The Bays

“The Bays are a live thing. They don’t want to put tracks out and have people expecting them to play those cuts live. That’s not what they do. So to some extent, it’s pointless trying to describe what The Bays sound like. Because when you go to see them, and you should, it’ll be completely different to the previous gig.”  Jockey Slut [Chris Blue]

The Bays are Andy Gangadeen, Chris Taylor, Jamie Odell and Simon Richmond. Their manifesto of pure improvisation and raw creative synergy is causing major tremors at all levels of the music industry, challenging many of its most entrenched attitudes about bands and live performance. Through their relentless gig schedule and tireless devotion to their radical musical ethic, The Bays have ripped up the rulebook and debunk musical convention wherever they play.

What drives this band is their need to communicate with the audience in a way not possible with most live bands. There are no ‘songs’ to perform, there’s no album to promote and there is no hidden commercial agenda. The Bays only perform live, they never rehearse, they don’t have a set-list, they don’t use sequencers and they couldn’t ever do the same performance twice. It’s all about the moment – an experience that exists between the band and the audience for only one moment in time.

The Bays are:

ANDY GANGADEEN
DRUMS
The rhythmic heartbeat of the Bays, Andy is a drummer of both incredible power and breathtaking subtlety. Regarded as being one of the finest drummers in the world, he is a pioneer of electronic drum programming and the creator of the unique ‘Gangascope’ drumkit.

CHRIS TAYLOR
BASS
A combination of punk attitude and abstract sonic experiments define Chris as a bassist and provider of The Bays’ infamous sub-sonics. A professional player with over 15 years professional experience, Chris is pushing the boundaries of bass-playing with his experimental use of analog fx processors and associated gadgetry.

JAMIE ODELL
KEYBOARDS
A highly regarded producer in his own right, Bays’ keyboardist Jamie also records under the aliases of Jimpster and Audio Montage for his own Freerange Records imprint. One half of The Bays’ ‘science department’, Jamie provides analog and digital synths, sound fx and rhythmic textures.

SIMON RICHMOND
KEYBOARDS/FX
DJ, producer and the mastermind behind Palm Skin Productions, Simon creates sound effects, manipulates vocal samples and drops riffs from an array of gadgets. The other half of the ‘science department’, Simon layers more ambient sounds, vocals, dub echoes and audio fx.

the story so far…

Forget every rule you’ve ever been taught about live music. Ignore every preconcieved notion of what it is to be a ‘live’ band. Forget even what you think you think ‘live music’ actually means.

What drives this band is a need to communicate with their audience in a way not possible with traditional live bands. There are no ‘songs’ as such to perform, there’s no album to promote, there are no commercial imperatives at play. The Bays only perform live, they never rehearse, they don’t have a set-list and they couldn’t ever do the same performance twice. It’s all about the moment – an experience or an event that exists between the band and the audience for one time only.

The Bays have no intention of releasing any material in the immediate future, but even if you could capture the performance in digital format, it would only represent a fraction of the total Bays experience. Because what they do that is so unique, so unprecedented, is that they enter into a creative partnership with the crowd, receiving feedback from the dancefloor and reinterpreting that response, rewiring the vibe and taking it to a new level.

Each of The Bays is feeling a progression in the music and is anticipating where the performance is going to next. It could change at any moment and pursue a new direction in a second. Taking the concept of the DJ – presiding over a seamless continuum of music – The Bays drop sets like a live band creating a 90-minute DJ-mix. And reinventing the concept of studio remixing, The Bays are creating new tracks on stage and remixing these ideas live without any planning, verbal communication or commercial consideration.