Latvia’s country rock band B/H (previously known as Bad Habits) are back in the hunt to represent Latvia at Eurovision and will perform in the semi-final of Supernova this Saturday.

Lead singer, Martins Balodis took some time out of the band’s super busy schedule to chat to us about their entry ‘Amsterdam’ and what they have been up to since we last saw them on the Supernova stage back in 2020 – here is what they shared with us:

Joe: Firstly welcome back to the competition, and congratulations for making the list for this year’s Supernova!. The first thing we noticed when the list was released is that the band have had a re-brand from Bad Habits to B/H. Is there a reason you decided to make that change?

Martins: The reason why we decided to change the name of our band Bad Habits to initials B/H is simple. The answer is that if we would stick to Bad Habits, we would risk being sued by a band who already uses that name and they have all the rights to do that. We understand it, because we were given the bands name by people (our listeners) and we never thought or checked whether somewhere in the world there might be another band with the same name.  Our fans still knows us as Bad Habits, but if we appear somewhere, unfortunately we have to call ourselves B/H.

Joe:  Back in 2020 you gave us a country/rock anthem in ‘Sail With You’ (I can hardly believe it has been four years, the time goes so fast and the world has changed so much since then) – what have you been up to in the last four years?

Martins: Time flies fast since the last Supernova we were in. Yes, the world has been changed since then, but we keep doing what we love to do. We are writing songs, we are presenting them, we are busy with concerts, we have a couple of new videos and beside that, we just finished touring around Latvia with a special concert programme (it was our first tour ever)!

Joe: Your song this time ‘Amsterdam’ has more of a country pop feel to it.  It would be good to hear in your own words what the message is in the song and what inspired you to write it?

Martins: Our latest song Amsterdam is absolutly different from a music what we usually make. If i may say:” It’s not our style of music.” But from the other hand we are always open to new ideas and sound.

Joe: And why did you decide to enter it into the competition?, has it always been on your minds to come back or did it just feel right with this song.

Martins: So i wrote the song. I had a catchy melody in my head which would suit the lyrics. We met up with the band, started to play it once, two times, three times…and it sounded already good enough, so we thought, that if this song is something different for us, we should try to get to Supernova and show it to a bigger audience and maybe someone would feel the same groove and beat what we do. Here we are!

Joe: 2024 has had a very busy start for you.  You’ve just been touring, and finished the tour just last weekend, and then go straight into the live shows for Supernova this week!.  How has everything gone with the tour and how easy was it to manage all the preparations and plans for Supernova at the same time?.

Martins: This is funny. I was on vacation and when I came back on the 5th of January, we all heard it from the news that we are “In” Supernova. Yes, we finished our tour, but still we had to prepare for our last concert that happened just a couple of days ago and preparing for Supernova at the same time….takes a lot of time. At the moment we are managing to do it all. We’re even taking dancing lessons at the moment for Amsterdam to one of the best choreographers in Latvia (Līga Liberte) so it will be worth to watch it live already on Saturday.

Joe: In the tour you visited a number of great venues across Latvia, are there any plans to take the show a little further to other parts of Europe perhaps.  Maybe…. Well…. Amsterdam perhaps?.  And of course Malmo…

Martins: We would love to go and perform anywhere, where we are getting invited, so the future will show where these mysterious ways of music are taking us. Of course I would love to come back to Amsterdam and before that – Malmo.

Joe: What else might 2024 have in store for you?  With the tour out of the way, will you be back in the studio recording more new music? What else can we expect to see from you?

Martins: Well – straight after this interview, i will be running straight to the studio, where we are recording a new song today. So far it’s my number one favourite song that I have written in Latvian, so I can’t wait to record it. Future plans? Work, work, work and to record an album.

Joe: We can’t wait to hear the song, but in the meantime we will keep streaming Amsterdam an will be looking out for the choreo on Saturday!.  Thanks so much for speaking to us, and best of luck in the competition! 

You can listen to Amsterdam right here:

What do you think of Amsterdam?, would you like to see B/H in the final of Supernova?, You can still vote for your favourites in our poll right here:

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