“No matter what we do, we just want people to feel authenticity. Even with the name: people are going to love it or hate it, but at least it’s self-aware”, explains Jake Roche, frontman of the experimental four-piece band push baby, on the decidedly different band name.

Starting out as Rixton and with their 2014 track “Me And My Broken Heart” heading straight to number one in the UK, the band decided that Rixton essentially wasn’t who they wanted to be, so they took a break and have returned with new music and a new name, push baby.

We spoke to the band about their new EP, “woah”…

What was the inspiration behind your new band name?
There was no conscious reasoning behind it at all. It just naturally fell into place and was a reflection of where I felt I was as an artist in the cringiest way possible. We didn’t overthink it because we knew that if the music was authentic, then it doesn’t really matter what you’re called. I secretly laugh to myself when I hear people talk about it because it was a no-brainer for me that we have to evolve. I love it. We love it. It just fits now. We’re now making stuff that warrants us to have a name like push baby. It was either that or BTS but that was taken apparently.

Who did you guys grow up listening to?
I listened to McFly and Michael Buble. I was just so confused. Daddy issues for sure. As a collective we all listened to different stuff, which we love delving into from time to time in the studio. It can go from Elton John to The Used, and I’ll be in the corner begging to hear “Five Colours In Her Hair”.

What do you want people to get out of your music?
Merch, music, shows, enjoyment. We are working to give our fans our world to inspire theirs.

Your videos are pretty wacky – what’s the process of putting them together?
It’s different for each one. The videos for “woah” were an incredibly quick turn around. As always with everything with [us] it was trust your gut and just shoot it and hope you find it in the edit. They were incredibly low budget. Not by choice. We totally blew the label’s budgets. However, we soon learnt that restrictions breed creativity and I fell in love with that a bit. It’s some of our favourite visuals ever.

What are your videos inspired by?
They are all each inspired by different things. The process on each one is entirely different. Our filmmaker friends Zac and Moon took the reigns with most of them. Lewi edited and did the VFX on some which we’ve never done before. It felt nice to collaborate with them and open the gates to push baby to them and make them a part of it too. We all really lived the process of “woah” individually. We obsess over filmmaking and it just so happens that my two best friends are filmmakers, so we’ve learnt to totally trust them to execute what we’re yearning for in the music.

How would you describe your genre?
I really don’t know. I lose sleep over this. Because from the age of fifteen, I’ve had it wired into me that to be successful you need to make music for radio… and yes that is true… depending on your view of success. Ours shifted just after “mamas house”. I was unfulfilled. I didn’t feel authentic enough for no one else but me. I felt like I was lying to myself a bit, and you fucking get caught out for that. I’m still growing and so is push baby. We are still in our infancy (pun genuinely not intended).

What’s your 5-year goal when it comes to music?
Sounds horrifically pretentious but we’re loving just focusing on the work right now. Our main goal is to make good stuff and remain as authentic as possible. I think we’re still growing in that direction. I think “woah” is the shell coming off and almost unlearning what we’ve learnt… trying to get to the heart of push baby. Ahh man… just really excited.

Watch the video for “the back of the party” below…