Might the true Bambie Thug please arise? Is it the one onstage dressed just like the Satan, sporting stripper boots and an extended goatee, smothered in crimson paint? The one bare aside from glitter within the X-rated video for his or her 2021 debut single, Birthday? The ouija-pop necromancer who appeared ultimately yr’s Eurovision, performing a televised ‘exorcism’ whereas decked out in raven feathers, and bagging sixth place for his or her native Eire? Or possibly it’s the one which’s been casting a spell over Europe on their latest Crown The Witch tour, donning glittering outfits and ornate gothic headpieces as they rule over their smoky, musical séances?
“I hope you don’t thoughts,” laughs Bambie as we speak, as they flip up at their PR’s London places of work sporting nothing extra outlandish than a rhinestone trackie, and promptly kick off their chunky New Rock boots earlier than plonking down onto the closest couch.
“That’s higher,” they are saying, not in a demonic whisper however in a disarmingly heat Irish accent. “Wow… I really feel like I haven’t stopped working!”
That’s no exaggeration. Bambie has been criss-crossing nations and continents at lightning pace for months. Twenty-four hours in the past, they have been in Eire. Previous to that, it was Amsterdam, the place they performed for 17,000 folks on the Ziggo Dome enviornment for the Het Grote Songfestivalfeest, a present that celebrates the most effective of Eurovision. That efficiency noticed Bambie battering a demon with a bouquet of flowers earlier than strutting off, a daring 666 cheekily scrawled on one arse cheek because the petal confetti fell round them.
It was the right curtain-closer on a busy 12 months. It’s tiring being the hardest-working witch within the coven, particularly when that witch is successfully homeless. Bambie has been sofa-surfing for the previous two years, discovering sanctuary with mates.
“Folks assume my complete life has modified since Eurovision, however I nonetheless don’t have a agency place to remain,” they admit. “I had been sleeping on couches for 2 years earlier than the competitors, and I nonetheless am. Often I’ve needed to resort to resorts, however it’s more durable to make a house in a soulless room.”
Whereas there’s a romance to the nomadic way of life, they know it may possibly’t final eternally. They’d love nothing greater than to click on their heels and reappear in a spot of their very own. Besides that’s nonetheless a dream proper now.
“I don’t assume something will change any time quickly,” they are saying. “Touring’s damaged me mentally, bodily and financially. I’m impartial and self-funded…” A mischievous look sweeps throughout their face. “I believe labels are nonetheless terrified of me,” they smirk, a glint of their eye.
For Bambie, the grind began lengthy earlier than they stormed the Eurovision stage. Their musical journey started within the late 2010s, once they started instructing themselves to write down songs. Over the following years, they’ve shapeshifted time and time once more, continually reinventing themselves.
“It’s humorous, the variations of your self you undergo,” they muse. “Once I first began writing, I used to be writing these tacky love songs. I used to be obsessive about Barbie films and fairy tales rising up. However I moved on from that. Thank God for the darkness!”
Every of Bambie’s incarnations has fed into the cosmic whirl of ouija-pop. Whereas their debut album continues to be within the works, Bambie’s 2023 EP, Cathexis, serves as a complete tour of their avant-goth palette. From queer-club pop anthem Final Summer season (I Know What You Did), to Bye Boy’s rap beatdowns, to the metallic-pop exorcism that’s Doomsday Blue, Bambie thrives in their very own eclectic world of sound.
Their singles solely add extra flavour to the broiling cauldron: 2022’s Headbang is flecked with hyperpunk and glitch-pop, whereas 2023’s Egregore showcases gnashing alt steel fury.
“I really like a dance observe, however my pop tracks are nonetheless gritty,” Bambie explains of their musical playground. “I really like soiled sounds – a fucking heavy observe simply hits more durable while you’re performing! And it’s poppy, however it all performs into the steel mindset. Metallic is an angle, it isn’t simply in regards to the guitars or the heaviness. It’s steel to be outspoken, to push boundaries, to place a giant center finger as much as trade.”
Their Eurovision efficiency of Doomsday Blue, eternally seared into the retinas of anybody who watched it throughout the closing in Malmö, Sweden in Could 2024, actually oozed that metal-minded, fuck-you angle.
“I keep in mind my director saying, ‘Will we need to go to win? Or are we going to ruffle feathers?’” they recall. “I believed, ‘Why not each?’ I’m not from that world, so I used it as a platform to talk for the queer neighborhood. Individuals are terrified of the facility of queer folks – and I’m going to maintain being loud, even when it closes doorways. However I assume these doorways weren’t proper for me, anyway.”
Earlier than changing into the outspoken, center fingerraising determine seated earlier than us, Bambie admits that discovering their voice was arduous. They might current as a powerful, proudly queer, non-binary goth, however it’s taken a very long time for them to really feel snug in their very own pores and skin. Born Bambie Ray Robinson in a tiny, rural city in Cork, their Catholic upbringing meant they have been compelled to suppress who they honestly have been to slot in. A part of that included coaching to be a ballerina.
“I went to a Catholic convent faculty, and I misplaced my magic whereas I used to be there,” they clarify. “As a ballerina, there was this added strain to current hyper-femme. I used to be making an attempt to be a doll.”
Bambie’s ballet background led to a transfer to England in 2013 on a dance scholarship. After they broke their arm, they have been compelled to vary route and examine musical theatre, but the strain to carry out was simply as robust. They graduated in 2016, however Bambie simply couldn’t take it anymore.
“At some point I simply cracked, went rogue, and travelled masses,” they recall.
It was throughout a stint in Germany that Bambie found their love of goth tradition. At one level, they discovered themselves surrounded by a circle of seven German males with scissors, hacking off Bambie’s blonde hair – the symbolic start of not simply their goth self, however of Bambie Thug.
“Berlin broke my thoughts and rebuilt it once more,” they are saying. “I got here again loopy goth. That’s the place I grew to become Bambie.”
Again in London, lockdown solely heightened Bambie’s sense of self.
“I used to be dwelling with 12 folks in a run-down pub,” they recall. “It was like one huge queer household. I wrote a lot music, took a great deal of magic mushrooms… I simply did quite a lot of therapeutic. There have been no questions if I got here downstairs at some point with a moustache on my face. And all of us had completely different abilities, so we’d give one another lessons. I learnt how one can tattoo myself.”
Bambie’s life is mapped on their pores and skin. Their fingers bear the phrases ‘Bam-Bee-Thug’, with the ‘Bee’ represented by an precise bee, all self-inked, as is the pentagram inked above their knuckles. Their arms are tattooed with barbed wire, lovely fish and dancing mice, in addition to a reminder to ‘Drink Water’. Their chest is marked with the seemingly random phrase ‘PORK’. Bambie explains that sure items of ink are impressed by songs they’ve but to launch.
As they discuss excitedly about their “bohemian days of self-discovery”, there’s a glimpse of sunshine behind the Satan-spawn persona.
“Folks have a warped notion of people that gown darkish and are into the occult,” Bambie says with a sigh. “Once I’m offstage I’m chill. I’m not making an attempt to hex folks on a regular basis.”
Nonetheless, real witchcraft is part of Bambie’s life. Whereas they don’t really ‘hex’ folks, insisting they solely partake in “good magic”, Bambie walks the stroll.
“My witch mates have nurtured me – they’re the kindest folks,” Bambie explains. “I received taken in by a gaggle of older witches… and magic is so stunning. You’re simply utilizing bodily objects and spells to manifest and heal your internal self.”
Bambie’s first credited look was as a vocalist on South London DJs Fika & Fabich’s 2020 soulfunk membership observe, Imply. Their very own debut, hedonistic single Birthday (‘I solely take medicine on my birthday / A New 12 months, Christmas, each different Thursday’) got here out the next yr, and was accompanied by a putting video .
Since then, they’ve launched a trio of EPs – 2021’s Psilocyber, the identical yr’s Excessive Romancy and 2023’s Cathexis – plus a string of standalone singles. Beneath the brash persona, Bambie admits that music is their main technique of therapeutic. After experiences of sexual assault, childhood trauma and a relationship with an abusive associate, they label themself as “a really complicated, broken” individual. Even moments of satisfaction can include a sting of their tail.
“I’ve complicated PTSD,” they are saying. “So, generally, I’ll have moments the place folks count on me to really feel pleased with myself… however I simply can’t. Even now – I do know this characteristic is an thrilling factor, however I don’t really feel like I’ve finished sufficient to earn it. I don’t know how one can really feel pleased with myself.”
The separation between the Bambie Thug sitting right here in a tracksuit and the Bambie Thug onstage of their gothic finery helps them really feel stronger.
“Due to my previous traumas, I are likely to go quiet once I’m indignant,” they are saying. “As soon as I utterly misplaced my voice for 2 months. However Bambie Thug is assured. Bambie Thug is LOUD… ”
It’s a shocking factor to listen to, particularly contemplating how they current themselves onstage. Bambie is conscious of how complicated it might sound.
“I’m screaming for arenas of individuals, then I get offstage, get triggered by one thing, and bawl my eyes out,” they are saying.
“I’m nonetheless making an attempt to discover ways to really feel pleased with my achievements. Slowly.”
One achievement they’re permitting themself to really feel proud about is their manifestation observe, 2022’s Tsunami (11:11).
“I wrote it whereas staying at a good friend’s,” they recall. “I used to be beginning to really feel terrible in regards to the sofa browsing, I wasn’t taking care of myself, all the things was a large number… I simply wanted to get exterior. So I went out within the rain, crouched on prime of a bin, and wrote this tune saying, ‘I’m gonna be someone, you wait and see.’”
Whereas the previous yr has been continuous, the arduous work is paying off. Bambie has seen a neighborhood of followers rising.
“It seems like I’ve a cult following now,” they beam. “And the children completely love me! I’m so grateful that folks are permitting their children to decorate up goth, come to my reveals. I don’t know how, however they at all times handle to sneak in, even when it’s an 18-plus present…”
The singer is conscious that some songs, such because the fellatio celebrating Kawasaki (I Love It) (‘Feels so good when it hits my lips…’) or Birthday is likely to be a bit too debauched for sections of that following.
“I’m very aware of my youthful viewers,” Bambie notes. “I’ve even stopped performing Birthday, as a result of I don’t need to promote drug use to them. I need to nurture them, in a approach. Typically I believe I may do a witch faculty, encourage them to discover the occult and join with the world…”
The exhausting rush of the previous yr reveals no signal of slowing down. In Could, Bambie will open for Babymetal on a European enviornment tour that winds up at The O2 in London. The singer is already cooking up new outfits and dance strikes to win over the headliners’ followers and usually take their hell-sent drag present to a brand new stage.
“I do need to up the camp, although,” they are saying. “I would make my dancers begin ‘taking part in’ unplugged guitars. Simply very blatantly not taking part in accurately, possibly have them completely cease taking part in mid-guitar solo. That will be extremely camp.”
There’s additionally a plan to unleash some new music sooner somewhat than later.
“I’ve received to launch some extra heavy shit earlier than the Babymetal tour, ” they grin. “I’ve just a few songs in thoughts. They’re going to be sick. I’m additionally hoping the brand new tracks assist me determine what my debut will ultimately sound like – you solely get one, proper? So the strain is admittedly on.”
Of the brand new singles, Bambie says at the least three of them are “cowboy” tracks.
“There was truthfully a interval the place all I wrote was cowboy music. Possibly that’s my future. Cunt-ry Ray Robinson, at your service,” they are saying wickedly.
We don’t need to hold Bambie any longer. There are plots to prepare dinner up, spells to weave, concepts to materialise. Their transport awaits, although amusingly it’s a somewhat un-goth Lime bike somewhat than some ornate obsidian carriage pulled by headless swans.
“All of our little goth scene… we’re simply delicate souls,” they sigh, as they pull on their boots and prepare to depart. “We’re love punks. We help one another. So I assume I would like folks to like one another. Beneath all of it, I’m simply full of affection…” – a booming cackle – “…and hexes!”
Bambie Thug will help Babymetal at The O2 in London on Could 30.
