The Down Bads shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi The , thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
Oh wow, what a year it’s been. We’ve won a few competitions recently for 105.7 The Point that gave us the opportunity to do some really cool things this year. After winning Battle at Busch 2024, we had the opportunity to throw first pitch for the STL Cardinals which was just pure magic for us. We all bleed St. Louis and being on the field with our team made us so proud and grateful, we’ll never forget that day. We also were among the winners for Road to Pointfest this year, which allowed us to play Pointfest this year with some really incredible bands. We’ve all daydreamed of playing this event we love so much since we were all children. Playing a show that large with such a local importance, especially with some of our STL heroes like The Urge and Luto was seriously the best kind of whiplash, what a cool day. We also just put the finishing touches on our first full-length album which is set to release on October 17th with a release show/party at Off Broadway on October 24th, and we couldn’t be more proud of the final product and all the hard work we put into it. We’re really grateful for everything we’ve been able to do this year.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
We’re The Down Bads! We’ve been playing original alternative music in St. Louis for just over 4 years now. We’re all lifelong musicians with different tastes, and we feel what sets us apart is our varied blending of genres with a unifying alt rock soul which makes us incredibly accessible for all listeners, as well as a very energetic live performance that lets the audience really get down and have a good time. We’ve worked hard, learned every step of the way, and continue to polish our sound and performance so we can keep playing bigger and cooler shows, releasing quality content like music videos, and showing new faces what we’re all about. We all have full time jobs, but that doesn’t stop us from putting full time effort into our band and we really think you can see it and hear it in our shows and recordings.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
Many artists have doubts. Imposter syndrome, “what am I doing with my life?”, and “is this all worth it?” are very common, and I think when we’re little we’re sort of told we need to fit into a certain kind of box in order to live a good successful life. Pursuing art, the community, and the bettering of ourselves has definitely destroyed that notion. This is who we are, this is what we were meant to do. All of the wonderful people we’ve met along the way has shown us to follow our hearts, as corny as that might sound. Somehow we managed to have people that believe in us, a lovely cast of characters that hug our parents at shows, and we have maybe done the coolest things in our lives as a result of following our dream. If you’re an artist, you owe it to yourself and the world around you to do your thing.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
Simply put, failing. Any endeavor has a learning curve, and failure is only failure if you don’t take notes. I’ve made a thousand mistakes, probably a few in some of my answers here, but if you’re trying with honesty then any shortcoming is a learning experience. Music is no different. Whether it’s a moment in a song, or a piece of your performance, there’s always room for improvement and there’s grace in finding the humor in your mistakes. We still think we’re just some goofy kids (even though we’re all almost 30 at this point), so we laugh when we make mistakes, give each other a hard time, and do it even better the next time.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
Proudly, yeah we think so. We’re not here to try and convince you that we’re super cool rockstar dudes. We’re hard working goof-balls having a good time doing what we love, and we just want to share that with as many people as we can. We thought about having the typical edgy hard-rocker brand but at the end of the day it isn’t us. We like it more when you get to see the real us, share a drink and a laugh with us, and just have a good time. Some of us are industry professionals, fathers, gamers, jokers, and we just enjoy sharing a good time with people.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What will you regret not doing?
We’re riding this thing as far as it’ll take us. The only thing we could possibly regret is if we stopped playing music together. We’ve all made a lot of sacrifices to pursue music. Two practices every week, gigs, and all of the behind the scenes work means we have to miss out on a lot, but no matter if we “make it big” or not, we love every minute of this. Every face we meet or see again is a reason to keep going. We’ve seen our friends in the industry start businesses, families, amazing projects, and all of that is so worth it. Thanks for giving us a chance to talk, and thanks everyone for reading if you made it this far. Come say hey at one of our shows or check out our music on Spotify, we post everything on the socials!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedownbadsband?igsh=a3Yxajl6eW83ZWFh
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1F9vujmWPS/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@thedownbadsband?si=OfzTFl7nXtYTW_n5
- Other: Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/2shrJQH4XvEMYpzfu5SBQS?si=z-G8_U1FTUiIIWrSr-eniw
YouTube Topic (music releases) – https://youtube.com/channel/UCXBRrtbHQwHnZBD0VoaxcXA?si=uKll-00Zd1p2_dLQ
Image Credits
The great and beloved Matt Klose
Lucy Profeta
