Napoleon Baby Releases ‘Unworthy Boys’ EP
Napoleon Baby brings a sharp, unique perspective to their music, creating a potent mix of anthems that tackle life’s injustices, annoyances, and daily struggles head-on.
Authenticity — everyone’s favourite buzzword right now — finds a true home with Napoleon Baby. Their Unworthy Boys EP strikes right at the heart of the divide between the haves and have-nots without catering to either side. It’s a sharp snapshot of social commentary. By challenging the status quo, they deliver a powerful message of liberation, capturing the raw, national consciousness of a society in pain. The British-Kiwi band are next in a lineage of British bands who put real life issues and substance right at the heart of what they do…following the likes of The Jam, Oasis, Artic Monkeys, Napoleon Baby hold no punches.
Unworthy Boys is a five track journey that explores themes of fear, injustices, irritations, and painful daily observations of life, sprinkled with smatterings of hope in a dark world. The EP contains three previously unreleased songs. Opening with recent single The Company and bookended by a re-working of last year’s release Goodbye Goodluck the EP also features Technically Smart Boys, Positive Reinforcement and Outlaws. Each song a testament to the band’s song writing prowess, taking no prisoners and telling it thorough a thoughtful and intelligent narrative intertwined with glistening guitar hooks and a solid rhythm section that challenges the somnambulistic groove society has found itself living.
The Company sheds light on the value of ambition against the comfort of staying still; railing against a life where you’re lost in the company you keep and resigned to a life that doesn’t fit who you want to be. As chief songwriter, Dan Armstrong, elaborates, “I always find it strange, when people have hopes and ambitions that are so achievable but would rather get lost in the comfort of money, small amounts of power and never leaving a 20 mile radius. There is life to be lived! Of the small towns I’ve visited over the years, Auckland is the strangest. It’s a sprawling city, whose residents very rarely want to leave or stray from their cliques. They feel a need to stay the same but secretly want to be different”.
Technically Smart Boys tells of smalltown boys who, accustomed to lives of privilege, carve out a parochial fiefdom allowing them to indulge in a life of perceived celebrity. “The overwhelming content from local artists was about their holiday homes, their latest haircuts, the beach. With all that’s been happening in the world, how can they think people care about their road trip?”
Positive Reinforcement was written following advice on how to write songs by a music industry professional. He told me I need to be more positive in my song writing…”people don’t want to be reminded of how bad the world is. People want to know where the party is, where the summer vibes are happening”…I wanted to vomit on his sweet face. We recorded this track quickly, we wanted it to have the sweetness and earnestness in the verses of a his well-intended opinion, mixed with the chaos and rage going through my mind whilst he embraced me with wisdom (which is the intro/outro).
Outlaws is a track about people living in autopilot, ticking boxes, but not stopping to think, is this what I want?… Is this who I am? Where we live, people are obsessed with ownership, even if it ruins them. Public opinions from behind the safety of the iPhone control how we need to behave, what we need to say. It’s about being a good person and trying to make a better life for the ones you love. Living in a the age of outrage for popularity.
Goodbye Goodluck ‘grapples with living in the ideologic bubble of ‘ignorance is bliss’, being guilty of ignoring a contribution to a declining environment and focusing on the holiday home (“fuck your beaches and fuck your beach house”). “I feel like I’ve been surrounded by a culture of people who cover their eyes to any tragedy, suffering or environmental problems…basically I live in Auckland City, if you know, you know”.
Napoleon Baby’s influences are diverse and captivating, ranging from Nina Simone and The Everly Brothers to Thom Yorke and Arctic Monkeys, with nods to Arcade Fire, Talking Heads, The Modern Lovers, and Violent Femmes. Napoleon Baby craft contemporary, relevant and thought provoking soundscapes while exercising a traditional approach to song writing that capture the audience.
Napoleon Baby will be playing live across NZ later this year.
