Birmingham-based duo Bad Money have released their single Ashes, a gorgeous slice of pop, with a bassline that’s really understated in the intro, but then you’ve got a nice guitar riff that comes in… One of my favourite things about this track is that it’s catchy. If I was to remix it myself (not a hint!) I’d have so much fun with the stems of the vocals and guitars. This is the kind of track you could just use as a soundtrack to when everything reopens, great for a commute. The elements are all there for a hit tune, and I’m proud of what they’ve achieved here and they should be. Lyrically the song is dark, and deals with the very real mental health challenges that people deal with today. People need to check This Site if they need men’s health advice. A very much-needed song for today’s world.

Hello guys how are you?
BEN: We’re great thanks. Starting to see life returning to normal now and seeing some family for the first time in months is really nice. Also excited about the prospect of being able to play live shows soon when venues reopen.

Congratulations on the release of “Ashes”. It’s a very deep song. What inspired it?
JACOB: Ashes was born from a dark place that I was in, and it was only when I came out of that place that I decided to write a song about it. I was going through a troubling time, and was going to do something really stupid and managed to see it through to the other end. I remember the day Ben showed me one of the many demos he had been working on, and when I heard the music, I just knew the two would synergize well together. It all came together perfectly and I knew that a lot of people can relate to the song.

You are from Birmingham UK, how did it all begin for you?
JACOB: Me and Ben have known each other since I was 18, and we’ve worked on various other music projects leading up to Bad Money. We’ve always been on the same page, but when you’re in a band where the other members aren’t, you just know it will never work out. So this is why we decided to be a duo, and everything just works and we’re excited for what the future holds for us.

You’re both multi instrumentalists, how does a typical writing session begin for you?
JACOB: In my opinion the musical talent really comes from Ben. He will work on a demo which generally is a verse and a chorus and send it through to me, and I will get the vibe of the music and started jotting down lyrics and adding various bass/guitar parts. There is always a healthy discussion about certain aspects that we might feel differently about, but we always come to a solution that works well for both of us.

How has being in lockdown helped you and hindered you?
BEN: In some ways it has hindered us… for example, not being able to plan/play live shows and not being able to film music videos or do photoshoots or anything like that. However we are very lucky in the sense that we self-produce our material. The majority of artists and bands have to visit a producer to record their material whereas we do it all ourselves and therefore we have been able to continue writing/recording music so that we have still been able to release music during this time and now coming out of lockdown we have a number of songs recorded and ready to go.

What are you both currently listening to at the moment?
JACOB: We generally like the same music really, maybe because that’s where we feed our inspiration from. The stuff we’re in to at the moment are Dua Lipa, The Band Camino, Haim and The 1975.

You have received airplay and for your previous singles and made the BBC Introducing playlist how does that feel?
JACOB: I love the music we put out, but you know, it’s amazing that everything we put out so far has been played by BBC Introducing. We even were Artist Of The Week from our very first track. It’s a great feeling, and we’re driven and passionate as it is already, and this just adds fuel to that fire.

What’s in your writing set up?
BEN: Usually it starts with a guitar riff/keys riff that I accidentally discover in the early hours of the morning while noodling on the guitar or piano. If it has a good vibe then I try and find a melody to accompany it. At this point usually, I record a quick demo and send it over to Jacob to see what he thinks, what he’s feeling about it and what kind of story he thinks the music is telling. The lyrics are usually born at this point and we sometimes change parts of the lyrics over a facetime call or something like that so we’re both really happy with it, both in terms of the story but also the feel of the lyrics with the melody. Then we just keep adding and changing the instrumentation until we’re both 100% content with it and it feels right.

What’s your plan for post lockdown?
BEN: We have a new single coming out on the 10th July called You Got The Way, which we’re super excited about. We then plan to release a single every month until the end of the year. We’re also looking at a music video shoot and planning some live shows which we’re absolutely psyched for. I know I speak for 99% of artists out there when I say that nothing compares to the feeling of performing your music live.

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