Interview: Batrider

As promised a couple of weeks ago, here is the interview with Sarah Chadwick of Batrider.

Batrider release their second album this week in Australia, still no word on when it will be released here but we’ll keep you informed. The album is called Why We Can’t We Be Together and is being released through Australian label Low Transit Industries. It sounds great and we’ll have our review up soon promise.

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from you down here – how have you been? You’re in London now, how is that going?

We have been really good. personally, London's been as hard as it is to move anywhere, and in the last few months has become home. musically, its not really a place that i find exciting or stimluating, but being so close to europe has made it easy for us to do three big tours in a year, so thats good. and we have been really set up here, good practise space, lots of friends etc. and it is always refreshing to discover that you can be productive and inspired creatively, even when your surroundings are less than ideal.

Can you give us a quick run down of what you’ve been up to since you left NZ?

So, we moved to melbourne from wellington in about 2003, and lived there for three and a half years. in that time we got a new bass player, sam featherstone, who had previously been managing us. from there we moved to england in late 2007. when we came back to the uk after touring australia/nz early 2008, we changed guitarists to Steph Crase, who had been playing in two australian bands, Birth Glow and No Through Road, and who is a great friend of ours. then at the end of 2008, our drummer left, so Steph moved her multi-talented ass onto drums. and thats where we are now!

i think the lineup changes have been good, even if they were upsetting at the time. this band has existed for coming up 8 years i think, and people and life change in that time. it did cross my mind to change the name, but we recently stayed with our first bass player Toby Morris in amsterdam, he was the one who chose the name in the first place, and after i got his blessing, i was happy to keep it, even though im the only member from the beginning! you cant put too much pressure on things to work out, on people to stay together, you just gotta hope for the best, and if it doesnt work out, keep doing what you enjoy doing. and thats where we are at now!

Read the full interview here...