Ones to Watch: Bureau De Change
The fresh four piece UK based Post Punk group Bureau De Change are making waves in the local scene with their fun and rambunctious yet serious politically charged music, which continues to sound fresh and original in such a usually oversaturated music genre.
We caught them for their debut London headline show at The Shaklewell Arms in Hackney last month where we were treated to an explosion of the rebellious and silly spirit they embrace so well.
The night started with Great Silkie, who opened the stage and warmed the audience with slow and grungy blankets of sound. With meandering melodies and chunky basslines their whole set swallowed the room in an aura of longing and nostalgia. All accumulating into a finale of noise, thrashy drums and melodies, that once meandered, instead screaming with distortion - Creating a sundae of shoegaze atmospheric beauty.
Following, Belgian self described “Noisy pot-purrii” group, Marcel took to the stage, thrusting the crowd into energetic and silly post punk glory. Mixing genres like reggae and utilising a whole arsenal of obscure instruments including an Otamatone, a Kazoo and even Maracas making their set especially memorable. They brought the energy and the silliness perfectly warming up the crowd for the headline act and for their second show ever in the UK, they definitely made an impression on us.
Then came the main event, Bureau De Change, lighting up the stage with their ferocious distorted guitar riffs and harsh heavy handed drums, they took to the stage with their unreleased single “half an inch”. Utilizing dissonance and lyrics that unapologetically fought against the patriarchy, politics and every day frustrations. Bureau De Change gives a voice to humanities frustrations and the crowd reflected it. With each song that passed the crowd moved more and more, starting with one two stepper by the end of the set half of the venue became a pit that (the lead vocalist) Flora wasn’t afraid to embrace. The energy of the room was electric, angry, yet elating and warm.
Between each song, the crowd felt like a community orchestrated with charismatic jokes lead by Flora, between humorous lyrics & mosh pits - a sense of kinship formed within the room between the band and all that attended, that felt fun and all inclusive.
One of the many standouts for the night was “Office chair”, which the band described as “.. the repetitive nature of working day in, day out for a paycheck and the bizarre implementation of office politics and lexicon. Nothing is more frustrating than being taken to an office ‘forced fun Friday’; Office Chair is a ballad to those sitting in the corner, looking at their watch and waiting for 5:30 to come.”
Their latest release “Marriage”, which released this last friday was soon up on the setlist, it talks about the lead singer Flora’s frustrations & pressures with everyday life, a repeating line saying “all my friends are getting married, and I…” shows her stark comparison to her friends, with all of this highlighted by the manic sounding instrumental backing.
Resistance Single Cover
This all culminated to the epic finale “Resistance”, really leaning into their post-punk style, whilst providing that push of existential dread, the whole song is a wider comment on the way that the world sucks, and how resistance to the status quo, can be empowering and almost joyful. Interestingly, the song structure displayed a clear progression, starting with the never-endingness of the passage of time, moving into the Overwhelming everything and the endless void of dread, then Hope, found in act of resistance, being the answer to feeling a sense of paralysis. With the cover being a clear stance on feminism and fighting against the patriarchy.
We managed to catch up with the band prior to their set and get a few questions in; we asked them to introduce themselves, and tell us about who Bureau De Change are:
"Hi, this is Flora, one quarter of Bureau De Change! Your new favourite post punk band. We’ve been a band for about two years now, we met a while ago whilst I was promoting the boys previous band. Then a couple of years later, they reached out and asked if I’d join them on this project, thus, Bureau de Change was born!”
What out of your discography is the song(s) you’re most excited to playing live & why?
“To be honest, the most exciting stuff to play is the unreleased stuff at the moment. We go back into the studio in January and I can’t wait to get an album into the world in 2026. However, I do always love to sing ‘The Potters Wheel’.”
What can we expect coming up for Bureau De Change?
“A busy year, a couple of tours and shows are on the cards now! Hoping to really jump into the festival circuit this summer!”
What would you’re dream gig/venue/festival be to play in the future and why?
“Left of the Dial, (winks) call us!”
At Feats. We’ve always got one penultimate question for our interviews - If you could Feature anyone (dead or alive) on a track who would it be and why?
“The answer for this to me will always be Florence Welch. Especially now they are rocking this new, Nick Cave meets PJ Harvey vibe. Imagine getting some Florence esc wails over some heavy drops, that would be absolutely chefs kiss”
And finally - Where can we find you? (Next gig, social media call out ect.)
“Catch us in Bristol at on Mono on the 1st of November, then catch us all over Europe from the 6th-17th November. All the usual, follow us on Instagram @bureaudechange band, buy our songs on bandcamp or stream em, contact us via smoke signal.”
