The BIG Über Rock Interview - Joel Bader (Slimboy)

The BIG Über Rock Interview – Joel Bader (Slimboy)

Written by Jess R
Sunday, 02 September 2018 04:00

Swiss trio Slimboy first came to ÜR’sattention when they toured the Über Kingdom as part of the Ataris’ ‘So Long Astoria’ anniversary jaunt. They recently returned to these shores to fulfil similar duties with US pop punks Mest. So, I took the opportunity to find out more about the band and their music from frontman Joel.

I started by asking what it was like growing up where he did, in terms of music…

My family is not musical at all, so my aunt was the one that brought me into music. I was listening to her records. Basel in Switzerland is pretty small so there’s a music scene but is not big, so I was listening to whatever like Guns ‘n’ Roses and all of the bands that everybody was listening to. That was my musical youth actually and then when I was 16 I started my first band and it went from there.

What made you decide to sing in English?

In Switzerland a lot of people sing in their own language, like the way they do in Germany it’s kind of a like a German thing. I never liked that because I like to hide myself behind the language [English] because it’s not my mother language and it feels natural. It feels more unnatural to sing in my mother language.

So, you feel a bit more exposed to be singing in your mother tongue?

Yeah, I think so, I guess that’s probably it ha ha!

What would you say is the overall theme of your album [‘Sail on Sailor’]?

The album we did now almost every song, it’s not dedicated, but it’s about something or someone. I’ve never done that before. It just came to my head because it started with a song about someone I knew who cheated a lot of people in a really bad way and I was like that feels good to just let it out on a musical basis because I’ve never actually done that before. I mean I have had personal songs but most of the songs were like I wrote lyrics, so they are lyrics, no specific meaning. On this record it’s totally different, it’s like every song is about someone or a special moment or whatever in my life so, yeah, it’s really personal.

What would you say your most personal song is or the song you most feel connected to?

The first single we released of that record, ‘Sorrows’, is about my mum who died so that’s probably the closest song I have. I did a song about my mother and my sister about ten years ago and I still feel connected to that one a lot – but I think ‘Sorrows’ is the one that is really the closest one.

Who would you say is your biggest musical influence?

Ha ha there are too many. Yeah definitely too many. The thing is I never really listened to music and saw a singer or a band and thought ‘I want to be like them’ but I must say there are definitely bands like The Ataris which influenced me as a songwriter. There’s no way I can deny that haha, it’s just like that happens. You listen to their stuff so many times then you start writing your own songs, of course your first ideas come from what you’ve just listened to. So if I would have to name some bands there’s definitely The Ataris, MXPX, stuff like that.

Did any really big bands such as Guns ‘n’ Roses or Aerosmith for example, because you said you listened to what everyone else was listening to, or Green Day influence you in any way?

Green Day for sure did! Not so much Guns ‘n’ Roses or Aerosmith because that’s not our style but you could say they influenced me with how cool it is, maybe more like that but Green Day of course. I think the first cover I played, or my real first punk rock show I had been to, was Green Day when they released ‘Dookie’. I saw them in Switzerland and I was like no way! They trashed their whole equipment and they smashed the drums I was just like ‘they’re so cool!” To me Green Day are the reason this music kind of took off so good because to me they were like the first pop punk’s of the scene because I think many people hated them when they brought out ‘Dookie’ because it was so different it was so poppy and everything but it was exactly what they wanted and I love it to date.

What would you say your favourite thing about the tour so far is?

So far on this one? Since I’m booking all of the shows and I’m taking care of all of the tour management the good thing always is to meet people. That’s just like a good thing because it’s so cool to go to a place and you’ve never been there, or you’ve been there before, and people come back, that’s always a good thing. There’s no highlight where I’m like ‘oh that’s the best thing that happened on that tour’ because the tours are more or less the same, with an equal when it comes to people showing up or the shows we play. I must say though there was a show in Switzerland on this tour that was just fun to play. Yeah that was a personal highlight.

What would you say your favourite kind of venue to play is? Do you prefer slightly larger venues or smaller venues where there are more people?

I don’t care just playing to people and the thing is there is no way I can do anything about it. If there are thousands or ten people, if people show up they show up, if they don’t they don’t. There’s just nothing I can do about it, it’s fun to play big stages for sure but most of the time we play small venues like this.

Would you say that there is an end goal for Slimboy or just seeing how it goes?

Just see how it goes to be honest because we all work on our daily jobs with music. Our guitarist and drummer are teachers, I run a merch store, but we still have to earn some money in Switzerland to live. So the music is not just a hobby, it’s more than a hobby, but it’s not everything. I mean it’s everything in my head, but it isn’t everything to support us.

• ‘Sail on Sailor’ is out now.

https://www.facebook.com/slimboyband/