Not Oasis clones but an inventive band that has gone back to their roots to evolve a fresh and relevant sound. That's Swansea's BLEACH. They met Andrew Long.

Bleach

The latest and freshest band to come out of the NGM stable is a group of lads currently living in Swansea going by the all-purifying name of Bleach. Their first cassette EP, 'Hometime', has been selling well at gigs and was reviewed recently in Cross Rhythms, coinciding with a review of the album by the American band with the same name.

This particular Bleach is a four-piece outfit (with added sound engineer) who revel in the brash guitar sound that has been labelled Britpop, although like all bands they hate labels. I met them in a service station and we all had a cuppa on NGM while we got to know each other and began to talk about how the band got together.

"It was September 1995 when we originally got together," said bassist Steve, "but we have actually shifted style a little bit now. We all applied to NGM and found we could work for a year or more in a band, so we all applied, interviewed, auditioned and here we are."

Most of the songs that the band have at the moment have been written by guitarist Lee Able, vocalist Neil Wilson and Steve Cowley as a team, with drummer Seth coming in as a later addition. So when they write songs who are they influenced by?

"We're all quite into a band called Bennett who are quite undiscovered at the moment," said Neil. "They had a single in the bottom end of the charts recently. We changed our sound a lot, from last September we started writing a different way and went back to the roots of writing songs and stuff so we started listening to Bennett and now we're into Blur and some indie stuff. I like Reef and Supergrass."

Okay, so what about the lyrical content? Do Bleach want to write songs with a very clear Christian message or are they more into dealing with life issues? Neil explained, "We've tried to write songs that bridge the gap between Christian and secular. We don't want to be seen as obviously Christian but we don't want to be afraid to tell them what we actually believe in. Our songs are written in a way that will appeal to a secular audience as well."

Bleach have certainly been busy with live work recently, playing at least one or two gigs a week. They're doing a lot of schools work in Swansea, where they also host a regular fortnightly event which also features other local bands. They are now starting to play more in the Swansea music scene as well, doing pubs and clubs and this summer they'll be playing a few festivals, including Cross Rhythms so the next question is when are we going to see an album?

At this point the band's manager Danny suggested, "We might do some more EPs or something like that. The 'Hometime' EP has sold really well, we did 500 and we've only got a few left and that's just sold at gigs - it's not huge sales, but considering it's not distributed it's quite good. So similar to what Delirious? have done we could do a couple more EPs and sell it nice and cheaply so that young people don't have to spend 10 or 12 pounds and maybe in a year's time or so do an album. Who knows?"

I suggested to the band that over the years Christian music has always lagged behind the world stylistically, often jumping on the bandwagon just as it's about to run out of petrol and that maybe with Bleach and other bands like All Star Utd we were now guilty of the same thing with the Brit pop scene. I asked for their opinions.

"I think a lot of Christians who are trying to be relevant probably look at what's out now, write stuff and by the time they get known for doing it then it has passed, I suppose," Steve pondered. "Whereas a band that you'd hear in the mainstream has got there because people like it, not because they're trying to fit into a scene or something. I don't think when the next big musical thing comes along we'll jump on the bandwagon. I think we'll continue to develop the style of songwriting that we have now."

"I heard a band on the radio the other day who said that Brit pop is dead," stated Lee. "Whether or not that's true I don't know but the guitar bands thing is still very big and I think we've caught something from the beginning that has only just now started to come through to the charts. Supergrass have just released a single, 'Richard III', which is very different from what people would have classed as Brit pop a year ago. The same with Blur, they've released 'Song 2' from their new album which is very different so I don't think we're in danger of just getting there with last year's sound."

"If anything, we're always criticising our music and trying to make it better and finding new ways to write stuff," Neil continued.

"For me it's quite simple," Dan chipped in. "These guys aren't influenced by Oasis and some of the more commercially popular Brit pop bands, just as those bands themselves aren't influenced by each other. I guarantee that Oasis don't listen to Blur for their inspiration. They listen to the Beatles, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, the guitar bands of the '60s, and it's a reinvention of that and these guys are listening to stuff like that and more underground bands like Bennett. In a couple of years time Bennett might be the Oasis of the year 2000. We're not Christians trying to copy what the world does. We're Christians and musicians and we've got an agenda, we want to see people become Christians. That's our bottom line so we want our music to be relevant to where young people are at now. That's our musical and spiritual inspiration."

You'll be able to check out Bleach for yourself at the Cross Rhythms festival. If Bennett don't become the Oasis of the year 2000 maybe, just maybe, it'll be Bleach and you'll be able to say that you saw them live before they made it big.