Interview with emerging band Bloodyarvo
Bloodyarvo have emerged onto the Sydney music scene with their outstanding debut single “Feel My Heart Sleeps”, and if you have heard it, you know that they are a band you are going to wanna watch. Delivering pure talent through this release, Bloodyarvo are only just getting started and it will be exciting to watch them grow as a band over time. We did a little interview with the band and you can check out their great answers below - and don’t forget to give “Feel My Heart Sleeps” a lot of love!
What was the reasoning behind starting the band and where did the name come from?
“Inspired by Tame Impala, Bloodyarvo was originally a personal project where I would write, record and play all the instruments myself”. Then later on I asked Ben, Will, and Daniel who were my university friends at that time to help me perform the project live. The chemistry was too good and with positive feedback for people we decided to make Bloodyarvo a band.
before the band was formed, I was at a Sand dune in Port Stephen writing a song in a beautiful summer afternoon when out of the blue a random girl yelled “Whot a Bloody Arvo” with the thickest bogan accent I’ve ever heard. I thought to myself that would be a cool name for something. So I decided to change my Instagram handle to “Bloodyarvo ''. That's when people started calling me ‘Bloodyarvo’ at gigs, and everywhere I went. The name stuck with me, and that’s how I got the name.
- Ariq -
Tell us about your music background - how did you get started with music, who inspired you?
Music has always been the biggest part of our life. We were all music students at a university in Sydney when Bloodyarvo was formed. Ariq has been a session guitarist overseas since teenager, and Ben and Will have been writing songs since they were 12. The core concept of Bloodyarvo was to make a bridge between our love of Indie alt bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Tame Impala, Pond with our love of older psychedelic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd.
You’ve just released your debut track “Feel My Heart Sleeps”, talk us through your creative process when it came to creating it and what was the inspiration behind it?
‘Feel My Heart Sleeps’ was written before the band was formed. I was in a very bad place mentally, feeling isolated and lonely. I really hated who I was and where I was in life, so I fell into a restless cycle of self-destructive behaviour where I would act recklessly, partying, drinking, just to escape the reality I hated.
The line ‘Feel My Heart Sleeps’ was a metaphor for being disconnected from the rest of the world. It’s also a cry for help for feeling wanting to numb the heart just to be able to stop feeling pain. I was in the middle of shower when I came up with a chorus. I immediately got out of the shower, opened my laptop and recorded the demo.
The song was written spontaneously as I recorded the demo within a couple of hours. And that’s pretty much what you hear in the final product.
- Ariq -
Are you happy with the reaction that the track has received so far?
Yes! For a debut single we have to say the track is doing pretty well! We’ve been getting so much good feedback from fans and friends, and the song got aired on the radio a couple of times which is really cool!
We hope the song will still continue reaching a wider audience and connect with more people who are experiencing the same thing.
Give us a fun fact about the band.
3 of us are immigrants! Ariq is from planet Mars, Ben is from Ireland, and Daniel is from Indonesia. And a little spooky fun fact for you, Ariq used to practice guitar in a cemetery, while Ben is a very talented baker.
What do you love most about playing live shows?
Seeing the crowd jumping and singing along to our song is such an amazing feeling!
In September, we played a support show at The Vanguard where everyone was jumping and singing along to our unreleased songs. It was really wholesome to see people trying to sing a song they’ve never heard before.
We love improvisation! We improvise at every Gig! It pushes us as musicians individually and as a team. The Feeling of freedom coming up with ideas on the spot and getting to play whatever we want while feeling under pressure trying not to mess up the song and embarrass ourselves in front of the audience. It’s almost thrilling but rewarding.
What’s next for Bloodyarvo? Got any special gig plans or more music coming out?
We have lotsa lotsa songs in our sleeve waiting to be released. But in the meantime, we have some gigs coming up: The Moshpit on the 13th of October, Yullis Brews 16th of October, and Agincourt on the 12th of November. Hope to see you all at one of them!