In Talks With Bradford’s Bad Boy Chiller Crew
31 Mar 2021
Having been previously labelled “The worlds most deranged rap group”, Bradford’s very own Bad Boy Chiller Crew are making quite the mark on British music with their care-free attitude, comedic touch and laddish behaviour. Although some music heads may shake their head in disagreement, Sam, Kane and Gareth – to simply put it – are three Northern lads having fun and by doing that have created an ever-growing fan base that have helped accumulate millions of views online.
Gearing up for the release of their forthcoming EP, not to mention their sold out tour, Bad Boy Chiller Crew have hit the ground running this year with their latest single “Don’t You Worry About Me”. Currently sat with over 2.5 million views on YouTube alone, this up-beat and summer-infused track is a wheel-up worthy banger that encapsulates their friendship perfectly.
We caught up with the boys via Zoom for a very chaotic chat to talk all things music! Tap in below to see what they had to say.
How have you been? How has lockdown been treating you?
Gareth: Yeah, we are alright, we are sound thank you! Lockdown is one of the best things that could have happened to us because we’ve blown up in lockdown, hence the views, everyone has been sat at home watching what we’ve been up to! When lockdown first started, we thought it was going to go to sh*t, all the hard work that we had been putting into it, but it ended up going the other way around!
I’d love to take it back to the beginning; what was it like for you growing up in Bradford?
Gareth: Well, Bradford is a very eventful place! There were a lot of motorbikes, horses and fields; a lot of skipping school and winding people up!
Were you all troublesome? The naughty ones at the back of the classroom? *laughs*
Gareth: We were yeah! *laughs*
How did your journey begin? Didn’t you guys start by uploading funny videos and songs on Facebook?
Gareth: These two [Kane and Sam] have known each other from school and I used to do comedy videos a few years back and I gave it a rest and started DJ’ing. I saw these two doing some mad videos online, and it bought me right back to when I started doing it, so I messaged them, and we collaborated. We met up and we’ve been friends ever since! We just vibe off each other!
We started doing pranks, skits and comedy videos but Kane used to do music back in school, whereas me and Sam never did music. Because we were getting numbers from the videos, Kane said that we should try and make a tune, so we did, and it did really well! We couldn’t stop there. We had to carry on!
What kind of music were you making Kane?
Kane: I used to do Grime when I was in school. I only did it for a couple of years, but I stopped doing it! When we first started doing songs, that’s when it all began!
Gareth: Yeah, it were three years when we started putting music with it; three years ago this summer! I only came in at the end of September!
Ok, at what point did you think we should start taking this seriously?
Kane: When it started popping off!
Gareth: Yeah, when we started getting big views and recognition off of other people! It was like “Woah, this is happening!” when we did the Vice documentary. We went from not going anywhere to getting hounded from all ages from kids to f*cking old men and women! *laughs* There were cars driving past us with our music blasting and we didn’t even realise it was us!
What music did you grow up listening to?
Gareth: Organ Bassline and House!
Kane: I used to listen to Grime n’ that but I was still listening to bassline because that’s what everyone listens to where we are!
Let’s talk about the forthcoming EP then, what was the approach when creating this EP? Is it just a collection of songs or was there an idea behind it?
Kane: Nah, it’s just tunes that we’ve been making! The old mixtape [‘Full Wack No Brakes’] was just full of songs from when we first started! The song’s that we’re going to drop are the ones we’ve been creating recently!
Gareth: We’re just at a different level now! We cringe when we listen to that tape and it only got dropped in September, they’re all the tunes we started doing when we first got together! By the time we had come to drop it, we had so many songs backed up that it became cringey! *laughs* The new EP we’ve got coming out, we know how much hard work and dedication we’ve put in and we can’t wait for it to drop!
How long did it take to create?
Kane: I couldn’t even tell you! We’ve made that much music! We used to go to the studio and maybe do one song a week, whereas now we go, and we make three songs in one session.
Gareth: Yeah, we’ve got an album coming out as well!
What’s your creative process like?
Gareth: It’s already prepared beforehand! We’ve got a home studio all set up, we’ll prepare everything, get the bars together so that when we do go to the studio we’re not spending as much time in there! We’re in, we drop the track and then we’re out!
Any collaborations you’d all really like to do? Maybe in the UK or overseas?
Gareth: We’ve got a big’un coming that we’ve got to keep quiet!
Kane: We’ve got two actually! It’s going to blow up the internet!
What else can we expect from you this coming year?
Gareth: A number one single or a Top 10! We’ve also got our sold-out tour; we can’t wait to get out there and see all the fans! All we’ve seen is numbers on the internet, so seeing them bounce around to our music will be sick!