Chatting with the boys who will soundtrack your summer.
Bristol-via-Brighton trio, BOA, are about to become your go-to band to listen to while enjoying the ten minutes of English summertime. Already making waves with their previous tracks, “Pharaoh”, “Right Place Right Time” and “Holier”, their newest offering, “Steal It”, is a sun-soaked track with compelling vocals and tropical-synth grooves set to propel the band into the spotlight where they belong. A delightful dose of technicolour indie-pop, the track is all about unrequited love, although packaged in a paradoxically enjoyable song that you’ll want to listen to again and again.
We took time out of swooning over “Steal It” and getting ready for their show at Queen of Hoxton on 8th April to speak to 2/3 of the band, James and Hugh (soz Joe), to find out all about them.
How did you all meet?
On Tinder and Bumble.
Do you all have similar music tastes?
We’ve all got our own personal influences, for me I’ve been listening to a lot of Loyle Carner and Elton John recently! But I think when you’re working on writing music you can’t let your own taste get in the way of the bigger picture. I think what works about our set up is that we bring quite a wide range of influences to the table – and hopefully that shows in our tunes.
If you could describe your sound in three words, what would they be?
Breezy. Summer. Pop!
How did your band name come about?
It stands for better off alone. At the time I was feeling a bit emo…
“I normally get a melody or lyric come into my head when I’m trying to fall asleep.”
Can you tell us about your newest single “Steal It?”
It’s not hard to work out what it’s about. People do crazy things and quite often the more destructive they become, sometimes the more other people are drawn to them.
What was the inspiration behind the track?
Unrequited love.
What’s the creative process behind your songwriting? What different things do you all bring to the process?
I normally get a melody or lyric come into my head when I’m trying to fall asleep. It gets to like 4am and I still can’t decide whether to wake myself up more by recording it into my phone, or leaving it in the hope I can remember it in the morning. Hugh writes just with a guitar, Joe produces all our stuff so he writes all kinds of crazy ideas.
You’re playing at Queen of Hoxton on the 8th. What’s your favourite thing about performing live?
When there’s a buzz in a venue for a good line up, it radiates with everybody. You could totally feel that when we supported Shura a few months ago, there was such an excitement for her and the band coming on stage. For me I just get hooked on that feeling, and it’s really compelling for us to be a part of it.
What else do you have lined up for this year?
We’ve got a Chainsmokers collab coming up, and we’ve been in the studio with Plan B 😉
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