Bondax is a name you should know. These two young gents are bringing the funky melodic sounds of garage back to the states with the start their United States tour. I had an opportunity to meet up with Adam Kaye and George Townsend—the dynamic duo from Britain that make up Bondax—before their show in Santa Barbara. What makes Adam and George so inspirational, aside from their early start (they’re now just 21 and 22), is their sage insight on the world of electronic music in which they are playing such an integral role.
How did you two come together to start DJing and producing?
George: So we went to school together and we’ve been friends since quite early on in school. It just came naturally. Adam was always a great musician and I got into producing music and then we just sort of teamed up.
Adam: Yeah, it was quite natural. We’ve known each other since we were about eleven.
Where did you pick the name Bondax from?
George: This is a question we hate so I’m sorry I can’t give you a straight answer but…
Adam: …It’s all on you
George: We figured if we came up with a name that didn’t stand for anything but our music people would only relate it to what we’ve made, and it would give us some sort of identity. So we chose to stick with a word that means nothing.
You guys are pretty young. How do you feel that affects you, especially in the fast-paced community of electronic music?
Adam: Being young… I guess nowadays it’s an advantage because everyone is looking for the new young guy that’s good at using some sort of music software.
George: It’s kind of demeaning (laughs).
Adam: I guess it sort of is but now we are getting older and we have to try and prove that we aren’t just the young kids making this stuff anymore. We are trying to mature our sound I guess.
Do you need to be in a studio to produce?
George: When you’re producing electronic music of course you can produce it anywhere but except for our “No Diggity” remix everything else has been produced in a studio, so yeah, we need to be in studio to produce.
Adam: It’s the best way to get into a creative space; it can be quite distracting being on tour.
George: Unless you’re doing a sort of remix or edit or something where you already have the bones you can kind of skin it your own way then I think yeah, you need to be in a studio.
If you had to start over with a new name (no one has ever heard of you before) what advice would you give yourself?
George: Don’t sign to a major label.
Adam: Yeah (laughter).
George: At least not as early as we did because I think that changed the way we made music.
Adam: Hold out on signing anything and just find out what you want to make first basically.
George: But no disrespect to Sony, because they have been great. But to us, as creative people, it’s giving us walls that we don’t need and we would probably make that music if we didn’t have them.
Which producers have stood out to you guys this year?
Adam: Under the bracket of electronic music generally, I’d say Mura Musa has stood out to us. He’s coming from London as well actually, not that, you know, we have any bias. But he’s really good actually. Also Jack J who is from Vancouver I believe and I’d say uhh…
George: …Wayward, they’re some good friends of our from England
What is your favorite set you’ve played?
Adam: Number one favorite is hard to pick
George: There’s a lot.
Adam: Too many, it’s a good problem to have. We can’t tell you the best one ever but…
George: Actually, you know what was really fun, KOKO. That was a highlight. It was a headline, massive sold out show and that was about a month ago now. We had crazy lights and everyone went mad, there were confetti cannons.
Adam: Yeah we had confetti! It’s a legendary iconic venue we’ve wanted to play for years.
Keep up with Bondax here. Many thanks to Tap MGMT and Life or Death PR for making this interview possible.
