Over a year on from the release of their debut album, Confidence Man are back doing what they do best – making confident music for confident people to dance to.
Their debut album – 'Confident Music For Confident People' – took Australian airwaves and festival audiences by storm following their first single 'Boyfriend (Repeat)'. The past year has seen Confidence Man spread their message far and wide, most recently in the UK.
Now, Janet Planet, Sugar Bones and the gang are back in the studio working on what comes next for Confidence Man.
“We're basically just trying to do the next album, trying to make something good,” Sugar Bones says.
“We've just got back from touring overseas, we've been there for the past couple of months so now we're just getting stuck into studio [sic] and focusing on the writing side a bit more.”
Having hit on a winning approach with their first batch of danceable tunes, Sugar Bones goes on to say that the next lot of music is being made in much the same way.
“It's pretty much the same approach, just the four of us sitting in a room yelling at each other,” he laughs, “but it seems to work pretty well so we're just keeping it the same.”
Their most recent jaunt overseas has had Confidence Man playing right across England and the northern UK where Sugar Bones says the appetite for the group has yet to wane.
“We hadn't put anything out for a little while so we weren't sure if these shows would be any bigger compared to last time when we were over there,” he says.
“Particularly through England and the north of the UK, which we mainly focused on this time, all the shows were doubled and there were lots of people still getting in to it so it was really cool to see that everyone is still frothing it over there. It's nice to get a chance to take it out there, see what people think.”
You might say that Confidence Man started a joke that got the whole world dancing, their catchy blend of electro-infused bubblegum dance pop making crowds around the world 'get down' on their command.
After such a strong start, it seems only natural there would be a drop-off for Confidence Man, but Sugar Bones says it's been and up-and-up trajectory for the group thus far.
“It's strange, we sort of expected there to be [a downturn] but this last tour we just did, the hype was still growing up and swelling so it hasn't really slowed down for us, which is nice – you want to keep cruising along. The next step to take it up a level will definitely be to put out some really solid songs off this next album and hopefully that picks it up again.”
Now back on Australian soil, Confidence Man prepare for live commitments closer to home, specifically their show at Riverstage as part of Brisbane Festival in September.
“It's our hometown so it's always really fun going back, catching up with everyone and playing to the hometown crowd,” Sugar Bones says. “We cant wait. It's at Riverstage and I've never played there before so I'm actually really excited about it.”
Though now based in Melbourne, Brisbane is where it all began for Sugar Bones in Confidence Man and he says he's most excited about playing his first-ever show at the iconic Brisbane venue.
“I've been to a bunch of shows and festivals put on around there and it's such a huge stage,” he says. “It's the one that anyone growing up in Brisbane wants to play one day. It's top of the list.”
The show is part of the 30th anniversary celebrations for Riverstage and Sugar Bones says he and the crew are concocting something special to make it memorable for everyone involved.
“We're working on a few new tricks,” he assures us. “I'm not sure exactly what we're going to have just yet but there's definitely some crazy ideas being floated around. If there's one thing we can do, it's crazy.”
Whether you love them, hate them or have no feelings one way or the other, it's undeniable that Confidence Man have hit upon a recipe for success.
“Everyone is still dancing, so as long as everyone keeps dancing we'll keep dancing. It's a very simple formula,” Sugar Bones laughs. “The kids seem to like it.”
