Interview with Balancing Act – starfreakmag.com

Interview with Balancing Act

In Conversation with Balancing Act

Balancing Act. Is simply. One of those rock bands. That immediately. Hook you. And never let you go. No, this is not an editing error. I’m writing this introduction while dancing to the beat of “It Girl”, one of the songs from “Who’ve You Come As?” Part 2, their newest album. Ok, let me sit down… Right, I’m sat. So, Balancing Act, the act of balancing… what? What about absolutely fucking everything? Think about it. Aren’t we constantly trying to find balance in life for our peace of mind? Easier said than done, right? And it’s from this struggle that the band Balancing Act was born. Kai Jon Roberts (vocals), Jackson Couzens (guitar), David Carpenter (bass), Patrick Hanbury (drums), and Joe Woolf (keys) are not trying to fit into a scene; they’re carving out their own space within it. Their music shifts between moods and genres, never staying in one place for too long, yet always feeling cohesive in its unpredictability.

Photo by Wiktoria Wolny

I met Kai in London for a conversation about their latest album, the artistic identity of the band, and their relentless drive to keep pushing forward, no matter how far they’ve already come. Now, they’re about to go on another UK and Europe tour, and I couldn’t recommend buying a bloody ticket enough. These boys are going places, and I don’t say this lightly. I’m so sure I could set my hand on fire, and it wouldn’t burn (read the interview to understand what I mean).

When did you start the band?

Halfway through 2022. We played a little secret gig at the Victoria in Dalston, and I only told our friends to put it on a close friend story because we had never played together at the time. When Jackson and I started the band, it was just him and me writing on and off for three years or so. We couldn’t find anyone else to join us for a while. We were in Manchester, and then we left as soon as the doors closed by COVID opened. We wanted to move and start a new life in London.

So, the Manchester music scene wasn’t really the right fit for you?

At the end of COVID, loads of venues closed down. The place where the band actually formed and got together wasn’t the same anymore, and that was a real big musical home, a place called Jimmy’s. We just wanted to start something new, and we thought there was no better place than London.

I’ve noticed that you don’t play gigs very often.

Because we’d be broke. It’s not a cost-efficient thing, and I don’t think it’s a very clever thing to do. I don’t understand why bands do it. It’s quite sad, but I feel like if you are always available, the product isn’t as desirable, right?

Very high fashion of you, haha. No, I’m joking, I completely agree with you. If something is within your reach all the time, you start to underestimate it, and then you get bored with it. You guys are doing really well, though, so this approach is clearly working for you.

Yeah, it’s strange, though. When you’re in the eye of the storm, you don’t really know what kind of impact you’re having outside of it, so sometimes you wonder, “Are we just caught in this weird circle of releasing music and going on a tour? Is anything even happening?” But then, when you speak to people, they are honestly impressed, and you just don’t realise how far you’ve come because you’re so sucked into looking at your phone and seeing what other people are doing and comparing yourself to them. I wish I could just throw my phone as far as fucking possible. But you’re not allowed to, are you? I think that if I weren’t comparing what we’re doing to other people all the time, I’d turn around and be like, “I’m so proud of myself, but I’m also extremely driven, and I’m nowhere near finished yet”. Actually, I don’t feel like I deserve to say I’m proud of myself, yet.

Are you kidding? You guys are insanely good. Personally, I think you have a bright future ahead, call it a sixth sense, or whatever. There is this Italian expression that, translated literally into English, would mean “I could set my hand on fire over this”, and that’s how I feel.

You could set your hand on fire?

Ok, on second thought, my translation makes no sense.

I do think you Europeans have a beautifully strange poetic way of describing things; it’s brilliant. I wish we had more than just “fuck off”. So, I want to get to the bottom of this, because I want to use this expression myself.

Haha, I appreciate it. In Italian, you would use this expression when you’re 100% sure about something, so you’re basically saying that you’re so sure you’d bet your hand on it.

Well, I like it, and I’m gonna use it anyway. I think it works. I might put it in a song.

Amazing, I feel a little bit like a muse here, haha. No, but honestly, I listened to all of your songs, and I very much believe you’re going places. Your new album, “Who’ve You Come As?, Part 2”, came out only a few days ago, and I can’t stop listening to it.

Thank you very much. How did you find Part 2?

It’s incredible, the first four songs are my favourite. My number one is probably “It Girl”.

Interesting, so you like the dark, spooky one. It feels a little bit “Mighty Boosh”, haha.

Maybe you should go for a Vince Noir look when performing it. He was a bit of an it girl, wasn’t he? But yeah, I always like the dark, spooky ones.

Were you a secret goth?

Of course. I still am, and it’s not really a secret.

I used to be one of those Rawr XD kids. When I hit around 11-12, everything was My Chemical Romance. I was obsessed.

They were one of my favourite bands when I was a teenager. Have you always been interested in music and in pursuing this as a career?

Oh, yeah, as corny as it sounds. You know when you start a year in school, and you’re given a book with your program. The start of every book I had was always “I want to be in a band forever, and ever and ever”. There was never even an option of ever doing anything else. I kind of grew up around music anyway. My parents didn’t work directly in music, but were always around it.

Have your parents always been supportive?

As crazy as it sounds, they have. My head has always been obsessed with music, and they saw that. That period of time between 2013 and 2018, that’s when my favourite albums ever were released, “AM” by Arctic Monkeys, and then “Lazaretto” from Jack White, and the birth of Royal Blood. They made such a huge impression on me, and I know they did on everyone else in the band, as well.

I was trying to guess which bands influenced your sound in “Who’ve You Come As?” …

Our music doesn’t really make sense, though. I feel like if you listen to our album, every song sounds like something else.

Oh, totally, and I love that. But look at my notebook, I nailed it! And I underlined Arctic Monkeys ten times.

We get in a lot of trouble for that.

Why? I can hear the influence, but you definitely have your own sound.

They just made such a massive impression on me growing up, and every time I try to steer away from it, it just naturally comes out, but I definitely don’t mean to do it.

It makes no sense to betray your own taste. Plus, there is no such thing as a completely original work of art, especially nowadays, let’s be honest. We all have influences, and it’s impossible not to let them guide us. Now, what’s tricky, and what I believe separates a real artist from a copycat, is being able to use all these influences in an original way, and I think you guys are doing exactly that. You don’t cling to the past, and you’re not a tribute act. You’re modern in the best way possible.

Thank you very much. Yeah, even though you can hear some direct influences, I’d hope that people would also feel like we’re trying to push genres on in a modern way.

Weirdly enough, I could detect a little bit of Blur, as well, specifically in “Had Another Mare” from Part 1.

I think you’re hearing Damon Albarn because for us, that was a real big Gorillaz feel, that’s what we were going for. Gorillaz’s “Demon Days” is probably one of those 10 perfect albums.

I agree. I was actually wondering, you guys are a five-piece, but I believe I can normally see only four of you in pictures and videos?

Yes, we appear as a four-piece, but we have another member who helps write and play it live. It’s this guy called Joe Woolfe, and he plays the keys. He’s one of our oldest friends. I love him. In our sound, there are loads of strings, and synth, and all of that comes from Joe. Everyone has an input on everything that we do, but Joe is definitely into that synth world where things are a little bit more… spooky.

You also released a lot of music videos. I watched them all, and I think they all fit the vibe and tone of the songs they accompany. They’re great visual companions.

Thank you, we spent a bloody lot of money on them, but we’re also really lucky because we’ve got some really good friends who are also talented in that sphere, like Max dos Santos and Aiden Herron. Now, we work with a guy called Jude Keenleyside, who’s also one of the Rock Revival guys. But we’re also in a really sad place where music videos are becoming a dying art form, and we need to do everything we can to stop that. I remember being absolutely entranced by music videos as a kid, like the one for “The Black Parade”. That is a piece of art. Had I only listened to that song without the visual representation, I wouldn’t have felt like I was part of the club. My favourite thing when I was a kid, and I would find a band I liked, was watching their tour videos. I love it so much, but all of that stuff is dying because most people only have the attention span to look at 15 seconds of that.

I completely understand what you’re saying, and I feel the same because I also was very attached to music videos as a kid. Some bands I recently interviewed told me they wouldn’t even try to shoot one because of how expensive it is, and unfortunately, it just wouldn’t be as helpful for the band as it would have been in the past.

Yeah, I know some people put videos on TikTok, and they’re like, “Oh, we made this for free”. That is really lucky and lovely, but you can’t do that forever, because you can’t not pay people who are helping you forever; you have to value and respect people’s work and time. It’s also something I wouldn’t be able to do myself because I don’t feel like I’ve got an incredible eye to direct. Even if I’ve got an image in my head, translating it into words and shots is a skill.

You’re talking to a screenwriter, so yeah, if it were easy, we wouldn’t exist, haha.

Exactly, so you know what I’m talking about. At the same time, you have no idea what brand of social media someone’s going to find you online. You just have to try to maximise everything. But I think that, even if you have the simplest visual, even if it isn’t great, sometimes it’s worth doing it anyway, which has completely gone against everything I’ve just said.

Haha, no, I get it. It’s always worth trying, especially to understand what works for you, because it might not be the same thing that works for someone else. Anyway, I really appreciate the craft and hard work that you put into those music videos. I studied film, and I’m a bit of a film fanatic, so I can tell when something is really well-shot, and in your case, it’s not just that; the cinematography is great, the colour grading, the editing. Even your simpler and less professional videos have a soul, a certain emotional intention, if it makes sense. The video for “The Brakes” comes to mind, for example. I love the red that permeates most of it.

I was actually working in Japan when we shot that one; it was two years ago. I’m a roadie when I don’t do band stuff. I work with bigger artists and help build their stages and help work in the background. I was on tour with this band in Japan, and on one of our days off, the video director of the tour was like, “We should shoot a video”. It was just him and me walking around Tokyo. We were drinking all night, and we just had so much fun. The director is a guy called Steve Price, and he’s absolutely a genius. He’s currently filming RAYE.

*puzzled look*

*sings the chorus of “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!”

Oh, that girl. Sorry, I honestly almost never listen to modern pop, so I know nothing about it. I care a lot about lyrics, and that’s not really modern pop’s strong suit, so it’s not my cup of tea, even if the melodies are great.

Are you a lyric or a melody person?

Lyric, for sure.

It’s tough, cause I’m sure you write music as well, being a singer yourself. I am a lyric person, too. I’m sick of listening to people’s bands, and they aren’t saying anything. There are lots of musicians who have beautiful melodies, but they are saying fuck all, and that’s not a problem for a lot of people, but it is a problem for me. When I write, though, the melody does actually come first, which is, again, contradicting myself. I don’t journal or write poems, and sometimes I hate myself because I shoot myself in the foot by not doing this.

Everyone has their own approach, you know? Obviously, writing consistently is helpful, but doing that doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to just sit down and write a song in 15 minutes. Not always, at least. Maybe if you get a couple of drinks in ya first and let your subconscious lead the pen, haha.

I’ve always found that doing any substances and writing is never a good idea for me.

Damn, I’m being a bad influence here.

I’ve always had a fun time writing drunk before. We wrote this party song, for example, and I think it’s great, it’s hilarious, but we could never release it because it just isn’t right. We also play sober. I just don’t think I’m one of those natural musicians who can pull off playing drunk. I find being on stage an experience that gets me high enough.

Oh, yeah, I agree. Do you ever get stage fright, though?

I feel like everyone gets it to a certain degree. When you drink before you go on stage, that gets rid of the stage fright, right? But that also gets rid of everything else. The stage fright is only the beginning of what ends up becoming goosebumps on your arm. If the people in front of you start singing with you, it can make you cry, it can release something inside of you, which is better than any other feeling you can get. I mean, maybe not better than sex, but…

I think it’s better than sex, haha.

Haha, well, I’m yet to find something that can make me feel better than singing to a full room of people who are, without sounding like Bob Marley, all at one. The closest feeling I get to that is watching one of my favourite artists play, and I’m surrounded by people, and we’re all in that thing together. But as soon as you drink on stage, that goes away for me. The other thing is, your ego flies through the roof, and, as someone who’s definitely got one of those, I don’t want to inflate it, because then you become obnoxious on stage. It can become a comedy show. It’s not real, and your performance has to be real. But then again, people can very openly disagree with me, and I’ve seen some beautiful performances of people strung up and in the worst periods of their lives.

Yeah, but that’s different, I think, because on those occasions the live performance becomes cathartic for both the artist and the audience. I’m thinking about Nick Cave, for example, and his performances after his son tragically died. I got to a point where I basically divide artists into two categories based on their approach on stage. Some crave and enjoy this almost visceral connection with the public, and clearly, you’re one of them. Then, you have those who instead are more inwardly focused, and I’m one of those, but that’s also because otherwise I would be devoured by my own anxiety.

Yeah, but that doesn’t take away from the performance. I was at Glastonbury last summer, and I was watching Wunderhorse. Jacob Slater has a very hypnotic and energetic presence on stage. He is a fabulous performer, but he definitely seems more inwardly focused. He’s not looking for lighters in the air, but what he does is, you know, kind of untouchable.

Do you think you have a stage persona?

Oh, yeah, there’s a stage persona. What I sometimes struggle with is that bit in between songs. Some people can be natural comedians. I remember also seeing Father John Misty last year, and he’s an absolute hero. In between each song, he could sing three or four words, and it felt like you were in a cigar lounge with him, and he was telling you a dirty joke, you know? That’s something I’ve always wanted to be able to tap into.

I remember seeing Patti Smith in Rome two years ago, and what she did in between songs, of course, was reciting some of her own poems, but also some by Pasolini, because she had dedicated that concert to him. That was the best night of my life. Going back to your album, was dividing it into two parts an artistic choice?

I’d love to say it was, but it wasn’t. We had a load of songs which maybe weren’t as cohesive as we thought they’d be, to release them all in one go. But also, if you are not the talk of the town, it’s hard to keep people’s attention. It would have been a shame to have dropped an album with 14 songs in October that no one would be caring about now. I mean, we’ve got some of the most incredible fans you could ever wish for, people who really care, but I feel like we’ve been able to drop feed people song after song after song. We’ve really been able to make quite a lot out of them for an almost DIY band.

Did you record both parts throughout the same period of time?

Yeah, throughout the last two years. They’ve all been written in either 2 or 3 places. One is a studio in France called Alouette. I feel like there are so many distractions in the city, and when we’re all together, it’s easy for us to go, “Oh, should we go to the pub after this? Should we do this? Should we do that?”, so Alouette was great, and that’s Joe Woolf’s studio. He also has a little place in the Alps where we went. Then, the ending recordings were done in a studio around Bethnal Green called SFJ, which is David Bardon and Oscar Robertson’s studio.

What’s the meaning behind the title – “Who You’ve Come As”?

It’s a Manc phrase, so from Manchester. It basically means, “What have you dressed up as?”; it’s something your dad would say to you when you come down from the shower, and you’ve got a new piercing. It’s normally a piss-take, but we also thought it could be a question for ourselves, like, who do we think we are releasing this two-part album with bizarre songs? If you’re looking at the scene now, everyone’s in a baggy t-shirt and sounding like Nirvana again, or Pearl Jam, or something. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we don’t fit.

That’s what makes you stand out. Ok, so my interpretation of the title was kind of correct, then. I thought it meant, “What kind of mask are you putting on today?”, without sounding too philosophical.

Yeah, we can all be social chameleons, you know? Sometimes you put a different face on for different people. When anyone’s at work, they’re not the same person they are when they’re drinking with their friends, or when they’re trying to be loving and romantic to their partner, or when they’re talking to their mum. So, you’re definitely not too far off.

What are the main themes of these two albums?

Infatuation, people, past lovers… I’ve always got this constant battle against the big old nasty time, this constant fear of, “How long have I got left?”; I just feel like everyone’s in a rat race. But then, you have “By Miraculous Design”, which is a very strange song about me just partying with my friends. “There’s A Few Of Us Still Here” is also about those same people, people that I love, but also the lifestyle around it.

Have you changed a lot, musically and artistically, compared to your first releases?

I don’t think we’ve changed too much. We’re still developing, and we’re waiting to get to the point where we know exactly who we are. I don’t think we’re there, yet. It can always be better, and it will come.

Yes, I’m sure it will. What would you say is your next goal in the near future?

I’m going away this summer to hide and just write music. I want to make another album. It’s gonna be tough because money, well, the lack of it, makes music impossible.

I know, it’s tragic. What is your biggest goal in the remote future, instead?

If we’re talking about unrealistic goals, the thing that keeps making me wake up in the morning with my drive is to headline Glastonbury one day. At four or five years old, I already knew I wanted this. That’s how obsessed I am. If I want to talk about something more realistic, I want to be able to live off music. I want music to pay the bills.

Of course, that’s every artist’s dream. Now, probably the most important question: what is the meaning behind your band’s name, “Balancing Act”?

Life? We are all balancing fucking everything.

Ok, that’s how I interpreted it. Sorry, it seems like I always know what you’re talking about, but I’m honestly telling the truth, that was my guess.

Haha, yeah, I mean, I have a work life which is not too dissimilar to my band life, but it’s the wrong side of the stage. Jackson and I, when we first met, we were both in different bands, so we were balancing. Life is a balancing act. Maybe it’s a silly name, but we definitely resonate with what it means.

I don’t think it’s silly, and I love it. I need to ask you about my favourite Balancing Act song, “Under the Table”.

We were writing it in Manchester. It was quite early on. I had this obsession that we hadn’t ever written a heavy riff. It was the first time that I experimented with my voice in a strange way. I was listening to a lot of Deftones. I just wanted to create that really sexy feeling without making a Jason Derulo song. You know, when people listen to a certain song that makes them feel like they want to do something. I think I wanted someone to have a fuck song, haha. That was our shot in the dark; maybe we didn’t get there.

I shan’t comment on this, I don’t kiss and tell, haha. This is my last question for you: are you guys stars or freaks?

I think David and Jackson are stars, and Pat, Joe, and I are freaks.

Thank you very much for your time, Kai. It was a huge pleasure, and I can’t wait to see you live in London at The Dome on April 21^st.

Tour dates:

10.04.26 – Liverpool, UK – Arts Club

11.04.26 – Newcastle, UK – Think Tank

12.04.26 – Glasgow, UK – King Tut’s

14.04.26 – Manchester, UK – Gorilla

15.04.26 – Birmingham, UK – Hare & Hounds

16.04.26- Leeds, UK – Key Club

18.04.26 – Brighton, UK – Green Door Store

19.04.26 – Bristol, UK – Exchange