Behind Blue Bendy’s Music of Contradictions
Interviewed on 18th September 2025
Blue Bendy lives where soft ballads collapse into chugging breakdowns, synths die like wet rats, and Broadway showtunes synthesise with Finnish country. In a band-wide commitment to what they call “collected delusion,” we find sparkling contradiction — post-punk accessoried with pop, sincerity laced with inside jokes, and sadness so melodramatic that it becomes hilarious. I sat down with the band before their Edinburgh headline show.
The first question I really want to ask is... why do you write music?
Arthur: I can’t do anything else.
Joe: We’re all sad and rubbish at everything else
Oliver: I don’t think there’s anything else we know how to do well
Arthur: It’s a dream you have at 16 and the people that don’t let go...
Oliver: Are in blue bendy!
Arthur: ...live in a fantasy land
Olivia: We’re hill dyers
(Laughs in agreement come from the band)
Tristan: Deluded hill dyers
Arthur: It’s a state of delusion - really - making music
Tristan: Collected delusion
So if it’s a state of delusion, are you writing for an audience that you think with sympathise with that? Or is it for some other purpose?
Arthur: We’re writing for an audience that clearly doesn’t exist (Laughs)
Nooo we’re here! We’re here guys!
Arthur We’re writing for the audience we think will get there in the end
Tristan: The audience we want
Arthur: Yeah. We’re writing for us. For ourselves. We like the music. We write for that.
Nice! Well, let’s go back to the beginning – Blue Bendy was formed in 2017. It’s interesting how much you guys have changed. In the interviews there’s a lot of talk about when Olivia joined there was a transition to a more poppier sound. Is that just because of the nature of the synth, or is it something to do with the group dynamic?
Arthur: I think they came at the same time. We were just looking for a way to differentiate ourselves. It’s not like if you have a synth you have to stop making post-punk music.
Olivia: Also, when I joined, I couldn’t play the synth at all, so the only thing I was doing was (indistinct synth sounds) so it was much less poppy than it could have been because I only knew how to do one thing.
Arthur: This is a new thing – you’ve only just got the Nord right? So that’s a change.
I did see the Nord at The Village Underground in London a few weeks ago. That was awesome. And you guys just got back from touring Europe! How was that?
Joe: It was great!
Arthur: Collectively we went insane, but we smashed the shows
Oliver: What did you say today? Our driver’s brain was melted by the autobahn...
I was looking at your playlists “bendy listening” and “get in our van” on your Spotify page; I wanted to ask you to explain some of the songs that are on there, because it’s quite eclectic.
Dina: I put Greg Freeman on it – Gallic Shurg. I saw him play in New York when I was over there. I really like the sort of wonky-country stuff at the moment. It sounds good!
Oliver: Why I like the Robins. That album You’d Prefer an astronaut - I would listen to for years. I love the production, and I love the songwriting. But that song particularly – this album crops up at different stages of my life – but that song particularly is a really pretty song - quite a delicate riff, but it has such hard hitting production. The whole thing lyrically and musically really resonated with me. It’s one of my favourite songs of all time.
Joe: I put on Ragdoll by Dora Jar. It has mathy acoustic guitar and garage drums. It’s like all of these mad influences somehow making up a pop song. So it shouldn’t really sound anything like us. She’s a popstar. Lots of mad influences. It’s really good.
Olivia: I think I put JIVE by Sorry on. I can’t remember which other ones I put on. It’s really good. The new album is really good. It’s... good!
Arthur: I put on Being Alive by the original Broadway cast of Company -- Ollie just did a wanker sign at me. It’s really good! I want to do a cover of it if I can get all these people in a drug induced state enough to get them to agree. I think there’s a bit of musical theatre in us if I can shoehorn it in.
That’s a great idea. I just saw Jerskin Fendrix at The Windmill and he covered ‘Reflection’ from Mulan. It was insane.
Arthur: Well he’s fucking beaten me too it.
Oliver: Again.
Arthur: He’s been reading my notebooks.
It was fantastic. And it’s interesting taking the song from its context and transforming it into something else.
(We divulged into a conversation about the Pavement musical... then a Blue Bendy musical... Olivia says it would be a tragedy... we eventually get back on track)
Tristan: I put on a Finnish song on the playlist. But whoever put it on, put on the wrong song. (The one on the playlist is Kolmella kortilla by J. Karjalinen) The song I wanted - I cry whenever I listen to – and it’s a Finnish country song.
What does that mean the music is characterised by?
Tristan: It’s just ripping off American country, whistling...
Dina: Oh yeah, I liked the whistling
Oliver: We played it in the car. It was really nice.
I think it’s interesting you say about the whistling – I’ve been thinking about idiosyncrasies of vocal parts, beyond words and melody – I see it in the start of Poke with the “UGH”.
Arthur: Our producer wanted us to cut that... he asked us to re-record it. I had to say “No, that’s the fucking point”
When I heard it for the first time I was like “of course”. It makes total sense. Cameron Winter’s doing it.
(Arthur groans)
You’re not a Cameron Winter fan?
Arthur: He’s biting my moves as well
(Everyone laughs at this)
Arthur: If we had a bigger deal two years ago the world would be a lot different...
Joe: He would be sat here!
Oliver: Chew on that Winter!
Arthur: Chew on that all winter long, baby. It’s going to be a cold, cold winter.
I know we talked about the playlist – I wanted to ask about the amalgamation of taste and how your music is written. Is anyone driving it? How does a Blue Bendy song come together?
Arthur: Chord progressions, usually. Me and Joe are writing them at this point. If I’ve come up with the chords, I usually have a little bit of an acoustic skeleton with the vocal. Joe is much tech-ier, so all the cool riffs come out of him and then we build a song around that. So, Poke... that’s Joe. And there was a lot of me on there though (laughs) but all the hooks yeah... that was me.
Oliver: Do you know what there is a lot of? Is you telling me to make things prettier. Making things prettier or turning it down.
Interesting. Why?
Arthur: Because I’m a gobby moron who can’t play instruments well
Oliver: Make sure that goes in there
Arthur: ...but highly opinionated
In the Loud and Quiet interview in 2021 you cite Aphex Twins and Radiohead as references. I’m quite interested in the musical cannon as an idea, especially for a band who is pretty established and writing these fantastic songs. How do you situate yourself in the scene, and in the cannon of what’s come before – in terms of making it new, using the old, digesting from different media sources?
Arthur: I don’t think there’s any conscious effort in doing that anymore
Olivia: I think we’ve moved more towards things that we find funny as well – which in itself takes you away from being situated
Arthur: Theres a lot of life experience and in-jokes that make their way into things. There’s a lot of anecdotes that go into it. With music, I think we’re at the point now where it’s just what we like. I don’t think we’re even making a conscious effort; we just want to make something that’s prettier. And at this stage we just want to make something bigger and better. That’s literarily the only thing we think about when we’re in the room writing, because we all know what we’re referencing, or we just know the kind of music that it’s going to be. So if someone comes in with something, we all get it. Apart from when I’m like “I think I wrote Blackbird 2”.
Has that been a real quote?
Arthur: Yeah, yeah...
Joe: Which song is that?
Arthur: Happy Birthday
(They laugh, agreeing it’s a great song)
Joe: There’s a lot like from influences that help to come up with one idea. Like when we were tracking album 2, a lot of the working tracks were called “Smiths” or “Radiohead” to pick one idea. So for Poke, I think I was listening to 15-step by Radiohead, and I was like I wonder if I can have a crack writing a riff like that. And now it doesn’t sound anything like a Radiohead song! But the idea from that came from Johnny Greenwood’s guitar part.
And, Olivia – what you were saying earlier about the humour – is that just in the lyrics or in the music too?
Olivia: Yeah, it’s in the music. All of my parts. Wait not all of my parts. Some of them are really sad now. When we played Darp live we used to have this part that went “BADOINGG” all the way through it.
Arthur: This new song we’ve got – as yet untitled – but we’re playing it tonight – that has this big chugging ending that made us really laugh. I mean it was quite a sincere reference to like a Don Caballero chugging bit and it made us all laugh, because the rest of the song is like this ballad-y piano thing, and it’s all quite sweet and soft. We were like -- wouldn’t it be hilarious if we ended this with a huge fucking chugging bass thing.
Oliver: It is basically going from delicate-plucked-acoustic-guitar-pretty-chords immediately into this massive heavy metal inspired element.
Olivia: Also... weird harmony occasionally. I think some of the Poke harmony is quite funny. I think everything about Poke is really funny.
Arthur: And it’s all contrarian music. When we were making post-punk, we were saying “what’s the opposite of that?” and “we’ll get synths in”, “we want to be like Broadcast”, and then it was like OK, what’s the next thing, and the next thing. People were making quite macho things then, and so the singing got softer, and the playing got softer, but then we had these soft songs that we wanted to juxtapose with heavier bits. It’s the music of contradictions.
Olivia: I need to add another funny thing. The end of Jackie. It’s not out yet. The synth dies in the most pathetic way “bo bo bo boop”.
Arthur: That’s really sad though
Tristain: It’s sad because it’s pathetic
Oliver: And then it’s funny because it’s so pathetic
Arthur: Like a clown crying...
Olivia: ...It’s like a wet rat
(Everyone debates if a wet rat is funny or not)
I think it’s really admirable to not take it too seriously, while still having technical expertise, interesting lyrics and introspection. I think it creates a great balance. And also watching you guys live, it really comes across.
Arthur: I think it’s taking the not taking it seriously really, really fucking seriously. Like I don’t think you’d say someone like Animal Collective weren’t taking it seriously, but they have a fucking laugh, you know? If you’re experimenting, you are being silly. That’s inherently silly. Unless you’ve studied fine art, slayed and think you’re experimenting...
Oliver: Something like Boy’s Latin or FloriDada is really fucking good but it’s obviously not taking itself hugely seriously, but in doing so it becomes incredible
Arthur: It’s about knowing where to draw -- or blur the line. Or knowing where it is. Well that’s contradiction.
I found this quote in a Guardian Article: “We may do orchestral baroque pop, a Tender Buttons rip-off track and then a fucking industrial rock tune. We want to do everything.” If you had unlimited money, studio time, access to producers, musical icons, what are you doing?
Oliver: Probably the same thing... but with much better equipment. I’d have a better pedal collection.
Dina: I think we’d do more. Write more?
Joe: I think we’d do a month in the studio, but with the first two weeks just listening to music and playing records – a big eclectic mix – and then writing from there basically. Because we’re pretty short on time when we do get to record.
Olivia: Quit our jobs.
I want to ask you a bit about Poke -- tell me about the cover art
Olivia: Oh ... It’s an image I took on my phone from Tromzo in the North of Norway where I went with my ex-boyfriend a few years ago, whose feet are on the cover of the other artwork.
Oliver: Those where his medieval feet
Arthur: It said something “oil”, and we changed it to Bendy Poke. That was my friend Jason. He’s a bit of a whizz with photoshop. We were like “can do you this in half an hour?” because we need to get it off to servicing...
What can you tell us about Album 2?
Oliver: It’s so fucking sick. It’s mature. Tonally it sounds a bit sadder.
Olivia: It’s really sad. It’s more honest.
Arthur: It’s what we wanted to be doing in the first album. It’s more realised. It’s more developed. Not that there’s anything wrong with this, but there was a naivety in the first album that was charming. I think we keep the playfulness of the first album while maturing it. It sounds like a proper album, I think.
Where’s the tonal change come from?
Arthur: (laughs) Life. I’ve had a lot to write about. It’s very tragicomedy. But you want to blur the lines a bit so... semi-autobiographical?
QUICK FIRE ROUND
What’s your favourite key to write in?
Arthur, Oliver, Joe, Olivia: D
Worst cliché in lyrics?
Arthur: If you’re confident enough I don’t think they exist
Oliver: I think explicitly saying the words “I love you”
(Olivia and Arthur disagree on this)
Favourite medieval thing?
Oliver: Flail
Olivia: Is Mead medieval?
Arthur: Courting
Tristan: Mud
Olivia: Bring back mud
Dina: Jousting
Favourite thing to poke?
Joe: Each other on Facebook
Arthur: Old flames
Tristan: Rice bags
Olivia: A curled up slug. Um...
Dina: I don’t know if I poke stuff that much.
Oliver: Bands that are bigger than us that we want to antagonise
Would you rather have two bats hanging from your ears at all times – they’re like earrings – two out of three times they give you good advice and the other third it’s terrible advice and you don’t know which one it will be either time OR never be able to walk again, instead every time you walk a pig teleports to you and (like in Minecraft) you have to ride it. It doesn’t speak English, but it is very polite.
(The whole band agrees on the bats)
//
A huge thank you to Blue Bendy for chatting with me. Hints of Album Two linger. I couldn’t be more excited.
D.C