"I was in bed about to sleep when I first wrote Red Corduroy but performing it always wakes me up." - Billie Blue Blackstone
“Red Corduroy always gets me rocking with its heavy bass line” - David Sebastian Harding
Red Corduroy is possibly the band's most grooviest and upbeat original song yet!
- Soheil
Red Corduroy's the new song release from KL outfit Bille Blue and The Nowhere Men. It's their newest addition to their online catalogue is now available on all major platforms.
It's coming close to two years since their debut album Find Gold, along with the corresponding single release Emperor, and up to the beginning of this year, at least, the response has been pretty positive, resulting in two nominations at the VIMA Awards and a ticket to tour India right at the beginning of this year.
Not bad for the KL-based alternative rock outfit Billie Blue and the Nowhere Men with their vintage sound echoing the sensitivities of folk rock and acid rock of the 60s and 70s - “rock n roll, injected with heaps of folk, blues and psychedelia into it,” as lead vocalist, singer songwriter Billie Blue Blackstone described in our last interview with the band on the back of the release of Find Gold.
Coming into this year, complete with a new music video filmed, there's new song release Red Corduroy for Billie Blue Blackstone, Reuben Devanesan, David Harding and Soheil Sanjabi. Released just last month, it's a song about the push pull of thrill and hesitations with new connections, according to Billie Blue, as we get a chance to speak to them again.
How did Red Corduroy come about? What went into writing Red Corduroy and where did the inspiration for the song come from?
Billie: It all started with the bass line, which was actually written by our guitarist Soheil. With that as the jumping off point, I then wrote the lyrics and melody. The whole band arranged the song together in Soheil’s living room! The song is about the push pull of thrill and hesitation with new connections. Make of that what you will :-)
How did you go about recording and performing it so far and what has been the response like?
Billie: We have performed Red Corduroy many times at our live shows even before recording the song and the music video. It’s definitely one of the songs that get people pumped at our shows, so we really wanted it out as a stand-alone single. The song was recorded by Ashwin Gobinath of Nadir Studios Productions and the video was filmed and produced by Dear Nessy and Sophia Shukeri last year.
How have you been coping during this time this year? How have you been keeping busy through the Covid pandemic?
Billie: Since we haven’t been able to perform live, we’ve been focusing on songwriting and our newest release, Red Corduroy. Apart from that, we’ve all been working from home and spending time on our other ventures and projects.
David: It was definitely hard getting used to the new norm, slowly but surely I've managed to adapt to the situation. Making more home videos with my bass, guitar and ukulele. Besides that I've managed to get a full-time job working in a music centre, so all in all something good has come out of this whole situation.
With RMCO in progress, what plans from now on for Billie Blue & The Nowhere Men? What can we expect from you coming up for the rest of the year?
David: The brand new release of our single and music video for Red Corduroy was just released on the 18th of July on YouTube and Spotify. So that's a great start. We're also looking to perform live again as we've been starving for the stage again. Hopefully to release more singles before the year ends.
How do you feel about how the RMCO is progressing with regards to the music industry in Malaysia as a whole?
David: For me personally, it's been really slow. We're still waiting for the approval from the higher powers til today. So that's been approximately 4 months of patience and hoping for some glimmer of hope. It's been quite frustrating actually especially for the live music scene as it's where my income generally comes from. But I guess we got to keep on waiting and being persistent is the most important. Viva la music.
Billie: It’s definitely been a grey cloud hanging over the entire music scene. Some doors are opening up slowly but it’s hard to tell when things will be back in full swing. We do know that we miss the stage very much though! It feels unnatural to go so long without performing live.
