Bad Blood Reunion are a British blues band pumping out their own original blend of gritty old time grooves and vintage tones…

"The band was formed in summer 2023 as a trio. I’d met DJ on our little jazz scene in the North West of England and North Wales and we’d always clicked on both a musical and personal level. I told him I was looking for people who could swing and improvise, but who were into bands - you know - the rock n roll thing. DJ grew up playing heavy metal and comes from a musical family where he was surrounded by jazz and all kinds of music and different kinds of instruments. When we get together it’s always very easy to put music together - we don’t need to say very much before there’s something cool happening.

Yan is a trip. He’s a city kid from Beijing who digs just about any kind of sound a human being can come up with! He’s a martial arts fighter and works in the movies now rather than fighting in competitions. He spent time studying music in Canada before moving to the UK. We know a lot of the same people from the Liverpool scene and he already knew DJ so things came together pretty quickly once he was onboard.

I love the agility that the trio format gives. There’s a lot of space for us to work with and ideas flow around the band very quickly. Sure we rehearse hard and figure out a how we want to start and finish - but we all know that if something cool starts happening we’re going to follow it, go with it and see where it leads. That’s our creed as musicians who love to improvise - we always want to see where we can take it - and it gives the music some extra spice as you know it will never be played the same way twice.

In many ways Bad Blood Reunion is really a vehicle to help interpret my songs in a band situation and to create a context for me to express myself on the guitar.

As a listener I’m influenced by the sentiment of old jazz and blues songs - the music of the 50s and 60s was incredible. Mose Allison, Howlin’ Wolf, Ray Charles, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis - the list is literally endless. I’ve been transfixed by jazz from the age of about fourteen so those forms feel very natural to me when expressing my own ideas. I love the elegance of the blues form as it gets straight to the point both lyrically and musically. Other ideas suit a more sophisticated approach so sometimes I tap into more elaborate jazz structures - it’s not a technical thing just something that flows into my songwriting as I’ve spent so many years getting to know the idiom.

That said, it was clear from the beginning that the band was going to find its own direction for the material and its been quite a journey. As much as we all dig classic American jazz and blues we’re a bunch of guys living in the UK who are influenced as much by all the bands and musicians we grew up listening to. We use the energy and volume of a rock n roll band to bring a raw edge to songs inspired by old school blues and jazz tunes. It’s heavy, but it still has that swing - maybe it’s “heavy swing” music…I suppose that’s the joy of being able to listen to anything you want these days - you can get deep into music that inspires you and moves you - wherever it’s from…"

Chris Hooper / Hoops - songs/vocals/guitar

David Jones / DJ - drums

Yan Shi / Lowlife - bass