Written by Kristian Floate
Those who experienced ‘Zap Euphoria’s’ packed out show at The Green Door Store in Jan ‘23 already know about the addictive foot-tapping rock that they’re known for - with songs like ‘Nottingham Tune’ and ‘The Constant Greed of Wanting Everything Now’ causing a stir with mosh-pits and beers flying across the 170 capacity venue. Keeping those songs tied together with crashing drum beats and fills is Arthur Wilson, and after picking up his drumsticks at 7 years old and joining his first band just a year later - it’s no surprise to see him form a new musical project, ‘Bones Ate Arfa’ - a psychedelic concoction of heavy head-banging melodies and reverb heavy vocals.
‘My first band was called 'Gravity's Invisible Ghost Hands' and we were part of the Shoreham Allstars. The Shoreham Allstars is an amazing collective of young musicians, from primary school to the end of college, that puts young people in bands and shows them what it's like to do gigs and work as a musical collective. Jude and I (the singer of Zap Euphoria) where actually both a part of it at the same time without realising!)’
Bones Ate Arfa’s newest tracks ‘Asbestos’ and a B-side ‘mariokarting’, a 52-second distorted play with Mario Kart’s addictive theme tune with energetic breakbeats, has been released on major streaming platforms - so we had a listen and caught up with Arthur to learn more.
Upon first listen, you can hear how the pioneering sounds of Queens of the Stone Age, Gorillaz, TySegall and TigerCub have inspired the track, but Bones Ate Arfa lie at an intersection between hard-hitting guitar riffs and psychedelia, incorporating more sounds from artists such as ‘King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’ and ‘Psychedelic Porn Crumpets’ to jump across boundaries and bring forward a new sound where we are teased between mosh-worthy energetic guitar and ambient chorus-driven sounds, most noticeable at 1:39. Through the track, Arthur plays with vocal filters, similar to the sound of Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn, achieving a well produced track that has already seen radio play on Brighton’s own Radio Reverb!
We can expect Bones Ate Arfa to perform in ‘23 as a three-piece, but Arthur has recorded and tracked all instruments himself using Apple’s free software ‘Garageband’:
'Yeah I record all my songs on garageband with a little audio interface, 1 vocal mic and a 3 mic drum setup. Garageband is the only free DAW so it's just what I've learnt to get to sound really good since I started using it when I was a little kid.’
As for performing these tracks live, we can expect to see Arthur taking the stage by April - so stay tuned on Instagram @bonesate_arfa for announcements! Understandably, taking the microphone is a big change from the drum stool in Zap Euphoria, but we’re excited to see the tracks being brought to life in the city!
‘For 2023 I'm planning to start playing shows, hopefully by April, I've never sung at a gig before so that's gonna be really weird, and release a few more singles, I've got an albums worth of material pretty much backed up on my laptop but I just wanna slowly feed them out and keep the ball rolling as much as possible.’
The support of Brighton’s music scene has already jumped into these new releases, showing support across Instagram and beyond. With this, we asked Arthur about his experiences in Brighton and his local favourites:
‘I love playing in Brighton because there's no pressure and it's always so enjoyable. We get to play to people who love music and are there to have a great time. Places like Brighton and Hastings have crowds and scenes that aren't afraid to have fun and I'm so grateful to be a part of that.
My favourite band from Brighton is my girlfriend Tallulah's band Hotwax. They've just been signed to Marathon records and are playing festivals like All Points East and Mad Cool this summer. I also love the band Honeybadger from Brighton, and ever since I saw them in London 2 years ago I have just been hooked on their music and energy - plus they're all extremely nice guys.’
STREAM Asbestos NOW, and check out the accompanying music video via the link below! Experience the desert rock psychedelia for yourself and stay up-to-date by following @bonesate_arfa.
