With their second album scheduled for release on the 24th of January 2025, indie rock trio Bilk are ready to get back on the road and the stage. Their rapidly selling UK and EU tour and hype around the new album, titled “Essex, Drugs and Rock and Roll” are just two indicators showing what a banging year 2025 is going to be for this Essex based band. I had a chat with frontman, Sol, about all the exciting stuff the group has coming up in the new year.
How did the title “Essex, Drugs and Rock and Roll” come about?
Luke (bassist) came up with that whilst we were out in Germany. We were doing a gig and we was in the hotel after the show, just chatting shit on the balcony and Luke came up with the name for a t-shirt design and I said, no, that’s the album name man. Essex Drugs and Rock and Roll.
What would you say were your main influences when writing the album?
There’s been a lot of different influences, because I like to listen to a lot of different music. I grew up on hip hop music, but I listen to everything from your classic Great British Bands – Oasis, The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys – to the American stuff, like Green Day and Nirvana. So the whole album’s got different influences. I mean, the last song on the album Band Life Blues, is a bit of a bluesy song and that came about because I started getting to blues music in the last couple years, so the inspiration just sort of comes when it comes. I never sit down to write a song and think, “oh, I want it to sound like this or I want it to sound like that”, it just comes out how it naturally comes out. I’m twiddling around with the guitar one minute and then I’ll have a tune the next. Someone even said that one of the tracks has a bit of a Lily Allen flavour, so I guess a bit of Lily Allen comes through there, but like I said it’s never really preconceived. And I like Lily Allen. I like her music, some of her tunes and that; she’s got some bangers from her early albums obviously, so I guess it just subconsciously happens, you know what I mean?
What song do you think people are going to be most excited about?
The thing is, it’s just horses for courses, really, innit? All the songs have such different vibes, so you have our fans who like the softer stuff a bit more, so obviously they’ll like Beatrice, and Summer Days, the more love songs, and Very Nice Life which is a bit of a jolly sort of Beatlesy happy song. And then you get some people that really like the rocky shit like Tommy and that, but one song that has stuck out when we’ve shown people the tunes is the song Go, which is the fourth track on the album. It’s definitely one that everyone keeps saying is one of the best ones on the album. So I think people are gonna like that. It’s got a lot of energy and you can really hear the rap influence in that song, because of how literal the lyrics are and how I tell the story. And I think Band Life Blues as well people are gonna dig because that just tells the story of the start of the band. But I think, for me, I listened to the album from start to finish and I love the whole thing. It’s for people that just like good band music and good songs.
Is there anywhere on tour that you are particularly excited to play?
I’ve been asked this a couple of times and I normally say London because it’s the biggest show and that, but I feel like it’s a bit too predictable to say that now. I think, to be honest with you, I’m excited to play all of it. I’m excited to go Europe because we ain’t done Europe before as a headline tour. We’ve done it at festivals before, but we’ve never done a headline tour. So I’m up for that. But in general I’m just excited to play again and get on the road. I like the whole experience of it, the excitement of it, that’s what I live for. It’s not just writing the tunes, but it’s the whole lifestyle of being in a rock and roll band that I just love. It feels like me all over, you know what I mean? So it’s good to just get out of Essex and just get on the road and play the tunes and meet the people.
Are there any songs you are particularly excited to play?
I think Go will be fun, but Go is always fun. We started playing some of the tunes at the festivals we’ve done last year to sort of get them in people’s heads and just start playing them. And they’ve all been fun to play, for different reasons really. I love playing softer shit as well, because I can really focus on singing and it’s just different to rocking out. But I don’t really have a preference. I just like getting up there and performing because I love every song equally, every song means something to me and I wanna play all of them live and I wanna shove them down people’s throats.
If you could eat one of your songs, which would you choose and what would it taste like?
It would have to be Hummus and Pitta, wouldn’t it? I think most of them would take the taste of cigarettes and booze, to be honest. But probably one of the love songs, that’d be nice and sweet, as opposed to one of the more rocky ones which would probably taste a bit bitter.
What’s a song you would recommend to people reading this?
I’m liking Babushka by Kate Bush at the moment. That’s got a good chorus so I’d say go and listen to that.
“Essex, Drugs and Rock and Roll” comes out on the 24th of January 2025, and it’s an album and a tour you definitely don’t want to miss.