How well do The Bots know each other?
- Text by Alex Robert Ross
Brotherly love is an odd thing.
As far as we can tell it seems to be an odd hybrid of an incomparable understanding between two people and ruthless physical violence otherwise unmatched in civilised society. But what if all the punch-ups and pranks were channelled somewhere else? Take, for example, rock ‘n’ roll, the great driving force of adolescent aggression – if brothers spent more time losing their shit to that, maybe things would be better. Maybe Peter Hitchens wouldn’t be such a callous imbecile if young Christopher had bought him a bass and formed a ska band around him. Maybe David and Ed could have formed some sort of Mili-band rather than sparring in politics. Enter Anaiah and Mikaiah Lei, better known as the Californian duo The Bots.
They’ve played together since they were nine and 12 respectively, self-releasing a slew of EPs before being picked up by a major. They’ve toured the world many times over and lived together since birth. Which made us wonder just how well they know each other. We decided to put that to the test backstage before their recent headline spot at the Camden Barfly, pitting sibling against sibling in some sort of cruel, potentially family-destroying fraternal challenge.
The Bots’ latest album ‘Pink Palms’ is out now.
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