Badlake Hill
Badlake Hill | |
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| Also known as | The Pecan Sandies |
| Origin | Bristol, England |
| Genres | Alternative rock |
| Labels | Unsigned |
| Associated acts | Lykos, Solace |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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Badlake Hill are an English rock band formed in Bristol in 2016. The band consists of guitarist/pianist/vocalist/main songwriter Zach Taylor, bassist Dylan Crook, guitarist Jay Cooper and drummer Lewis Lloyd. They are currently unsigned.
History
Formation (2016-2018)
Badlake Hill was started in early 2016 by Zach Taylor, 14 at the time, who wanted to start writing music and form a band. The first people who were involved with the band were Taylor's close friends Luke Holloway and Lee Bradley; Holloway played drums and Bradley was starting to learn how to play guitar, with Taylor still on the lookout for a bassist. After a few months, nothing was going anywhere between the three, and Holloway and Bradley had other commitments, so they left the band before becoming full members, while Taylor kept working on writing original music. It's said that throughout 2016, Taylor wrote "about 60 or so songs, but only one of them was any good." This song was titled 'Ocean Blood', which the band would later play regularly as they started playing gigs a couple of years later.
In 2017, Taylor recorded an EP's worth of demos in his school's low-budget recording studio; at the time, he was months away from sitting his GCSE exams and stayed in the music department after school recording instead of attending revision sessions. This EP was titled 'Lunation EP' and contained the songs 'Lunation', 'Ocean Blood', a cover of Mr. Writer by Stereophonics and 'The Photograph'. Despite being very poor-quality demos, with Taylor citing his own lack of knowledge of music production, Taylor made copies of the EP on CD and gave them out in school to his friends and teachers while stood waiting outside exam halls. The title track 'Lunation' was released on Soundcloud by Taylor on April 5th 2017. He made three different physical variants of the EP; the first and most common one had blue artwork, the second one had red artwork and a bonus instrumental track titled 'Flare' and the third one had purple artwork which was limited to one copy, and contained the bonus track 'Flare' and a 20-minute clip of Taylor rehearsing Royal Blood covers with his friend Dylan Crook, a few years younger than him, on drums; the two became friends due to their school's system for tutor groups, which involved 4 students from every year group in one big class. The two were rehearsing for a battle of the bands that the school's head of music put them towards; they covered two Royal Blood songs and won the competition. After taking his GCSE exams, Taylor went back into the school's studio weekly as a visitor, with his teacher's permission, to record another batch of demos. This was, according to Taylor, a rushed set of recordings with the same lack of quality as 'Lunation EP'. This EP was titled 'Silvercloud EP' and contained the songs 'Hide', a cover of 'Diary of Always' by Biffy Clyro and 'Break the River'. This was a digital release. Of the original songs in these demos, the only ones that were still used by the band in the future were 'Lunation' and 'Ocean Blood', neither of which are still played live to this day.
Taylor went to St. Brendan's Sixth Form College in 2017, where he made many new friends who he considered to be a part of the band. Over December 2017, Taylor was briefly in another band called Civilians; the band were looking for a frontman and a mutual friend recommended Taylor. It was his short time in Civilians where he met guitarist Jay Cooper.
A one-off version of Badlake Hill was formed in May 2018 for a college showcase, with Taylor on guitar and vocals, accompanied by friends Rob Taylor on drums, Dan Shepherd on guitar and Matt Lister on bass. This version of the group played original songs 'Paint Your Heart With Graffiti' and 'Ocean Blood' at the showcase; they had an overwhelmingly negative reception, with Taylor asking the audience if they wanted one more and having nobody say a word. The group planned to play one gig together at local Bristol venue The Louisiana, but complications got in the way.
In July 2018, Jay Cooper reached out to Taylor asking if he had anything musically that he could get involved with and Taylor asked him if he wanted to join Badlake Hill and sent him an instrumental demo; Cooper quickly agreed. Now consisting of Z. Taylor, Cooper and R. Taylor as stand-in drummer, Badlake Hill played their first show at The Louisiana on September 15th 2018. Shepherd was supposed to play bass for this show but couldn't due to scheduling conflicts. The band's second show was at The Fleece on October 16th 2018, opening up for Lykos and Vicarage, who both became good friends of Badlake Hill. This line-up was the same as before with the addition of Crook on bass; R. Taylor wasn't supposed to play drums for this show, Shepherd was but couldn't due to illness, so Taylor filled in with 5 hours notice. The band's third gig was the first one with an official band line-up, with Taylor's friend Billy Evans filling in for Shepherd on drums, due to scheduling conflicts, and Taylor, Cooper and Crook keeping their positions. It was soon after this show, the line-up was fully set in stone; Zach Taylor on guitar and vocals, as well as main songwriter, Jay Cooper on guitar, Dylan Crook on bass and Billy Evans on drums.
The Hide Your Innocence era: first recordings, Cooper's departure and George Read's arrival (2019)
With the first formal and official line-up of Badlake Hill together, they went into the studio in early February 2019 to record their first single, 'Absinthesia'. This was also the first of several times the group worked with sound engineer Nathan Long and photographer George Read; Read and Taylor became friends through a mutual friend and Taylor asked Read if he would come into the studio with the band to film and take photos, with the intention to make a "making-of" short film. The song took a while to record to the band's standards, producing it themselves. 'Absinthesia' was later released on April 5th 2019, marking 2 years since Taylor first released that first demo of 'Lunation' online.
Badlake Hill played their first headline show at The Louisiana on February 10th 2019. They were opened up by R. Taylor's band, Brother Riot, and Lister's band at the time, Commune. This was their biggest show at the time and ended with the owner unreasonably and unsuccessfully attempting to kick everyone out of the venue while the band were still playing. This resulted in Badlake Hill getting banned from The Louisiana with no reason given to the band. This was the first Badlake Hill show to have professional-standard photography from Read and Taylor's friend Alex Nicholls; this is the band's first collaboration with Nicholls and second with Read.
In February, the band announced a show at The Exchange on June 9th 2019, where they would be playing their entire debut album 'Hide Your Innocence'. The songs were written from November 2016 to November 2018. Despite the album not being recorded yet, Taylor wanted to play the album in full live, in case the band never ended up recording the album.
In the shows following the February headline show, George Read was quickly considered by the band as their "unofficial fifth member". Read would later go beyond just taking photos for the band, but also being the band's outside opinion for new songs, going into the studio with them, learning how to play their songs in the event of Taylor or Cooper being unable to play guitar and even playing guitar on the band's second single 'Chemicals and Lust'.
Over March 2019, the band were on a break from gigs, but Taylor recorded demos for the entire 'Hide Your Innocence' album; the most notable demo in this album was 'Confessional' because when Taylor sent it to Evans, Cooper, Crook and Read, all of them were blown away by it. Taylor still considers 'Confessional' one of his best songs.
In April 2019 and May 2019, the band recorded their next singles 'Chemicals and Lust and 'Infect'; these two singles and 'Absinthesia' were intended to be the promotional singles for 'Hide Your Innocence' at the time. It was also around this time that Taylor started writing new material meant to come out after 'Hide Your Innocence', as the long-term plan was to record the album alongside a four-track companion EP.
On June 9th 2019, Badlake Hill played their 'Hide Your Innocence' album show. The band played two sets, the first one being the album and the second one being the album's four B-sides and four covers. This show had a very underwhelming turnout, with not enough people turning up to even pay the rest of the hire rate; this angered the band, Read and a lot of the people who attended, as the show had been promoted for months and the band knew that nearly everyone they knew were aware of this gig and its importance.
In late June 2019, Badlake Hill announced Jay Cooper's reluctant departure from the band as guitarist due to circumstances beyond anyone's control. Following Cooper's departure, the band immediately asked Read to replace him, but Read was planning to go to university so couldn't be the band's permanent new guitarist. The band then offered him to be the band's guitarist until he left, to which he said yes. Throughout this time, the band returned to The Louisiana to play a secret show under the name 'The Pecan Sandies, a reference from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Taylor's favourite TV show. It was during this time Taylor and Evans recruited their friend Joe Harrington to take Read's place once he was at university, so they could keep playing gigs right afterwards. Read still works with the band as closely as he did before, taking the position he had before he was a member of the band: official photographer, outside opinion and occasional guitarist. Additionally, whenever an opportunity arises at the band's live shows, Read joins them to play guitar for at least one song in the set.
In July 2019, Taylor decided to scrap the 'Hide Your Innocence' album, in favour of releasing the best songs from it as an EP instead. This was due to Taylor sharing demos of new songs to the band and all of them agreeing they were much better than the songs they already had. 'Absinthesia' and 'Chemicals and Lust' became standalone singles and 'Infect' became the promotional single for two 3-track EPs, titled 'A Desecrated Soul' and 'Finale in C Minor', respectively, due for release in 2020. During Read's stint with the band, they debuted two new songs, titled 'What It All Boils Down To Is This' and 'Open-Hearted', both of which showed a development in Taylor songwriting, as well as a darker atmosphere as opposed to the songs they were already playing.
The Hide Your Innocence era: Cooper's return, Joe Harrington and Billy Evans' departure, A Desecrated Soul and My Closing Statement (2019-2020)
In late-November 2019, the band scrapped the second EP 'Finale in C Minor' after Taylor sent over a demo for a new song titled 'Morning Wine'; upon hearing it, the whole band just wanted to finish 'A Desecrated Soul' and go straight into the next era of the band, which Taylor had titled 'I Hope You Know...'. 'Morning Wine' was played live for the first time a couple of weeks later at Harrington's debut gig with the band. It was also around this time that Crook got more involved in the songwriting, writing the vast majority of his basslines from scratch.
In late-January 2020, Badlake Hill announced Joe Harrington's departure from the band without citing any reasons; Taylor has later said "it was just one of those things where it wasn't working out the way we thought it would. That being said, we're still good friends with Joe and we love him to pieces." Harrington has since joined the band onstage before occasionally to play guitar on a couple of songs. Not long after this announcement, they revealed that Jay Cooper would be returning to the band as guitarist for an upcoming headline show at the Exchange basement stage in Bristol.
Around about the same time, a couple of life events going on in Taylor and Crook's personal lives, as well as Cooper's return to the band and Lloyd's, at the time, unofficial arrival, put them both in a place mentally where they both felt like the Hide Your Innocence era of Badlake Hill was over. Looking back in hindsight, Taylor cites the Exchange basement show as the moment him and Crook realised the era was over for them. Also around this time, the two started secretly recording new music together with Matt Lister (now in the band Solace); the three only ended up doing one session in secret, during which they recorded most of the instrumental for 'Morning Wine' with Crook on drums.
Not even a week after the Exchange basement show, Badlake Hill announced that they had parted ways with drummer Billy Evans, citing creative differences but still being on good terms, leaving the band as a 3-piece, officially. However, the band were in talks with Lewis Lloyd, bassist from Lykos, about him joining the band as their new drummer.
Throughout the first half of 2020, the band generally remained silent, besides finishing recording for their debut EP, 'A Desecrated Soul', before the COVID-19 pandemic took control. In August 2020, the band had finally announced the release date for their debut EP, 'A Desecrated Soul', to come out September 4th the same year. Produced entirely by Taylor, the EP contained three tracks: the previously-released single 'Infect', 'Confessional' and 'Paint Your Heart With Graffiti'. Days after the release of the EP, the band dropped a song titled 'My Closing Statement'. Although at this point the Hide Your Innocence era had been over for the band for months, 'My Closing Statement' marked its official end to the public. Recorded again with Matt Lister, the song was recorded with the intention to both end the Hide Your Innocence era and set up the I Hope You Know... era, with Taylor even revamping the lyrics to better suit the then-upcoming era.
The I Hope You Know... era: Background, writing, Lewis Lloyd's arrival and Morning Wine (2020-present)
The I Hope You Know... era began for the band personally in February 2020, following a couple circumstances in Taylor and Crook's lives, as well as Cooper's return to the band and Lloyd's, at the time, unofficial arrival. During March-May 2020 in lockdown, Taylor wrote a few more new songs which ended up being huge breakthroughs for the band.
Throughout July-October 2020, Taylor underwent several life events and changes one after the other that put him in the darkest point of his life. This led to the band postponing the release of 'Morning Wine' indefinitely, which they had finished in September and planned to put out late-October, to give Taylor more time to focus on healing. During this time, he revamped and rewrote the lyrics to almost every song the band plan to record for the I Hope You Know... era, as well as writing a couple more new songs. One of these new songs, titled 'You're Broken (And No One Wants To Fix You)', was another breakthrough moment for the band, with them recording it within a month of it being written.
Lewis Lloyd was officially announced as Badlake Hill's new drummer in December 2020 with a photo of the full band, which also showed off the new aesthetic of the I Hope You Know... era, exclusively using the colours black, white and red. As well as this, the line-up reveal also showed a slightly new look from Taylor. Compared to his natural brown hair colour he had in the Hide Your Innocence era and alternative/indie style, in the I Hope You Know... line-up reveal photoshoot, he can be seen with dyed jet black hair and a style that blended his indie/alternative look with a refined edge to it, as well as a slight weight loss. At the same time, the band had announced 'Morning Wine' to come out late-January 2021, and that it was to be the lead single from an upcoming EP titled Broken and Cynical, the first main release of the era, which sees the band go in a much darker direction, both musically and lyrically, than they did on Hide Your Innocence.
Influences
Badlake Hill come from an array of different influences. Throughout the Hide Your Innocence era, the band's main influences were Queens of the Stone Age, Biffy Clyro, Muse and Royal Blood. The band are still strongly influenced by these bands, especially the first two, but the I Hope You Know... era is more influenced by artists such as Bring Me the Horizon, Madina Lake, Slipknot, Green Day, Linkin Park, Architects, Deftones and Them Crooked Vultures. Zach Taylor cites Josh Homme as his biggest influence as both a musician and a person; he's also noted Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro as having the biggest impact on the way he plays guitar and composes music, as well as Homme, citing Songs for the Deaf as his favourite album of all time.
Band members
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Current
Former
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