Bite The Boxer (UK) (darkwave/dark ambient) – The Noise Beneath The Snow

Bite The Boxer is the UK-based project led by Matt Park. According to the project’s Bandcamp page, the bands music is “Dark, visceral, yet somehow comforting. Reminiscent of the classic Bristol sound but with gritty textures and tones of industrial and cinematic soundscapes. The latest single is “Venom Test”. We’re grateful to Matt for answering our questions today!

Hello and thanks for answering our interview. Could you introduce Bite the Boxer to our readers with a brief background?

It started just before lockdown as sketches for a band. I had some rough recordings and was looking for musicians but because I live in the middle of nowhere, finding them was difficult. Then, covid happened and I taught myself music production and realised that I could do everything myself (in theory, anyway). I’ve put out a lot of music under ‘BiteThe Boxer’ and it came in many different forms but it all had its roots and influences in dark 80s. But also bringing in elements from previous bands and music that I’ve been in,
such as punk, metal and minimal electronica.

The latest single is “Venom Test” Could you give us some detail regarding the story behind the song and the inspiration?

It was inspired by a look around an abandoned building, parts of it had been completely ripped apart and destroyed, then through a door it looked like nothing had happened, as if people just left one day and never returned. In the song there are pure, simple and even beautiful sounds that are left as they were in some sections but distorted and mangled in other sections. I also took that loud/quiet dynamic from my punk
background.

Are your songs created mostly the same way or does the process differ for different tracks?

They often come about in very different ways, but it usually stems from experimentation. I’m fascinated by sampling and taking a simple sound and turning it into something completely different. Quite often I can hear a sound and imagine what kind of riff would work best with it and then songs get built around that one sound.

Your music really seems to be a unique hybrid of styles.. darkwave/dark ambient. We’re curious about the different kinds of influences you might have.

I very rarely listen to a piece of music or an artist and think “I want to do that”. I just play with sounds until I like them. When I’m not working on music, I listen to a lot of film soundtracks but also dark gothic 80s music but then flip to 90s trip hop and then toindustrial metal. Somehow, they all get mashed up in my head and come out as a Bite The Boxer song.

Bite the Boxer is quite the unique name, especially for this kind of music. Where exactly does it come from?

When I started the project I didn’t know where it was going and I was open to go wherever it would lead me, so I wanted a name that didn’t sound like a genre and had no real meaning. I liked the ambiguity of it but also the aggression. I’ve seen a few interpretations of it over the last 5 years and they could all be right. Is it a reference to Mike Tyson? Is it someone that puts things in boxes? Is it a play on the journalist 101 lesson of “dog bites a person isn’t a news story, but a man bites a dog is something to write about”? I don’t know.

Have you ever done any kind of work on soundtracks for films/short films or any other mediums? Would you?

I am very much open to that idea. And that’s the beauty of being a solo producer and being independent, I can do what I want. Someone once challenged me to re-score an old, creepy stop motion film called ‘Hearts and Flowers’. That was a lot of fun to do and is on my youtube channel. It’s quite different to my usual sound but I am very proud of it.

What’s next for Bite the Boxer Any special plans? Videos? Tours?

The new album Haunted Remains Pt 2 is out on 31st October. After that I will probably find some more old films to re-score and work on the next batch of songs.

How do you feel about the use of AI for videos in our community? Has it already taken over and gone too far?

AI is a great tool if used in moderation but I think it has gone too far but perhaps that’s part of the process to find the comfortable middle ground. With the easy access to decent cameras (albeit on phones), free editing software and hours of YouTube tutorials, I can’t see a reason why people would use ai for video production, it’s just lazy.

These last words are yours. Thanks for your time.

Thanks for reading and for listening. If you like my music, or the music of any independent artist, please consider buying it on platforms such as bandcamp. It really supports the artist in a way that streaming platforms never will.

Buy/Stream “Venom Test”:

https://bitetheboxer.bandcamp.com/track/venom-test