Bones and Jones going somewhere wonderful

How bloody exciting has the last six months been for Bones and Jones?
The five piece hailing from Torquay and Geelong released their debut album Living Given, which scored triple j airplay, as well as getting them listed in the stations ‘Top 5 Victorian acts to keep an eye on’. On top of that, the up and comers found their way across Australia for a nation-wide tour and have somehow still managed to find the time to get back into the studio to record a new single.
I’m now questioning if exciting was the right word; busy may have been more suited. Either way, the local lads have been absolutely killing it and getting the attention that they well and truly deserve.
Speaking with the groups relaxed keyboard player/singer/guitarist/bassist (most of the band are talented multi-instrumentalists) Bailey Bates, Forte found out what’s next for Bones and Jones.
“We have a 7” coming out that Jasper [the groups lead vocalist] has recorded for us. We recorded that at a place called Waves Music in Torquay, which is where we all work. We were lucky enough that our boss let us go in there for a night. We stayed up until 4:30am recording which was a bit tough, and then we all had to wake up at 6:30 the next morning for work so that was pretty tough,” he laughs.
“This single, which is called “Social Anxiety,” is a bit of a similar sound to the Living Given album, garage with a bluesy vibe and a lot of harmonica. This is going to be our last shot at that sound and for our next record, which we are going to record next month, will be very acoustic with a lot more piano and stripped back sounds.”
With the new sound being a welcomed change that was slightly indicated to on Living Given’s final song “I’m On My Way”, Bates expanded on the new material.
“I wrote that song a few days before we went into recording [the last album] so it was one of the newer ones anyway,” he says. “We just realised once we were recording that we all really liked that sound. We still have upbeat boppy songs, but they are all a lot more stripped back, which is to be expected when you’re using acoustic sounds.”
With the bands own Jasper Jolley recording their previous album, Bates spoke about the decision-making process the band will go through before entering the studio again.
“We recorded down at Jaspers house for the last album. We all absolutely loved how it turned out but we are thinking of doing something different for this album. We are just weighing up our options at the moment.”
“I think it’s because Jasper recorded his own solo album as well and I guess both of those releases have a bit of a lo-fi quality, which we really liked for the first album and it suited it a lot. But I feel because we are going for a more stripped back sound we wanted more refined/studio type of sound more than a lo-fi vibe.”
Speaking of Living Given’s response, Bates explained, “It was awesome, we got lots of great feedback which we were all super happy with. At this point we are all just happy making music and we enjoy that people seem to like listening to it, it means a lot to us. So, I guess we will just keep doing what we are doing and hopefully it takes us somewhere wonderful.”
And it seems as if their music has in fact been taking the band “somewhere wonderful,” with the lads performing a headline position at the Melbourne Changes Music Summit event last week, as well as getting an extremely impressive interview with a manager of SXSW.
Speaking of the band gaining more traction through festival appearances such as Changes and QMF, Bates commented “It’s so crazy, it’s been so much fun. To be able to play on the same stage as so many awesome acts and then to get to go watch them play after you is just incredible.”
Bones and Jones will be doing a single launch for Social Anxiety (and it’s B-side, ‘Baggy Frown’) at The Curtain on the 11th of August.
Seriously, catch these guys while you can.
Written by Alex Callan