Interviews About Albums: Bridging Oceans - Split (2019)

1. What can you say about this new split?

It’s really exciting. I’ve always loved split records because you can discover new bands with several songs, which is very different from a compilation. On the Bare Teeth side, our first record “First the town, then the world” is already out for 2 years and our first full-length album is not ready yet, so releasing a split record was a good way to provide some new songs to our fans.

2. What is the meaning of the split name?

This split record is called “Bridging Oceans”. Nerdlinger is from Australia, Down Memory Lane from Canada and Shames from Japan. We all live in different parts of the world. Some us have already met: we played with Shames on our last Japan Tour and I think they played shows with Nerdlinger when they toured in Japan. Even if we didn’t meet everybody yet, we closely follow the other bands for years.

So, with this split record, we try to make strong ties despite the distance and the oceans that keep us apart.

3. Which one is the composer of the split?

I had the idea of this split record a long time ago. I got in touch with several labels if they were interested in such a record and surprisingly, many labels were interested. Jumping on the boat are Thousand Islands Records from Canada, Pee Records from Australia, Disconnect Disconnect Records from UK and Attractive Records from Japan. Even if setting up a project with four bands and four labels can be a bit messy, everybody is very motivated about this release.

4. If you had to pick one song off of this split, which one would you pick and why?

I can’t tell for the other bands, but I would pick Bare Teeth’s “Running Wild” because it’s special. First of all, the song is written by Tom, our bass player. He not only wrote the music, but also the lyrics and he is the main singer on this track. It’s a big step forward with Bare Teeth, as I used to write all the lyrics. On our next record, we will all do lead vocals depending on the songs and who’s the lyricist … or not. We are 3 songwriters now and we have a lot of songs in the making.

5. Is there a special message in this split? If so, can you tell us what it is?

There is no special message apart from the title. We want to have strong links with other bands, make some connections, help each other in touring and make sure everybody has a lot of fun. We also hope that our fans can discover new bands, because Nerdlinger, Shames and Down Memory Lane are fucking great bands!

6. Are there some lyrics that you´d love to share with our readers?

We will let you discover the lyrics, as they will soon be online. On the 3 songs we provide, “Running Wild” is the darkest one, as it is about depression and loneliness. “Death Note” is inspired by the popular manga: it deals with the sense of justice and death penalty. I really love this one, but this song is maybe the less punk/rock one, as it’s more mid-tempo. The last song is called Storytellers and is about following your dreams and never give up, even if you get told you can’t achieve this.

7. Which inspirations have been important to you for this split (musically, family, friends…)?

We’ve been pretty quiet since August 2018, when we went back from our second tour in China. We wanted to focus on writing new songs and it’s been really hard for us to decline some shows. We also took some time to focus on our families and jobs. There was no particular inspiration for this split record, but we are now ready to get back on the road. Expect some big announcement soon!

8. Something to add to end this interview?

Thank you for putting a bit of light on Bare Teeth! We hope that you will all love “Bridging Oceans” and we hope to see you, wherever you live. Keep on supporting local bands, local venues and indie labels. We are nothing without them.