic dance music or electro voodoo rock.
‘Bankers To Feed’ is brilliant – what made you decide to give a musical comment on the matter? Are you pleased with the final product?
Thank you, I loved your review! The song came about as I heard a politician and head of a bank discussing how the public should curve their spending and that we were all being irresponsible with our money (whilst they point the finger and dine out on more than I earn in a month and it really got my back up). It seemed the banks were immune to any responsibility and not accountable for the mistakes they made but the public were being blamed instead.
Yes we really were pleased with the end result, as I think it’s a complex theme but we made a simple song that manages to get an important message across.
I also wrote about ‘Walls’ a few months back – you really put some great effort into your music videos! Where do the ideas come from? How important do you think that the visual aspect is?
Again we loved your review of the track as you where spot on with your description and influences. I think it’s really important to try and come up with an original concept, but one that represents the track or, if you’re lucky, complements the track. The ideas usually come from the lyric in the song, personally I hate videos that have nothing to do with the song.
We decided we didn’t want to feature in the video and hopefully let the music and the video do the talking and we were lucky Mark Minors, who directed both videos, took our ideas on board without distracting from the music itself.
What was the driving force behind Kidology? Is there a message behind the album or is it all about the music?
Yes there’s a big message, it’s all Kidology. Dr John had mentioned the word trickology to me and I thought yes that’s a great word and title, and then my brother called me saying he’d seen the word kidology. When I looked into the dictionary description it was perfect, it means the quintessentially British art of deception.
I thought it fitted the theme of the album and the band perfectly and described lyrically what I was getting at. As mentioned, when Dr John had said trickology he was referring to the studio tricks we had been using to create the music it was just the perfect title (it’s voodoo baby).
The art of deception also works well too as the message behind the album is quite a cynical take on modern living. Whether it’s reality TV, living your life through Facebook, X Factor, 24 hour news channels, moon landings or premier league football, we are sold the headlines. The news becomes entertainment, and then we are sold those stories and none of it is sincere. It’s sugar coated in corruption and we are told this is what we are to believe.
Musically I wanted Kidology to have a sonic backdrop to the themes mentioned, but with a bit of a electro voodoo rock twist (from our travels through New Orleans).
Where should we be looking to find new music? Who is worth keeping an eye on? (besides yourselves, of course)
I’m always looking for new music, I still check out music blogs and sites like yours daily. It’s so important without record shops these days, the work and effort people like yourself put into filtering new music so we can discover it!
I also love to discover new music whilst travelling. New Orleans has had a huge influence on the new album and I discovered so much new music out there that filtered through to Kidology. Whenever I can find a record shop I’ll still spend hours looking for new music.
One band I’ve been following is Federation Of The Disco Pimp. They are stunning, the real deal, and just doing a new album at the moment. They come from Glasgow and are just doing their own thing.
What does music mean to you?
It means everything, it consumes me night and day and is part of who I am as a person.
Where can we see you live in the next few months?
Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Reading and London are all currently pencilled in for November.
Who is your least favourite cartoon character?
Jerry from Tom and Jerry, as he always gets away with it and makes me feel sorry for Tom.
Anything you’d like to add?
In the words of Ferris Bueller, life moves fast, if you don’t stop and look around you might miss it.
You can buy Kidology now via iTunes. Keep up to date with the band through Facebook and Twitter.
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