Kero Kero Bonito’s ambition is to make music that they enjoy themselves. This goal sets a standard, and is a starting place to ensure that their ever expanding audience is given a good product. Because the band understands the machinations of digital culture, they have encouraged the extrapolation of their music by their fans; 2014’s Flamingo (now at half a million Shazams) and I’d Rather Sleep both became TikTok hits in the past two years and garner over a million streams per month. It’s Bugsnax!, a theme for a PS5 launch game, was heralded as “the internet’s new favourite meme ingredient” by GamesRadar. Time ’n’ Place topped the Billboard Heatseekers chart in the USA and in 2019 they played a sold out tour of North America. More recently they’ve appeared on live stream events with A.G. Cook, 100 Gecs, FADER’s Digital FORT, and SPF420.
Much like the maverick artists they relish, from Prince to Paul Weller, they keep everything in house, from production to artwork, ensuring that they have control over their output. They want to be known for being unpredictable, combining rules to create fantastical new outcomes that reshape the pop culture landscape. And through escaping the humdrum of the suburbs and challenging the status quo, they have done exactly that.
