Toss your Friday night plans out the door. The party you were planning on going to isn’t worth it. All the cool kids are headed down to the local supermarket to hang out with Billy Davis and go rollerskating through the grocery aisles.
No, Billy Davis is not an individual icon of blossoming popularity as the music video may suggest. Upwards of nine members make up the band of misfit Australians, the direction of which is guided by the band’s brainchild William Rimington. Remington, who can be seen rollerskating in the black top hat throughout the video, has been understandably elated since the booming success of his band’s first label-backed single “No Longer Lovers.” He explained his excitement and the verbal battery endured along his road to success to the Australian publication Howl and Echoes, telling them “One of the things that sort of set me onto Billy Davis was a bunch of musicians actually putting me down and saying, ‘Bro you defs don’t have talent you’ll never be like those guys Internet, or Anderson .Paak, or Hiatus, you just ain’t good enough.’ So now being compared, and having had the pleasure of doing things with those homies, it’s so weird and humbling.”
Billy Davis puts the neo in neoclassical with a new age spin on a time-honored funk/soul style that’s received a much needed revival in recent years. The band’s approach counteracts the separative nature promoted in “No Longer Lovers,” as its endearing bounciness proves that a universally embraceable groove is best shared as a group. Even in the face of a lyrically spiteful breakup, great friends are an easy and supportive cushion to fall back in.
Billy Davis’ first full-length album A Family Portrait is out on the market as of September 1st, 2017 and is available to stream on your favorite streaming site in all its neo-funky goodness.