Peddling their own brand of unashamed guitar pop, Bare Traps are a four piece that met while studying at the University of Westminster; a place which also bore the likes of rock legends Pink Floyd. Disciples of popular music, they specialise in an innocent hedonism, eschewing the desire to be ‘cool’ or ‘edgy’; an eclectic collection of individuals from all over England, hell-bent on having a good time, as well as being one of the funniest bands After Nyne have ever met.
In the end their music boils down to this: with various members of the band having been through house fires, muggings, broken bones, inexplicable illness and lengthy hospital stays in the past twelve months, Bare Traps were in much need of a good cheering up, so made some fun music perfect for over-coming those end-of-summer blues.
After Nyne are thrilled to be premiering the second single from the band, Inside. Influenced heavily by the likes of Blood Orange, The Smiths, Foals and Chic, Inside is a luscious disco-tinged indie floor-filler, providing escapist imagery of sunset dancing on a tropical beach.
Music editor Lulu caught up with Mikey from the band to have a chat…
How did you guys all meet?
Funny story actually. We met the same way everyone in London meets these days. On Tinder. We all matched John. He asked us if we’re into group stuff. We are.
What’s behind the name Bare Traps?
We invented trap music and we’re well street, so we use the word ‘bare’ as a synonym for ‘a lot’. Simple as that really. It’s also in reference to the pitfalls in life that we allow ourselves to walk into on a daily basis; knowing we’re going to cause ourselves problems, yet we do it anyway. One of those is true. You decide.
What was the inspiration for the new single ‘Inside’?
The inspiration for the song comes from the fact that we’ve all been imprisoned at some point i.e. ‘inside’. We also love disco, so we thought why not try our hand at that? How hard can it be? And it was easy, not sure what the fuss about Nile Rodgers is to be honest. Hit us up for a session, we’ll offer a much better price!
What’re your influences as a band?
Influences? Well we’re usually under the influence of a life-threatening amount of alcohol. If you mean musical influences, then we’re on a healthy well-balanced diet of indie and dance music. I think the cool kids call it being eclectic.
What’s the writing process like for you guys?
It usually starts with a guitar riff, then several hours of Luke playing with his guitar pedals to get the sound ‘right’, then Scott will put on a simple disco beat, while John and I smoke cigarettes and scroll through Facebook. Then some days later we will have the bare bones of a song, Luke will then take it away, completely dissect it, and reassemble it with different sections and about 12 guitar parts. We then have to rein him in and make him realise he can’t physically play 12 guitar parts, even with all his loop pedals. My lyrics relate to the struggles us lazy arses go through and my melody lines are crafted from a silk and polyester mix of Seal and Noel Gallagher, both of which are durable and won’t fade overtime.
What’re your plans for the winter?
We want to keep warm, last winter was too cold, so no repeats of that this time. John’s spent this summer learning how to make a fire, I’m doing some knitting, whilst Scott’s buried some food to get us through the worst of it. Luke’s growing a beard and heading north of the wall to fight the white walkers.
We might even play some shows during that time as well, we’ll see.
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