Interview // Josh R.B. - Semantics
We're excited to have Joshua Rochelle-Bates in for a quick interview for The Collective! Joshua handles the eloquent bass work in his Birmingham based band Semantics (check out our review of their EP here). Josh gives us an intriguing look into his bands history, his own musical tastes, and what it's like to be a band in England's second largest and often overlooked city.
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Thank you for taking the time to do this interview Josh, I'd like to point out that you've been super nice about replying quickly to us, especially with the massive time difference (+8h from most of our Los Angeles readers). How is Birmingham, England's second city, treating Semantics? Is there a scene, what music are your neighboring bands playing? How's the city affected Semantics' creation and growth, if at all?
Josh Rochelle-Bates: No problem at all, thanks for getting in touch with us! I have friends in the US who I talk to quite regularly, so I'm used to the time difference haha. Birmingham is treating us rather well, and I feel now more than ever there's a vibrant and diverse scene simmering away underground waiting to have the lid pulled off. There's not one sound that really dominates the area (although there are a lot of shoe gaze and psych bands here), and I feel we are among a lot of different sounding bands which is nice. I think Birmingham nurtures its local scene a lot better than people might be led to believe (being the second biggest city in the UK), the promoters and bands all know each other, and when you go to gigs it's usually the same crowd of people there. There's a very communal vibe about the scene now compared to when we started, people would draw too many conclusions about us and the image we project. A big facilitator for the communal vibe here was Club L'amour (a club night that used to go on in Digbeth) which was basically the place to see new and interesting music in the city with a house party kinda vibe. Unfortunately it ended a few months ago but I think we and many more bands here owe a lot to Club L'amour for both giving us some exposure and just bringing the scene together so well.
If I remember correctly Editors came out of Birmingham so the city definitely has had its contributions to indie rock. Glad to see there's a strong, friendly, community in the area. Semantics has been a band since 2014, how did you guys meet? And did you guys have a particular sound/idea you were going for or was this all organic?
Josh RB: Yeah they are, but to be totally honest I don't think too much of them really. I think they are a band that found a sonic aesthetic and just stuck with it at a time where it was popular. We get compared to them quite frivolously because of Tom Smith having a baritone voice and it annoys me so much. They're a good band but they aren't a band I particularly like. The band formed with me and Simon originally, with the idea that we wanted to form a band that writes collaboratively, with each member being able to add and contribute their own ideas, influences and parts without one person running the show. We went through a few people before settling on Rob and Bridie, I just wanted to find people that had something to them as individuals rather than having people involved who are masters at their instruments. I feel no matter the playing ability, if you have a voice artistically it will always shine through- luckily I feel that Rob, Bridie and Simon tick that box as well as actually being very talented and expressive musicians. In terms of the sound I just wanted to see what would come out based on that type of creative environment I wanted to set up, we just like to play the music we play and if everyone is happy with what they are playing and the overall sound then that's what really matters. We just want our music to be authentic.
I'm actually quite surprised that you don't fancy Editors, they're one of my personal favourates. I can see why people would compare Semantics to bands like Editors and since we're on the topic, Interpol. Editors were vigorously criticized for their "similarity" to Interpol and Interpol itself to it's "similarity" to Joy Division. I think they're all vastly different bands with their own unique sound, It's a vicious cycle. What's your take on it?
Josh RB: I wouldn't want what I said to be interpreted in a way where it would infer the idea that I think they are a terrible band or anything, I just don't particularly find them very inspirational. The Interpol comparison is something I definitely see purely because from my quarter contribution to the band's overall sound I adopt a very similar role and approach to Carlos D. I am no way near as good as he was/is on bass, but I feel I owe it to his influence to try and do something new with it, which is why as well as Carlos D I'd like to think people can hear other influences, especially from Jazz and Disco music and even RnB to a certain extent. At the end of the day people are allowed to form their own assumptions about music, and to better understand them they try to put artists into a box, and that's totally fine. I'm just of the opinion that it's much better to have a sound that naturally manifests itself from 4 people contributing different ideas and blending them than be like ''we are going to sound like this, this, and this band, and in our promo we're going to babysit potential listeners and pigeonhole ourselves so no further depth or interpretation can be drawn from our sound''. I think if you're a band that is out to do something original or something artistic you try your best to not be held down by music that preceded you, which is the case with Interpol being compared to Joy Division, then Joy Division to the Doors (Ian would get compared to Morrison) and then Jim Morrison being compared to Sinatra. I guess the main thing I'm trying to say is that you owe it to the people that inspire you to take them somewhere new, otherwise you are just superficially trying to sit on their backs and pander to an already established audience.
Your bass playing is something that immediately stands out upon first listen, there's an instant satisfaction to it. I feel like your approach is something that hasn't been heard since Carlos D himself and that was over 15 years ago so it's about time someone took the torch and ran with it. Is Semantics your first band?
Josh RB: I am very very flattered to even be mentioned in the same sentence really so thank you. I don't possess anywhere near the same level of songwriting prowess he has/had, but he has certainly influenced how I feel the bass should sit in a band. I like Peter Hook and he's someone who has influenced me too, but there's only so much I can hear of someone sonically being like ''the bass guitar can be a lead guitar too look!!!''. Carlos took that approach and basically said ''that's cool, but the bass guitar has a role in the band'' and instead added dynamic to the sound he was contributing to instead of purely leading it. Another bass player that I think is heavily overlooked by a lot of people (except those who play bass guitar) is Jaco Pastorius. Although I am no way near as good as he was on bass, he was THE person that blew the doors wide open on bass playing, and as such is a very very big influence on me. He's basically the Jimi Hendrix of bass players.Semantics is my second band, me and Simon were in one previously with members of another Birmingham band called SLTP, however due to differences in writing approaches the band eventually split after a short period of time, but we're still close friends with them.​
Have you guys toured out of Birmingham? I noticed you played a London show, how's the London bar circuit treating you?
Josh RB: We have only played London once, it's a difficult circuit to break into with the right promoters, you kinda have to prove yourself outside of the city to give them incentive to look at you. Either that or you have to live there. Besides those London shows and one in Salford we haven't played outside of Birmingham too much unfortunately. It's difficult to cut through the noise.
How many songs do you guys have? And could you tell us about the new EP your working on? You had mentioned to me on the side that you were in the studio.
Josh RB: We have about 50 minutes worth of material and then about 3 or 4 songs in the embryonic stage haha. It's been a bit hard to get us together lately to write because of logistics, but we take a long time to write anyway, as we prefer to really flesh out and work on them until they are the best version of the song they can possibly be. We literally finished working on our new 3 track EP last Friday, and we're looking to release it towards the end of the year.
Really eager to hear more! Let us know when you've got the single ready, well do a feature on it. Thank you so much for chatting with us, as a final goodbye could you name 3 bands/artists you'd like to see being interviewed by The Collective?
Josh RB: Thank you, I'll be sure to send it over and the rest of EP closer to the time of release. I think I'd personally like to see an interview with Byron Hare, Quinn and Afterbloom. Three local and great bands but each with their own sound.
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Check out Semantics on Spotify:
