Review Fix Exclusive: The Bateleurs’ Ricardo Dikk Talks Goals And Future

Review Fix chats with Ricardo Dikk, Bassist for The Bateleurs, who details the band’s origin, creative process and goals for the rest of 2019.

Review Fix: How  did  the  project  start? 

Ricardo Dikk: It all begun when I met Sandrine (vocals) on a studio session, and a while after we discovered our musical affinities. We were both into retro sounding Rock and Blues, and soon after we invited a couple of musician friends to form a band to play some clubs in our town, doing a set with our favorite Zeppelin, Purple and Janis songs, amongst others of the same style; we realized that a special chemistry was happening, and we soon were trying to write our own songs. After some time, we selected the best three, and went to the studio to record our first EP. And so The Bateleurs was born.

Review Fix: What’s  your  creative  process  like? 

Dikk: There’s really no fixed pattern to it; sometimes we have a subject we want to address, and we begin with the lyrics. Other times we stumble on really cool riff and start working from it. We record some rough home demos and then we hit the studio to polish arrangements and structure. It’s a very open process and everybody’s got a saying, we just do it the way we feel more natural and are very flexible about it, there’s no formula to it.

Review Fix: What’s  your  standout  song?  How  was  it  written? 

Dikk: I have to say it’s “Another Crossroad”, from our Immanent Fire EP. I was at home and watched for the 100^th a movie I love, “Almost Famous”, after I grabbed an acoustic guitar and start dabbling with some riffs inspired by the awesome soundtrack of that film. Eventually, I came up with the main riff, and afterwards together with Sandrine we started writing lyrics about the way things were when we were young, how we feel invincible, and how that perspectives change with the passing of time. It’s our favorite song to play live, we extend it big time and improvise a lot; sometimes a song must be a living organism, that changes and adapt to the circumstances, instead of closed box where nothing gets in our get out.

Review Fix: What  are your  goals  for  the rest of 2019? 

Dikk: For now we’re on the writing process of our debut album, and we’re trying to book as many gigs as we can, including opening slots for international bands. Portugal became a frequent stop for a lot of tours, and having the opportunity to play before a band that has the same target audience than us could be crucial to expand our fan base.

Review Fix: How  do  you  want  your  music  to  affect  people? 

Dikk: I could give you the same talk every band gives, that we write from our heart, that we talk about subjects that anyone can relate, blablabla, but Sincerely, our biggest goal is to make people believe it’s possible to be true; nowadays a lot of music is being made, and the vast majority is deprived of soul, message or meaning. Technology and modern studio techniques make possible to achieve flawless performances, but perfect doesn’t mean true. We reject all these tools that enhance the results, and simply go to the studio and play and sing until our fingers bleed and our throats are sore; no flextime, no autotune, no digital editing, just some guys putting out the best in them. Hopefully that will be evident when people listen to us, and I really want to believe that people will like us because we sound and look honest and true.

Review Fix: What’s  next?

Dikk: We’re working on our debut album, and we’re planning the release for January 2020; we are also booking the first dates of our first tour. We’ll be doing shows in Portugal and have already some confirmed in Spain, and hopefully soon we’ll have some in France, Italy and Germany, so things are looking good and the next year will be a good one for us.