Having a bad day? Try this on… Tāmaki Makaurau indie four-piece Soft Bait have recently released a colourful music video for their latest single No Bad Days, made by local creative crew Sports Team. NZ On Air Music featured the song on their NewTracks compilation this August.

What are your names, pronouns and what instruments do you each play?

Patrick Hickley – guitar; Joshua Hunter – vocalist, guitar; Cameron MacKintosh – drums; Keria Paterson (they/them) – bassist

Was any high school or other music training especially important?

Josh and Cameron went to school together at Bayfield High School [Dunedin]. There was this period called music academy where you would have a hour to practise your instrument so we took this opportunity to start making a racket jamming. Wasn’t great but started our first band that way and got us mad about wanting to play gigs and write music!

Any other projects that we might we know you from?

Patrick was in Wellington band Red Sky Blues.

What’s the background story of how Soft Bait came to be?

Patrick and Josh meet through a mutual friend who knew that they were both looking to start a new music project and has similar interests. Patrick came and got a tattoo from Josh where they started talking shop and started to get the ball rolling, jamming with Cameron as a three-piece. Ezra Simons (Earth Tongue) joined on bass, as they had been meaning to play together since their time in Red Sky Blues. Ezra’s departure saw KTMP’s Keria join the band.

How has the band’s songwriting and music evolved from the beginnings?

At the start, it was learning how to write together as a unit when not really having a specific sound, and just figuring out each other’s roles. Slowly we pieced together the first set of songs that ended up being the first album, which usually started with Patrick coming with pretty fully formed riffs and structure and Josh writing lyrics to that. A few of these songs on this first record we hadn’t actually played as a full band all together until the recording was done. Through playing live together we realised we had a lot of energy that may not come across on the first record as much as our live shows.

We have a Soft Bait rule now to have fun, which we do. All of our writing now is someone saying, “Hey, I’ve got this feeling or concept of a song, let’s try jam it out and see if it makes usget a wiggle on.” All ideas are welcome and is a real fun group effort when we do finish a new song.

Aside from this release, what’s been the big highlight to date? 

Getting to play festivals such as CubaDupa. The lead up to the performance is always so much fun with figuring out what the set is going to be and making sure everything is tight as possible. Moments at live shows when people sing along to the lyrics or vocalise their favourite riff is always a hoot.

What made No Bad Days stand out for you as a single choice?

There’s some classic ‘no bad days’ content out there, we have seen t-shirts caps and tattoos, it’s just a saying that resonates with all sorts of people. It’s a special song to us ’cause it’s the first song we wrote together after we had started playing live, so it captures the energy of how we play together.

What’s the story behind No Bad Days?

Guess it was conceived at the end of a long lock down. You gotta have some stinkers to make it all worth it! No Bad Days is about the attitude that people want things to go their way all the time and just have good days. The bad ones create balance, and makes life interesting that if there were none, nothing will ever change, and we won’t have a reference to measure the good times!

What’s your favourite moment, musical or lyrical, of the single?

There’s a good grunt before the end kicks off.

What would you like listeners to take away from the song?

Just bloody have a good time, don’t get too focused when things aren’t going the right way for ya.

Who else is in your team? 

It’s just us. We’re independent. 🙂

Can you please name three other local tunes that would fit well on a playlist alongside your song.

• Office Dog: Big Air
• Scram: Born Again
• Dick Move: Come Down