For Maria Manow, brutal honesty is the only way she knows how to exist. “Ever since I was a young person, people would always say: ‘She is very painfully honest’, she tells NME. “Sometimes I know that it would be better if I was a bit hidden, but I like that we are so open – and I think people like that too.”
She’s half right. The Poland-born vocalist is part of Bassvictim, and alongside producer Ike Clateman, the London-based duo have ushered in a glorious electroclash renaissance alongside Snow Strippers and The Hellp. Not only are they armed with an ultra-trendy lo-fi, Y2K aesthetic and a fearsome reputation for visceral gigs, they’re also witty (‘Air On A G String’), swaggy (‘Gajówka’) and sincere (‘Curse Is Lifted’). Then there’s the devastating wubs and booms that underpin every single song of theirs – even when Bassvictim make surprise pivots to indie folk and twee pop, as on their recent debut album ‘Forever’.
But Bassvictim’s unfiltered friendship has left fans seriously questioning whether they should even make music together. In a now-deleted Instagram story, Manow posted a photo of her bloody face in September, claiming that Clateman had punched her. They’ve since denied they’re in an abusive friendship, Manow claiming she provoked the fight with digs toward his late father – but days before NME meets them, they admit to Pitchfork that they’ve physically fought before.
There are plenty of people concerned about the nature of their friendship. There’s also 1,200 fans squished inside their sold-out EartH Hall show in London tonight. As NME prepares to speak to the duo, we’re left wondering: what’s in it for Bassvictim?
“I‘m really bad at doing things that I don’t want to do, or doing things that other people tell me to do,” a slouched Clateman tells NME just as Manow enters the green room. “I’ve been fired from every job I’ve had except for this, even though I try! I feel Maria is the same…”
NME have caught Bassvictim on a good day. Manow is breathlessly chatty, pouring herself the occasional shot as Clateman flips his vape, blowing smoke circles and interjecting when necessary. London is home turf for Bassvictim; EartH Hall is just down the road from both the house where Manow made music with her previous band FC Malina, and Clateman’s place.
The pair apparently “immediately disliked” each other when they first met in Berlin; it wasn’t until a second meeting at Peckham Audio that they discovered they’d both attended Goldsmiths and bonded. That night, they made their hit ‘Air On A G String’ and knew they were onto something: “As long as I’ve been producing, I was searching for a personality that was really raw and really human,” Clateman recalls. “As soon as I met Maria, I was like: she’s the one.”
“I feel the same,” Manow says, smiling at him. She agrees the pair “felt so connected to music, in terms of the vibe that we want to be on” – and that involved partying. Manow had already earned her stripes in Berlin with 48-hour benders at Berghain, but Clateman says he hadn’t partied until he met Manow, who became his “key to the city”. Soon, they became partners in crime, frequenting venues in London and eventually forming their ‘Victim of the Bass’ parties around 2023 to play their own music for their friends.
“I was searching for a personality that was really raw and really human. As soon as I met Maria, I was like: she’s the one” – Ike Clateman
But once they put out ‘Air On A G String’, word started spreading outside their circle, fast. Its carefree intro was soundtracking posts from stars like Rebecca Black and Dorian Electra, and fans were eagerly snapping up tickets for their blink-or-miss-it shows. The hype only intensified when Bassvictim dropped nine more dancefloor-ready anthems on their 2024 debut mixtape ‘Basspunk’. In February, they made the NME 100, our list of essential emerging artists, on the strength of music that was “all pleasure, no guilt”.
The pair have continued to deliver almighty basslines while leaning into a more experimental sound. ‘Forever’ demonstrates this the best: Clateman pits his wistful, folky piano samples against grainy, thumping kicks. Manow’s earworms with an edge revel in all facets of life, from processing breakups with soul-bearing screams on ‘Grow Up’ (“And now I’m screaming – why did you accept to leave my life?”) to the joyful yelps expressing her lust for life on ‘Grass Is Greener’ (“The love is always deeper, when you have to fight for it”).
Despite releasing three records in the last year, the duo aren’t content to rest on their laurels: a new album is supposedly in the works. “We love making music, but the purpose of it is towards a way of life that we both share,” Clateman tells us. “For me, it’s about experiencing a lot of things and also having the time and space to learn about myself.”
“Life, it’s exciting – I personally treat it like a game,” Manow adds. “I’m this character, and I just want to max out all the stats. Now, I’m maxing out what it feels like to be a star. It feels exciting to taste all these different things.”
Bassvictim’s relationship with their burgeoning fame is growing complicated. Right now, their status as a cult band is Manow’s “perfect point”. “Any more than that, I’m going to start to feel overwhelmed,” she admits. But that seems to be threatened by how many eyes are watching them. As well as pop stars with their fingers on the pulse, they’ve been on the receiving end of attention from Hollywood stars like Jeremy Allen White, whose shout-out to them prompted Manow’s family to travel and watch them perform tonight.
But there’s also been relentless discourse on social media, wondering how Bassvictim could go any further in music with such significant allegations of violence. Manow has since admonished fans for “gossiping” about the pair, claiming that the speculation was “ruining our freedom”. Today she reiterates that the fight was “a very situational thing”, emphasising that the pair “are not in an abusive relationship”.
In fact, Manow finds the implication that she’s a victim of domestic violence “honestly borderline sexist”. She professes that she actually initiated their first-ever fist-fight, stating plainly: “I punched Ike in his nose. I’m happy to fucking own up because I’m so done with this super sexist mindset of ‘if it’s a girl, she must be a bit weaker, so she must be the one that’s being abused’. Like, hell no… I know how to fucking fight.”
Even so, with such tension in the relationship, why remain friends? “Because we’re best friends,” Clateman says simply. “Best friends make mistakes and we move forward from that.” “In some ways, Ike is like this brother figure that I’ve never had, and siblings fucking fight,” Manow adds. “I feel like we are gonna be in each other’s life forever. When I have children, he’ll definitely be a godfather of my children.” “If either of us felt like the situation was abusive or toxic to the point where we couldn’t move on from mistakes and learn from things, we would end it,” Clateman concludes. “We’re adults.”
“I personally treat life like a game. I’m this character, and I just want to max out all the stats. Now, I’m maxing out what it feels like to be a star” – Maria Manow
Bassvictim’s commitment to honesty is polarising. Their rawness seeps into their music, invigorates their live shows and animates their interviews. It also threatens to accelerate their potential downfall. One thing’s for sure: Bassvictim have zero interest in fulfilling any expectations of being appropriately messy, and that is one perversely compelling attitude.
“If you’re just cool, then that’s very boring to me,” Clateman chuckles.
“I just want to be real,” Manow adds. “The real is the cool. Cool is the good, bad and ugly.”
Bassvictim’s ‘Forever’ is out now via VOTB
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