Balancing Act discuss their upcoming EP and exciting tour plans

With only a handful of songs released, Balancing Act already have dedicated fans following them on tour, collecting setlists and even getting their lyrics tattooed and understandably so. Thrilling live performances have given the group a reputation as one to watch, especially with their upcoming EP ‘Tightropes and Limericks’ getting ever closer.

Photo credit: Isy Townsend

“It’s got different flavours on it,” guitarist Jackson Couzens is delighted to discuss what they’ve titled their “new era of music.” Lead singer Kai Jon Roberts continues depicting the EP, “there’s a greater depth to some of the writing, it’s probably a lot more personal lyrically and stylistically. The music that we put together in these songs and how it was arranged seems efficient. Nothing got just thrown in for the sake of it.”

Future track ‘AWOL’ is mentioned with high regard, obviously one the pair are proud of. “It’s probably the most personal lyrically, it’s quite a revealing song,” Roberts first mentions the track before they both admit in sync it’s the song, they are most eager to play live. Couzens depicts it as “euphoric” while Roberts proposes “we hope that it’s the song where people end up on their friend’s shoulders, potentially crying.”

Two radiant tracks from the EP (‘She Plays The Theremin’ and ‘Laylow’) have already dropped. “Our friend has a space that we go to and it has sort of become our safe haven for just writing and being creative” Couzens begins explaining. “We did one trip there last summer and theremin was written there. Kai had this little riff that we were jamming and we were trying to force it into another song but it wasn’t really working. Then he was just playing it on its own and in the background. David (Bassist) just started doing this chord and then changed it slightly and we were like, that’s a song. About 20 minutes later, the whole thing was written. Really organic.”

Interestingly, ‘Laylow’ was written in the French Alps six months later. “It was just in this tiny room and we were nearly snowed in,” Roberts describes the unique creation process. “It seems weird, we went away and we wrote almost the happiest song musically that we’ve ever written and we were in like a dark, dingy, tiny flat. This is my juxtaposition.” Couzens quickly chimes in “escapism is real!”

Being known for their energetic live performances at their own shows as well as, recently supporting I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME on tour, Balancing Act have landed on huge festival lineups including Tramlines, Truck Festival and Y Not Festival this summer. “We don’t plan on taking our foot off the gas” Couzens announces. “It’s the most fun part. You slave over these tiny little details in the studio that more often than not, people don’t even really notice” he chuckles. “The song finally comes out and then you get to play it in front of people and that’s where you find your true audience and that’s when it’s most fun.” Explaining that they’ve recently gained experience of a full tour as a support act Roberts adds, “if you’re going to catch us at these festivals it’s more pizzazz, more twirls.”

The pair go on to depict what pre-show looks like for the group, “ginger shots and Queens of Stone Age” Roberts laughs. “I mean we don’t really do like the whole hacker and get shredded before.” Couzens mentions, “we did toy with the idea of mixing ginger shots and tequila but we didn’t want to ruin them.” After saying in the future when they don’t drive themselves around the group might have a cooler pre-gig ritual, Roberts giggles “a game of Twister would be great before a show.”

From getting trapped in retirement elderly homes to getting out the tour van to vomit, Balancing Act have faced a few funny scenarios on tour. “We accidentally popped a Lucozade all over a family in Liverpool” Couzens admits. “We were trying to just pull up on the pavement and then there was a family or a stag and there was a full bottle of Lucozade in the way and they all started shouting what happened!”

He continues to reveal the meaning behind the bands name, “when we started, before we’d released anything, it was just us writing together but also juggling social lives, relationships and I think we had personal shit going on at the time as well. So, it was just a phrase that kept coming up like oh it’s a balancing act.”

Making use of live performances and camera angles, the band have been creating music videos for their tracks. “It’s kind of like a roulette of what we haven’t done yet,” Roberts describes how they choose the focus of music videos. “It’s really tough because in our heads sometimes the visuals come afterwards because we’re constantly thinking about music and then when it comes to the video idea, you’re like I haven’t thought about that.

We’re fortunate that we have teams of people around us which can help trigger ideas visually. We’re about to do a music video now for the next single ‘Under The Table’ which has got like this whole Guy Ritchie almost heist storyline scene so this is gonna be like the first time that we’re probably gonna all have to actually act rather than swoon and look in the corner of the room. soon come.”

The band aren’t slowing down any time this year with their EP release, a UK autumn tour and two Europe shows in Paris and Amsterdam. But there’s still one more thing Roberts is excited to tease as a track yet to be heard by fans, ‘Ballad of a Lonely Man,’ becomes the centre of attention. “I think that there’s just another curveball. A lot of people have heard ‘Under the Table’ and they’ve seen it live, a lot of people have heard ‘AWOL’ because they’ve seen it live but there’s another song called ‘Ballad of a Lonely Man’ and I think it’s going to take a lot of people by surprise. We literally finished it yesterday,” he pauses for a moment to find the right phrasing, “it has a stadium rock feel to it. Sounds like a song that’s bigger than the venues we’re playing and that’s exactly what we were trying to achieve. It will be played live for the first time on our tour.”

Tightropes and Limericks out October 4^th via The Vertex