‘NY State of Mind’ vibrated through the space, the bass resonating deep in my chest. Upstairs, I was greeted by Pete & Bas, along with their guest for the evening, Norman Pain. Norman remained impressively composed and reserved in the background as I sat down, my hands betraying a mix of cold and pre-interview jitters, amplified by my familiarity with their work.
Bas, the taller and leaner of the two, relaxed into his chair, sporting his signature suit and a substantial gold chain that draped across his chest. Pete, reclining on a nearby sofa, enthusiastically commented on its unexpected comfort. Both casually sipped their beers, radiating contentment with their current trajectory – a picture of utter relaxation. No pre-show jitters were apparent, just palpable excitement for the performance ahead. With a phone placed on the table to record, we embarked on a concise half-hour conversation, delving into their tour, musical journeys, enduring friendship, and future aspirations, all while the bass from their DJ’s pre-show set vibrated around us.
So, how’s the first headline tour been treating you both? Is it living up to the hype?
Bas: It’s been selling out, show after show. I reckon we’re expecting about 400 punters tonight…
Pete: Yeah, ticket sales are practically at 99%, but we’re still putting in the graft every day to spread the word. We reckon if folks just know about us, they’ll come and see what we’re about. They’ll tell their mates, find out what Pete & Bas are all about, and then they’ll be queuing up. Especially if they chat to anyone who’s already been to one of our gigs, because they’ve been absolutely manic.
What sparked the journey into music for you both? Most artists start much younger, and the burning question on everyone’s lips seems to be, ‘Why now?’
Pete: The ‘Why now?’ story is a funny one. It all started when my granddaughter was fiddling with the car radio, flicking through stations. I’d tune it back, she’d change it again, and eventually, I just gave up. Bas heard it in the car and had a lightbulb moment. He said, ‘We could do something with this.’ He went away and penned ‘Shut Ya Mouth’, and that’s basically how Pete & Bas came to be.
We were both musicians in our own right anyway. I was knocking about in the ska scene, and Bas…
Bas: I’m a piano man, always have been. Played piano for years, yeah.
Pete: So, we weren’t exactly late to music itself, just late to this [rap/grime scene]. And truth be told, we’re enjoying this so much more than we ever did our previous stuff.
It’s genuinely surprising, and I think a lot of the comments you get online are from people who are just bewildered, asking ‘What is actually going on here?’. It’s like people can’t quite believe what they’re seeing, almost like they think it’s a big joke.
Bas: They definitely think it’s a wind-up, a parody. And then when they clock that it isn’t, I think it throws them for a bit of a loop.
Pete: What was one of our best comments, Bas? I love the ones that say ‘Would you adopt me?!’
Bas: We get that one a fair bit, yeah. Loads of people saying ‘Oh, I wish you were my grandpa.’ It’s nice, really, innit? Proper nice.
Out of all the tracks you’ve laid down, do you have a personal favourite Pete & Bas song to date?
Bas: Well, we’re fond of all of ‘em, truth be told. I mean, ‘Dents in a Peugeot’ has got a proper catchy beat, and some of them have got some really clever lyrics, if I do say so myself. We always aim for the bangers.
Pete: And Fumez [the Engineer] has done us some blinding work. You’ve always got a soft spot for your first, which was ‘Shut Ya Mouth’, but ‘Dents’ is really… we just really like that one.
Bas: Yeah, we’re proper keen on that one. ‘Shut Ya Mouth’ is still a right belter though. You’ll hear it banging tonight, through those speakers.
What about the freestyle [Plugged In] you did with Fumez? That just exploded online, didn’t it?
Bas: That was massive. Proper big, because he [Fumez] is a big name himself, and when we linked up, we didn’t fully grasp just how big he was. He’s pretty… famous in his own right. And it was actually him that paved the way for us to play at Leeds Festival. That was a proper highlight, you know, doing a couple of numbers at Leeds for about five minutes… even though it took us about 14 hours to get there!
Pete: And he presented us with that double disc.
Bas: But yeah, we only did one and a half songs, so it was a bit of a trek for such a short set, but it was absolutely mental with 10,000 people going wild.
Pete: Absolutely loved it. And then we did Bristol as well.
Bas: Bristol was around 5,000 strong. That was pretty decent, eh? Proper good fun. We enjoyed that a lot.
Pete: The open-air festival vibe was brilliant. That was a different kettle of fish altogether, that one was just so warm and welcoming. Lovely stuff.
Do you reckon bigger crowds are always better? Or is there something to be said for a more intimate gig?
Pete: That’s an interesting question, that is.
Bas: Well, actually, that Guildhall gig was a right good one, wasn’t it? Because that was a smaller club and that just turned out to be a proper nice night.
Pete: A bit more personal, intimate like. And then with a bigger crowd, you can really let loose and go a bit more wild!
Bas: But I’m not sure if we’ll be playing many more small clubs like this one anymore, because Pete & Bas are getting a bit too well-known for that these days. Which is a bit of a shame really, but I don’t think we’ll be doing the small club circuit much longer. The reason we’re doing them at the moment is to keep the fans happy who bought tickets way back two years ago! Because you’ve just gotta do right by them, haven’t you?
Pete: It’s only right that we honour these shows.
Bas: We had Warsaw come up the other day, now that would be a proper nice one as that would be a big club. A very big, big party.
Pete: Not Walsall in England, Warsaw in Poland!
Bas: Not Walsall, no!! Of course not bloody Walsall. Warsaw in Poland, innit? We did Manchester last week. A good university crowd – that was good as they were very, very enthusiastic. The nice thing is is that we’re not a support act tonight, they’ve specifically come to see Pete & Bas. So with the Leeds festival and with Tokyo World, they didn’t know… Well, they did know us, didn’t they? Because when we went on there were 5,000…
Pete: Tokyo knew us. Tokyo knew us.
Bas: Yeah, they were chanting ‘Pete & Bas! Pete & Bas!’ just as we were coming on stage, weren’t they?
Pete: We were known in Tokyo, weren’t we? Tokyo knew Pete & Bas, but Leeds didn’t know we were on the bill. They caught us out – they caught us as we were getting ready to go on, the crowd spotted us didn’t they? And this sort of roar just went up.
Bas: Leeds Festival is just… so big! We got to the car park and were told ‘you can walk to the stage if you want’, and we didn’t even know which direction to even start walking!
Pete: It was about a mile, weren’t it?!
Bas: ‘Walk to the stage’ – we were saying, ‘yeah, okay, but where is it?!’. They said, ‘Well, the best idea is if you get in your car and follow me’ so we ended up driving through the woods for about a mile.
Pete: In his [Bas’] brand new car!
Do you guys have any ultimate career goals with Pete & Bas and your music? Or are you just taking it as it comes, enjoying the ride?
Bas: We’re definitely taking it as it comes, really. Because, you never know, people might get fed up of Pete & Bas, but for now, they don’t seem to be. Our fanbase seems to be growing all the time! The more we do, the more we’ll do, I suppose.
Pete: I think that that’s a double-edged sword, really. Yes, I want to take it as it comes, but I also want to be remembered, after. I want to leave my footprint on… on history. And I reckon we are certainly doing that with Pete & Bas.
Bas: I think a film about Pete & Bas would be quite nice, wouldn’t it? A bit of travel though… it’d be nice to get out and about a bit more. Apparently, there are a lot of fans in Japan…
Pete: What, in Bristol? [laughs]
Bas: No, in Tokyo! I dunno what they’d make of Pete & Bas in Tokyo, but they do seem to like us, don’t they?
Any specific musical heroes or favourite artists? You mentioned starting out hearing things on the radio and thinking ‘we could do that!’, but does anyone really stand out as an influence?
Pete: In any genre? I’m a big fan of the Rat Pack. Sinatra is pure class. Going back to ska, I like the young lady who unfortunately passed away… Amy Winehouse.
Bas: Yeah, very, very talented…
Pete: Yeah, she had a really special way of performing.
Bas: The thing with the old Rat Pack though is that all these old geezers, they seem to just go on for too long so I suppose Pete & Bas had better not do the same! You know, you’ve gotta know when to call it a day! That’s not now though, definitely not now for Pete & Bas.
Pete: Now with current music, for artists doing it now… I like Stormzy, he’s great.
Bas: He’s a neighbour of mine, you know?! Well, not at the moment, but he’s moving into the area!
Pete: Youngboy… saw him in Brighton, he’s quite good.
Bas: Aitch. Aitch is very intelligent. Who else we got knocking about? We got Bugzy! Got a bit of a thing going on with him at the minute… we called him out the other day!
Pete: Anyway, anyway, that’s another kettle of fish that is.
How long have you two known each other? Is this a more recent friendship, because your chemistry within the music as Pete & Bas is always spot on!
Bas: We do get on very well, yeah.
Pete: Lifelong friends… for the past six years. I’ve often said to other people that if we had met one another when we were 40 years younger… we would’ve caused absolute havoc!
Bas: We’re naughty boys at heart, but we don’t get caught up in all of that sort of carry on now, you know?
Was there a particular moment when you realised that Pete & Bas could actually be a proper career, not just a bit of fun?
Pete: I think for a real memorable moment, it was the first time I really saw the genuine smiles on the audience’s faces and heard the cheers…
Bas: Yeah, they all just light up. When we go out there tonight as Pete & Bas, you’ll see it, and we just absolutely love it.
Pete: And when you can’t get through ‘em because people want so many selfies or autographs, that is always thrilling!
You mentioned you’ve dabbled in other genres before and now have a preference for grime as Pete & Bas, but is there any other genre you’d still be interested in experimenting with in the future?
Pete: He [Bas] did try and teach me the piano, but I gave up on that. In the end, he taught me how to play the triangle. But the triangle, I even gave that up! I had about three goes at that. It was just one ting after the other!
Bas: You’ve got to try to approach the triangle from a different angle, Pete! The piano is a very tricky thing to learn though, mind. I’ve been playing pubs and working men’s clubs and things like that, that’s where I got started.
Is there a go-to line you have for people who criticise Pete & Bas’ work or just don’t get it?
Bas: There’s quite a few, yeah, but we don’t like to swear a lot in our music as Pete & Bas. We try to keep it nice, and jokey sort of, because we’ve done a lot of sort of naughty things in our time but we don’t want to just harp on about that. It’s best to keep it nice and clean, because a lot of our audience is young – we had a guy a few days ago who I think was 14, I’m not sure how he even got in actually!
Pete: We do keep it clean-ish, now that we know that about our Pete & Bas audience.
Bas: And tonight’s show is much earlier than we normally do, we don’t even normally start ‘til about two in the morning!
Pete: But again, we are committed to this run of shows because of Covid. These Pete & Bas gigs would have been done two years ago if it wasn’t for all that.
Do you feel like Covid significantly held Pete & Bas back?
Bas: Yeah, I think it sort of buggered up everything, didn’t it? Just made it all a rotten mess. It was horrible for everyone.
Pete: I’m quite surprised that Pete & Bas came out of the other side of it, to be honest. It could’ve completely destroyed everything we were working together to try to do. But we’re a good group of people working well together, the Pete & Bas team.
Do you wish that more people your age were getting involved in grime and rap, following in the footsteps of Pete & Bas?
Bas: Ooh, we don’t want too much competition for Pete & Bas!
Pete: No! We want the uniqueness of Pete & Bas.
Bas: Well, they’re welcome to try if they want, but I mean, it’s pretty unique isn’t it, for somebody our age to be doing this Pete & Bas thing?
Pete: I heard that there is also an older woman doing it, called Angry Nelly or something like that.
Bas: Yeah. I think a lot of the old people I know wish they would do something a bit stupid and fun like Pete & Bas. They look at us and they think ‘Oh, we should do something like that’. It’s just taking that initial jump, that’s the hard bit.
Pete: I think you’re right, just get up and jump. Don’t care what you look like, don’t care what the initial result is, just go for it, for fun. And if it’s good, then people will love it, like Pete & Bas.
Do Pete & Bas change DJs often, or do you stick with the same one?
Bas: No, we have kind of got a formula now with our DJ. He knows what Pete & Bas are doing, he is great at getting everyone hyped up and excited before we come out on stage.
Did it take some time to find the right DJ initially for Pete & Bas?
Bas: I think he’s getting better all the time, just as Pete & Bas are. We all get more polished and slicker as we go along.
Pete: We struck very lucky with him, really, when Pete & Bas first started out.
Any plans for another Pete & Bas album or EP in the works?
Bas: Always plans for that – always for Pete & Bas.
Pete: Always! And we are working on our own platform for Pete & Bas. Once we get that sorted out, we’ve got a few songs ready to release.
Bas: Because if you put it on Spotify, you know, everybody under the sun could hear it but the payment never really reflects that for artists like Pete & Bas.
Pete: Once we sort out our own platform, we’ll put new Pete & Bas songs out, and then they’ll mainly be accessible via that platform.
Finally then, why should people listen to Pete & Bas? What’s the Pete & Bas unique selling point?
Pete: Why should they listen to us? … ‘Cause if they don’t, there’ll be trouble!
Bas: You’ve just got to believe that you can get anything in this life that you want, but also make sure that other people get what they want.
Pete: Work hard, work hard, work hard!
Bas: Yeah, that’s become our motto really for Pete & Bas.
Any final words of advice to anyone who wants to get involved in an artistic career, like you guys in Pete & Bas?
Pete: It’s like… learning to run a marathon. And there are walls. When you run into a wall, you’ve just gotta get through it. Get through that wall, then you’re gonna hit another wall, get through that wall and eventually you’ll find you’re on the finish line. It’s just a question of hitting wall after wall, and just keep going for it. If you’ve got a good product, people will listen to it, like Pete & Bas. Full stop. The other side of that coin is that if it’s bad, people will tell you, so you have to learn to take that on the chin too. And maybe change what you’re doing, but just keep going. And don’t take any of our sales!
In conclusion, it’s clear that Kurupt FM’s 2021 single, ‘Your Mum Loves Garage’, only scratched the surface of generational musical taste. It turns out, your grandparents don’t just love garage; they also have a penchant for Sinatra, hip-hop, Amy Winehouse, and grime, and they’re taking to performing it to sold-out crowds across the country as Pete & Bas. And the best bit? Pete & Bas are arguably more talented lyricists and captivating performers than many artists of any age.
Check out Pete & Bas’ breakout track, ‘Plugged In W/ Fumez the Engineer’ on YouTube below:
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