Who: The Bad Actors
Funk
The Bad Actors, an electric new outfit here to bathe your mundane routine in a bright orange glow. Funky indie tunes meet devil-may-care rock. Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police and Jimi Hendrix are found influencing pounding beats, expressive guitar lines and pop-y ear-worm melodies.
Scissor-kicks and stage tricks are the MO of “kinetic” frontman Khalil. His voltaic stage presence helped win slots at Isle of Wight, Hillsborough festival, and a Riverside festival headline with previous projects. Whilst Jay’s laid-back drumming, matching his own personality in feel but not in introversion, forms the springboard for Khalil’s antics. The Bad Actors’ energetic social media videos reach an average of 10K viewers per clip and found 850K individual instagram accounts in April ‘24.
The duo became friends at school when Khalil told Jay he needed a drummer. Jay obliged, learned drums and joined the band. Down-to-Earth, indie-punk songwriting saw them named in BBC Introducing Sheffield’s best of 2014 list.
Fast forward a decade and the punk roots are ever-present but are seeded in a bed of groove and melody. Songs wrap themes of infidelity, homelessness and existential longing in neat 3 minute packages. But catchy hooks will have you singing along before you realise the gravity.
The Bad Actors are here for a good time. The music is energetic, the message is bright. They’ve already begun painting the town orange and do not intend to stop.