Bollards

Today, London art rock quartet Bollards release their debut single ‘Plate Up’, a voyage into mesmerising bass grooves, unabashed funk guitar, thick synth lines and rigid drum structures, forging an alternative-disco flair. ‘Plate Up’ spearheads the band’s debut EP, a 3 track effort entitled ‘Harbour Dance’, that arrives on January 28th. 

Taking influence from the vibrant noise and experimental spirit of acts such as Deerhoof, the constantly changing musical identities of Wire or The Fall and the jerky riffs and earworm hooks of XTC - Bollards was born. 

Hailing from London’s creative underbelly, Bollards started as the bedroom recording project of songwriter and vocalist Jonny Dickens, who moonlights as the guitarist for North London outfit Fake Turins. Once Bollards was truly formed live, the four-piece decamped to a rural studio in Farnham called City Muscle Recordings to record with producer James Traylen. 
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Jonny Dickens says of the recording process:

“James is a fantastic musician with an all-round excellent creative mind, he saw what our vision was and translated it to something above and beyond what we initially imagined - rather than just hit the record button.”

‘Plate Up’
“Are you into it?”, remarks vocalist Jonny Dickens. ‘Plate Up’ focuses on leaning in, then out, then back into a deep and cavernous groove, placing one foot in the realms of disco with a relentless funk guitar lead, and the other foot submerged in the world of experimental art rock. 

Buoyant synthesizers move like waves through the track, as the momentum is fed through barbed guitar parts and a chopping bass groove. ‘Plate Up’ has an almost tidal energy, an everflowing instrumental fluidity that touches on an innate need to dance and express ourselves with movement.

The quotes
“The work of the band is to twist the mundane into the absurd, mess with the meaning of it and turn it into something that it’s not.” 

“Plate Up has that groove and funk rhythm guitar part - typically the sort of stuff I play with Fake Turins - so when I wrote it it felt like a natural fit for the band. I remember playing an early demo to Dominic (Fake Turins’ vocalist) at the pub and he convinced me to stick it into the Bollards set. I hadn’t even considered that at the time because it was pretty far away from what Bollards sounded like at that point. Now it’s sort of the lynch pin of our set and the EP”.

The name and theme for the EP is something vocalist Jonny Dickens came across in a novel. “The ’Harbour Dance’ was a sort of open, informal folk dance taking place in the Harbour of a port town where the story was set. I like the idea of bringing something like that back, just an impromptu night of music and dance in public space using music that is accessible enough for normal people to get moving to.”

The EP
Aside from ‘Plate Up’, the EP - which arrives Jan 28th - consists of two other tracks, firstly ‘By the By’ which is a frantic 2 minute track about self control and being stuck in a cycle of loathing towards ourselves and others. On paper a classic punk track, ‘By the By’ was written a day or two before a gig and was placed in the set at the last minute, shortly after it became a live favourite.

Final track ‘New Money’ feels like a polar opposite, it’s a long and intentionally drawn out track that was written for the Bollards live show. The band wanted to draw the listener into a sense of impatience, bouncing off a solid groove with the gradual introduction of tension and “weird synth melodies”, before the whole track suddenly shifts beneath your feet.