Confidence Man: 'All We Ever Want To Do Is Throw A Party And Make People Feel Good'

Staking a claim on Glastonbury turf to the point where returning to the storied festival site has a “homecoming” feel about it seems like a pretty good marker of success for any band, especially one far from their origins.

This is what Sugar Bones, one leading half of Brisbane rave-pop four-piece Confidence Man – imparts after slaying on the festival’s Other Stage earlier this year, following their first stint in 2022. In typical Confidence Man fashion, their set was a choreographed, frenetic spectacle, dispatched with their trademark irreverent delivery.

“Glastonbury has just been amazing for us because it's the environment that we thrive in, and it’s drawn a lot of attention to us that we wouldn't normally have gotten. It just feels like home in a weird way now.”

When Australia first met Sugar Bones and his lead offsider Janet Planet – fronting their production backbone and forever-masked bandmates Reggie Goodchild and Clarence McGuffie – it was 2016. Emerging from respective stints in other Brisbane bands like The Belligerents and The Jungle Giants with avant-garde moves and silhouette styling from the steam and smoke of the city’s club scene – coupled with the punch-in-the-face energy not unlike what crowds the world over are used to seeing now – Confidence Man immediately hit left of centre.

The music was upbeat, playful, and by their own admission, for fun times; even in 2018, their debut Confident Music For Confident People decreed their penchant for partying (“7 hours later I'm still up / I can't really see us sleeping” from Out The Window). Early reviews of live shows compared them with ‘90s acts Aqua and Vengaboys and subtly relegated them to this flavour of bargain-bin pop because “they don’t take themselves too seriously”. 

So, did Confidence Man simply have to make sense to overseas crowds first, where offbeat lyrics, DIY choreography and never-ending rave sets were part of the cultural fabric, to ultimately make more sense in Australia? 

“Yeah, kind of, but in some parts of Australia, it was quite easy early on,” Bones argues. 

“Like, we had our first crazy big shows in Melbourne at Meredith Music Festival, but it wasn’t really that similar to the vast majority of the Australian population, which is a bit of a different vibe. 

“We knew that Australia would eventually get it. But early on, we very quickly went over to the UK and did a bunch of stuff, and we saw an even crazier response, and it seemed to be hitting every part of the community there. 

“It's funny, because whoever you seem to annoy with your music, they always get a bit obsessed in a weird way; like there'll be someone on the comments saying ‘it's my third time back today, you guys are so annoying’. They just can't get you out of their head.” 

Back in their adopted London home after another US tour grind (“I don’t think the US shows will ever feel easy, but it’s still early days!”) for a few quick little shows (if one can call five mostly sold-out shows ‘quick’ and ‘little’) on the eve of their third album launch – 3AM (LA LA LA) – and an Australian tour, Bones is tired but you can tell there’s not really an off button for him or the rest of the band.

Even with the new album, promotion duties and a fresh round of touring on his doorstep, he just wants to jump back in and get writing the next one. If it’s anything like the process of writing their latest (cocktails mixed with late nights that turned into early mornings), it’s little wonder Bones is keen.

But surely, given Confidence Man’s rave-always reputation, 3AM (LA LA LA) can’t be the only album they’ve written while drunk?

“Well, not really, no,” Bones laughs. 

“But we only really figured out the great system of just writing in that sort of way, doing the all-night party and having the first spark of creation for the songs at that 3 am mark. 

“I think we've always written songs late at night and messed around for years and years and years, just writing songs whenever we're drunk, when we're not drunk, daytime, nighttime, whatever. 

“When we were in the studio writing and working, it was game-face on, and we weren’t getting wasted or anything like that. After the first night of it, we were like, ‘Oh yeah, this can definitely work’. And, of course, you have to go back in a mindset, and make everything nice and put it all together properly. 

“But for that first spark, we just realised that it worked really well, and we could basically do a whole album like that. And I think probably for the next one or two, we'll probably do the exact same thing because it works really well for us.”

That’s not to say that Bones and Janet Planet laid down 100% perfect and polished tracks every night (“Oh yeah, there was a lot of stuff that didn’t make it”), but what stayed lyrically and sonically reflects the band’s recent relocation to the UK.

Immersed in the ancestral home of gritty club raves instilled 3AM (LA LA LA)’s production with sexy, sultry acid techno, Euphoria-inspired trance, breakbeat and big beat (and even some Nine Inch Nails vibes on industrial-gospel track Sicko, on which Bones’s seductive vocals take centre stage).

One thing is obvious by the fresh vigour in Bones’ voice and features when he talks about the creation of the new album and its birthplace during the band’s UK decampment: whatever cynicism or criticisms you throw at Confidence Man henceforth on their journey to the even deeper and more depraved parts of their wild wonderland is only going to fuel their fire. 

“All we ever want to do is throw a party and make people dance and feel good,” Bones admits. 

“Seeing the sort of extreme reactions that we can create in people - whether they're good or bad, or whether they absolutely love us or are really aggressively angry about it - it's just exciting to get a response out of people. 

“If you can stir people into feeling something, then we're happy. And whatever box people want to put us in, or how they want to position us in their minds, we really don't care because we're just doing our job, and that's making people feel something.” 

3AM (LA LA LA) is out now via I OH YOU. Confidence Man’s Australian tour begins next week - you can find last-minute tickets here.