With a New Album of Outrageous Dance-Pop, Confidence Man Is Here for a Good Time—And a Long Time

When it comes to putting on a show, Confidence Man lives up to its name: the band’s members are, it’s safe to say, daredevils. If you needed proof, you could look to their set at Glastonbury two years ago, where they emerged as one of the undisputed highlights of the weekend with a set that saw lead singers Janet Planet and Sugar Bones hurl each other across the stage to their high-octane anthem “Holiday.” Or simply take the video for their latest single, “I Can’t Lose You,” in which the pair climb into a helicopter in London’s Docklands, then proceed to whizz their way down the Thames hanging out of its open doors, thousands of feet above the city, as Planet nonchalantly flicks her ponytail. Oh, and they’re both stark naked.

“When we were going to shoot it, I didn’t think I’d be scared, but it was genuinely terrifying,” says Planet, with a nervous laugh. “And I only have myself to blame, because it was all my idea. I saw this picture of this model flying topless over New York City in the ’80s, and I was like, ‘Let’s do that but take it one step further and be completely naked.’ It just felt like a very ballsy, Con Man concept to me.” Was it awkward, in any way, getting strapped into their invisible harnesses, or having the camera crew get all up in there with the angles? “Well, the pilot seemed pretty over it,” Planet deadpans. “He’d just done Mission: Impossible, I think.”

You could chalk this irreverent humor up to their Australian roots—the four-piece band originally emerged from the indie scene in Brisbane, before changing lanes to create outrageous, winking dance-pop that has taken them across the globe to their new home in London—or simply the fact that the medium befits the message: Confidence Man’s music is all about having a good time on the dance floor. “We had a travesty yesterday with my laser boobs,” says Planet, with genuine worry; the pair were in the thick of rehearsals for their return to Glastonbury this weekend. “I rebuilt them and then they weren’t synced to the music and then they started interfering with our in-ears, so then we couldn’t use them. It’s really boring, but it worked out.” Laser boobs don’t sound boring to me? “Just a day in the life right now,” adds Bones, with a sigh.

The art of being Confidence Man, it turns out, has a lot to do with working obscenely hard to make things look effortless. (It brings to mind that famous Dolly Parton quote: “It takes a lot of time and money to look this cheap, honey.”) They’ve spent the best part of a year fine-tuning their upcoming album 3AM (La La La)—an ode to the trippy, hyperactive spirit of ’90s British rave, merged with hook-laden pop melodies—and are now in the weeds planning their tour, for which they’ve enlisted the help of set designer Rob Sinclair, whose most recent gig was Madonna’s Celebration Tour. They’ve also undergone six months of swing dance training to amp up their acrobatic on-stage routines—“It’s going to look great, although it’s not so great for my back,” says Bones—before hitting the road again.

Their greater sense of ambition when it comes to what Confidence Man can be—as of last year, the band is signed with a major label for the first time—came in part thanks to their move to London. “I think it’s just the pace of it over here that makes it inspiring,” notes Bones. “Even just walking down the street to get a loaf of bread, you’ve got to hustle a bit—to keep your eyes open and make sure you don’t get run over or something. It’s big-city stuff for these small-town folk.”

After arriving, they immersed themselves in the queer nightlife scene and made efforts to connect with a number of their heroes, most notably Jimmy Cauty of the anarchic house music band the KLF, who had several hits at the turn of the ’90s and whose playful, prankster spirit has also infused the new record. “London is the birthplace of a lot of the music that we’ve always been inspired by, and we made a whole bunch of friends over here. It just seemed like the natural thing to do,” explains Planet. (Plus, as Bones notes, it’s a far more convenient base for traveling and touring than Brisbane: “Somehow it takes 56 hours to get anywhere from Australia, and then you’re jetlagged for another three weeks.”)

The group’s four members—Planet, Bones, and a pair of masked instrumentalists, known as Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild—have lived together in different configurations for the best part of a decade, and now, they’re holed up together in an apartment in the east London neighborhood of Dalston. That dynamic hasn’t come without its issues in the past, Planet admits. “I have this weird saga where I keep dating the drummer in the band and then breaking up and then getting a new drummer in the band,” she says, with a wink. “And so no more drummers for me—now I’m just going to stay with the boys.”

Photo: Julian Buchan

Still, it’s that tight-knit spirit that led to the creation of many of the album’s tracks: the 3 a.m. of the title refers to the moment during their all-night recording sessions when they’d tend to get the best stuff. (After that, the creative vibes decline: “It’s fun after 4 a.m., but it’s not very productive,” Planet admits.) “I guess we would always, over the years, drunkenly sit around a kitchen table at night and get out a laptop and a shitty mic and just make some silly songs about whatever,” says Bones, but this time around, they realized that the products of these late-night jam sessions were actually, well, pretty good. Recreating the same environment at their tiny studio in east London, they aimed to capture that febrile atmosphere, and encourage a sense of spontaneity. “It actually stops you from getting so caught up in overthinking and wondering if it’s good,” says Planet. “If you’re just drunk and everyone’s having fun and no one’s taking it seriously, the best ideas come out.” Adds Bones, “So if you’re reading this, kids, just go out there and get drunk, and you’ll have a great record too.”

While Confidence Man has always delivered club-ready hits—just take the Basement Jaxx-esque funk of the band’s 2016 breakout hit “Boyfriend (Repeat),” or the breezy Balearic groove of “Luvin U Is Easy” from their sophomore album, 2022’s Tilt—this time around, the group decided to go directly for the dance floor, taking cues from techno, trance, breakbeat, and other genres. This sound was partly crystallized after the success of “Holiday,” Tilt’s fantastic lead single (the video for which saw them fly across the desert in a hot air balloon—airborne modes of transport are a recurring theme, clearly), and the realization that they could lean into more challenging forms of dance music without giving up their signature catchy toplines. “We thought it was something that was missing, really,” says Planet, “that crossover between ’90s rave music and pop hooks.”

Just as exhilarating as the sound of their new record is what Confidence Man has planned on the visual front—not least in terms of the fashion. “Well, the laser boobs are back, as I already mentioned,” says Planet. “I think people would be angry if I ditched the laser boobs.” (This time, though, they’ll be timed to the music.) Elsewhere, they’re staying on theme by looking back to the ’90s and 2000s with their looks; Planet notes Gwen Stefani has been a particular inspiration, while Bones has been perfecting the art of finding a suit that can be ripped off with velcro in one swift motion. “I’m trying to figure out how many shirt rip-offs I can get into one show,” he notes.

But first, their priority is Glastonbury, at which they’re playing and DJing in different capacities five times over the course of the weekend. Their most notable appearance at Worthy Farm came yesterday, on the Other Stage—the second-largest at the festival—where the pair played to a swelling crowd of tens of thousands in a coordinating black suit (for Bones) and schoolgirl dress and stockings (for Planet). “It does feel like a homecoming in a lot of senses for us,” says Planet in the lead-up to the performance, a little wistfully. Then, she catches herself, and with another campy flick of her ponytail, adds: “But don’t worry—we’re still gonna be turning things up to a hundred.”