Blues rockers THE BATELEURS are from Lisbon, Portugal, being from the western shores of the old continent, comes a troupe of wanderers who together have kindled the fires of the art form that is music and almost extinguished nowadays. In other words, they create music and it makes waves, spreading far and wide worth. Thus, with that said, this band has the time to talk about themselves and their music.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
It all started when I (Ricardo Dikk, bassist) met with Sandrine (Vocalist) on a Studio session; we realized we had a lot of musical affinities, and we started playing covers in local clubs with a couple of old friends of mine; I knew Rui (Drummer) for a while then, and we’ve played together in other bands, and with his great passion for classic Rock and Blues he was the obvious choice; we’ve played essential classics from Zeppelin, Purple and some Blues, and after a while we felt a special chemistry with each other, and it was evident that we should try to write our own material; it was refreshing, because Sandrine’s Soul Music influences blended very well with our ideas, and we went to the studio to record them, all in a very old fashion way, without the tricks and fakes of the modern digital recording techniques, to try to capture that raw and true feeling of the old records we love; the result is the Immanent Fire EP.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
Names are a difficult thing, because they are the first impression you give as a band; we thought very much about it, and came up with this idea of The Bateleurs; it has a triple meaning: first, there’s this close homophone with the concept of the battle, and trying to succeed with a band has been always a succession of battles; the bateleur is also a species of falcon, and the concept of this proud and regal bird appealed to us; finally, the bateleur is also one of the cards of the Tarot deck, that depicts the medieval street jugglers and entertainers of the XIV Century in France; since Sandrine was born in Paris, and we also have a keen interest in the ancient occult knowledge and tradition, it felt pretty much perfect.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We’re based in the metropolitan area of the city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal; the music scene is broad but very small, we’re a very small country, and the big majority of people are into Hip Hop and modern Latin music; the kind of niche we try to occupy is not very developed, and there aren’t many places to play and reach people that share the same views as us, that’s why we invest very much in promoting our music abroad. Anyway, there are a couple of interesting bands around, we could highlight Her Name Was Fire, a Stoner Rock duo with amazing energy and fine songwriting, and we have a Blues prodigy from the south of the country named Vitor Bacalhau that you should check out.
4. How would you describe your style?
It’s hard for a band to label its own sound, but if we try, we could say that the great bands of the 70's are the main foundation; we all love Zeppelin, Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and I think it shows in what we do, without trying to rip them off, of course; since we aren’t originally from an Anglo-Saxon country, it’s inevitable that we put our own spin on it; also, Sandrine’s Soul Music background gives the songs a different flavor, especially because this kind of music is mainly sung by men; we definitely have a big component of Blues in our genesis, and maybe a kind of Nashville/Country twist sometimes.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We’ve released the Immanent Fire EP, composed of three songs, each one with its own video; our main goal with it is to try to attract people’s attention to what we’re doing, and try to give them a glimpse of the path we want to take; the thing people can expect is that everything we do is done without tricks; we record everything without any of the modern technologies that permit you to correct faults in our performance; there’s no digital editing tools and no pitch correction technology, we just go to the studio and play it and sing it until we capture our best, because we think that’s the only way to preserve the real soul of what we’re doing.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
We’ve been writing new songs and hopefully we’ll hit the studio to record our debut album, to be released next fall
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We’re still playing small clubs around town, and finally some bigger gigs are appearing, and hopefully we’ll keep growing
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Our main objective is to release our debut album, and next work very hard to book a European tour.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
We don’t have a physical edition of the EP, but we’re on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, but you can also buy our music in Amazon and iTunes;
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
We would like them to remember that in a world of increasing un-meaningful music, there’s still people doing it like it should be, with soul and feeling, and most importantly, with truth.
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