FOR RAISING issues of “police brutality, racism, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and fear mongering in the media”, Bob Vylan were deemed “too extreme”.
The duo - vocalist Bobby Vylan and drummer Bobbie Vylan (aka Bobb13 ) - struggled to find support for their EP, We Live Here, within the music industry.
Speaking via an Instagram video, Bobby Vylan explained: “We’ve taken it to everybody – PR, magazines, blogs, radio pluggers, playlists, everybody – and they all said the same thing: ‘We love it, but it’s too extreme. The content and the topics that you’re dealing with are too extreme.’”
'A landmark record'
The pair knew they had something important to say about the uglier side of life in Britain, and so in March 2020, as the world entered lockdown, they released the EP themselves. It was the right call. Their furious mix of punk and grime, and the angry, socially conscious lyrics, won them instant acclaim.
“If the true purpose of political music is to say things that comfortable people don’t want to hear – and to a large degree, it certainly is – Bob Vylan are hitting the mark every time,” said Kerrang!. “The highest compliment that can be paid to the group’s music is that it possesses the power to put at least some of its listeners ill at ease.”
Louder declared it “a landmark record that tears down the country that birthed it, and prompts essential discussion around the fact that for plenty of its inhabitants, Great Britain isn't so great at all.”
The EP has since been released in an expanded edition, and late last year, the duo announced that their debut album, The Price Of Life, will be out in April. Ahead of that, Bob Vylan play the Róisín Dubh on Wednesday February 2 at 8pm as part of their Irish tour.
Tickets are available from www.roisindubh.net Check out their music via https://bobvylan.bandcamp.com
