Boy Azooga

Having drummed in various bands around Cardiff over the past decade, Davey Newington stands on the brink of releasing an album through his band, Boy Azooga, that’s been in the pipeline for almost a decade. June 8th will see ‘1,2 Kung Fu!’ released into the wild and we chatted to Davey about his move from the drum kit, his love of Kevin Parker and the album’s prominent bass lines.

Q: As it’s been so long in the pipeline, has the album got a theme to it?

A: I was more thinking about it in the way of a mixtape, which sounds quite cliche but I just wanted to put a record out that was influenced by the bands I was into at the time. A couple of the songs come back on themselves on the record, I really like The Avalanches and the way both their records feel like a proper journey and the music ebbs and flows. It’s stuff that with repeated listens you’d notice, it’s really thematic. There’s definitely themes on the record but they’re not really intense, I wasn’t too conscience of it being a concept record it was more like I knew how I wanted it to be rather then just a collection of songs.

Q: The bass lines on the album are very prominent, was it weird coming from the drum kit picking up a bass and having it be a huge part of the album?

A: It was yeah, like I did drums first and then the guitar when I was about 12 but I didn’t really get into the bass.

Q: Bass is apparently the uncool instrument…

A: Exactly, but it’s also the most badass one and the one that affects people the most. I was kind of late to it but Kevin Parker was definitely a huge inspiration in that because his bass lines are unbelievable and it’s clearly thought out, it’s not just a random part.

Q: Do you try and work your songs around bass lines then?

A: Yeah definitely, especially with ‘Face Behind A Cigarette’ I had the bass line and I just thought I’d decorate some stuff around this bass line now; while ‘Loner Boogie’ I gave myself a rule where I was just gonna write a song on one string so the whole riff I wouldn’t let myself use the other strings on the guitar so that again started off as bass line.

Q: How do you feel when you hear your songs on the radio?

A: I’m super flattered that people are playing it; it’s definitely underestimated, the power of the radio, because I don’t think people would be coming to the gigs if they hadn’t heard the songs on the radio. When we did The Magic Gang tour it’s really lame but I got choked up, we played the Electric Ballroom on the last night of the tour and there was this kid and he had a Boy Azooga t-shirt and he ran to the front, screaming the words of ‘Loner Boogie’ to me and I just thought I was that kid! I used to go see The Cribs and Foo Fighters and I’d always be at the front so I was thinking this is really weird but I honestly think that wouldn’t happen if we hadn’t had the radio plays and we’re really grateful for it.

Q: We’re entering festival season so which festival are you most looking forward to playing?

A: That’s really hard, Green Man was the one I dreamt of playing and I go with my girlfriend every year. I’d played drums with Charlotte Church and her pop dungeon she did and we played at Green Man and that was sick but I needed to do it with Boy Azooga and we hadn’t really jammed or anything yet. Last year we got asked to do it so we opened up the Far Out Stage and that was insane.

Illustration by Joe Gamble

Boy Azooga play Latitude Festival on Saturday, July 14 - The Lake Stage

Words by Callum McCormack