Chilled and friendly indie rock band Banfi have only been putting out music for a few years, so we chatted with the boys from Banfi:

I met you last September when you played at The Louisiana. How do you view the past few months of your careers?

Since September last year we released a song at Christmas called "Caroline" about loss at that time of year, and we're so proud of that one. And then we've been getting our debut EP ready for release later in March, rehearsing new songs for our headline tour and writing as much as possible. So we're very busy and a tiny bit stressed because we manage everything ourselves, but overall we're three happy and proud chaps. 

We spoke in your little tour van – have things been upgraded since?

Nope! That van is a dream!

New single ‘Never Really Cared’ from the new EP came out recently. What was the inspiration behind it and the rest of the EP, and the title of it ’The Jack Powell EP'?

'Future' is a song that was largely inspired by the death of Robbin Williams. I (Joe) watched him a lot as a kid and his death felt strange, because I loved his characters, so I included his character Jack Powell in the song, and then we decided that those feelings about hope and loss were weaved through the whole EP so we named the EP after this character. 

Are you excited to finally release the EP to the world and have it sung back at you at gigs? How long have you been working on it?

Yeah very excited. Some of it was recorded a long time ago and some was recorded only last month, so it's hard to put a finger on how long it's taken, but we're delighted with it and we hope it connects with our fans. 

Can we expect a full album sometime soon?

We love albums, and they're a brilliant format for building a relationship between an artist and a listener, but for a band like us where we're still in relatively early days, we're not sure that albums are the best format for releasing music anymore. I think we might try a couple more EPs after this one! We want to keep new music coming out as regularly as possible. 

Your song titles can often insinuate an intense journey. ‘Where We Part’ and ‘Happy When You Go’ sound like breakup songs, for example, but then your music suggests ‘She Comes Home’ again, before something causes you to express that you ‘Never Really Cared’. Are there lots of personal experiences engrained in your music, and is this mini story intentional?

Oh yeah! I hadn't thought about the titles like that. The band collectively decides what we name the songs based on the lyrics, and I really don't know what I'm doing with what the songs are about in terms of planning an overall arc for where the lyrics take the listener. I have to just rely on my gut and whatever my subconscious sends my way and then hope that persuades listeners to connect with what's happening emotionally in the song. 

Coming back to Bristol on your small UK tour must mean it’s a city you enjoy playing. What have been the best shows of your career?

Yes we love playing in Bristol. The Louisiana was a great show. The best shows of our career have usually been festival appearances so far, because there's something about playing in the open air that is brilliant.  

Your songs always have a nice, chilled vibe to them. Is this mirrored in the creation process, or do you have strict deadlines and lots of stress?

It can be stressful when you have a song that is about 80/90% there, and you just need that final thing to get it right, but you spend a lot of time searching for it and a week can go by and you feel like you've made no progress at all. It's usually best to just move on to another idea and then come back to that song with fresh ears, but that can be really hard to do when you just want to have the damn thing finished.  

When you first conceive of the initial idea, like the key riff to a song, or a chorus hook, that feels really chilled and natural, but then putting in the work to bring the whole song over the finish line has never really been fun for me. But once they're finished it's the best feeling ever. 

You only broke onto the scene via Soundcloud in 2015. Have you adapted to the current music scene or are there still lots of things you’re learning?

We're always having to learn a lot because the industry and the relationship between bands and fans is always changing quite dramatically at the moment. At the same time we just try to worry about writing songs and improving our live show.