We had a chance to catch up with locals Bandits recently and got their take on recording vinyl to their upcoming tour dates with Black Pistol Fire (long time favorites of ours). We love recognizing great talent and this band is on the rise for sure. They have a show coming up this Saturday at Larimer Lounge which should be a blast. Tickets can be purchased here.
Ultra5280 Tell us your background as a band, we understand it’s quite the musical family?
LuLu: Both John and I had a very musical upbringing, we both learned piano at a young age and were listening to lots of music. John and I both love rock and roll so we decided to start a band. We were in need of a drummer and Andrew was our top choice. We've all been playing together for about a year and a half now.
Andrew: I grew up playing drums in school and have been in several different Colorado based bands over the last ten years. I joined BANDITS in February of 2015.
Ultra5280 You have a couple new songs you will be playing at your show Saturday, tell us about them and what does your writing process look like?
John: We are excited to be playing our new songs for everyone. We've got a really heavy and different set we're going to play so it should be a BANDITS show like you've never seen before. Our writing process usually starts with Lulu or I bringing a seed of a riff or lyric in to practice and growing it from there.
Ultra5280 What made you guys decide on a vinyl release? You're a band I can definitely see recording for Third Man Records at some point.
Andrew: Vinyl has much higher sound quality than other mediums, and has so much more significance than CD's in terms of being an object you can hold and display. Vinyl has been making a huge comeback recently, and it's cool to see companies like Third Man Records encouraging that trend.
Ultra5280 What do you guys do outside of the band? jobs? school?
Andrew: We all work various odd jobs, but we all make playing music a priority in our daily lives outside of the band as well.
Ultra5280 You guys are playing UMS this year, what can fans expect?
John: UMS is gonna be crazy this year. Last year, we had an awesome show at The Irish Rover and this year we are gonna be fresh of the road, itching to get back to Denver and play with all the locals bands. It's a great line up this year.
Ultra5280 You guys had a run of shows at SXSW earlier this year what was that like?
Andrew: SXSW was crazy, as always! It's a very cool experience. There are so many great bands playing in Austin that week that it's almost overwhelming. We were lucky enough to be super busy, and had the opportunity to play a ton of shows to a lot of new fans.
LuLu: Yea, we had a great time at SXSW this year, it was our second year at SX. Fortunately we were able to see some pretty iconic shows. John and Andrew managed to sneak into the Iggy Pop show, that was a big highlight. We met some of the people from Steve Madden at SXSW and will be collaborating sometime in the future with them through Madden Music. They've worked with the likes of The Kills, Deap Vally, July Talk, and more. We can't wait to get something cooking with their team.
Ultra5280 You guys were once known as Branded Bandits and now simply BANDITS, why the change?
John: We changed the name because we felt it better suited our sound and new direction. We started the band when we were younger and now that we've grown up and into our instruments we've found a name that fits our band.
Ultra5280 Finally what can we expect from your show this coming Saturday?
LuLu: A lot of new BANDITS music. We have Meeting House & Blanket Empire opening. It's going to be a rowdy, loud, rock and roll show. We got a great local tattoo artist Rachel Paton of Ritual Tattoo Gallery to do artwork on our Vinyl Sleeves. It's something we're really proud of. We are also about to hit the road next week with Black Pistol Fire, we will be playing some incredible venues in the south. Come see us at Larimer Lounge before we hit the road for a while.
7/2 Larimer Lounge in Denver, CO
7/7 House of Blues in New Orleans, LA
7/8 The Syndicate Lounge in Birmingham, AL
7/9 The Masquerade in Atlanta, GA