BAMBARA WHO ARE YOU? We are three old friends who have been making music together since we were around 12. We started this specific project in Athens, Georgia (our home state) and then moved to Brooklyn together in 2011. We found a basement apartment where we could live and practice for cheap and have been making music there ever since. Reid is the singer, lyricist and guitarist, Blaze is the drummer and William is the bassist. After Reid broke his hand on his guitar at a show toward the end of 2016, we’ve been playing as a 5 piece live so Reid can just sing and move freely on stage. Our friends Bryan Keller and Sammy Zalta have been playing guitar with us live. WHAT DO YOU DO? We write the music we would like to hear and perform it the way we would like to see it performed. With our albums we Photography by Andrew Benge
Photography by Lindsay Melbourne
prefer to create a unified mood that gives the feeling of being in a specific place. That sense of atmosphere is very important to us and is definitely a quality running through all of our albums. We prefer our live shows be a different experience. It always seems a little dull to see an artist perform their music exactly how it is on the album; there needs to be a sense of spontaneity or danger involved, especially with our type of music.
“DRAKE SHOUTING ANGRILY COURT-SIDE AT NBA GAMES DOESN’T SEEM GENUINE. IT MAKES ME FEEL EMBARRASSED.” WHY DO YOU DO IT? It’s fulfilling. I honestly can’t even see any of us doing anything else. Creating music together and 22
touring has been such a huge part of our lives for years. If we didn’t have that outlet it would be pretty rough. WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW? We are working hard on the new album which is supposed to be out in October 2019 if all goes as planned, William is moving apartments right now, Reid finished writing a book and is looking for publishing, and Blaze is sleeping on the couch because his room is too cold and if he plugs in the space heater it shorts out the electricity to the entire apartment. WHAT’S THE HOT TOPIC? Drake shouting angrily courtside at NBA games doesn’t seem genuine. It makes me feel embarrassed.
