Remember that saucy little music video with naked girls in censor strips? Well, this week’s Fresh from the Post artist would be the guilty party behind that.
Bark Bark Disco are Morris Woodcock, Charlotte and Antonio, three friends that form this little musical group, whose origins are split between Berlin and Malta. They produce their own unique brand of music which they dub as ‘bedroom pop’. Today, they take a crack at this week’s Fresh from the Post questions, as well as share a couple of songs to us from their newly released album –Your Mum Says Hello.
How did Bark Bark Disco form?
Morris (the singer) had a bunch of songs on a demo and one day a concert promoter heard them and asked them to support Bonnie Prince Billy. Morris brought two friends on stage to perform as the newly formed Bark Bark Disco. The gig went really well and people kept asking about the band, so Morris officially formed Bark Bark Disco (in November 2009) and recorded their debut album.
How would you describe your sound?
Simple Bedroom Pop. Songs from a broadway musical, played in a bedroom on a pocket keyboard.
Why did you choose Bark Bark Disco as your band name?
It just sounded happy and fun.
I love your music video for ‘A Song for the Lovers’. It’s cheeky and creative. How did you guys come up with the idea of using a classic porn movie and strategically putting in lyrics where the censored parts are to create the music video?
In all fairness, a similar idea has already been done in another other music video. But we felt it was a cheap easy way to have a video 🙂 Morris brought out his old 70.s porn collection and made a funny edit with naked girls to the song and it looked really cool. Then knowing that YouTube wouldn’t host it as was, added the censor bars and then the lyrics.
We’re featuring two of your songs here on the site – ‘A Song For Lovers’ and ‘Stop Making My Life Hell’ – can you tell us more about them?
The single Song for the Lovers was the first Bark Bark Disco song written. Morris wrote it and recorded it the same day in Berlin, on an old PC, using just one tiny Casio keyboard. All the sounds, the drums, the bass and the keys are from it. The voices were recorded over a computer microphone and it just sounded right.
It’s the simplest of home made love songs.
The other song, is Stop Making My Life Hell. Here again the song was initially written by Morris and originally recorded over a web cam. The song is about a guy who just wants to be given a chance to show a particular girl, how great it would be to go out with him. Another home made love song.
I always ask this question to all artists that I feature – since everybody seems to have a different definition to it. How do you define indie music?
Indie music should relate to bands who can create music without the constrains of any form of record label or so, intruding on their creative process.
Besides this, the real essence to being independent, even if a band does use record labels, is to retain full control of the rights of the album and fund the album production themselves, to not be indebted to any company. A band should be in a position to release an album alone in the absence of a record company. Nowadays with the internet there’s not excuse not to do so. Bottom line, is that every decision concerning the band or music can be taken in full freedom by the band.
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Listening to the album in full, one can say that Bark Bark Disco’s sound is an example of DIY pop at its finest. Its remarkably raw quality is the nice quirk that adds to its beauty, however its the likability of their sound (which they owe primarily to the catchy hooks and loveable vocals) that make it the perfect indie music treat. Of course, the almost scandalous and amusingly naughty music videos help, but Bark Bark Disco’s music wouldn’t be complete without that element of fun. What’s best about all of this is it’s free – you can download the whole album at their site. That would be just like cherry on top though – the real treat is getting the aural experience of a sound that’s refreshingly new.
