FEATURE:
Spotlight
Getdown Services
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AS we look towards…
PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles
next year, a lot of websites will share their tips of the artists we need to follow. You know that Getdown Services will feature highly. I discovered the duo recently and know that they are ready for massive things. A Bristol-based duo consisting of Josh Law and Ben Sadler, Getdown Services make craft incredible, satirical music about modern British life. They released their debut album, Crisps, in 2023. They were recently nominated for the Play Next award by Rolling Stone UK, alongside other amazing rising artists like Jacob Alon and Rianne Downey. Quite a few of the interviews with Getdown Services are from earlier in the year. However, I think that it is relevant and will give us a good idea of who they are and why you need to follow them. Let’s begin with an introduction from last year:
“The pair originally started the group as an attempt to escape the drudgery of their everyday circumstances, but with a burgeoning cult fandom behind them, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before they land in the big time.
What is it about a Getdown Services show that people have really taken to?
Ben: Well, do you remember when you were younger and you were watching Dick & Dom in da Bungalow? I will make this comparison. You see blokes who seem to have absolutely no dignity or self worth at all, chucking mushy peas at a load of kids? I think we touch a similar sort of thing.
I think you’ve just given me the headline there, lads…
Josh: It’s true! We do get it a lot and I think that gigs can actually be quite awkward environments. They’re quite tense and it’s an unnatural way of interacting with people. There’s someone there, you’re just kinda watching them and the way we enjoy it is to let loose and try to make each other laugh. That’s a big thing because that can give permission to other people to let loose a little bit. I’m not putting ourselves down here, I think that’s what people like sometimes more than the music itself. I think it’s just a bit of an excuse to be completely stupid for about half an hour and people who are quite tense will continue to be like that if the band’s nervous too.
Ben: I think you’re right. It’s an unnatural way to enjoy it too. A play is one long story not to be interrupted, but with people you should let people do their thing. What’s really nice for me is looking out and most of the time people are grinning. They’re having a nice time in those 45 minutes and they come away thinking, well, something happened!
Josh: When we started playing live early on it became quite obvious that this was a thing about us trying to make each other laugh, really. And that’s how the recording started and the whole thing felt ridiculous. It started to feel like, well, if other people can get something out of it then everyone’s a winner. We can have a good time and so can they. Even if people don’t enjoy it, I think they secretly do a bit!
And does all this fit into the mantra of your Instagram bio, which simply reads Britain’s Best Band…
Josh: Haha, well I was thinking about that the other day. We should probably change that, because when we made the page we just thought we’d put it because it was funny and nobody was paying attention. We weren’t even really paying attention to what we were doing and it’s just stayed there since day one. We’re obviously not Britain’s best band, but also we kind of are?
Ben: If you make yourself invincible and untouchable, then you know, then no one can take you down a peg or two!
You’ve spoken before about the thread of escapism within your music too – what is the importance of that for you?
Josh: Yeah, especially with our last album Crisps, which reflected a sense of drudgery, boredom and dissatisfaction.
Ben: But with our latest EP we’ve been on the road and it was written a lot while we were away, so everyday life isn’t the same as it was. We’re playing shows and getting to do this amazing thing. It sort of rubs off on you a little bit, feeling quite lucky”.
Even though they got a lot of focus earlier in the year and were being tipped for success as a new act, I think they will also get a lot of new attention. A duo that can also define 2026. As their sound has changed and they have developed as a duo, that will attract and intrigue a lot of new websites. DIY inducted Getdown Services into their Class of 2025:
“It feels like with the music, we can get our creative stuff out, and then with the lyrics it’s getting our mental health problems out. They’re completely disjointed; they’re not the same thing,” he continues. “We’re genuinely out of our depth when it comes to vocals so we’re trying to keep it as honest as we can. If you don’t know what you’re doing it’s hard to know if what you’re doing is good, but you do know if you’ve been honest or not. So that’s a good test: I don’t know if it was good but I know it was honest and that’s all I can do.”
It’s this lack of formality or box-ticking that’s perhaps the duo’s best quality. Though there have been no lack of young alternative groups railing at the state of things in recent years, Getdown Services operate somewhere between the surreal observations of Dry Cleaning, the sweary annoyance of Sleaford Mods, and two blokes in a pub putting the world to rights. Some of their songs talk about landlords and gentrification, but they also talk about telly and snacks and poo. “I don’t think anything political in our music is trying to achieve anything beyond vocalising how we feel,” shrugs Josh. “Anything political is political by chance because it comes under the umbrella of things that bother us.”
As the momentum around the band has increased, however, so has an inclination to somewhat level up – albeit in their own way. Though the beauty of a Getdown Services live show is in its chaos, the two friends want it to be chaos of the good kind. “We want to respect the people giving us their time and money so we’re taking it more seriously, whereas before we were a bit more throwaway and didn’t really give a fuck about any of it,” says Josh. “There are people that like what we do, so let’s try and make it good. That’s how much the ambition has grown: let’s try and be a good band.”
They suggest that their new material – the next steps on after both ‘Crisps’ and this winter’s ‘Your Medal’s In The Post’ EP – is taking the band down a route that’s “a bit more personal, maybe less humour”. “But there is a song where Josh shouts a quote from Planet of the Apes…” Ben caveats. “Yeah it does feel a bit ridiculous to say that this new stuff’s all serious and then the first song is us shouting like monkeys, but it’s definitely changed!” his bandmate says.
Yet whether lyrically serious or silly (and given their subsequently-dropped festive single ‘Dr. Christmas’, we’d gauge they haven’t entirely moved over to the former camp), you sense that Getdown Services will always be in it for the right reasons. “People can make their own minds up, but for us it’s just a way to enjoy something we like doing together anyway: taking the piss, making each other laugh, and doing music,” says Ben. “So we’re just doing that, but putting it on a stage”.
I want to take a slight detour and include a fairly recent interview from Guitar for Idiots. They spoke with Getdown Services’ Josh Dunn about the duo’s kit. How important the guitar is in terms of their sound and live performances. If you have not investigated this wonderful two-piece, then do make sure you do some investigation:
“Matt Dunn: The first one is about the role of guitar in Getdown Services, who I think of as a genre-bending band. Where is the guitar in your creative process?
Josh Law: When the band started, we started this band just about 4 years ago. Guitar has been my main instrument my whole life, but when we started the band I was kind of sick of guitar. The band started as a way to try and do something different. I was always into garage rock bands, I liked the White Stripes and stuff like that. But I was just sick of the whole guitar world for a little bit. So for a lot of the stuff the guitar was just kind of begrudgingly in there. I don’t really know how to play any other instruments, we do all the recording ourselves, so we have a go at everything. But I have to get the guitar in because it’s the only one I know how to play.
But just over a year and a half ago something happened. I started playing guitar live, the guitar came out and I was like I really like this. There’s something about the context of this band that made me feel more free. I didn’t feel so constrained by blues rock. It’s kind of become the main instrument now. When we write new music now, the guitar’s the main one. The thinking with the guitar playing now is a bit more, how can we take this recognizable form of guitar playing, and how we can we put that in a context where it doesn’t feel so familiar.
MD: I had noticed that you were playing pretty affordable guitars, but in the gear world right now there’s real romanticism around using cheap gear again and trashy gear again, like the new JHS pedal based on the Tascam. But you seem to live in this reality, do you use a laptop? An amp? Pedals?
JL: Recently I downloaded my first amp simulator. I use Ableton, I was always kind of against using it, this is a free one, I think called “Build Your Own Distortion” but occasionally I’ve got a Roland JC, the most clean amp ever, as everyone knows. I record out of that sometimes, I record a lot of bass out of that.
One of the reasons I don’t use equipment was because when the band started I had fallen out of love with the guitar. I’d had quite a big pedal collection, I was playing psychedelic rock, like everyone did in the mid 2010s. I’d realized when I’m watching bands and the guy’s just fiddling with pedals, it’s the most frustrating thing to see. I sold everything, all my amps, everything, with no intention of starting a band. Then this band started happening and I’ve got to figure out a way to record guitars somehow”.
I am wrapping up with PRS for Music and their interview with Getdown Services. Conducted back in the summer, it was festival season. The duo talking about touring and the importance of getting their music out to fans. A tremendous group/duo live, if you get the chance to see them play then do:
“We try to focus on making sure we’re in the right headspace to give it the beans every time we play live. It can be tricky to balance all your needs while you’re on tour: often you don’t sleep enough and spend a lot more time being social than you might usually. Because of this, we like to shoehorn in alone time and make an effort to be nice to each other and everyone we meet. Red Bull, eating vegetables, not drinking too much, crying in the car and remembering the sheer power of rocking out all helps when you’re on the road.
‘We go into gigs with an attitude of wanting to engage everyone in the room, whether or not they like us — our music is almost secondary. We’re letting off steam and, in doing so, hopefully giving people permission to switch off and do the same. We’re forcing the audience to pay attention for their own good during our live shows. Even if they hate the entire performance, we’d bet money they feel better than if they’d spent that same time just scrolling on their phone.
‘Smaller towns that don’t get as many touring bands coming through always have a different vibe to somewhere like London, where the audience are spoiled for choice. Playing in bigger cities can sometimes feel like you’re performing at a networking event for industry people as much as you are playing an actual gig. Showcase events themselves can feel like a bit of a drag, but whenever we play them we try to focus on getting the people there to stop chatting and let loose a bit, like we do with all our shows. We’re aware that there’s something really funny about the arrogance of us playing at a showcase event and belittling industry people while we’re playing. Having said that, they do serve a purpose that isn’t solely cynical, and we’ve met some really nice people at those kinds of events.
'It’s always exciting playing in new places, especially if it’s somewhere we don’t necessarily feel like we’re an obvious fit. I think being in situations like that gives us extra energy which hopefully makes the performance more engaging. It’s all in the name of fun!
‘We go into gigs with an attitude of wanting to engage everyone in the room, whether or not they like us — our music is almost secondary.'
‘Playing live is definitely the pinnacle of being a musician in terms of sharing your music with other people. Social media engagement and streams don’t make a dent on the feeling you get from playing a gig. When it comes to songwriting, we occasionally factor in how something will work live more than we used to because we play live so much. Lyrically, though, it’s often detached from the world of touring”.
The duo are currently touring the U.K. and Europe, and most of the shows seem to be sold out. They are back in the U.K. at the very end of the year and have dates in the diary for next year. Crumbs 2 is their latest E.P., and it that was released on 5th November. Maybe their finest release yet, I am excited to see what comes next! Make sure Getdown Services are on your radar, as Josh Law and Ben Sadler are a duo…
YOU need to know.
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