Talking to: Try Me (Again!)
We last spoke to Bristol-based disco-punk duo Try Me during the depths of isolation in April, which feels like aeons ago now, in this weirdest of time warping years that is 2020. After a very short lock-down induced hiatus, they are releasing their new single Monologuing on 31st August, which will be followed by a second EP later this year. The new single still retains their signature rawness and fun, but having listened to Monologuing (on repeat), it would seem like the first half of 2020 has changed Bendy Wendy and Hector Boogieman. The Try Me raw pop essence has matured in Monologuing, condensing into a joyous three minutes of catchy, uplifting tight production, soaring melodies and dash of disco-tinged melancholy.
Grabbing the chance to leave Zoom meetings in the past for now, we decided the only way to celebrate their upcoming release was with a pint in a sunny beer garden. Over cold pints we meandered through talk of their very special but undefinable relationship, Viv Albertine, smelly rugs, the importance of knowing your traditional craft inside out if you are going to push creative boundaries, the realities of embarking on a full time music career, and what they see happening in their near future.
With their new single transcending them to a new level (seriously, you need to buy it right now) Try Me are back, and this time it’s serious; they even have a whiteboard.
You can pre-save their new single here: http://smarturl.it/6yp4dq
What’s been happening since I last spoke to you in April? It was the start of lock-down then, so, what has been going on?
W: So, we left our old places, and moved into our new place together, so that has been a massive change.
What prompted that?
W: The leases ran out on our old places and it kind of made sense to move in together.
H: And also uni’s finished now, so this is our first year without studying, although we are staying in Bristol, and it’s our first time living together, so it’s actually pretty insane right now!
So, are you a couple?
W: (laughs) No, no, no, we aren’t….
Ah, you are just mates then…
W: Yes. So we actually have a song that is kind of about that, because we used to get asked after every gig ‘Are you guys like, together? Or best friends? Or brother and sister?’ No-one could tell.
H: And we tend not to tell people I suppose. The song is out on Spotify; it is called Boy/Girl.
Ah, I know the one. So that is really interesting, it’s funny how I felt the need to ask you, because you are a boy and a girl who have moved in together, and I need to give myself a slap for that.
W: No, no,no, not at all!
H: It makes sense; stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. We are in a five bed house with three other people, three mates of ours, which is lovely.
Are you best mates?
W: (laughing) Haha, no. It’s all for the money.
H: See I have kind of learnt in interviews to never say anything soppy, because Wendy would NEVER say anything soppy. So if anything comes up now I will just say ‘Pah. I don’t even like her’.
W: Try and get in there to say it before I do.
H: I remember the last interview we did, they asked what was the best thing about it and I said ‘having a mate to do it with is really nice’ and Wendy just said ‘other bitches’. And we said it at the same time.
So, you have moved into your new place, I have been following you on social media, and you have been doing some stuff on there whilst we were all still in lock-down. I loved the acoustic videos you made with your chins singing. Was that fun? I know we spoke in April about that and you said you may do some stuff on social media in lockdown but you weren’t sure.
W: Yeah, I don’t know what prompted that, we just thought ‘Oh, we need to do something, we need to start some sort of creative project to keep ourselves busy and keep everyone entertained, that isn’t purely just releasing a single and doing it like that’.
H: It was properly good though, because we had the idea to do the split screen video thing that everyone does, and Wendy was like, ‘why don’t we make the main singers our chins?’ At first I was unsure, but then you realise how funny it is and we fucking killed it. It was a great idea.
Did you do anything else in lock-down music-wise?
H: Yeah, we finished our single which will be out on 31st August. We got it mastered and everything and started all of the promotional stuff.
So, your single is coming out next week; is there an EP or album on the cards?
W: So, we have plans to release an album and the end of this year, in terms of the actual logistics behind it, we have no idea. We have a backlog of songs that make up our set, and we are going to reproduce them and release them through a label, make more of an effort to do the grind, rather than just releasing it ourselves and doing all of the promotion ourselves.
H: We have put a lot of effort into this coming release, so hopefully we will learn from this and keep doing better and better. So, after this, we have another single release, and then the album.
I have had conversations quite a lot recently with other musicians, about the expectation nowadays for artists to do everything, the whole package. You have to be a marketer, you have to be a social media bod, the whole lot.
W: Yeah, we were talking about just this recently as well.
H: I agree, doing all of your own videos and everything.
W: The thing is, we enjoy doing all of the different aspects of it, but it’s got to the point now where it hits you, and you realise this is a full time job.
H: But it’s not making you any money right now.
W: We are actually fine with that, but the intention is not to make money, but we want to do this full time, and to do that you have to make money.
H: The intention behind this definitely isn’t just to make money, but it is about making money by expressing yourself creatively as you please. You don’t want to conform to express yourself in the way other people want you to,so that it makes money.
That is really interesting, so for you it’s a battle between carrying on doing it unpaid but having complete ownership, or compromising and making sacrifices?
H: The thing is, we really believe that we can do this and not make sacrifices and also make money. We are performing and we are doing what we want, people love it, but we need to do it for more people. So it is a case of finding the people who can facilitate that, finding us a larger audience.
W: We are definitely getting there, we now have a whiteboard on our wall! We make lists everyday! Lists! It’s all about the lists!
H: Basically, rather than an interview, all you need to write is ‘TRY ME HAVE A WHITEBOARD! THEY ARE SERIOUS!’ We are on it. We are treating it really seriously, which is important, because then when it’s not fun, you still do it. Sometimes you can be thinking ‘I would rather be watching ten episodes of something on Netflix, instead I am going to carry on doing my thing.’
It makes complete sense; you have to take the hard bits with the good bits. I imagine there is a lot of graft involved in building a music career.
W: Definitely. I think a lot of people when they are starting up look at more established musicians and put them on a pedestal, they love the idea of it, but when you actually commit to the idea, you realise it is just like any other job. There are so many aspects to being a musician which are hard work, which aren’t necessarily suited to you. You are expected to do so many different jobs, which can be really challenging, because you want to just focus on the music.
Talking about the fun side of it, I presume for you two that includes performing live. So, how is it, releasing this single, promoting it, with no live performing?
W: Argh, I don’t want to talk about it!
H; Well, we are going to be able to perform at a small party on 29th August, and we are so buzzing for it! The other day two of our mates came into our room and asked if they could listen to us doing our vocal warm-up, so we did that and then went through our set, and it was just so different, even with two other people in the room.
So, when is the next single going to come out do you think?
H: It’s going to be Halloween.
And then you are performing a live stream for us on our Instagram on 14th November…
W: Yes! It is all going to coincide pretty well. When you look at your calendar and see it all building up, like a puzzle, that feels good.
H: Wendy has a calendar that my parents got me for christmas, that has photos of me and my family all over it, but it’s up in Wendy’s room, because Wendy is more organised than I am!
I thought you were going to say it is because Wendy is obsessed with your family?
H: Haha! Oh no, it’s just because if it was in my room, I don’t even get around to changing the page at the end of the month. And that is why the whiteboard is in her room as well.
So, Wendy, you are the organised one?
W: Exactly! And you see, he complains, because he wants to switch rooms, but he has just adopted a rug he found on the street, covered in dog hair and weird stains, and now it’s in his room, and it stinks. So, no, that isn’t happening.
So is this a representation of your working relationship? Wendy is Bad Cop, Hector is Good Cop?
H: Not all of the time because I get up early in the morning…
So, you have finished at music school, how has that been? Is it a good feeling?
W: Well, nothing’s changed, except we have moved in together.
H: Yeah, well, we don’t have to do any uni work which is different… Well, Wendy still has a little more to do.
And are you both looking like you have to get some paid work as well as making music?
H: yes, well I am working; I work as a mental health support worker for people with learning disabilities, I really enjoy that. I do that and then come home and make music; and it’s a good thing to do as it is really inspiring. I find that I struggle with doing things I don’t enjoy, which is a bad mindset, because you have to do things you don’t enjoy sometimes to do well, but I enjoy this work, although sometimes it is stressful.
W: I don’t have work yet but I am definitely applying; I applied for work at a local brewery, I definitely would like to know more about craft beers (laughs). They asked me what my favourite craft beer was and I was desperately googling ‘Bristol craft beers’.
H: Stella?
W: We’ve invested some money into busking equipment as well, so if the weather sorts itself out and it’s not forecasted rain, we will soon be on the streets busking.
What have you had to buy?
W: A battery, an inverter, a PA system and a mixer. Luckily we know a person who has busked a lot, we met him at an open mic night, and he gave us all of the information we need to busk successfully. He has actually made a full time living from busking. He was great; we would sometimes walk down the centre on a freezing cold January night and he would be there; he was so dedicated.
That will definitely be interesting, because I don’t think I have seen many buskers doing stuff in a similar vein to us. It is actually quite hard to predict how it will go down, how it will be received by people, but I guess that is the fun of it.
Yes, because it is usually the more acoustic performers you see, but you are going to go for the full set on the street?
W: Yeah, it’s going to be a laugh.
Everyone is talking about this at the moment, but I really want to hear what you two think… What do you see for the future of the music industry at the moment? You’ve got to be worried, concerned, I understand that. But what else do you see for both yourselves and the wider music industry?
W: In terms of ourselves I actually like to try and look at what’s happening and think it is meant to be, it is happening for a reason, what are they trying to tell me from this event, and try to get some kind of meaning out of it. Whether it is delusional or not I don’t care, as long as it gets me to a point of motivation.
H: It gives you drive, rather than bringing you down.
W: So for me , I see the lock-down as a blessing for our live performances, because everyone will have been deprived of live performances, so hopefully when everything comes back, we will be ready, we will have been practising, we will give them a fucking great show. That’s what I want to take from lock-down, that we have been given an opportunity, that our audience will have been thirsting. That’s what we want, for everyone to be thirsting for it, we have been thirsting for it, so the energy in the room will be amazing.
But it is crazy, it is insane. You go through waves of realising it (there is no live music), and then sinking back into unreality, and then realising again.
H: I was really keeping it together for ages… and then we moved in together and we just looked at each other and said ‘Argh! No gigs!’
Are you willing to wait until we can get back to sweaty crowds, or what do you think about all the stuff people are trying at the moment, like socially distanced gigs?
H: I think that we’d do it, if the opportunity arises, we will take the opportunity to do it, to see how it goes down. So even though our natural environment is tight crowds, sweaty, everyone giving their energy into one thing, even if you do something different it is still making the audience feel something.
And what are you doing with the rest of your evening?
W: I am actually off to a piano lesson; I am learning classical piano and I am loving it. I think it is really important, especially if you are moving away from making more traditional music, to have the building blocks in place, to know the basis of your craft well. Have you read Clothes. Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine? She talks a lot about it. I want to be able to say I know music craft; we studied production at uni so we didn’t learn how to play musical instruments. So, it may not be crazy, but that is what I am doing.
We are really excited to let you know that Try Me will be performing live on Everyday’s Instagram channel on Friday 14th November. It’s going to be so good, so make sure you are there.
And in the meantime, Follow Try Me on Facebook and Instagram. and listen to their new single on Spotify.