“I’m not allowed to say I’m tired this week,” Jamie Campbell Bower half-jokes as he takes a break from his ever-lengthening stint in London’s Bend It Like Beckham stage musical, "it's a rule we have at rehearsals."
Bower explains how he spends his weeks travelling between the Phoenix Theatre, where he plays love-triangle catalyst Joe, and the recording studio, where he’s part of an altogether very different trio. After eight shows each week and Sundays spent laying down vocals and guitar, Bower has every right to be tired.
“What ended up happening is I don’t really have a life anymore,” he laughs, citing the beginning of the band proper back in April, the same time as rehearsals were underway for his unorthodox day job. “I’m not complaining about it,” he remarks, describing the problem as quality, “I work better when I’m stressed. And it’s better for the record.”
Bower, who is perhaps better known for his roles in mainstream movies Sweeny Todd, in which he starred alongside Johnny Depp, and as Caius Volturi in the screen adaptations of the Twilight saga, is holed up with long-time friends Tristan Marmont and Roland Johnson recording the first Counterfeit record. Preceded by debut track ‘Come Get Some’, their sound packs a punch, combining punk attitude, rock and roll influences and just a hint of post-hardcore.
Having found himself making music since his teens, Counterfeit marks the first time Bower has taken a heavier stance. Spurred on by encouragement from his peers and reinvigorated by his now bandmates, Bower has taken Counterfeit as an opportunity to express the real him.
“I really didn’t know who I was,” he says, looking back at his earlier work. Alongside his acting career, Jamie occasionally dabbled as a singer-songwriter, writing about “rainbows and puppies”, as he later jokes. “It’s been a funny couple of years for me. I think it happens to everyone. I got to 25 and began to reassess myself and revaluate my life. Everything sort of felt a bit weird and I wasn’t really working very much. I told myself I’d focus on music but really I was disenfranchised with life. A little bit weak.”
“It got to the point where I found myself being a bit more honest with myself, and I found out that actually, I’m quite an angry young man. It was a bit of a weird thing for me to realise.”
It’s a discovery that has led Bower to where he is now: on the verge of unleashing his raw, heavier and overall honest material into the world. “It’s terrifying,” he admits, explaining how all of this is new to him. No longer able to act as somebody else or project a certain image of himself that doesn’t represent his true feelings, Bower is truly exposed.
“I didn’t come out of a cereal box. I am who I am. I never pretended to be anyone other than who I am. Maybe I’ve hidden some of the darker sides of me, but now I’m able to deal with that and show other people.”
After years of on-off soul searching, he’s clearly comfortable in his newfound skin. “I’m embracing my darkness,” he laughs, commenting on his love of cathartic songwriting. “That didn’t surprise me, although it did surprise me that I could do it. When I found out I could manipulate my voice to sound like I wanted it to in my head, I was definitely surprised.”
He’s not the only one surprised by the emerging Counterfeit material. With his mum declaring it all a little close to the bone, Bower and his bandmates are ready for mixed reactions. “I think the reaction is always going to be varied, and we’re going to struggle with it more than some other bands,” he notes, referring to his otherwise clean-cut public persona.
Ready to battle with those who are preparing to write Counterfeit off as a wannabe alternative band by a “fucking actor boy”, Bower admits that he quite enjoys pissing people off. For him, it’s all worth it if the message can be put across. As with many, the cathartic element of the songwriting reaches further, with Bower hoping it will provide an insight into his early years and potentially provide solace for others.
“I struggled a lot growing up,” he admits. “Not because of what I did and where I was put, just because I’m an anxious kind of kid. I struggled with being weird. I didn’t have anyone to tell me that was OK. I had longer hair, I wore skinny jeans, so I got called a girl on a daily basis. All that shit you get dealt.” Now, Bower is hoping that others will see this side of him and find something to relate to. “I’ve always been a bit of a freak and a weirdo. It’s much nicer than being normal.”
Lyrically, the majority of the songs showcase Bower’s experiences over the space of six months. There’s variation in the themes across the record, but this introspection underpins it all. “It has to be an outlet. It has to be a form of therapy, otherwise I might lose my mind.”
The result discusses personal emotions and experiences, from sex and its aftermath to the loss of a close friend. All the while influenced in style by everyone from blink-182 and Sum 41 to technical metal, The Strokes to The Bronx and Gallows. “It’s funny how the record is shaping up,” Bower smiles when thinking of the various influences brought in by the trio.
Counterfeit clearly want to break the mould. Referencing Queens Of The Stone Age, Bower goes on to explain how he would like fans to be as confused by Counterfeit’s record as he was by Josh Homme and co. “I want people to want to punch me in the face and then kiss me better,” he jokes, describing his desired response to their sound.
“We are aware that what I’ve done in the past gives us a pre-existing online fanbase and platform, and that’s great and we’re grateful. But we also want to get people in who just fucking love good music,” Bower concludes, summarising what Counterfeit is all about. “We want people to come into a venue and have no idea who we are as a band, don’t care about this Twilight movie or whatever the fuck I’ve done, and then love us or hate us. Really, this is more me than anything I’ve ever done before.”
Counterfeit will release their ‘Come Get Some’ EP on the 27th November 2015.