Introducing…. Bokassa

Bokassa, a Norwegian punk metal band known for their eclectic sound, blends elements of rock, punk, and metal into a unique and energetic style. With influences ranging from classic rock to modern punk, they've carved out a distinct niche in the music scene. In this interview, the band chats their creative process, recent album, and upcoming tour.

Click Roll Boom: For anyone who hasn’t heard of Bokassa before, how would you describe your sound?

Bokassa: I feel Bokassa is a melting pot of everything we dig! It can be everything from a 45 second metallic hardcore song (Everyone Fails In The End) to a 7-minute stoner prog rocker (Immortal Space Pirate) to a 3 minute Punk Metal song with a pop-punk chorus and a cheerleader breakdown (Pitchforks’R’Us). It’s everything we love about rock, punk and metal melted in one! I find bands that just play plain metal/rock/punk/etc with songs that sound exactly the same, extremely boring, albeit they are usually more popular than us, haha! Some exceptions of course! But the easiest way to describe us is probably Norwegian punk metal!

CRB: Who are your biggest influences?

B: I mean the artists I’ve listened to most over the years is everything from Nofx, Bad Religion, Propagandhi, Fu Manchu, Clutch, Dwarves, Monster Magnet, Alkaline Trio, Entombed, Slayer, Weezer, Faith No More to Ryan Adams, Sparklehorse, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen to Phoebe Bridgers. And that’s just from the top of my head now. Probably all of them have influenced our music, and there's probably a lot more bands as well!

CRB: What does your writing process look like?

B: I have tried to write for 30 minutes a day, as I heard an interview with Dan Andriano from Alkaline Trio where he said he wrote every day. So I kinda felt I should try it myself. But for me I´m better in bursts. Where I suddenly write a lot and then I don't touch a guitar for weeks/months (unless we are playing). And I always create melodies and rhythmic patterns before lyrics. So my demo lyrics are just gibberish.

CRB: Your album All Out Of Dreams came out last year. How have people been reacting to it?

B: People seem to dig the album! There is also a kind of “back to our roots” narrative someone created about it. Which too us is hilarious, as the song writing progression on AOOD is entirely different to “Divide & Conquer”. But people like a good “tagline” so we´ll let them have it, as long as they listen to the album! I’m proud of the album as it is a very diverse and dynamic album, it’s an album that I myself as a listener would have loved, with different sounding songs all throughout the record.

CRB: Is there a song from the album that you’ve especially loved playing live?

B: I love “Garden of Heathen”. That chorus is one of my best, If I may say so myself! If we were better at networking like some of our contemporary colleagues that would've (and should've) been a hit, haha!

CRB: You’ve toured with some massive bands. How does it feel getting back into smaller, sweaty venues again?

B: Sometimes when you support bigger bands and just play festivals you kinda forget the people that really love your music. So when we play for people that really really love our band and can recite every word from our songs, it is a very cool feeling to experience ! Whereas as support for a bigger band it can be really cool to play for bigger audiences, but at the end of the day they don’t care that much about us. So it's always cool to do headline shows again!

CRB: This UK tour kicks off in April. What can people expect from the shows?

B: An intense and entertaining punk metal show with a lot of non scripted banter! I can’t stand when bands say the same cliché lines each night. Especially when you know that half the music are tracks anyway. I´d rather just listen at home then or not at all, haha.

CRB: You’re touring with Mother Vulture. How did that team-up happen?

B: Our booking agent Ben Ward from Orange Goblin suggested they´d be a good fit. We had a listen and they sure was!

CRB: Do UK audiences hit differently from crowds back home?

B: The UK Crowds are quite similar to the Norwegian ones actually. Both are loud and rowdy! Which we enjoy!

CRB: What’s one thing you have to do before hitting the stage?

B: Just hanging out with the band and maybe some friends backstage and listening to music. We always try to make each other laugh beforehand.

CRB: Has your sound changed much since the early days, or does it still feel like the same core idea?

B: I think we´ve always been very eclectic in our music. You can f.ex hear a clear difference in a song like “Narcissism is Underrated” to a song like “Genocidal Tendencies”, even back then. So we´ve always done completely different stuff from the get go. But as a songwriter I think I´ve gotten better over the years, and have also incorporated more of a melody in certain parts of our music. Although “Narcissism is Underrated” sort of suggests that that melody has been there all along. So make of that what you will, haha!

CRB: Once this tour wraps up, what’s next for Bokassa?

B: Festivals abroad, a Norwegian tour in Sep/Oct and a big tour I cant talk about yet! We´re also gonna release some music I think!