Balancing Act: “This is us finding our feet.”
Kai and Jackson chat to us about their sound, new single and debut headline tour as they joke that right now they’re just focusing on ‘not sucking’.
Photo: Charlie Harris
Since forming last year, London-based quartet Balancing Act have made their presence known on the indie scene, having released a string of energetic earworm tunes and sold out each of their headline shows so far, including gigs at London’s Lower Third and Manchester’s YES Basement.
With the band now releasing their latest single Cheshire Smile (which, by the way, is everything you could want from a Balancing Act song), we made sure to sit down with vocalist Kai Roberts and guitarist Jackson Couzens so we could find out more about their distinctive sound, latest track and upcoming debut headline tour.
This is probably a question you’ve heard loads of times, but for people who haven’t heard of Balancing Act before, can you tell us a bit about your band? How did you guys meet?
Kai: It must have been like four years ago now; I was in a different band and Jackson was in a different band. I think we’d been to watch each other’s individual shows and then a day came where I think I played a gig in Manchester and there was a bit of an afterparty, and Jackson came and we were like ‘we should write together’.
After the first time we wrote together, it was apparent that what we had was so much more exciting for us than what we were both doing individually. And I think we both felt like we got each other musically because the previous music projects I’ve done, they’ve been great and they’ve been good fun, but with Jackson it was the first time I’d met someone with nearly mirror perfect music tastes and I think that was really important for me when I was writing with him.
Jackson: And then I suppose after that we got a little bit bored of Manchester and the scene there. So, we decided to move to London and then that’s when David, our bass player, first got involved. We played him a song we’d just recorded, said we needed someone to play bass and he was like ‘yeah definitely up for it’. And then George, our drummer, also lives in London and we just met him through mutual friends. I mean finding a drummer is the most difficult thing ever and he just kind of popped up. It seemed like an obvious choice and we never really thought about it. Then he was out with Kai one night and he was like ‘oh I’ll play drums for you.’
K: I got him when he was quite drunk so it was like a 70% guarantee.
Perfect — that’s exactly what you need! Do you think your writing process has changed at all since David and George joined?
J: It has more recently. It was very much just me and Kai writing music on acoustic guitar and then doing a laptop demo and recording it. But recently David’s started getting a lot more involved in the writing which is really great. It’s always fun to have another person putting ideas in, and it’s definitely had an impact on our sound as well. And then in a few days, we’re actually going away to write the four of us for the first time. We’re going away for two weeks – turning our phones off, ignoring everyone and writing. So yeah, it has changed the process definitely. And in a positive way for sure.
I feel like you have quite a distinctive sound as well – like I know exactly what a Balancing Act song sounds like. Was it a difficult process getting there? Were there any particular influences?
K: I don’t think it was particularly difficult, I just think it took its time. I don’t think at any point we were like ‘oh we haven’t found it yet, we’ve not got our sound’, it just had to mature for a bit. Like we’ve got some direct influences that you might pick up. There’s obvious comparisons that people can jump to, but I think the real influences aren’t as prominent. When we were writing and when we came together, we had our head stuck in Dummy by Portishead and the idea was to create that soundscape – an almost cinematic aura of a song but a rock band playing it… but without it being rock.
The biggest difficulty we probably came across was making things not sound like this *puts rock hand sign up*. We’d get a bit carried away and be like let’s take that guitar out. I think a lot of it, the sound was made from us two above a computer nodding our heads, saying what should we add now and then getting to a point where a song is so stacked it’s like a club sandwich. And then taking little bits out until you’re just left with the things that you need.
Well it’s clearly working, and now you’ve got your new single ‘Cheshire Smile’, which I’ve had on repeat by the way.
K: No way!
How would you describe the song and what was the inspiration behind it?
J: It’s fast, its catchy and it sounds like us.
K: It came about because we were actually recording Rabbit Hole and the studio that we were recording in with a guy called Richard Woodcraft, who’s played a real important part in our growth sound-wise. Every time when we go into his studio in the off times when he’s doing bits of mixing, or he’s doing bits of the work where we look at it and go ‘uhhh we don’t know what’s going on there so I’m going to stay out the way’, we’d always sit in the other room and we’d jam because we’d never get the opportunity, because we’re always in different cities or we’ve got jobs. So, it’s like when we’re together we always seem to come up with something.
We came up with the chorus of that song whilst in the studio and we were in there and were like ‘we have to go record this right now.’ I think we had a week away from each other and we all came back and just put it together.
It was quite an exciting one because a lot of the stuff we do, we try and make sure it satisfies the arty button in our head but this one we built it to be another big live song. We wanted that big crowd participation thing so that was the pushing behind it.
I think it resurrects some of that energy that was prominent in your earlier songs as well, was it intentional to bring that back?
J: I think we definitely thought about it. Definitely after playing gigs as well. The reaction you get from a song like All Yours for example or Before I Shoot, we definitely wanted to capture that again. I think also because the last song we released [Rabbit Hole] is obviously slower, a little bit more downbeat. We love that kind of sound but we were like let’s flip it – so it was conscious definitely.
And obviously fans will soon get to hear ‘Cheshire Smile’ live because you’ve got your debut headline tour coming up in September. How does it feel knowing your about to set off on a headline tour?
K: It’s quite daunting because — not that we’ve played it safe because it’s been really impressive what we’ve achieved live (I think, anyway) — but to go to cities we’ve never played in before and to headline straight away it’s just…
J: It doesn’t really sink in it that you’re doing it until you’re rehearsing a few days before you leave and at that point it’s like ‘oh okay, this is actually happening.’
K: But we’re looking forward to it.
Are there any songs you’re hoping people will go nuts for?
K: I think it would really, really mean a lot to us if off the bat we play this new song that we’ve never played live before and we just get an instant response. I think our songs do have good crowd participation but to have it off the bat I think that would be really special. So yeah, I’d like to see it for Cheshire Smile.
So, essentially everyone should get practicing?
K: Yeah, you’ve got a month guys!
And you’ve also been praised by the likes of Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, how does it feel not only being on people’s radar but also getting such positive attention at this stage in your career?
J: It just makes you feel like you’re doing something right and it drives you to do even more because I suppose we make music for ourselves and for our own enjoyment but to see anybody enjoying it is really rewarding every single time, especially when it’s a name like Jack. Someone who’s so influential in new music and in the industry singing our praises is always so flattering.
I mean, it’s clearly a sign you’re heading in the right direction.
K: Yeah, I hope so.
But what’s next for you guys, is there any more new music on the horizon?
K: It’s a tough one because when you’re at the stage that we’re at, you don’t want to give everything away. I think we’re going to spend a lot of this time creating and not have such a strict release plan. That’s why we have this writing trip planned and we’ve never done it before. At the moment, we’re kind of like a studio band. We’ve never all been in a room next to each other locked away. So, this is us now finding our feet as a full-blown live band rather than a bedroom band. I think we’re just focusing on that and making sure we don’t suck.