Sad Night Dynamite
“There’s a fine line between good and bad music, I think,” Sad Night Dynamite’s Josh Greacen muses, recounting a story from the duo’s early years. “One time Archie [Blagden] played one of the songs we were writing to a girlfriend of his and she just laughed in his face!” “It was really embarrassing…” his bandmate chuckles.
These days, thankfully, Sad Night Dynamite are creating an impact with their music far past inciting an inadvertent LOL. First meeting at school in Somerset, the pair had slightly different musical beginnings; Archie remembers being really into “1:30am really loud bass-y” dance music, while Josh was releasing original Christmas songs every year that were “as bad as they sound”. When they were 17, however, a music tech class brought them together to write their first song.
Although first starting life as part of a band, things began to click when the two went off on their own. Inspired by The Specials and early Gorillaz, Josh and Archie began crafting their unique blend of melodic hip hop-inspired beats, with their self-titled mixtape arriving in its full glory last month.
“It suits these circumstances,” Josh says of the project. “I remember writing it and thinking it would be a lot better if this music felt like it belonged a bit more. At the time, things were pretty OK, and a lot of the music is quite dark and dystopian. But there’s a lot of our lyrics that make sense with things that are happening at the moment. Influence wise, we’re kind of being inspired by the point that we’re at. It’s really fun at the moment to just delve into the world that we’re trying to build.” “We inspire ourselves!” Archie chips in. “How Kanye West…”
Already creating a buzz with their hypnotising sonic stylings, the group have even seen shout-outs from the likes of Shygirl and FKA twigs, the latter of whom they did a studio session with last year. “It was like being put in the equivalent of a title fight really, really early into your career and you just get knocked out straight away,” Josh jokes. “She’s incredible, she’s amazing,” Archie agrees. “She wrote a song in about half an hour which was better than anything we’ve ever written.”
The pair might have a way to go until they’re hitting at twigs-level success, but Sad Night Dynamite’s sharp and stirring songs are already ticking all the right boxes. And that’s no laughing matter.
DIY Magazine March 2021 Issue
