Black Light Animals are a psychedelic soul group hailing from the Midwest. Taking equal influence from ’70s Italian horror soundtracks, Wu Tang samples, and Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie, their sprawling debut album explores themes of humanity, social media obsession, political division, and the concept of “amusing ourselves to death.” Sonically rich and full of spaghetti western guitars, psychedelic keyboards, hip hop rhythms, and lush vocals, “Playboys of the Western World” comes off as some forgotten ’70s film soundtrack, while exploring themes very much relevant to today. Black Light Animals’ “Playboys of the Western World” will be available August 20th on limited vinyl, CD and streaming/digital formats via Groove King Records.
I had the chance to catch up with frontman of Black Light Animals, Cole Bales recently to dive a little deeper into the creation of both the band and this stellar debut album, “Playboys of the Western World”. We get into how it all went from there to here both as a group and as song creators. We chat a bit about the differences for him between B.L.A. and another group ole is in, a more soul oriented outfit, The Freedom Affair and Cole even takes a little time to choose a track off the new album that he would build a set around for the radio show, and what other things he’d surround that track with. It is always a pleasure to dig into an album and after several listens and shares, and still be unsure what to actually call the sounds.. Hoping you all with dig in and wonder with me.
