With their second EP this year, Remise II, dropping in a month (October 7th, to be exact) we decided to have a chat with Josh Siegel of Bailiff about the the band’s journey so far (and the crazy way that they were brought together) as well as the plus sides to putting out two EPs in one year and their plans for the future. You can grab Remise II on October 7th and check out Bailiff’s newest track, “Love Like Mine” after the interview below!
For our readers who haven’t had a chance to listen to you guys yet, can you tell us a little bit about Bailiff and your sound?
We are a three-piece rock band from Chicago. We aim to make murky pop songs with a thick mist of introspection and funkiness.
How did you guys first get together? I read that you dropped out of Berklee to start a band, so what was that experience like?
Yeah, I hoped to meet other guys that wanted to form a band and go all in on it while I was at Berklee, but I didn’t find them there. By the time I moved back to Chicago I was pretty eager to get started so I did everything I could think of to spread the word about wanting to form a band. Off the top of my head, I had ads going online, paper fliers hanging at rehearsal buildings, coffee shops, and music stores, told everyone I knew, and at one point of insanity I wore a white t-shirt with a “seeking musicians” description written on it in black marker. That last idea yielded some interesting conversations with strangers, but none that were musicians. Through all of those approaches I somehow got connected to Ren and Owen.
Do you guys ever feel pressured to release new music, or do you prefer to let it all come naturally?
A bit of both. Usually half of a song will come naturally and then it’ll require a deadline of sorts to get us to hang in there with it and finish it up. Sometimes that pressure of the calendar can pull out good ideas that might not have otherwise come out.
So Remise II is coming out on October 7th. Would you say that this EP is a continuation of Remise, which you released back in April?
Definitely. All of the material was recorded in one big stretch in the studio. The mood of these songs was consistent throughout the whole recording process.
It a little different to release two EPs in the span of one year instead of just one full-length, too. Was that a conscious decision on your part? What was the reasoning behind it?
We wanted to give the listener a more bite-sized candy bar of songs spaced out over the year. A Snickers bar can be great after dinner but sometimes it’s nice to have two Halloween half-sized Snickers bars, one after lunch and then another after dinner.
Was there anything that you really wanted to accomplish with these four songs that you didn’t get to with Remise or any of your other previous releases?
I’m not sure we had a conscious goal there. We just experiment with ideas until we have a batch of songs that have a real feeling to them. I suppose one goal was to include some uptempo material which we did with “Golden Hour” and “Build It Again.”
What is your song writing process like when you’re working on new material?
It varies from song to song. Some of the tunes were written with all three of us in our rehearsal room, some were pretty far along by the time I brought them to the other guys to work on. A lot of the time it’ll be the drum beat that inspires the guitar and bass parts. There is always a balance of time spent exploring the songs as a full band and time spent alone messing around with the songs.
Do you have a favorite track off of Remise II?
At the moment I’ll say “Out of the Blue”
What are you most excited about with the upcoming release of the EP?
I’m really proud of these songs and feel like they are some of the best we’ve written to date. I hope these songs work their way through the internet jungle and get to arrive in people’s ears somehow.
With the release of Remise II coming up soon, do you guys have any big plans in the works? Can we expect to see you in Colorado any time soon?
We’d love to get out West soon. Right after Remise II comes out in October we’ll be touring to NYC for the CMJ Festival.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us! Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’d like a cup of tea right now and I’m trying to muster up the motivation to walk down the street to buy some milk for it. Milk in my tea is a must. I’m British like that.