Bad Nerves Still Nervous

Bad Nerves – Still Nervous

The bastard child of a Ramones/Strokes one night stand, Bad Nerves play ferociously fast distorted pop songs and drew acclaim with their previous releases ‘Dreaming’, ‘Baby Drummer’, & ‘Can’t Be Mine’. It would appear to be in the DNA of rock music, particularly punk music, that the music itself happens by some kind of happy accident. Nothing truer could be said of the Essex five piece speed punk band. For frontman Bobby, the formation of the band itself was an unintentional happenstance that just wound up taking off in unexpected but very exciting directions. Did band life choose Bad Nerves or did Bad Nerves choose band life? It’s hard to say.

On the eve of releasing their second album, the brilliantly titled Still Nervous, the boys are still reeling from their surprise success. Their self-made, self-funded debut put them in the hearts and minds of the cream of the alternative crop in 2020; from tastemakers such as Dan P Carter to Alyx Holcombe, and from peers like Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong to Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard, Bad Nerves were instantaneously heralded with the poisoned chalice of saviours of a type of punk that promises to never die. They’ve toured with Royal Blood and The Darkness, and have drawn comparisons to Supergrass, the Ramones and Jay Reatard. And despite all that, their pop rock is a unique – and very fast – whack over the head that reminds us all of the future life left in hell-raising loud and fast music.

Speaking from his dad’s garage-come-studio in Colchester, frontman Bobby recounts how he and bandmate Will had always played in bands. By chance of a random text at the end of 2015 (“let’s do a band!”), Bobby relented once more unto the breach. “Seems like a terrible idea,” he recalls. “Really?! Another band?!” However with “nothing else to do”, it became the only choice. Bad Nerves began to write songs, and promised to never play live, but the songs were so much fun they were forced to reconsider. The only challenge was the pace of said songs. “Finding a drummer was a nightmare,” he laughs.

But what started off as a laugh has now become a fated mission. Gone is the blasé motivation, now Bad Nerves are laser-focused on this being the best thing they’ve ever done. “It feels like this is the main thing that any of us will do in our lives,” says Bobby. “If we’re remembered for anything…” Given that rock doesn’t have as much of a look-in on the air and in the press, Bad Nerves feel a calling to try and revive rock from the rust.

Their second LP, Still Nervous, is due for release Spring 2024. Did they feel pressure approaching the sophomore slump, so to speak? Not at all. The process was more or less the same; Bobby demoing the tracks in his dad’s garage, and then the band re-recording everything “properly” with their friend Mike Curtis. The only difference was in trying to ensure that they were still writing for themselves, and not just to satiate their new audience. “When I write songs thinking about what people expect I end up mimicking the first record, but not well,” says Bobby. That internal battle was new, but Bobby quickly realised you can’t write like that, and in the process of being “pissed off trying to write a Bad Nerves song”, he found some of the best tracks on the album, doing whatever he wanted.

Bad Nerves have been blazing at two hundred miles an hour across the live circuit for a few years now, and are showing no signs of slowing down. Despite the speed and chaotic nature of their music, they have taken great pride in challenging the traditional punk method, by playing tight and trying to replicate the sound of their record in the live setting. “We wanna deliver the songs well,” says bassist Jon. And that’s why people have taken notice. Bad Nerves set the bar much higher.

One of the band’s most iconic gigs to date was a headliner at Sebright Arms in London in 2022, which was so electric they decided to release a live recording of it. “I’m surprised no one died that night,” says Jon. “That ceiling is so low! I’ve never seen so many people sweat. It was crazy. We were all sick afterwards.” The magic of rock music is in the chaos of the live performance. Bad Nerves understand that. They chase it. They crave it. They know how to create it. “My favourite Ramones record is the live one,” says Bobby. “The stakes are high. That’s what makes it.”

The future is loud for Bad Nerves. They proactively seek to make the type of in-your-face, opposite-of-sterile, rock music that the genre was built on. They want to play as much as they can for as long as possible, in the hope of inspiring the next generation, before it’s too late. It feels as though they have arrived just in time.