10 out of 10 review from 50artists50states.com
The Badly Behaved was formed in 2020 and includes vocalist Colé van Dias and songwriter, composer, producer and vocalist Richard von Kalmar. In May 2022, they released ‘Who am I?, a 10-track studio album, which included a remix of ‘Runaway‘ by Philipp Lauer that reached no. 1 on the European Indie Music chart.
The band’s latest single, ‘Only Slightly Famous’, was released on the 12th December as a three-minute Radio Edit and a six-minute Extended Version. Only Slightly Famous is about a smalltime, pseudo movie, TV or pop star who will do anything for fame and who has an inflated ego and an inflated perception of thelittle success that he or she has had. The song includes lines such as “I’d even go from door to door, like some sort of media whore” and “Every night, self-adorned, obsessive” to illustrate his or her overzealous and warped attitude. It was written in C minor, with several key changes, including a change to E flat for the bridge, and its tempo is 117BPM.
The Badly Behaved released ‘High as Hell’ in July 2024. The song is about a drug dealer who realises the error of his ways and is aware that his business damages lives and, in some cases, contributes towards the destruction of friendships, families and communities, but he cannot bring himself to give it up and clean up his act. The lyrics were inspired by the 1955 Otto Preminger film noir drama ’The Man with the Golden Arm’, the 1978 Hubert Selby novel and the 2000 psychological drama based on the novel ‘Requiem for a Dream’.
Soulless City on the Californian Girlfriend Records label on April the 22nd 2024. The song was inspired by Alex Proyas’ 1998 neo-noir science fiction film ‘Dark City’, set in an anachronistic city in which no one realises that they are living in perpetual darkness, and is about life in a desolate, smoggy, bleak, post-utopian world. A key change was used to create a contrast between the sombre verses that represent darkness and the more uplifting choruses that represent light, much like the glimpses of the Shell Beach pier in the Dark City film. It was remixed by Philipp Lauer for the release.
In September 2023, The Badly Behaved released a series of cover versions of Bobby Orlando’s 1980s classic ‘She Has A Way’. Five versions were released in total, and they maintained the original lyrics and chord progressions, but the song structure, instruments and arrangements were rewritten from scratch. One of the versions was a remix by Philipp Lauer.
Late in 2022, The Badly Behaved released ‘Govinda Jaya Jaya’, an electronic track with a strong Balearic feel based on a Hindu chant often sung in the Krishna Consciousness movement. The Badly Behaved’s version of the song fused the chant with an electronic bassline, swirling pads, percussion and ‘big’ guitar sounds, which are used to help build the song up to a crescendo. In March 2023 a remix by Marvin & Guy, the Italian Producer and DJ duo, was released. The chant was previously used in songs with the same title by Kula Shaker and by George Harrison of the Beatles.
The Badly Behaved’s music making philosophy is to build on, and draw from music that has inspired them, as well as what has worked for them in the past, while always daring to try new things and always being original. The band is inspired by the synthpop and electropop music movements of the 80s until the present. Their main influences include bands such as Röyksopp, the Pet Shop Boys, the Junior Boys and Philipp Lauer, as well as earlier influences such Roxy Music and Kraftwerk.
