The Bads’ third album is all about travelling through life with as little baggage as possible.
“It is definitely referring to travelling and travelling through life with as little baggage as possible and in both cases easier said than done,” says Dianne Swann, one half of The Bads with her partner Brett Adams, of their new album Travel Light.
The third album from the duo features guest appearances from Phoenix Foundation’s Chris O’Connor and Ben King.
“Brett and I have been singing together for a long time and that has become a very identifiable Bads sound,” says Swann, the former When The Cats Away member.
“On Travel Light we wanted to bring in another voice for some of the vocal parts to add a different texture. Who better than Ben King
“He has the most amazing voice. Ben added to the chorus of California, and sang on See The Light, You’ve Got The Sun and Together.
“We have also both had the pleasure of playing with Chris O’Connor in various musical projects – and he is the most inventive player.
“We are also incredibly lucky to have Wayne Bell as our regular drummer and we just wanted to see what would happen if we put these two together in the studio playing at the same and we had this song called Worried Mind, a really swampy percussive thing, and they both played on that track. I think it worked a treat.”
Unlike previous The Bads albums, Earth From Space and So Alive, the songwriting is more of a joint venture, though there are a couple of Adams and Swann solo writes.
“A lot of the songs on this album were written together, we are pretty happy with the way the co-writes on this batch of songs came together – naturally and quickly,” Swann says.
“Although we can be inspired by almost anything at any time as songwriters, the themes that keep cropping up and coming through all relate to pondering the human condition.”
The Bads hit the road at the end of the month for a short album release tour.
