Formed on the cusp of COVID and never having had the chance to play a live show, the duo – comprised of two good friends who met on a drunken night out at uni – have strengthened their bond during lockdown and turned inconvenience into advantage. The extended time at home enabled them to focus on their debut EP Heavy Infectious and develop the exact sound they wanted.
“We could express what we wanted to creatively without any restrictions or limitations on what we wanted to put out,” reflects bass player Otto Balfour on the lockdown. “We’ve had this luxury of time to really hone in on what it is we like doing together,” agrees lead vocalist and guitarist Charlie Hinton.
Related: Crashface – Heavy Infectious | EP Review
While a lot of bands put out multiple early EPs still struggling to figure out their set ‘sound’, CRASHFACE now have that advantage of knowing exactly what they want quite early on in their career, and it might not be what people expect. “We consciously decided to put out two singles which were very different from one another,” explains Otto. “Cause we didn’t want to be pigeonholed straight away.” On the surface, CRASHFACE have a pretty traditional ‘classic Brit punk’ aesthetic but musically, they give off a whole other vibe. If you’re expecting a raw, stripped back guitar led EP to match what you think they’re going to sound like, think again. There’s samples, synths, extra little electronic elements and pretty intense production values. “Obviously we’ve been sat inside for the best part of two years or whatever and computers are the best thing ever,” says Charlie. “That and the face we have an excellent production team which we work with…the sky’s the limit.”
“I’m not doing all this work to not dominate shit. I’m not here to fuck around.”
CRASHFACE may be a new project but Charlie and Otto have been involved in the music industry for a good few years now so this isn’t new territory for them. After that infamous drunken night at uni, they formed their first band together and when that didn’t really work out went their separate ways for a while, dipping their toes into different projects with Otto producing some other bands too. Eventually though, CRASHFACE was born out of a desire to make music together as friends again. Charlie described how he needed a fresh stimulus so “came up with this obnoxious anti-pop star rock star thing which was CRASHFACE. I made a few demos for it and I suck ass at production. I knew Otto was good at it so I got in touch and was like ‘yo’.”
Their prior music industry connections and success with previous projects got them invites to 2019’s Heavy Music Awards where they attempted some networking for CRASHFACE with amusing consequences. “We had a hundred business cards made up and we put all the demos on a private Soundcloud link. We put that link on the business cards and we were going around handing them out…a few days later we realised that link wasn’t actually the right link!”
A funny setback that thankfully didn’t hinder them too much, they launched the band “about two or three weeks before lockdown hit” – a setback which definitely could have derailed them, if they’d let it. “Obviously the goalposts totally shifted,” Otto tells us. But instead of bemoaning the fact they couldn’t play live shows, the guys focused on making the music the best it could possibly be and getting themselves promo and radio play. “I don’t know how we managed to get on Radio 1 but we did.”
“I do,” Charlie chimes in. “It’s because we’re fucking sick. Otto is always incredibly modest,” he explained. “But I’m not doing all this work to not dominate shit. I’m not here to fuck around.”
Charlie certainly has the rock star attitude down to a tee. The swagger, the confidence, the charm, the cocky arrogance, but it’s all said with a smile and a twinkle in the eye, like someone playing at being an asshole but who’s actually a nice guy. He knows how to turn it on and off. Otto describes them as “fire and ice”, Charlie being the fire. “For me, I’ve always believed I’ll get there,” reflected Otto on the strive for success and superstardom and his own personal modesty. “It’s just the way I portray myself…I’ve always thought it’s best to maybe pull it back slightly and see what happens.”
“I fucking hate modesty,” shrugs Charlie.
“Thanks bro.”
“I can’t wait to have everything we’ve done over the last eighteen months be tangible.”
It’s this relaxed back and forth banter between the pair that makes them such an intriguing duo, and perhaps it is that ‘fire and ice’ element that helps to make it work. When the two of them aren’t doing bar work to pay the rent, they can usually be found in their makeshift home studio set-up, with their pet snake, having a few beers, making a lot of noise and lovingly bickering over their own music.
“I think we work incredibly well together,” says Otto, and their new London pad is “right on the edge of the block so we can make as much noise as we want.” They moved in together with a couple of other friends around the same time CRASHFACE was born and it’s where they write most of their songs and get “about seventy per cent of the production done.”
Once the tracks are mostly finished, they get wired over to producer Rhys May to work some extra magic. “We can’t thank him enough for how much he’s worked on our stuff,” says Otto. “The amount of Zoom calls we’ve done with him…we have five or six sessions on every song until it gets to the point where we’re happy.”
With a small tour in the works for November, the band are really hyped to get the chance to build that connection and have fun with a real live audience, getting to play these songs for the first time.
“We did our first rehearsal the other day and ugh…it felt so good,” explains Otto. “I can’t wait to have everything we’ve done over the last eighteen months be tangible.”
The duo will be pulling in some more musicians for the live shows including a lead guitarist from an all-female Ramones cover band. “Although they’re so much more than that now,” Charlie tells us. “They’re doing their own stuff and shit but yeah, she absolutely shreds.” Hitting the skins will be one of Otto’s pals Tom Shrimpton who he called in some favours with. “I recorded every single one of his EPs for free when we were at uni. So then I was like ‘Tom, you owe me a favour, you drum for me now.’”
And of course, they have a few more songs than simply the ones on the EP – enough for a full set – but the boys remained pretty tight lipped about what they had in store looking further into the future.
“We’re working on a few things currently,” states Otto cryptically.
“Next year we want to play live as much as possible,” pipes Charlie. “The past year or whatever we’ve gone above and beyond with content. We’ve kept people engaged, we’ve kept giving people songs, and amazing as that all is, that can only go so far. Like Otto said, we need it to become tangible.”
They’re hoping for 2022 to be the year of CRASHFACE and strongly hinted we’d be seeing them at a number of festivals next summer too.
“We can’t name specifics but we’re going to be hitting a few good ones.”
CRASHFACE’s debut EP Heavy Infectious is out now independently.