Band Meeting with boci

2nd April 2025 Peter Shearn

Do you mind that boci is also the name of that chocolate that no-one likes very much?

I haven’t tried boci chocolate…is it the Hungarian one? I know that in South Africa ‘boci’ is used as a term of endearment, meaning little deer. And in Hungarian it means baby cow. And it also stands for Bank of China International. None of these are the reason I call myself boci. The origin story is; I lived in a very special house of 5 women for 3 years and they called me ‘boci’ as a nickname. It made me feel loved so I stuck with it.

Actually I just googled it and the chocolates are called Baci – so scratch that!

You’re classically trained on the violin? Where did you study?

I didn’t go to Uni. I learnt violin from the age of 4 and completed all the classical grades throughout school. After that, I moved to Bristol at the age of 18 and started learning different playing styles from the local musicians. Especially folk!

The dreaded genre question – how would you describe your music?

I change how I describe my music quite regularly. It doesn’t really fit into the box of one genre. Then I end up using a 6 barrelled, made-up genre to describe it. Which maybe means I am a confused person. It takes a lot of influence from contemporary and traditional folk, indie folk, dream folk, alt-pop and psychedelic folk. There’s also prog and folk rock influence in there too. My music is basically a culmination of all the music I’ve listened to and have played with other people, funnelled into my brain and eXpelled as a multicoloured miss-mash of it all.

We’ve been listening to scenes from uniXia on a loop and loving it… Talking of loops – what got you into looping and why?

Ahh yay I’m so happy you are enjoying it! That means a lot. Ooh yes loops, I basically started looping because I didn’t have a band and wanted to create a fuller sound. It’s a great way to create fuller arrangements by yourself. I use my trusty RC-300 (which is basically vintage gear at this point) and make loops that I can sing, play and improvise over.

Does playing live make you free or does it give you the heebie-jeebies?

I love playing live. It’s the place where I feel most liberated. I get nervous but that only makes the experience more exciting. It’s like a dare from the universe or something….

You’re coming to play The Barrel House, you’ve played there before right?

Yes, I played there as part of my first ever headline band tour in 2023. It’s one of my all-time favourite venues. I feel so welcomed by the people of Totnes and the atmosphere at the gigs I’ve done at the Barrel House has always been electric. Christian (who runs some of the gigs there) is an absolute legend as well.

Do you enjoy the process of recording and do you collaborate or is this a dictatorship?

Recording is a weird one…in some ways I love it. I love building songs and the process of layering and experimenting and bringing something to life. But I also find it difficult..as a perfectionist it can be easy to never feel happy with what you’ve recorded, especially when you have limited time in the studio there can be quite a lot of pressure on it all. I’m very grateful that some very generous people lent me microphones for the vocals and violin tracking on this album, so I could do it in my own time.

I collaborate a lot, and have worked with some incredible musicians on this album (Rob Pemberton, Archie Churchill-Moss, t l k, Emmy the Harp). ‘boci’ is first and foremost a solo project though. But I love it when people come along for the ride!

What’s the difference between a violin and a fiddle?

Nothing!

Bristol has an amazing music scene but which is better on a cloudy day, Clevedon or Weston Super Mare?

Haha great question. I’d have to say Weston Super-Mare…it just has a special place in my heart. You can walk along the expansive flat beach for miles and miles with your chips. If you’re into swimming on cloudy days though, Clevedon marine lake is probably better. I think you basically have to wade out to Wales before it’s deep enough to swim at Weston Super Mare.

Whilst staying within a definitive style there’s a distinct range of textures and dynamics on scenes from uniXia, is that a conscious thing?

It’s more just what happened as the album evolved. I created a lot of these songs with my band in mind so many of the arrangements reflect this. Each song/piece on the album also paints a “scene” from my world “uniXIa”…looking into the eye of a giant spider, being carried along a magical river by benevolent faeries.. a giant, white cloud spirit emerging from the sky…. so I suppose the arrangements reflect how diverse the world is.

The coming tour is quite a jaunt across the UK in a short time – do you enjoy the process of touring?

I do enjoy touring. Playing live is one of my favourite things about doing this whole music thing. I don’t enjoy the driving, the money worries or the organising, but it’s always amazing to be able to go and play my music to lovely people across the country, especially when I have my band with me!. I’m very grateful that I can still tour though – I think for a lot of people it’s become too demanding and unsustainable without a booking agent/label. Artists and venues seem to be struggling a lot at the moment.

The last track of the new album features a full octet creating a very filmic quality – however the song remains fragile and intimate – was that a hard balance?

Thank you, I’m glad that it comes across like this. dreamstar was one of the hardest tracks on the album to get right. It’s the final track of the album, and I consider the last track to be a sort-of bridge to the next album, as well as a way to conclude the story of all the songs before it. I hope I managed to do that with this one.

Originally I wrote dreamstar on guitar, not piano, but I felt piano had more capacity to be both delicate and epic. The drum sound was very organic originally but we settled for a less natural, more lo-fi sound which I think suits the vibe really well. I re-recorded all the vocals many times and added and removed about 100 harmonies. The octet was recorded in St Ambrose Church in Bristol and was made up of local string players. It was such an incredible experience hearing my music played by them…we didn’t have loads of time to record the strings so it’s all a bit of a beautiful blur in my brain. But I think we pulled it off.