BAR RAIDERS ARE BACK, ALRIGHT

By Dan Hutton on January 13, 2017 in Arts

Since releasing their eponymous debut album back in 2010, Sydney electronic dance musicians Bag Raiders (a.k.a. Jack Glass and Chris Stracey) have been amassing a stack of new music, which they’re now ready to share with the world. With their new single ‘Beat Me To The Punch’ lighting up the airwaves, Bar Raiders are embarking on a national tour that will land at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi on January 4. We caught up with one half of the formidable duo, Jack Glass, during the month…

If we had to describe our sound in one sentence… we’d call it dance music for the lounge room.

My first memory of music is… playing xylophone in primary school music class and then a little later doing piano exams at the conservatory – I really hated those exams!

Growing up my parents listened to… classical music, jazz and the Beatles.

Our dream gig… would be more of a dream country rather than a dream gig. We love Japan; we played there only one time and we’d love to go back. Someone book us, please.

If you come see us play, you can expect… a fun time, I hope! We certainly have fun performing, so fingers crossed we transmit that same energy to the crowd.

There was one time when we were starting out… that a girl slapped me in the face when I didn’t play her request right away (the request was Muscles). There were many such times when we were starting out.

If we could have chosen one song to have written it would have to be… ‘Xtal’ by Aphex Twin, the first track on Selected Ambient Works.

Our favourite song to perform would have to be… ‘Shooting Stars’. It’s hard to go past that song. It’s still pretty amazing and inspiring to see the reaction it gets. It’s obvious the song means something to a lot of people and we like that.

The best thing about the local music scene is… that it’s super supportive. Or at least it was when we were coming up. We are friends with most bands and musicians in Australia (there’s not all that many of us to be honest) and it feels like a nice, friendly scene rather than an anonymous or competitive one like you might find elsewhere in the world.

One person we’d still really like to record with is… Steve Gadd. It would be amazing to track live drums with a weapon like him.

Our biggest fan has got be… someone with a Bag Raiders tattoo (there are a few out there,) or otherwise maybe our parents.

We’ll know we have made it when… Raiderstan finally comes into existence…

To find out more about Bag Raiders, please visit… www.bagraiders.com.