Interview with BAR II
Mr DupenFast :DF || BarThom: BT
What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?
DF: When I was 16 I had my ear 1 m in front of a friend’s Peavy 10 watts while he kicked his guitar. It was so awesome that I know I had to deal with it for the next years in my life. I bought my first guitar one month later and made mainly music for the rest of my life. If I had not gotten into music, I’d probably be a carpenter or taster probably.
BT: Music is essential for me since day 1. When I understood that I could actually make music my life completely change.
If I had not gotten into music, I’d probably be an actor
What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?
DF: I like walking a lot, it fuels my ideas.
BT: I like to hang out with friends in bars
How long has your band been around?
We wrote our first song in 2020, and our first release was in April 2021.
Where are you based and how did that influence your music?
We live in Brussels, very eclectic city with a lot of envy around, this is good to make things happen.
How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?
You can think that music can be heard in a bar too…
But no, to us, it’s a turning page, a second bar of the life score. For us and for what we think humankind is.
It’s a musical metaphor to say “what is next?”…for now it’s BAR II.
Tell me about your most memorable shows.
None for now for BAR II. A great show we‘ve seen together was Royal Blood last tour…Huge sound! Awesome!
What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?
We don’t do shows for now. Good shows are made by “show of “people. We are more a producing band than a “show of” sort of expression. We love creating songs, and not especially performing them…..so far..
If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?
Our influences: QOTSA, Royal Blood, the Heavy, Soulwax…the Beatles of course
What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?
Don’t deal with anybody who knows better than you. Doubt keeps you go ahead and really find what you like and what you need.
If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?
Try more things with people, try to act, to do stuff with 4 or 6 hands, result is better sometimes when you find the right persons.
Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?
DF: I think “Let you down” is the one I prefer, no reason.
BT: We’re working on new materials right now and they’re pretty exciting. I’d say the ones to come!
What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?
A hook, the first thing we are looking for is the catchy idea, and then we built around to get that obvious /weird mix in rythm, harmony, dynamic, melody and so on… and then standby for many days and weeks to be sure we won’t be bored after too weeks hearing this song. If the song is cool for us for a long time, it can be the same for others.
What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?
Learn to know yourself.
Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?
Not yet, BAR II is a young band.
What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?
We are working on new songs right now, we have 3 more nearly finished and some others in stock. We ‘ll go closer to the listener with these ones.