Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: All the band are from Glasgow, in Scotland. We’re all in our 50’s, except for keyboard player Stevie, he’s the kid in the band at 40! We’ve been playing music for so long now, I’m not sure we can remember why we started out. Probably because we thought it would make us look cool, but it didn’t. As far as why we started Bison Hip, we were all locked down during the pandemic, and we came up with the idea then. We’re very late arriving at the party, but better late than never.
Q: Did you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
A: I think we all had a little bit of formal training when we were very young, but most of our learning came from going out and playing as often as we could.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘Bison Hip’?
A: We all grew up in the 80’s, there was so much great music around, we were influenced by everything, Prince, David Bowie, lots of great pop music, as well as all the fantastic rock bands that were around, like Van Halen. Not to mention all the stuff from the 70’s, Led Zeppelin, Free, all those bands. We also loved all the blues stuff, that’s really what led to us starting the band. ‘Bison Hip’ was just a name that I came up with one day, I mentioned it to the rest of the guys and right away everyone liked it.
Q: You have just released your new EP, ‘Mid Life Crisis’. Is there a story behind it?
A: We’re all either going through the Mid Life Crisis, or we’re just coming out of it, so the EP is very much about our life experience, drawing on all the things that happened to us collectively, and trying to put our unique perspective on the music. When most bands are starting out, they’re most likely still living at their Mum’s house. We’ve seen a lot of life, good and bad, it makes sense for us to use that in our songs.
Q: Can we expect an album from you in the near future?
A: Absolutely, we’re just about to start recording in the next few weeks. You can expect a single before the end of the year, with the album soon after.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: I’d say our strength is our song writing, our ability to sing about our experiences. I hope that our listeners can recognise aspects of their own lives in our songs. I think our sound is a mix of rock and blues, with our own spin on it. We want all those experiences to be in the music, along with some of the DNA of our hometown, Glasgow.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: Definitely, starting this band has been an amazing thing for us all. We’d love to build up enough of a fanbase to get out there and do shows in as many places as possible, that’s what we wish for, but regardless of where it ends up it’s already been a fabulous journey.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: Sometimes it starts with a lyric, sometimes a riff, it’s always different. Then we take that idea into the studio and turn it into a full song. that’s the best bit, hearing something that’s in your head suddenly materialise in the real world, that’s always exciting.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: We’ve all reached the age where some pretty bad stuff has happened, both personally and in music. That’s something that we keep for the songs, we let it out there. It’s a cathartic thing, mainly because some of the stuff is very personal.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: We are very proud of the two EP’s we’ve released. It would have been easy to just let this whole project slide, once the lock down was over, I’m very proud we stuck with it. And there’s a lot more to come.