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Bristol’s latest invigorating art-pop/disco band Getdown Services come for a chat to talk about their latest single 'Biscuit Tin'.
The other week, we stumbled across something quite special. An incredible up-and-coming art-pop/disco duo from Bristol. Getdown Services come along with a frustratingly heartbreaking yet inspiring tale to tell in their latest single 'Biscuit Tin'. We checked in with the pair to see what this single is all about, the story behind it and the answers to the age-old question Custard Creams or Bourbons.
Hi Getdown Services! Thank you for joining us today, how’s your week been?
Hello mate! No trouble, cheers for having us. My week’s been great thanks, went on holibobs over the bank holiday weekend. I’m a gardener so work is nicer now spring is here, chuffed!
We love your latest single ‘Biscuit Tin’, can you tell us a little about what inspired the creation of this song and the meaning behind it?
Thanks! The music element of the song came about from pissing around trying to make something with a bit of groove because I thought our live set could do with more dancing. The lyrics came about separately, my parents were evicted from the house I grew up in. It was a nightmare seeing my parents be chucked into this massively stressful situation despite being properly nice, hard-working people. My dad’s a postman for fucks sake. They’re both legends. the anger about how unfair the situation was for them and thinking about how much misery private landlords cause for millions of people took up a lot of my energy for months.
On top of that, it started to wind me up that every other person you come across, amongst creatives in Bristol at least, seems to be the child of a landlord or going out with one or something. And often you’re not really allowed to say how you feel about that or even take the piss out of them about it. So I thought I would just try and get all the anger I had and put it in one place with as little word mincing as possible. Then I remembered this music I’d made a few weeks before and basically stuck these lyrics on that. The tune is really about me having a go at landlords and posh kids in a song so I hopefully don’t feel like I have to have a go at them when I’m forced to interact with them socially.
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Comparing ‘Biscuit Tin’ to your other released singles, there is a very different feel to it, almost a Sleaford Mods x Yard Act feel. Is this a direction you’re moving towards or did it just feel suitable for the song?
Yeah mate I know what you mean for sure, it’s definitely a different vibe. To be honest, as much as we love those bands, they were never really on our radar as bands that we find inspiring etc. I’ve never really had an interest in making lyrical music like that. The sort of spoken word style of this one basically came about because it was an easy way for me to cram in whatever I felt like saying without thinking about it musically. When I realised the tune was basically gonna be a rant I just went with that. It was fun to make and it’s always a proper laugh playing it live but I can’t really see it being a direction we go in. Who knows though!​
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We have seen that all profits from this single will be going to a charity, could you tell us a bit more about that and why you picked that charity?
Yes! The charity is called Acorn, they’re a mass membership organisation of low-income people organising for a fairer deal for our communities. They assist in fighting unfair evictions and the like. We chose to raise and donate money from this tune to them because we wanted to at least try and make it about more than just me gobbing off. I’m glad we did and all, we’ve got £150 off band camp so far which is well cool. They’re a really great organisation and do amazing work. The best in the business.
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How would you sum yourselves up as a band, and how did the birth of Getdown Services come about?
I think that our band is just an extension of our friendship. We spend a lot of time trying to sort of impress each other and make each other laugh and I think that’s probably the thing most at the centre of what we do. That said though I don’t think we are a comedy band. And it would be pretentious of me to say I don’t take it seriously because I spend nearly all of my time working on and thinking about our music. I’m waffling, sorry. The other day at a gig Someone said we’re like Sleaford Mods mixed with Sister Sledge and I’ll take that.
The band came about because me and Ben have been best mates for absolute ages and I sent a loop I'd made on Ableton to him in lockdown and he sent back some lyrics that he’d sung over it. It went on to become our song 'M5 Overdrive'. I thought the vibe of the singing and the lyrics were absolutely top drawer and it basically went from there.
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Have you got any exciting plans in place for the rest of this year?
Yeah, mate loads! Got loads of tunes in the oven that we’re gonna put out and loads of gigs over the summer. Got a tune we’ve done with Saloon Dion coming out soon and that’s an absolute stonker I’ll tell you that for nothing.
What’s been your favourite release of 2022 so far?
I reckon for me it’s probably Donny Benet's 'Le Piano'.
Ben says 'Fuzzy Features' by The Family Battenberg!
And lastly, what’s your favourite biscuit?
Custard creams and anyone who disagrees can kiss my god damn ass!