Live at Getösefestival / photo copyright: @nvrwalkalonelp (Dirk)
On Sunday 8th November at 3pm, Batbait will be performing at Stall6 in the Gessnerallee in Zurich as part of the concert series from the association Ohren auf!. The goal behind the concept is to give kids and families the possibility of going to concerts from Swiss artists whose target audience isn’t children.
In any case, I think it’s a wonderful initiative and I hope to see Batbait with my daughter for her very first concert. I am very excited to show her more about my passion for live music and the Swiss music scene. The Zurich-based quartet will also be a great starting point mixing the experimental guitar parts and effects with the catchier side to their music. It’s also going to be great to show my daughter that rock music isn’t exclusively for men either.
Batbait are also one of my favourite bands since starting the blog and they have appeared regularly on it - I interviewed them in the summer of 2025 shortly before Working In The Garden came out, featured them in many playlists and collected some of their merchandise.
Live at Getösefestival / photo copyright: @nvrwalkalonelp (Dirk)
During the summer of 2025, I saw the band for the first time at Stolze Openair (along side Mord Fuzztang and Mount Jacinto). One of my memories of the concert is that the first two to three rows of the crowd near the stage were mainly children enjoying themselves during the show jumping up and down to the music. I guess someone from Ohren auf! must have been there too!
I was also curious about the band’s organisation and thoughts about the upcoming concert. How do you prepare for such a concert? Would there be many changes to the regular performance? Are children ready for the harsh realities that Batbait often sing about? I would like to thank Gianna (and Batbait) for their replies to my questions!
How have you been since the last interview? What have you been up to?
2025 we've been touring quite a lot, we did a tour with 24 shows last year and still keep going. However, this year we needed a bit of time to slow down, started writing new songs and we wanted to reflect a bit about the future. The intense touring years (beside our jobs) bring up the necessity to talk about touring health and handling life challenges so I think 2026 this was the big subject. Exchanging our needs always takes us back to the base of our friendship and the love and care for each other and I feel like investing in this relationship ist so valuable to us as a band.
We just released some live videos from a show last year and now we're planning the tour next year. We want to play more shows in 2027 again, release some music but also we're working with people who will fill in from time to time so there will be some super cute new live constellations too!
Live at Schokoladen Berlin / photo copyright: Adrien Bossa
How does it feel to be a part of children's concert series? What are your thoughts about making music more accessible to kids?
We're happy to be part of that format, we're always curious about new settings and connecting to kids at a concert is always very entertaining as they react very differently: some are there to party and some are very concentrated and also fascinated. I think it will be great to observe that.
I am a music kid as well and I feel like showing kids different possibilities, especially underrepresented forms of making music is very important to even ignite the idea of playing an instrument themselves or being loud and confident as a girl etc. I hope they will feel our energy and passion for playing together and be inspired by it.
Live at Blechschloss Dresden / photo copyright: Anica-Li Arnecke
I guess someone must have seen your performance at Stolze Openair festival? What are your memories of that show?
I was really sick and a bit nervous about it since i was coughing all the time and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to sing. Luckily the adrenaline handled the situation. We had fun trying out the new songs though. But I immediately lost my voice and went to bed after the show so to be honest, I don't have many recollections of that show and what happened around it.
What do you have planned for the concert? Would you make any changes to the songs?
I think we have to get a little bit out of our comfort zone as we are not really the type of band that animates the crowd very actively or talks about the songs much. So we'll try to give some insight to the songs and we have some interactive elements in mind to engage physically with the songs or try to set the moods a bit. We probably won't make big changes to the songs themselves but the selection might change a bit, maybe some oldies will be integrated into the concert hehe.
Do you think the children are ready for the disappointing future according to Batbait (high rent, flats falling apart, relationship difficulties)?
Honestly, I hope they don't bother that much about it yet haha. Luckily most of our songs have some ironic twist or some hopefulness to them but in the end I'm not sure how much they understand of it anyway so I think it will be more about the vibe than the content.
What are your expectations and wishes for the show?
I was surprised that the show is supposed to take about an hour haha, I think there will be a lot of different phases in concentration and fascination and patience with the kids which will be interesting to observe. Of couse I hope that we can inspire some kids to the idea of playing music with friends and light the urge within them to be creative in the future!
Links:
Related articles: