We talk with Bones UK about the inspirations for their self-titled debut album, released on 12 July via Sumerian Records.

BILLY MORRISON

The day that me and Carm did our first demos with our producer Filippo (on a house boat in London) we decided we were going to come to LA to start the band.

So literally a month later we all took what ever money we had and did it. The live set up was me and Carmen – drums on track and Fil playing bass on pads with his fingers. It meant we didn’t have loads of gear to cart around and we could get to shows easily. We rented a big gold ‘mum car’ called the ‘Bonesmobile’.

We stayed with many people for the 6 weeks we were in LA, including on Laura Marling’s floor, a shed, a canal side mansion in Venice,  caravans. Anywhere our beautiful network of friends would put us.

We managed to wangle ourselves a gig at the Viper Room through calling up the bands playing on the bill and saying we were “HUGE FANS” (even though we’d never heard their music) and saying how much of an honour it would be to support them. We ended up getting a residency there and on the 3rd night, we got ushered outside saying Billy Idol’s guitarist Billy Morrison wanted to meet us. He told us we should change our name but loved the band and thought we would be huge. We didn’t change the name but can’t thank him for being our first fan.

ONE LOVE BILLY

SANDY THE DOG

Sandy is our dog. We found her wandering around near where we live and our housemate chased her down to give her a bath. After putting a load of ‘found male dog’ posters up, no one claimed her so we adopted her. she actually turned out to be a girl after taking her to the pound – something we HAD to do by law. Apparently in LA, people just drop off their unwanted dogs in a nice area and hope someone takes them in. Without her emotional support and her squealing like a pig when we come home everyday, we wouldn’t have survived.

THE MAN IN CAMDEN TOWN WHO SAID “GIRLS CAN’T PLAY GUITAR”

Without him, we wouldn’t have had the fire in our eyes and the determination in our hearts to push forward writing the songs we do – knowing that the subjects we wanted to talk about go beyond us and could inspire and effect other people.

OUR NETWORK OF CREATIVE FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS

Obviously as a band starting out you have loads of ideas and visions but don’t necessarily have the dosh to make them happen. When making music videos, finding studios to write and rehearse or needing places to stay on tour, we had to rely on the kindness of people just wanting to help or that believed in us enough to extend a hand.  Most of our first tours we were only able to do because Carm would reach out to people who would let us crash on floors or in spare rooms. One freezing night in Norfolk, three of us slept on a kitchen floor and Rosie got the luxury of a kitchen chair for a bed. With all of our music videos, we have built a family of people all wanting to pitch in the help realise Rosie’s crazy visions. You all know who you are. And we wouldn’t be anywhere without you.

RANDY NEWAN, BB KING, PRINCE, PAUL SIMON, SISTER ROSETTA THARPE, BUDDY GUY, STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN, HIGHLY SUSPECT, JEFF BECK

For your inspiration musically and for guiding us in the right direction