Ported Sound: Balsamo Collins Riley And The Swansea-Liverpool Connection
The Swansea-Liverpool connection lives strong in the recent success of Balsamo Collins Riley, as the trio sees their latest single ‘Three Ring Circus’ climb the local UK radio charts.
“Response has been all positive, it’s been incredible,” Andy Collins says.
“The amount of radio stations taking it on over here has been wonderful. People have been in touch from the continent to see about putting it out there. So again, with the help of everybody, it’s about getting it to as many people as possible. I think the song is strong, I think it’s of now as well. There seem to be a lot of three ring circuses going on in the world. It’s just topical and it works.”
‘Three Ring Circus’ was released earlier this year and has steadily found favour with critics and listeners alike. Embracing the harmonies that emanated from American West Coast bands of the ‘70s, Andy says ‘Three Ring Circus’ represents the next chapter of songwriting for Balsamo Collins Riley.
“This is the first of the batch of new songs from the second EP.,” he explains.
“So, we’ve had that progression from the first EP and we feel we’re getting to know each other better because like when anything starts, you dance around it a little bit until you actually get in a room with people.
“Steve [Balsamo] and myself have worked together for 20-odd years, so I know him inside out. Pete [Riley], I met a couple of times but now he’s one of those people that’s always been in my life it seems. When you come across people like that – the same ilk, same principles – that’s what makes it so easy to write together.”
Balsamo Collin Riley formed and produced their debut release during lockdown, initially working remotely between Swansea and Liverpool to write and craft the songs before being able to finetune them together in a studio.
Separated by some 200 kilometres, Swansea and Liverpool both share a unique cultural heritage and musical interchange that has had a profound influence on the history of music, from ancient folk sounds to modern pop.
“I would say it comes from both being port cities,” Andy says, “working class port cities, with strong Celtic connections. Liverpool has always had a vibrant culture in music, as has Swansea.
“And it’s a hotbed for live music, a lot of musicians have come out of this part of the world and gone on to do great things, some have stayed here, which is no mean thing either. You can go back to bands like Badfinger, part Swansea part Liverpool, as another example.
“Swansea gets a lot of the folk side music from West Wales,” he continues.
“I would say it’s predominantly the popular side of the music as an ongoing thing since the ‘60s. there were hundreds of bands in the ‘60s from here that went out around the country and worked with loads of different bands, again from the Liverpool area. The music can be quite tongue-in-cheek, and the lyric content can be quite fun based, but equally on the same token you can still have a lot of double meanings, and I find that the Liverpudlians have that. There’s that straight-talking thing the Liverpudlians have.”
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Balsamo Collins Riley is a project like no other for Andy, presenting a rare opportunity for him to shine as a songwriter outside of previous collectives.
“It’s refreshing because I’d been in a band called The Storys before now and we had four principal writers,” he says.
“Things could get a little bogged down because you couldn’t get a majority to vote. Whereas in a three-way thing, something’s always going to come through quicker. Not that we ever have disagreements I might add, we seem to be on the same page all the way through, which is wonderful.
“So, we’re all focussed really well. Being older and somewhat wiser – I use that term loosely – we’re used to the game. We know how the game works, so we can leave that outside the room and just get on with the work, and this is why the work comes together incredibly quick. I found it a very refreshing project. It’s a really good democracy and how a democracy should work.”
As ‘Three Ring Circus’ finds favourable footing on the airwaves, Balsamo Collins Riley are looking toward what the future holds for the band and parlaying that momentum into live performances.
“Following on from what ‘Three Ring Circus’ has done, it would be nice to capitalise on that,” Andy says.
“Get another single ready to go so that people can see what else we have in an arsenal, so they can get more of a picture of us. Getting out there, doing more radio, doing more live shows. Then, just let it go wherever it goes, and whoever likes us just take us on board and book us and off we jolly well go.”
