Biddy and The Bullets are the brainchild of singer/songwriter Biddy Ronelle. Shredding guitars laced with Biddy’s soaring country style vocals come together to form a sound far heavier than its American counter parts. Taking influence from bands such as Cadillac Three, Kris Barras Band & Delta Rae, Biddy and The Bullets have forged a unique style of riff-tastic, melodic & pounding country rock!
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Biddy & The Bullets about the latest release (D.R.I.N.K.), adapting during lock downs, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?
We hail from Leeds, Sheffield and surrounding areas (Biddy is the odd one out living in Derbyshire but of course is a born and bred Yorkshire lass at heart!). Our music is a blend of Southern Rock, Americana with a hint of country. In all honesty, we wanted to bring a new fresh sound to the UK Americana scene and have taken inspiration from various sources including Slash, Kris Barras Band and Delta Rae.
How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?
Our vocalist and songwriter Biddy started out as a solo artist in the country scene back in 2019 and has had a string of chart topping songs in her arsenal but the plan was to always create a band from the get go. Alongside the band’s rhythm guitarist and producer Stu, they set about creating something that would stand out on the scene. The country music market is saturated with solo female and male vocalists so we saw an opportunity and have quickly gained attention for doing so! We aim to simply perform at some cool festivals and perhaps find our music on the soundtrack to some dark Netflix drama one day! The band is made up of 5 professional musicians who have all somehow made a living from playing and writing music from jazz to metal- we’ve played it all!
How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?
Deciding to go heavier and lean towards the rock scene was always going to be a risk especially after Biddy had established herself as a country artist (although her heavier solo stuff definitely heralded the start of some darker material!). We want to see if both the country scene and the rock scene will accept us and perhaps it will broaden our horizons more. So far, so good- radio play has been great across both genres and we have had the support of BBC Introducing once again and prominent airplay. The initial single ‘Dark Side’ is almost our chance to go ‘well, here we are and here’s this new sound you might not be used to hearing around here’. It seems to be working okay!
Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?
As a soloist and by already having worked with producer Stu for a few years, Biddy had pieces of material that they were able to release during various lockdowns so at least we had some content- funnily enough both of those singles hit the coveted #1 spot on the iTunes country charts which was a complete surprise and bonus! Rehearsals wise it was a pain and yes a lot of the time it was a case of one of us sending an idea across and the other trying to write something to it and visa versa. We seemed to be continually locked down in Sheffield especially so there was almost a year or so without any rehearsal. Biddy wrote a lot but it was dirge and Stu came up with bits of ideas that we are now currently trying to piece together. We all had to get ‘proper jobs’ and we’ve all kept them as it feels like we’ll be forever playing catch up post pandemic.
What was the last song you listened to?
Biddy has a million Jubilee gigs coming up so she is currently belting out Jerusalem in the hopes that she can turn into Katherine Jenkins overnight! Ah the life of working musicians ey!?
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?
90’s kids so cassette all the way. There was something magical and super inconvenient about having to rewind to the exact point and of course always having a trusty pencil handy,..
Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?
Pretty active on socials @biddyandthebullets or our website is pretty new and designed by Biddy (lass of a few talents, master of none) www.biddyandthebullets.com
I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?
Our debut single Dark Side is now out everywhere and we will be hitting the road as of next week for festival season. You can catch us at Buckle & Boots, Rock N Ribs, BCMA Festival and a few more later in the year that are still to be announced!
