Joe Banfi has announced details of his brand new EP ‘Nomads’. Set for release on 4th March via Communion Records, ‘Nomads’ is the follow up to Joe’s debut EP ‘Iron’ which came out last year. Again produced by Ian Grimble, ‘Nomads’ sees Joe Banfi heading towards a fuller realisation of his influences. Joe will tour the UK in February, supporting fellow Communion artist Bear’s Den, before heading out on a handful of solo UK dates in March. Full listings below.
6th February – Dublin, Whelans (with Bear’s Den)
7th February – Belfast, McHughs Basement (with Bear’s Den)
9th February – Liverpool, Shipping Forecast (with Bear’s Den)
10th February – Glasgow, Nice ‘N’ Sleazy (with Bear’s Den)
12th February – Manchester, Ruby Lounge (with Bear’s Den)
13th February – Nottingham, Red Rooms (with Bear’s Den)
14th February – London, Slaughtered Lamb (with Bear’s Den) SOLD OUT
15th February – Bristol, Louisiana (with Bear’s Den)
4th March – Manchester, The Castle
5th March – Sheffield, The Harley
6th March – Newcastle, Head of Steam
7th March – London, Sebright Arms
9th March – Brighton, The Hope
Joe Banfi is a boy with a guitar but he’s more than just a lonesome acoustic troubadour. He’s not just a singer-songwriter, either, nor is he simply a musician with a voice. Here is someone whose intention it is to have his name embody a whole series of sounds and instruments, to signify an ethos, an aesthetic. To represent the idea of the solo artist as something more.
For some sense of what Joe Banfi – a 23 year old from Northwich, a small commuter town outside of Manchester – is about, imagine Kurt Cobain if he had gone out on his own before Bleach or after Nirvana and hooked up with a producer up to the task of providing a wide-ranging palette of atmospheres and effects. One minute he’s singing in a whispering falsetto over sparse backing, the next he’s rasping and roaring over a wall of incendiary noise. The impression given is of a young man capable of anything.
Communion’s Kevin Jones and Ben Lovett could tell from Joe’s demos that he was channelling the right sort of artists in exactly the right way, offering a new, unique mix of vintage elements - of Nick Drake and the Deftones, of folk and grunge, even metal. And you can hear the speed with which he’s developed and progressed from winsome folkie to multifaceted recording artist over his two releases, 2012’s Iron EP and this, the Nomads EP.