Interview Bat Flattery

Bat Flattery's latest single "Onibaba Mask" dives into themes of endurance and resilience in today's societal challenges, drawing inspiration from the haunting imagery of the film 'Onibaba.'

1. "Onibaba Mask" is your first single of 2024. Can you tell us about the inspiration and creative process behind this track?
Paul – The song was written in 2020 and we held on to it a long time in demo form before we started rehearsing it towards mid 2022. It’s a song written about reaching the limits of endurance. In Britain we have the phrase ‘grin and bear it’ which is used as a sort of weak mantra to promote resilience, and it’s a bit out of date in the present day, especially given the current social, biological, economic and diplomatic climate on this island and beyond. The lyrics were written whilst watching the film Onibaba, which featured a killer who wears a kabuki mask, fashioned into a rictus grin. In my mind at least, the appearance of the mask looks like the visage of someone who is at the limits of ‘grinning and bearing it’.
2. How does "Onibaba Mask" differ from your previous releases in terms of sound and themes?
Rob – We feel that Onibaba Mask is truer to our current sound as a band than previous releases we’ve made. Whilst we still use the songs from the first two EP’s in our set, we’re writing more and more, and soon these older songs may be only the longer shows we play. We’re not an especially “heavy” band, but we feel that Onibaba Mask and all of our newer songs pack more of a punch than our older bits, and bring a rawer, brasher sound than what we’ve done previously.
3. You recorded, mixed, and mastered "Onibaba Mask" with Martyn Bewick at Playing Aloud Studios. What was that experience like?
Rob – Martyn is someone that we have known for many years, and it was a pleasure to record with him. He really got involved in the project to the perfect level that we were after; not invading our creative process, but very happy to advise and lend his expertise to the recordings. He was also extremely patient with our weird ways of doing things and our excessive pickiness when it came to revising the track and getting it to just how we wanted it. I’d 100% recommend him to any artist or band wanting a solid, professional recording.

4. Your sound has been described as a blend of post-hardcore, math-rock, noise-rock, grunge, and punk. How do you incorporate these diverse influences into your music?
Rob – There are a huge number of other bands, artists and music that are influences to us, however it’s important to keep direction in a band and not lose focus on what you want to achieve with a particular sound. I remember a huge inspiration for my attitude towards music was an interview I read a while back with a band (who shall remain nameless), whose ethos was essentially “be your own favourite band”. While this risks sounding a bit arrogant, it has made me strive to write music that I truly love and proud of having been part of creating. A major part of being in a band (as opposed to a solo project with a backing band) is the ability to listen, consider and work alongside everybody’s contributions and influences that may be different from your own, and most importantly, value them.
5. Bat Flattery formed from the ashes of Grassic. How did that transition shape the band's current identity and musical direction?
Paul – So Grassic played a lot of influence on the line up of our band. Lincoln has a tight community of bands and sometimes these bands share both gear and line ups amongst themselves. This has helped craft a lovely little scene of collaborating friends. Frank Frost played with myself in Grassic and also played with Rob in a band calked Fedic. The three of us have been friends for nearly a decade and we formed Bat Flattery together in early 2020. Frank loves to challenge himself so he moved from bass to drums. He was an enthusiastic drummer but he’d be the first to say that his abilities was great but he could not maintain the stamina of playing long songs like those we played in Grassic.

Therefore we decided that we should write music that emphasised our strengths and passions. So we focused on alternating time signatures within our songs and also keep our songs very condensed whilst sometimes featuring pauses of percussion. You can hear this stringly embedded in our first EP Clap City. Frank left the band in mid 2021 and he sporadically plays music but plays in Pothole who are a great band. From then we worked with another good friend of ours Alan Tyres and we recorded our first two EPs with him. Again he still remains a lovely friend and its always a pleasure to catch up with him. Then we acquired the Bulgarian beast himself Mr Pironev.
6. Plamen Pironev is the new addition to the band on drums. How has his presence influenced your music and dynamic as a band?
Paul – When it was Alan, Rob and I we used to easily be able to name drop bands from our youth and generally tickle our nostalgia spots when we incorporated our influences in our song craft. However with Plamen it’s been a bit different as he was raised in Bulgaria. However, we love that just as much as we have learnt a lot and include his influences (either through domestic music or his love of American rock and metal) in our new writing. Which is great. We don’t want to play pigeon holed music and we’re happy to bring any influence to the table.

7. You've shared the stage with bands like The Skids, A-Tota-So, and Mannequin Death Squad. How have these experiences impacted your growth and exposure as a band?
Paul – Every band we have played with has been a blessing to play with because you learn something. Every set you watch gives you a little master/disaster class on how to perform and keep an audience engaged. I don’t want to say that one band has been our favourite but I hold them all in high esteem and I can say our band have benefitted from sharing a stage with them.

Rob – We’ve been pretty lucky to have gotten the chance to play with a lot of good bands; local, national and international. Getting to play with punk legends The Skids was both a fantastic opportunity and a great show – even though we’re not necessarily the exact same genre as them, we were very much accepted by both them and their fans and our set went down very well. Mannequin Death Squad we played with when we were just starting out and it was fantastic to work with a band with not only a great bunch of music, but such a strong worth ethic and commitment to what they do. We’re looking forward to playing with A-Tota-So in July, they’re one of my favourite bands in the scene currently and I have both a lot of respect for them, and get a lot of enjoyment from their music.
8. Being part of the Socks On collective, how has this community supported and influenced Bat Flattery?
Rob – Socks On have helped us out within the UK Midlands/East scene – they’re a very accommodating, accepting and friendly bunch, nothing like the worrisome image that can be conjured when picturing a record label. We’ve had the chance to bring them further out towards our home town, supporting them to put on shows in Lincoln and hopefully other cities in the area, which they seem to have appreciated – their ethos is more of a community of musicians who support one another rather than anything else, so it’s good to be able to contribute to that as well as take from it.
9. Your music has been praised for its to-the-point style and unique blend of genres. How do you balance maintaining your signature sound while experimenting with new elements?
Paul – Rob and I are both nerds for Rollercoaster Tycoon. From the start of the band, we used to joke that the perfect set of music would be like a visit to a theme park, and we wanted to have enough thrills, highs lows and chills in our music that a visitor would have. We try and mess around with time signatures to dizzying effect, noise and lyrical harshness to shake people up but also incorporate enough melody in our songs to act as the sweet snacks after the rides. It’s just been fun to balance and you can definitely tell that it’s been effective on our audience.

10. What themes or messages do you aim to convey through your music, particularly in "Onibaba Mask"?
Paul – I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want people to be determined by what I tell them the song should be about. All I can say really the words are there for people to either be affected by or shout out mindlessly. Plus, that bit at the end gives people something to dance to.

Rob – Generally speaking lyrically we write about what we see and know. From political issues to mental health issue, from distaste towards certain aspects of society to celebrating our favourite books and films. We like to make our music emotive about the way we feel on certain topics, because this is by far the best way to awaken passion in our performance. Bill Hicks screamed “play it from your fucking heart”, and we do.
11. You've been featured on BBC Introducing East Midlands and praised by notable figures in the music scene. How does this recognition affect your motivation and goals as a band?
Rob – Praise for our music means a lot more than people think. The act of anybody approaching us just to tell us that they’ve enjoyed what we’ve done really goes a long way in our motivation to continue doing what we want to do. We’re in an economic shitshow as a people, with the cost of living rising at a disproportion to what people earn – if somebody parts with their hard-earned cash to simply come and see us, not only is that a fantastic motivator to continue, but also drive to put on the best show we can. Some people might decide they’d like to buy a shirt, which again means the world, but it’s just simply not feasible for a lot of people to do that, so listening to our music, coming to our shows, that really means the world. Getting praise from notable figures within the scene has the potential to make us more successful as a band as well as solidifying a good feeling and forward drive. People don’t have to be nice to us, it’s their choice, and the fact that they are choosing to do so on occasions is, as far as we’re concerned, a powerful gesture.

Paul – It’s been a pleasure every time we’ve been played. It’s nice to be recognised and have some sort of acclaim. But I do feel uncomfortable to just statically wait around for acclaim and sometimes I still feel awkward when it comes. I think we usually find motivation in ourselves, and we just concentrate on the next thing. I am firm follower of stoic principles and truly believe that ‘The obstacle is the way’.
12. What can fans expect from Bat Flattery in 2024 in terms of shows, releases, and future projects?
Paul – More singles to be released over the course of the year. Which is great as the lads have allowed me to go full on Fellini and keep directing/making the music videos. I’m not going to spoil the order but people will recognise the songs being released as they feature heavily in our current set. Plus, we are writing – always writing and generally keeping the wheels of creativity in motion while we are still in gear.

Rob – We’re excited to continue playing live around the UK, and plan to look further afield soon. As Paul said, we have a few more singles left to release this year, and really plan on being able to release a more-or-less constant stream of music as much as we can.

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