The love child of Manchester rock and Kingston dub raised on an eclectic mix of hip hop, Bootleg Rascal are back in the limelight with new double A-Side ‘Yin & Yang’.
“I’ve been recovering recently, I had a motorcycle crash not too long ago,” frontman Carlos Lara reveals. “I was (hurt) a little bit, not massively thankfully. It was pretty gnarly – I did a big front flip and landed on my head, but I’ve just got a bit of a limp at the moment.”
The Sydney creatives have unveiled 'Yin & Yang', which features ‘Get Over Myself’ – a mix of subtle keys, unwavering beat and warped bass-infused synths with the fiercely commanding cadences of frontman Carlos Lara flowing seamlessly into the howling chorus.
“Today’s the first day we can get a real gauge of whether people like the new release or not,” Carlos says.
“I guess as an artist you got to have that skin where you care if people like it or not, but at the same time you don’t, because when you start listening to opinions too much it gets into your head and can get you down sometimes.
“I’m really happy with the release; this is a new direction for us, a new management team, a new look, a new sound. From everyone I’ve spoken to they really dig it and love the new direction with a bit more of a modern sound.”
To celebrate the release of ‘Yin & Yang’, the group will once again hit the road with performances in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Comfortably known as genre-jumpers, Bootleg Rascal continue to develop and adapt their sound with each new release.
“When we first started, there was another singer of the band (Dan Crestani), and he used to do a fair bit of the writing,” Carlos explains.
“I think in the early stages of Bootleg, Jack Gray was also doing a fair bit of writing and producing, but lately with those guys not around anymore I’ve really stepped up a lot in terms of writing.
“Jim Young and I went away to the Hunter Valley for a week together and really just shut ourselves away and wrote a bunch of songs and these were the strong ones out of that bunch.
“Those two songs I had away for a while that I’d been working on, and when a song comes from me it definitely has a bit more of a hip-hop sound and then Jimmy really brings it in with the guitar which adds that roots sound to it, which I really love.”
Their latest release features another stellar artwork cover that embodies the essence of Bootleg Rascal. “I was so happy with the cover, it's Ben Mitchell... He’s a really cool artist, and I think with Bootleg, we’ve never really taken ourselves very seriously at all and I like that,” Carlos says.
“I’ve always said to people we’re the worst band in the world until we’re told otherwise, it’s a nice way of keeping your ego in check."
'Yin & Yang' is out now.
Written by Gyan Rocha
Bootleg Rascal 2019 Tour Dates
Sat 31 Aug - Northcote Social Club (Melbourne)Fri 6 Sep - The Foundry (Brisbane) - sold out
Sat 7 Sep - Lansdowne Hotel (Sydney) - sold out
