A MAGAZINE DEDICATED TO COVERING LOCAL DIY MUSIC SCENES ISSUE 1
PEACH T N O R F E L A M E F K TAL
YS, L K N A R F THE IX, S D E K A N LS, L U B G N YOU S, A R E V E O AL IN, A T N U O GLASS M S, FEATURING REVIEWS OF EPS, GIGS LOST TREND ES NE K G N I D E AND VIDEOS FROM SOME OF OUR BLE FAVOURITE BANDS CLUB, E! R O M D N A
CONTENT Interviews Aloe Veras | 3-6 Borderline | 16-18 Lost Trends | 30-32 Peach | 9-14 Octopus | 21-22 EP and Single Reviews Crybaby | 34 The Regime | 2 Glass Mountain | 25-26 Borderline | 15 Octopus | 23 Matt Dunbar | 23 No Scary Bears | 33 Gig Reviews Aloe Veras | 7-8 Lost Trends | 27-29 The Franklys | 35-38 Video Reviews Guts | 19-20 Bleeding Knees Club | 24
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The Regime |She Sees Me EP Review
She sees me immediately grabs you with its layering off guitars and Luke’s fast drumming, the two guitars have completely different sounds that compliment each other perfectly for this indie punk track. Will has unique vocals which gives the band an early 90’s alternative/punk/ indie rock feel. His lyrics are clear and catchy and give the song a grungy sound, certain lines stick out making this song a memorable one, his deliverance of “on the radio” is super satisfying. The track has a fast pace that’s perfect for some heavy dancing and head banging, She sees me holds subtle elements of 90’s skate thrash bands (such as AFI and Bodyjar) this is through the fast rhythm of the guitars. To sum it up the song is a perfect blend of genres which creates a fast, fun The second track on the EP is Let it out. The song starts with a melodic guitar riff which is joined by the drums until the song fully kicks in. The first verse is a chilled out indie rock song which builds up to the chorus. The chorus itself is short and sweet, like their live performances this song really portrays the early 90s indie grunge vibes they give on stage. The Regime have a similar sound to The Cribs and other bands of the decade. Overall the song is three minutes of bliss indie rock.
INTERVIEW WITH
A few people have been discussing the band name, how did it come about? Harvey: Ooo, I’ll take this one. I wrote two hundred names down and it was the last one I wrote down and I think we were just sick of it Josh: No you put like 50 names into the chat and Tom was like ‘I like Aloe Veras’ and that sounds right you know Harvey: Theres a song called Aloe Vera by Baba Ramdev and I was listening to that As individuals, what music have you grown up listening to? Tom: Well my dad got me into like all the 60s bands like predominately garage bands from like California and stuff, and I’d say that’s definitely shaped the sort of music we play Jake: I kind of grew up on The Beatles and similar stuff to Tom I guess, and also like 70s stuff like and Slade and stuff like that Harvey: Early 90s happy hardcore acid house (followed by a lot of laughter) Josh: My dad got me listening to like Simple Minds, Pink Floyd
You’ve got a very mature and individual sound, how did you come about it? Other than your musical influences. Tom: Erm probably through discussion, I think the main reason the band formed is that we all like the same sort of music and that’s why I think we sort of play the music we do, because we have the same musical similarities Harvey: Less is more as well, it’s not full on You played at The Inkwell on Record Store Day, what was it like playing in a store? Jake: Cramped Tom: it was interesting Josh: It was nice it was a good atmosphere Harvey: Yeah it was really chilled and I got a free record out of it Tom: Yeah it was a nice day as well, the sun was shining through What was the atmosphere like? Harvey: Quite intense Jake: It felt like people were appreciating it more than at actual gigs Josh: Like people came for the music rather than… Harvey: …the sesh
When are you planning on releasing your EP? Harvey: 8th June Jake: If we get it recorded Harvey: Yeah if we get it recorded Jake: We will get it recorded Tom: Jake’s got a positive mindset What else can you tell us about your EP? Jake: It’s going to be made up of five to six songs with several…this is the first time I’ve thought about it… (laughter) no I’m joking. With like various things such as religion, erm love and errrr (a lot of laughter followed here too) Tom: But like the idea for the EP is that we’d record like, we’ve already recorded one song for it erm and then Jake would just go away and sort of work his magic Harvey: It’s going to be lo-fi Tom: Yeah, that’s what we’re trying to get out of it. We haven’t actually recorded in an actual like Josh: We use Jake’s like really old, how old is it? Jake: Its from 80s, its like an old Tascam portastudio Harvey: Available on CD and tape as well Have you decided what songs you’re putting into it? Harvey: Jake has Tom: We’ve got like the popular songs from the set list and then Jake’s got a few
Have you decided what songs you’re putting into it? Harvey: Jake has Tom: We’ve got like the popular songs from the set list and then Jake’s got a few Is your song writing more collaborative or… (They all burst into laughter before I could finish the question) Jake: No I’m a massive like err… Tom: Control freak Harvey: Jake writes most the songs but like if one of us writes a song and the brings it Jake: And then I’ll just give them evils and say no Tom: Because usually the song comes like done and then we just suggest minor improvements and stuff Where do you get lyric inspiration from? Jake: Just kind of books that I read Harvey: (through laughter) other peoples lyrics Jake: But yeah mainly books What kind of books? Jake: Erm, the classic stuff, like 60s Jack Karuak, The Naked Lunch and just loads of the classics, Brave New World, if it links to the subject that im writing about then it goes into the song
So like American, The Beats kind of… Jake: Yeah America mainly, The Beats, Bob Dylan Are there any bands in the local scene that you’d really like to do a gig with? Tom: Yeah if Lapetic Mordem wanna rejoin, because I’ve heard the world on the street is they are going to rejoin next year but I think they’re the one band that I definitely Harvey: Naked Six Jake: Channel 100 as well What else have you got planned as a band? Harvey: Shall I take this one? Yeah, Fibbers headliner for the EP launch, Tramlines festival, prospect of a little tour in summer as well, and just getting more experimental Jake: Fibbers headline 30th June Anything else you’d like to add? That you wanna get out there? Jake: I’m not actually a control freak Harvey: Nah, put it in, let the people hear!
HEADLINE GIG REVIEW
Aloe Veras had their first headline gig on Friday 28th April, with support from Slugs, Drugs and Harmony, The Homesteads and Lost Trends. With a line up of four good bands that differ widely in genre and sound it was bound to be an interesting night. First to open were Slugs, Drugs, and Harmony, a York four piece. The band provided a really fun set, although it was early in the night there was a decent sized crowd. They played a light hearted set of rock funk which had everybody dancing, their sound held an element of extremely upbeat 70s soul mixed with a load of other genres to create an really fun funk. It was clear the guys had a great, humble stage presence straight away, they opened with ‘Funky Duck’ and frontman Nic was dancing almost as much as the audience. My favourite thing about these guys is that they had fun on stage which went perfectly with their sound and wacky song names. Their set list involved a lot poultry, ‘Cheeky Chicken’ was the next song, with a quick break from beaks to ‘1983’ (which was heavily enjoyed by local band Borderline who were in the audience) we were then back to ‘Groovey Goose’. I would definitely love to see these guys again, their upbeat songs were refreshing and allowed you to let loose and boogie.
Second on stage was Sheffield five piece The Homesteads who provided the evening with some good indie rock, there was a lot of heavy guitar and some killer solos. The vocalist had a voice that sounded like it had come out of Manchester opposed to Sheffield which was supported by his Pretty Green jumper. The crowed enjoyed them and had a dance, they received a good applause at the end of their set. Third on was one of my favourite York bands, Lost Trends. This four piece is one of the best bands on the scene, every single show is full of raw energy and passion no matter how big or small a crowd is. You can’t be at a Lost Trends gig without moving, and there will be at least one crowd member who is going for it maybe a tad too far, their music just leaves you with no choice but to dance.
This was Aloe Vera’s first headline gig but you couldn’t tell, these boys were born to perform. Aloe Vera’s provide the local scene with a refreshing sound. When you watch Aloe Vera’s play live it takes you out of 2017 and into a trance like realm that allows their younger audience to imagine what it would have been like to be a youth in the 70s. They’re bringing back authentic psychedelic with their own twist on it, they have the relaxing psychedelia feel of groups such as The Doors. The crowd was dancing and singing along with them and the energy in the room was insanely high. You couldn’t move during their set, if you needed an air break it was tough luck as the venue was full to the brim. Yet despite this the audience were still really going for, shouting requests and singing as loud as they could, Aloe Vera’s blew the crowd away and left everyone wanting more.
INTERVIEW WITH PEACH
Peach are an emo/indie-pop trio from York/Leeds, the three went to school and univeristy together. They’ve been in bands together previously but have been united as Peach over a year now. All three members are multi instrumentalists and some of the most talented people I know. The group is made up of frontwoman Edna Sulejmanovic on vocals and guitar, Fraser Threlfall on drums and Matthew ‘Dougie’ Douglass on bass-guitar. The band spent almost a full year writing and rehersing before they began gigging at the end of last Summer. Now they’re spredding their hairflips across the UK. As individuals do you remember the moment you first wanted to become a musician? Edna: For me there wasn’t a moment, I’ve been singing since I was like four, so I’ve just been doing it my entire life so I don’t really recall there being a moment Dougie: I wanted to be an actual musician when I was like fifteen and I wasn’t very good at anything else and I was like ‘I kinda like the bass guitar, I think it’s pretty cool’ so I just thought I’d do it and… yeah Edna: And the rest is history Fraser: I don’t really know, maybe when I was about eleven and I thought I’d play the drums Who are your musical influences as a band? Dougie: And we’ll leave that to Edna Edna: I listen to a lot of different music; I wouldn’t say that there is one type of music that influences us. I listen to a lot of pop obviously, but I also listen to a lot of math rock, post rock, a lot of emo and that kinda shit, so for me it’s really hard because we almost don’t sound like anyone so it’s really hard to say like ‘this band influences us’ because we don’t sound like these bands so I’d say Mansions, Tiny Moving Parts, Now Now, Sunny Day Real Estate… yeah that’s it really
What’s your song writing process, and is it more of a collaborative or individual effort? Dougie: It’s more so that Edna writes at home, so she gets the guitar parts together and all the ideas and then we just make it like Fraser: Fill in the gaps Dougie: Mould it and make it heavier and that adds different ideas melodically Edna: The song writing is all like my ideas but these guys help shape it What do you tend to use as inspiration when writing songs, especially lyrics? Edna: Personal, very very personal experiences, so whether it’s like the people that influence my life, whether it’s like being at uni and then moving home, stuff like that. It’s all about the stuff that I’ve experienced in my life and a lot of stuff that people can relate to Do you think you’ve changed/developed musically in the last year? Edna: 100% Dougie: Oh yeah definitely Edna: We definitely have, because like we were saying (nods to Fraser) weren’t we, that when we went into our first rehearsal, I’ll always remember this it’s like engrained in my brain, I went in and Fraser was like “Edna, how often do you play guitar?” and I was like “To be honest… I don’t know” (laughs) Because I think you had a bit of doubt about me being the only guitarist and so did I to be honest Fraser: I think it was more like the transition between you playing acoustic and electric, that’s where I was like, it can be different, very different. Buts that where you had your own ideas set in of how you were going to tune the guitar, which influences all of the song writing to be quite different because it’s all tuned differently so you kind of came up with your own form… Edna: And I suppose through like rehearsing together and writing together we’ve all have developed as musicians. Like Fraser’s gotten incredible with drums, he always was but he’s gotten better and then same with me with my guitar playing and my song writing Dougie: I just do what I do (everyone laughs) I just haven’t changed Edna: But for me like I never thought I’d be tapping on the guitar, like I never ever thought that I’d be doing that and singing at the same time, so for me that’s like… remember that first rehearsal and being doubtful about being the only guitarist to being like I can tap and sing… yeah 100% we’ve developed and gotten better at everything I’d say There aren’t a lot of girl bands/fronted bands in the local scene, do you feel being female fronted gives you an edge at all? Dougie: Yeah Edna: I think so…It gives us an edge and it gives us like something to market as well, it gives us something unique, especially in the genre we are its kind of not that regular that you’d find bands like us with a female, in the band let alone fronting it and being the guitarist. I think it’s like…yeah I think we’re quite unique I would say Edna, from your POV as a female in the music scene do you think that it’s becoming less male dominated and more equal for women? Fraser: Go on Dougie answer Dougie: What is it becoming less… Edna: No Dougie she said from a female point of view Dougie: Oh shit Edna: Yeah I think recently, like we’ve played with a lot of female bands actually and we’ve been a part of a lot of female focus nights, and I’ve gotten in contact with a lot of other women in the bands and promotion company’s and stuff, and we’ve done so many shows and we’re getting on more shows with bands like that so yeah I feel like…I don’t know if it’s becoming less male dominated or if it’s just that we’ve had our eyes opened to a lot more female bands but we’ve definitely played with a lot more female bands than I thought we did in like our last band Dougie: Times have changed though haven’t they really, like because of the feminist movement coming back in and stuff like that there are a lot more girl bands than before. It used to be a case of if you had a good looking singer who was a girl then you were probably going to do but better, but now… Edna: Like we played with this really cool band called MOM, four-piece girl band, like I think that’s incredible. When I heard that we were playing with them I was like ‘oh my god yes’
Edna: Yeah its rare but its… I don’t know if I could answer it being less male dominated or if I’ve just opened my eyes more to it Dougie: On the face of it, its male dominated innit Edna: Yeah…to be honest, in answer to your question I would say it has become a bit less male dominated because I think like with the movement and stuff people are starting to think ‘actually girls can play in bands and not be completely sexualised, they can just play and be girls and play in bands’ do you know what I mean? So yeah I think it’s become better You recently posted your unplugged session onto your social media platforms. Have you got plans to release any recordings soon? Edna: Hopefully (laughs) Dougie: Yeah yeah we are Edna: Hopefully next month, fingers crossed if everything goes well, we’re planning on doing a single launch Dougie: Double A-side maybe Edna: It’s not set in stone but we are planning on it, we have got the single launch planned so if all that goes to plan we’ll be going on tour pushing this single, tour, mini tour…with a music video, again if all goes well so yeah we’ll be releasing a single and then an EP this year
If you had unlimited funds and you got to plan your own music video for any of your songs, which song would it be and what would the music video be like? Dougie: I don’t think it matters though does it, because we kind of want our music videos to be a bit…DIY Edna: A bit shabby Dougie: Can we just keep the money and spend it on other stuff? (laughs) Edna: We’ll no we could film in space, if money wasn’t an issue, let’s go on Jupiter (laughs) Fraser: Inter-planetary like…that would be fucking awesome If you got to put on your dream music festival, and you each get assigned day to pick the bands for main stage, what’s your line ups? Edna: Oh my God So say you get like six acts each or something Edna: You’ve got to give us a minute for this (I then paused the recording because they were pretty stumped) Dougie: Are we recording? I think I’ve got mine Go on then Dougie, what’s Friday? Dougie: Errr oh God… right so this is from bands that I’m listening to at the moment, in no order, so at the moment you’ve (Fraser) have got me well into The White Stripes, Slaves Which one? Fraser: No one listens to the American one Well I don’t know, I get them mixed up (laughter) Fraser: Yeah fair enough your right Dougie: I’ve been listening to a bit of Wolf Alice, pretty cool Edna: Women! Dougie: Red Hot Chilli Peppers because again I wasn’t really into them but Bastian got me into them. Peach, why not Edna: Headline it! Dougie: I’m trying to think of someone who is like a local band that I could give the opportunity to Edna: Oh true that, that is a good…I didn’t think of that Dougie: Who have we played with that we’ve been like ‘they’re sick’? Edna: You guys really liked when we played with Chambers I remember that Fraser: Oh fucking yeah Dougie: Right so its Slaves, Peach, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, White Stripes, Wolf Alice, Chambers Fraser: That’s well good Edna: It’s like my mind has gone black, I don’t even know who my favourite band is (laughs) Ok right for me it would be very much the stuff that I’m influenced by so I’m going to repeat myself. I would put Mansions, Tiny Moving Parts, Dougie: Biffy Clyro I’ll just put that in
Edna: I was going to say yeah Biffy Clyro Dougie: I just thought I’d speed it up Edna: Cheers, shut up you took ages, what are you on about! Erm…Foxing, Paramore, not their new stuff though, I’m not happy with the new stuff Fraser: Sheardog says we sound like Paramore, every time Edna: What does Sheardog know Dougie: Put that in the transcription Edna: This Town Needs Guns, I’d love those guys on there Fraser: I’d probably go, starting off with what I like I probably want Rush to come back Edna: That’s okay you could always bring someone back from the 1800s (laughs) Fraser: I’d definitely have Rachmanikov (laughs) I’d probably have Slaves as well, no actually I’ll say The Raconteurs, you said White Stripes so I’ll say Raconteurs Dougie: (singing) Steady as she goes…that’s the only song I know Fraser: Placebo, erm I’d probably say Lana Del Rey, and then I’d probably say this band called Dorothy, they’re sweaty so that’ll be it yeah Edna: That’s five pal Fraser: Oh what…I don’t want to be dry but I’m going to say Disclosure, for a bit of variety A lot of bands are starting to feel that DIY is the way forward and want to avoid signing for as long as possible, what’s your opinion on being a DIY band? Dougie: I kinda agree with that but it’s not like we have a choice Edna: It depends on what they’d be offering us, because certain labels, they like pay you to record or they pay you to go on tour or they pay you to promote and do all this kind of stuff so it depends on what the contract would be with a label. Like if they said to us ‘we will pay for your recording studio, in this studio’ and it’s like a really amazing studio with a good producer we’d be like yeah I’ll sign, but it all depends. being a DIY band, I suppose it gives us more personality, to push our own vibes as a trio Dougie: I think what matters most is creative control, because I’ve seen so many bands, especially female fronted, like this is a bad example because they’re still sick but like Marmosets, they obviously went a lot pop-ier, but I would hate to get signed and then them be like ‘oh by the way can you completely change your sound’ because it happens
Edna: Yeah there’s a band that used to be so good but then they got signed and changed their band name…I can’t remember what they’re called but they used to be a proper like grungy DIY emo band and they were great and then they got signed and they blew up changed their band name and turned into a proper like bubblegum-pop band. Creative control is the most important I think because if we were to signed and then somebody was like ‘oh yeah change your songs, change your style, change everything about you’ we’d be like nah In terms of the audience response, what city has been your favourite to play in so far? Dougie: Sheffield. It’s different though because when we play in York we have our friends and people know us. But it’s weird, going over there, everyone was proper friendly Edna: Yeah, it was the first time we’d ever played there and the band that were opening for us had like researched us and listened to some of our live stuff and when we spoke to them they were like ‘oh we couldn’t wait to see you guys live’ and then they’ve been messaging me like ‘we wanna get you guys on another gig’. But yeah we got a really good response, it wasn’t packed but it was really nice because everyone’s so friendly. Like Dougie was saying, York is always amazing because we can always bring so many people… I really enjoyed when we played Manchester. Fraser: I was just about to say that, like the actual venue was proper good Edna: Yeah we played Jimmy’s, it was a really good gig and it was packed as well, the vibe and people coming up to us after, it was nice and everyone was so friendly Finally, where do you see Peach this time next year and what are you hoping to have achieved in between? Edna: This time next year I’d say we hopefully would have released our EP and gotten onto recording the next one, and hopefully just playing more cities, because right now we have managed to play in quite a few cool places, Manchester, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Leeds, York. And we’re going on a little mini tour as I said earlier and we’re going to Leister as well which will be cool. But we just want to play more, play a wider spectrum in the UK, so hopefully this time next year we’ll have done that Fraser: Can I just chuck into the last question, we should probably say that Verve bar has always been good, and working with Double Denim, it’s always been consistent Edna: Yeah Double Denim have sorted out our little tour, and working with Mick Dolman, he’s a good guy, I’ve never met him but he’s a sound guy and he’s done a lot for us
The Duchess EP Review
Borderline’s EP consists of four songs, starting off ‘Duchess’, the final track of the EP ‘The Duchess Dies Tonight’ follows the storyline of the opening track, taking a more sinister route within the lyrics. Their EP perfectly sums up everything Borderline give during their live performances, its full of lots synth, heavy drums and a great bassline. Steve’s vocals aren’t quite as energetic as they are on stage however this works better for their recorded sound; you can still hear the passion for their music within his voice. ‘Raise a Glass’ has some brilliant melodic rhythms within the synthesizer and keyboards, the chorus is memorable and catchy, the vocals are quick to pick up and sing along with. This is a song that makes you want to dance, its electronic energy portrays what this band is all about. When Borderline play live they really go for it, their energy is insane, I’ve even witnessed frontman Steve jumping off stage and continuing to give it his all in the pit despite the jump causing him to be in crutches the following day. Within their EP you can still feel this energy, although its much cleaner and toned down form the recording it’s still there. ‘In The Vacuum’ features my favourite bassline throughout the song, its funky and heavy at the same time, during an instrumental section towards the end of the track its layered brilliantly with a lot of synth and heavy drums from James. Overall Borderline’s EP is fun, upbeat electronic that satisfies all those guilty pleasures of synth desire.
AN INTERVIEW WITH BORDERLINE
We spoke to York based three piece Borderline before there gig at Fibbers supporting Lost Trends. They’re an electronic rock band made up of lead vocalist/keyboards/synthesizer Steve Gilles, drummer James Brown and Tom Brown on the bass guitar. They recently released their EP The Duchess which is linked below. I first saw Borderline play at The Fulford Arms and I was hooked by their energetic stage presence and funky but loud electronic sound.
How did Borderline begin? Had you known each other long before you started the band? James: We literally met at Fibbers, old Fibbers Tom: It was Dutchess Steve: At a gig, it was one of these gigs that’s put together by like lots of community groups, and we were in two separate bands at the time and we sort of got chatting you know, had a bit of a lark about and then these guys, there singer left the band, at a similar time I kind of got kicked out of my last band. And we can of thought you know, this must be fate. James: Lets do this! How did you come about your sound? Did you plan to be electronic or did that kind of just happen? James: The whole distorted bass thing started when me and Tom got massively into Royal Blood, and that’s still a thing. And then after Steve been in for a few months we kind of started trying different things out, when we took it heavier it didn’t seem to work quite as well. So we kind of kept thinking how can we develop it more? We can’t just have the bass and the drums. Steve: Yeah there wasn’t really much depth Tom: It was empty Steve: Yeah yeah, there was sort of one line, one melody throughout every song and it was just, it needed something else James: It was a bit bland Steve: And I can’t play guitar but I can play synth so it was kind of you know… and I’ve always liked that sort of electronic , like when I first started playing synthesizer in school all the bands that I was into were like Pendulum, Hadouken and The Prodigy had just released an album ‘Invaders Must Die’ and so like mashing electronic and rock was a really big thing for me so to actually be able to do that in a band has been really cool, so I was kind of like yeah lets do synth, lets play synth. And then we bought one and then we were stuck with it. Well you’ve just send what bands you were into growing up, but what about you James and Tom? James: Tom’s big on his kind of psychedelic bluesy rock at the moment Tom: Yeah you know, The Black Keys, their recent album and some of the older stuff as well…Royal Blood Steve: New album coming Tom: Yeah looking forward to that. Deaf From Above, there a pretty good band James: I think we’ve all developed into Shikari fans as well Steve: Yeah there a massive influence for us, I think when we first got played on BBC Introducing, Jericho Keys described us as being like a soft Enter Shikari which we still haven’t worked out whether that’s a compliment
or not, we’ll take it though, we’re taking it as our own. We jokingly refer to ourselves as The Soft Shikari Are there any other bands that influence you? James: I think just everything we listen to it all just gets thrown in the washing machine and it just comes out Steve: It’s a really interesting analogy that innit. I don’t know we don’t really have like a set formula for writing music, we just literally get together the three of us and just jam and shout at each other Tom: Get an idea James: Mainly shout at each other Steve: Yeah mainly at each other, but it sometimes starts with Tom coming up with a riff on bass, sometimes it will start with a synth line or even a chord progression or something like that. So our process really is just kind of throwing everything…in the washing machine, we’ll go with that analogy, and seeing what colour comes out really. The local music scene in York has grown a lot, are there any bands you would like to get a gig with? James: One band I would die to play with…well I’m wearing an Avalanch Party t-shirt, they’re kicking ass Steve: Are they a York band? James: They’re from the moors, Middleborough sort of area Steve: We’ll claim them James: We’re mates with so many bands now after we’ve been gigging for nearly a year, Black Lagoons I’m good mates with Steve: We’ve still not gigged with them either so that would be one to tick off James: There’s not many left Steve: We’ve been around, I think again, and I’m not sure you can call them a York band and it sounds ridiculous because we sound nothing like them but we’ve had the chance to play with Glass Caves and that was just a really good experience because they love a drink afterwards and that’s kind of part of our experience, James: The Borderline evening Steve: If we’re not playing a gig then we’re watching a gig or drinking, or both So you’ve just released your EP ‘The Duchess’, how did you go about writing it? Other than what you’ve just said. James: Well there is two songs that we wrote like in a two week space before a gig over about four hours, because we were like, we need another ten minutes of material, we’ve got four hours, we need to write something Steve: Thankfully those two songs actually ended up half alright so they’ve ended up on the EP and they’re quite like…they’re staples of our live set I guess now Which two songs are they? Steve: Raise a Glass and In The Vacuum, which again both we were really lucky they got picked up by BBC Introducing which helped our profile a lot. And then I don’t know I always wanted to write a song that had two parts to it or had like a big arc or a narrative…and erm we met at The Duchess and I really enjoyed going to the club nights at The Duchess and there was a lot of good memories there, so I sort of wanted to make it involving that as almost like a tribute to it? And then I don’t know where the story came from but the chorus lyrics came before anything else and then the rest of it sort of evolved around that and then Duchess, and The Duchess Dies Tonight follow the story of a guy who is sort of seeing this girl who he is insane about and she just doesn’t care essentially. He proper like, flips his lid, and ends up dumping her in the river, so it’s not the brightest story in the world I admit, but I think its quite dramatic. Have you got a favorite track off the EP? Individually which is your favorite? Tom: Mine would probably be Raise a Glass Steve: Because it’s shouty and loud James: Yeah that’s always a fun one, get to really go for it on that Steve: When we get to play it live, we get to put everything into it and its really good fun…Duchess means quite a lot to me just because I’m quite proud of the song writing and the lyrics that have gone into it. I think that’s up
there with my better work, so I really enjoy playing that because the emotion that I can put into that is great…James?
James: Yeah Raise a Glass is good fun, and Duchess Dies Tonight has a pretty mad live ending, it goes a bit mad Steve: Yeah yeah, we’ve started playing it and noticing that actually people are really getting into this outro, and we thought why don’t we just milk the shit out of this, just milk it James: It’s a five minute song…why not make it seven? Steve: Yeah it’s a five and a half minute song as it is and now when we play it live we stick it at the end of the set and play it for like seven minutes and everybody…well…hopefully everybody goes nuts. But you know we haven’t been bottled off yet so, that’s always how I measure our band’s success, by not being bottled off, but we haven’t yet so that’s good You guys have a really
good energy on stage, do you have a favorite gig? And a favorite venue as well? James: Fibbers is always, kind off…Fibbers is the big one in York, but I do love the Fulford Arms Steve: Yeah Fibbers is special because of the history really, and even though its not in the same place you know it still means a lot for a York band to play Fibbers. But again I think some of the maddest gigs that we’ve had have been at Fully, at Fulford Arms. And again, really small room, there’s no where to hide if you’re in the crowd, everybody’s up and everybody’s up for it and its really good. They have regulars that just come for the music and it just goes nuts essentially, it really goes nuts, I love it there… Tom? Tom: I can’t really add anything Steve: It’s all been said… I think our favourite gig…there’s been so many good ones Tom: Caves probably Steve: See I was just out of hospital when we played Caves so I didn’t particularly enjoy it that much because I just felt dead by the end of it and I’m not proud of the vocals. I think our debut headliner which again was at Fulford, that was great because it wasn’t the biggest crowd we’ve ever played but it was a free gig, we got to play forty-five minutes and it felt like everybody that was there was there to see us. And everybody was into it, sometimes when you play the bigger venues with the bigger bands, you’re on first or you’re on second and everybody’s like James: Yeah they’re just not really that bothered Steve: Yeah they’re like I’m going to stand here with my drink or I’m going to stand here with my phone and wait for the main bands to come up, so like headlining a small venue like that was just insane. Again, we just throw everything into our performance and hopefully people will like that And lastly what’s in the works for Borderline? What have you got planned for the rest of the year? Steve: Gigs, gigs, gigs James: Los of gigs! There might be another release, we’ll see what happens Steve: We’ll definitely record…or we’re hoping to record another single, we have another track that we’ve been playing live now for a couple of months called Empathy that we’re really happy with so we’re definitely looking to record that and maybe an EP by the end of the year? It kind of depends on how creative we’re feeling and whether the money dries up, that’s always a factor isn’t it. But no we’re mainly looking to gig as much as we can, gig York, gig Leeds, gig Sheffield which we’ve been very lucky to ask to go play, we’ve got a couple of the York festivals that are put on by the promoters.
VIDEO REVIEW
Guts. are a three piece band from Lincoln, I first saw Guts at a house party for my friends 21st birthday, at this point the drummer wasn’t present so I only saw them with bass, guitar and a lot of friends shouting along to the lyrics. Their video for Fruitless has a homemade 90s garage feel that perfectly resonates with the song itself. They have a old school vibes in their music that compliment the genre nicely, it doesn’t sound fake or like they’re trying to be overly grunge. You can hear within their song that they take influence from Nivarna which can be very dangerous for a band aiming for grunge because it’s often over done and sounds like a knock off version. But that isn’t the case with Guts. As well as that side of the 90s you can also hear elements of inspiration from other bands such as Weezer, this is through Sam’s vocals and guitar. The song starts off with guitar, bass and vocals which is allows them to build into the drums giving it a feel of satisfcation when it all comes together. .
Throughout the track the guitar holds elements melodic 90s skate thrash, the riffs are memorable and the strongest instrument within the recording. Layered with the drums the meleody causes you to move your head a long to the rhythm, whether its full on head banging or socially acceptable nods. Rob’s bassline provides some deeper riffs to the song that give it that catchy completion. The recording sounds tight, together and clean, as though all the instruments were in the room at the same time, which gives Fruitless the energy you imagine it to be live. The asthetics of the video look low budget but it works, it looks like its been filmed with an old video camera, the shots switch between still when on Sam sat on the chair singing, and hand held when filming the band. Moments at the end of the video have psychadelic layering of colours and film clips that help to give it that old school feel.
INTERVIEW WITH OCTOPUS
We recently spoke to Sam from Octopus... How did you guys originally form, is there a story behind Octopus? I had been in bands before with both of the guys, and, after they had broken up or whatever, me and Ellis started doing these acoustic shows together. We quickly got bored of the scene, and decided that we wanted to add a drummer into the mix and do something a bit heavier. So, that’s when I put Christy’s name forward. We all got into a room together, and it just clicked Do you have a specific memory of what made you want to become a musician? My parents were huge music fans, and so there would always be something playing in the house while I was growing up. A lot of 90’s Brit-Pop stuff. I got to the point where I was forming my own tastes, and wanted to be able to play something myself. But, it seemed as though everybody was picking up a guitar, and so, to be different, I opted for the bass guitar. What bands have influenced your writing? With lyrics, I look to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. With bass, I look towards guitars. So, Jack White is an obvious one, but then I’d also say Tom Morello’s riffs in both Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave were something that I’ve always enjoyed. But, it all depends on who I’m listening to when we get together and write a song.
You recently released your EP Under the Thumb, what was the inspiration behind it? That’s a tough question to answer. The tracks that are on it span the entire life of the band. Belle Of My Ball was one of the first songs we wrote together, and then Just Leave was the last thing we wrote for it which we had ready maybe a month before we were in the studio recording. But, to sum it up, we recorded the EP, because we wanted an easier, more accessible way to share our music. The entire EP has a strong sense of grunge but each track sounds like it has an added mix of genres to the last, was this intentional? Kind of. We don’t want to be stuck with one sound the entire time. There are a lot of bands that are blowing up, but they are going to find themselves stuck with a certain sound and risk potential backlash if they try and change that. Some big examples for me are Slaves and Royal Blood. I mean, look at Take Control from Slaves last year, it was very similar to their first album. It’s not a bad thing, but eventually it might bite them in the arse Do you have a favourite track off the EP? Just Leave How would you describe the Hull music scene to someone unfamiliar to it? I don’t live in the area, so I only see it when I’m playing. It seems so empty in some venues. But, then you go and play The Sesh at The Polar Bear and it will be packed. For a band, it’s definitely who you know. For someone looking to go and see some live music, you’re spoilt for choice Following on from the last question, how would you describe your place within your local scene? We’ve played plenty of shows in Hull, but we did a better job of getting people into Fibbers than we have at most of our shows down there. It’s a weird city, with a very fleeting audience. I think we’re forgotten, because we don’t fit the indie mould that most students still seem to want for whatever reason If you could play your dream gig, where would it be and who would be your support acts? I’d love to play Thekla in Bristol. It an old ship that’s been converted into a music venue. For support, I’d have Dinosaur Pile-Up open, and then have Dead Weather follow them What’s your experience been with gigging, are there any bands you have really enjoyed working with? Playing live is always fun. I’d say it’s where we shine as a band. Our sound really comes alive. Plus, having immediate feedback is always helpful too. I think that my favourite that I’ve played with the guys was the one we played in Manchester back in January. Not so much the show itself, but more the drive over and just mucking around. It would be nice to go on tour at some point. But, life gets in the way What gigs have you got coming up? Not a whole lot. We’re busy sorting out new material at the minute, and then we’re going to come back with force. Finally, where do you want to be by this time next year? None of us are too sure what the future holds. Lives can take a turn in an instant, and we don’t like to plan too far ahead.
Octopus ‘Under The Thumb’ EP Review Octopus’ EP behins with the title track Under The Thumb, this song shows heavy influence from Nivana, the heavy but slow guitar at the start of the track along with the grungey vocals are wgar remindme of a Nivarna song. The second song on the EP is Just Leave, this song instantly has more origonality to it with the intense drums opening up the song. The guitar riff throughout is grungey, rough and memorable. The track is a mixture of 90s grunge and contemporary punk. In Tin Can Horse you can hear the bands blues shine through, during the start of the song the guitar songs influences by Jack White. The vocals keep the bands grunge within this more bluesy track. As the song develops the genres mix to create a blues grunge that is achieved through the layering of these heavy instruments and clever melodic guitar riffs. The blues continues on the final track off the EP Belle of My Ball, the track is slowed down compared to the rest of the EP, instrumentally it is still quite heavy allowing them to keep the grunge there but this is definetely the most bluesy track off the EP. The lyrics are clever and the song as a Southern Rock sound to it as it progresses. The track is my favourite off the EP as it has the most originality and allows the genres to contrast boldly, the instruments and the vocals blend to create something that stands out.
Matt Dunbar ‘Home’ EP Review
Matt Dunbar is a solo acoustic folk artist, his 6 track EP Home is a beautiful twenty four minutes of mood lifting music. Home was number one on the Amazon Folk Chart. The first track on the EP is Bridget Jones’ Diary, which has some inspirational lyrics about doing what you want to do and ignoring what people think you should be doing. This track quickly sets up the entire feel of the EP, it is one of the most easily listening EP’s I’ve heard. Dunbar’s voice will send you into a trance of bliss relaxation. Every track on the EP flows perfectly, the guitar and his voice always harmonise together in a blissiful folk melody. The EP feels honest, I think a lot of this comes from how well each instrument fits into every song but also from Dunbar’s lyrics. Every track shows his brilliant song writing ability. The EP is exactly what you want from folk, it’s there to satifsy all your emotions. You could listen to this when you’re sad or happy and it would accompany your mood perfectly, it would lift your spirits further or let you embrace all your feels. Personally this is something I always look for in folk music and Dunbar has checked that box. To put things simply, it’s six beautiful songs that you should listen to.
They may not be a local band but this Australian band has been off the grid for the past two years. They recently returned with their new single Chew The Gum, released in March with the video following in April. So we thought we’d do a 2 4 1 review here. Bleeding Knees Club are a skate/ surf garage rock-pop band, similar to the likes of FIDLAR and Wavves but with more of a summer feel. The video for Chew The Gum is a classic revenge story, a guy skateboarding is knocked off his board by a bully, who then pisses in his face whilst he’s on the ground. Our protagnoist is then walking down the street, dragging his board with a glum look on his face when he comes across a wall of posters, one advatising to hire a wrestler. The asthetics of this section of the video are bright, bold and seems to have vintage These bright and minimal asthetics continue when we see the wrestler in his home, I particularly enjoy the shots of him benching a Fender amp, giving it a comical twist but also relating it back to the music. The video changes to a dark wrestling wring, founding member Alex Wall walks onto the scene as the referee but dressed, still in a leather jacket and Docs he keepsthe bands asthetic. Our protagonists’ wrestler wins the fight and the video ends with the revenge as he pees on the bullys face in the ring. The track itself still sounds like the unique style that BKC always deliver despite the reformation of the bands members after their haitus. The layering of the guitars and the bass is what gives the band their sound, the fender twang sound is so strong in their music which is accompanied by Alex’s vocals which are perfect to accompany the skate trash fender sound.
Glass Mountain are our favourite band to come out of the Leeds music scene recently, although they’re originally from Bradford. Our first discovery of them was supporting famous 70s psychadelic band Hawkwind. The band have something special about them that you can’t quite put your finger on. They recently played at Live at Leeds Festival on the Briggate Trinity Kitchen stage, they put on another great show, especially considering it was a stage on the streets of Leeds city centre. Guitarst Lewis finished off the final song by sitting on the floor, leaning against a pile of amps whilst playing, which I absolutely loved. The band are currently on tour across the UK and have recently finished recording their next EP. Tour Dates still availble: 13.6.17 | Derby | The Hairy Dog 14.6.17 | Birmingham | Cuban Embassy 16.6.17 | Nottingham | Chameleon Arts Cafe 17.6.17 | Leeds | Brudenell Social Club 27.6.17 | York | The Crescent 29.6.17 | Glasgow | King Tuts If you haven’t already seen Glass Mountain have been publishing their own Zines under the title Ghost, we have issues 1 and 2 and highly reccomend buying yourself copies from their band camp page. They’re a great insight into the band and they’re just generally really asthetic!
Their debut EP ‘Glacial’ consists of five songs. These guys are some of the most incredible song writers on the scene at the moment, each track is different from the last but still has that special Glass Mountain feel to it. The lyrics produces fit perfectly to each song and are interesting, unique and deep. Our favourite few lines off the entire is the chorus of Glacial ‘Can you crave me like I crave you/crawl into my veins theres always a space’, theres raw emotion and creativity within these lyrics that can be interpreted and made special in different ways to each individual who listens to them. They also recently released their single ‘Cowboy Song’ with a bonus track ‘More Than This’. Cowboy Song begins with some soft almost angelic keyboards, this is then layered with an electronic wave sound and Harry’s relaxing vocals. The track gradually intensifies, and the rougher drums and heavily layered guitars join in to complete the track. To label Glass Mountain with a sound or genre would be very difficult, they’re one of the most unique sounding bands of the last few years, there are elements of genres, but not enough to summerise their sound.
LOST TRENDS HEADLINE GIG REVIEW Lost Trends headlined Fibbers during April and they put on yet another fantastic show. There was a fantastic line up with three great support bands; Young Bulls, Borderline and The Jade Assembly.
Young Bulls are a rock and blues two piece, they play louder than any other band I’ve seen and are two of the most talented muscians about. Ben Kitching’s druming style is unique, when you watch him drum you’re just blown away by the movement, he even sets up his kit differently to most drummers. Young Bulls stage presence is a unique one, they don’t talk a lot but it works for them, they’re there for no other reason to do what they do best, play loud and play well. They dress smart on stage wearing blazers and waist coats but with there own unique twist that portrays their personality both as people and muscians perfectly. Lead singer and guitarist Joe Cary’s voice could not be more perfect for there heavy post punk rock blues sound. They also have an extremely unique relationship on stage, they understand each other perfectly, apart from this Fibbers exception, they never write a set list, Joe will decide a song and Ben will pick up on it and play, but an audience would never realise this spontinaity because their flow is so smooth. A good way to sum up Young Bulls sound is any of Jack White’s work (aka solo, The White Stripes and The Racounteurs for those strange readers who aren’t familar with White) mixed with something similar to Royal Blood, Jeff Buckly and some 90s grunge. Borderline brought a completely different vibe into Fibbers, as usual it was another fun synth filled set. These guys without fail but all their energy into every single set, you won’t see them live and leave feeling dissapointed. They’re so engaging with their crowd, no member of their audiance could watch them and not want to reciprocate the energy they’re giving. The bass in every Borderline song is so strong, it’s layered with heavy drums, key board and snyth that creates a heavy electronic and alternative rock mash up. Steve’s vocals are exactly as he put it in our interview with them earlier, shouty and loud, which is exactly what they should be for the sound they’re going for. Steve moves around the stage like a mad man in a way that makes you as an audiance member want to mimick, he jumped off stage to join the crowd in the pit and go mad, you can’t ever doubt Steve’s energy as he did a ‘Grohl’ and ended up in cruches the next day from giving it is all on stage.
The Jade Assembly were the final support for the night. The four piece had a sound similar too Kasabian mixed with Foo Fighters and some 00s indie, it was a great mix with a lot of energy and a lot of passion. The crowd started off by movng a little but it didn’t stay this way for long, they had the crowd as ready and pumped as they could be for Lost Trends. The Jade Assembly had a clean cut sound, there was no dirt in it, even when they got heavy during each song it never sounded rough and raw. Often this can be a negative for a live band, you want to hear that dirty raw live sound, but clean is what worked for this band. Everything was crisp and sharp, there was still as much energy in it as there could be and it was an absolutely killer set. They played Show Me The Sun which started pretty heavy, it kicked off with a classic ‘one, two, three, four’. Thirty seconds into the song they stopped and started again, it was a bit awkward and the crowd was a bit unsure about what was going on but they pulled it off as it sounded much better when they got back into it. During this song three guys near the stage started a mini pit and from there on the energy in the room never died back down. The high energy in their songs and their stage presence was contagious and had the crowd really going. The Jade Assembly’s set was full of great guitar riffs, heavy drums and their bassist was phanomenal, he provided some basslines that carried some of their songs and made you ‘ooh’ at his skill. They have a sound good enough for an academy or an arena. As their set progressed it strayed away from alternative rock and got a little more indie rock, by the time it was there last song everyone in the room was dancing and the energy was insane.
As we’ve said before, you simply cannot go to a Lost Trends gig and not have a blast. Every member of the audience was dancing during their set, some people were really going for it directly in the pit. They played all our favourite tracks including DJ which has been played on a Channel 4 advert. Lost Trends put so much energy into their performances is it’s a suprise they don’t collapse on stage at the end of their gigs, they stand out so much because you can see so much passion and drive in them. They’re also so good at engaging with the audiance because of this, a crowd wants to give back the energy the band give because you can see that they care. They want you to have a good time and dance, and you want to do that for them because they’re on stage absolutely killing it. There are so many Lost Trends tracks that get so intense, they build up the pace until the tension seems like a piece of glass would just shatter under it and its the best thing to witness as a member of the audience, you can’t help but try and keep up your dancing to the speed of the drums and the guitar, it’s almost a relief when the tension breaks and it’s back to normal tempo. If you haven’t seen Lost Trends live I can’t explain how much you’re missing out on, but luckily they’re always performing, so make sure you get down to their next gig!
LOST TRENDS INTERVIEW
You guys have been going for a while now, how did you first start out? We had all been in bands before but one summer Me, Pete (guitarist) and John’s (Drummer) brother Samy started jamming at mine and before he went travelling we had a practice with John on drums and that was it. Back then I had my brother playing bass but he had to leave because of other commitments so we put an ad out for a bassist and Adam was the first one we met. Pretty simply start but as soon as we started writing music together things really clicked in to place. Has there been a change in your sound since you first started? I think there has been a lot of changes in our sound, I hope so anyway I think bands should always keep changing a little. When we started we had no idea what our sound would be, we all had similar likes but we were writing so many songs and they were all very different from each other. It was like finding out what fit for us, none of them were bad songs they just didn’t feel like us. Recently we have got more dancy, we have upped the tempo and percussion so I use less distortion and chords so it doesn’t just sound like a wall of sound, it’s similar but more defined and makes the sound bigger in my eyes. What were some of your favourite bands growing up and what are some of your favourite bands currently? Radiohead have always been my constant, I just think they are better than everyone else and push boundaries more. I grew up listening to my dads music like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, David Bowie then I moved on to the old punk bands like The Sex Pistols, Black Flag, then The Pixies, Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine. Then when the Strokes, early Kings of Leon and Arctic Monkeys happened I was hooked, I loved that low fi sound coming back in. As a band we like the tempo of Bloc Party and Foals, love their energy. Foals are the best live band around at the moment for me.
How much would you say the bands you’re interested in influence you as a band? The music you are in to and listening to always has a massive impact on the music you write, even if you don’t mean it to happen. When you are writing you latch on to a riff or something that you think sounds good and go from there and what you think sounds good is normally similar to the style of music you listen to. We did want to be a dance band and not just an indie band as well so there is always going to be comparisons to those types of bands. I don’t think that is a bad thing either, the members of our band have similar tastes but we all like different stuff as well so as long as you can make it your own the influences are a good thing, it’s got to sound like a Lost Trends song and no one else’s.. haha. You’ve just played Merrion Street Festival and been confirmed for Kaya, are you hoping to get on any other festivals this summer? I’m sure there will be more festivals this summer, we had a great year last year playing some big stages like YorFest, Askern Festival and lots more and I’m hoping this year is just the same if not bigger, we will know more when we finally release our new EP. Would you agree that the York music scene has grown massively over the last year? I totally agree, we have been in the York music scene for 5 years now and it’s the best it’s ever been. I think York is crafting a really great scene at the moment and something big will come from it. Are there any bands in the local scene that you’ve been impressed by in particular? Too many to list them all, I try and get to as many gigs as possible to support the local scene and I’ve seen some amazing bands. Faux Pas are killing it at the moment and their new stuff sounds great. Violet Contours could keep me dancing all night love those guys. Young Bulls have a massive sound for two lads and they look like they have been doing for 20 years when they are on stage. Borderline have that great synth sound and a lot of energy. Aloe Veras have that cool old school sound that reminds me of The Doors. Serotones new song is class, Follow the Giant put on a great show, Part Time Miserables, The Receivers. There are more so apologies if I missed any bands out, just shows how good the York scene is right now.
What’s been your greatest achievement as a band? It has to be Channel 4 using our song DJ on an advert and not just because of the money, I think it opened a few doors for us and it was really serial hearing your music on TV. Do you have any plans for recording/release in the near future? Yes we do, we’ve been working on our new EP and it’s so close to be ing finished. We were hoping it would be done by now but with all the gigs we have been playing we haven’t be able to get back in to the studio. It is coming though so watch this space. How much have you learnt since starting out, has there been any learning curves? The few of things I think are really important that I learnt are you can never practice enough, when writing music less is more most of the time and when on stage put on a show. When you see a band that are professional, well rehearsed and enjoying themselves on stage they stand out and that’s what every band is trying to do, right? Also, when writing music you have to know when not to play, you have to do what works best with the song rather than what you can actually do. I’m sure other bands work totally different to ours though. When you write is it more of a collaborative effort or is there someone that does most of the writing? It’s very collaborative, I write all the lyrics and lyrics are sometimes the last thing we do. When we first started it was more people bringing songs in but now even if I write a riff that I think would work in the band I stop working on it until we are all together. You might have an idea of how you want the song to go but it always goes in a different direction when you have more people working on it which always ends up being better. Lastly, what are your plans for the rest of 2017? Finish the EP, release a few singles and music videos and see what happens after that.
NO SCARY BEARS SINGLES REVIEW No Scary Bears are an alternative rock band from York, their singles all draw elements off different genres creating the set up for a mind blowing EP. FIRE SALE | The vocals sound as though they’re going through a compressor because there are so many harmonies, they also have the right amount of distorition to perfectly accompany the guitar. The layering of the whole instrumentation towards to the end of the song breaks down but comes straight back in with a massive outburst that will blow your head. The track along with many of their singles has a heavy use of the grunge genre along with the alternative rock. LATE REPLY | The track starts with a different feel, the guitar has single clean chord at the start of every few bars that has a more gentle feel. Acompanied by the drums which don’t sound as agressive as the rest of their tracks. But when the chrous kicks in we get that distored grunge back, the vocal range within the chorus sounds as though he is using his higher register although it sounds more behind the instrumentation. Many of No Scary Bears singles show off their instrumental abilities but this track shows off the vocalists abilities.
MAIL |One of the first things I noticed listening to this track is how similar the vocalists voice sounds to that of Billy Corgan’s (The Smashing Pumpkins) within this song. There are times during the song where the guitar has a similar melodic feel to the Pumpkins too. The use of the low vocal tones and the heavily distorted guitar give the track a strong 90s grunge feel. When you listen to No Scary Bears you can hear so much energy within their recordings you almost feel scared of how energetic it must be live. There is so much going on in each track in the best way, you almost crave the idea of being in pit to loose your shit to this music. I know I will definetely be at their next gig to see this madness in person.
CRY BABY SINGLES REVIEW TAKE ME AWAY | Crybaby recently released ‘Take Me Away’, the track opens with a catchy guitar riff which is then joined by the drums and bass which immediately sets up the energy of the song. The captivating opening entices us. The deep bass line provides a powerful melody that you just want to close your eyes and dance along too. The vocals are the perfect fit to this rhythmic song, Jack’ voice eco’s the feel of an earlier era within the indie rock genre. The lyrics are catchy and easy to pick up and sing along too. The layering off the guitars provides energy and fun in this track.
HOW IT MIGHT BE| The B side to Take Me Away is How it Might Be, however this track is just as good as it’s A side. The two combigned have the potential for an EP full of indie rock goodness. The guitar riff before the chorus drops is my favourite section of track, it’s one of those ones you just sort of ‘oooo’ too, it’s builds the tension before the chorus and is a big part of making this track memorable.
THE FRANKLYS GIG REVIEW The Franklys headlines Fibbers 9.6.17, with support from Young Bulls, NAKED SIX and Crybaby. With four brilliant bands whose sounds all worked well together this was a brilliant night from the first chord played to the last.
YOUNG BULLS
Young Bulls opened up the night, their set was more varied than their usual complete mindblowing loudness. They through in a few songs that were more toned down (but still heavy because this is Young Bulls atfer all) They had a larger crowd than their previous experience at Fibbers, everyone was moving a part of their body in some way along to Ben’s insane drumming. They played a cover of The White Stripe’s Canon which they completely make their own, for a band with so much love for Jack White its strange how much they made this song their own.
NAKED SIX
I’ve been waiting to see NAKED SIX for so long and this Friday that finally happened. I’ve had so many people tell me how awesome they are and I was not dissapointed upon finally seeing them live. They opened up with Heartbrake (which they’re releasing a video for very soon), straight away they put so much energy into the room. NAKED SIX have the asthetic of a punk band and the sound of a mash up of genres that creates something sweeeeeet. Their sound reminded me of The Black Keys but with a bluesy twang. Their entire set was loud and full, front man Seb gave brilliant showman ship, moving around the stage a lot, never standing still and sounding and performing just as well despite some techinical issues with his pedal board. Bassist Caleb and drummer Tom provided such a high energy that was reciprocated by the audience. There’s something about NAKED SIX that completely captivares you, after listening to some of their stuff on Soundcloud I was expecting this, each member of the band has raw talent which brought together allows this three piece to make a statement. You can tell there isn’t any bullshit in this band, they’re not trying to be something they’re not, they’re just three talented idividuals bringing some sick songs into the world, I have no doubt that they’ll go far with their music.
CRY BABY
CRY BABY were the main support for the night, after the madness of Young Bulls and NAKED SIX, CRY BABY toned things back down a little. They were the least heavy off the night but by no means did that lessen their set. CRY BABY are an indie rock four piece, you can see where they draw influences from, bands such as Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes, which was confirmed when they covered I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor. But their original tracks just show their exceptional song writing, their two releases (reviewed on page 2) Take Me Away and How It Might Be, have been my favourite releases in the local scene for awhile now, personally I listen to these tracks often so it was great to see them performed live. If they keep up this level of song writing I can picture them releasing a very memorable first album in the future. I’ve seen them live twice in the past week and both times they played Devil In Disguise which caught my attention, I hope to see that recorded eventually! CRY BABY have a large following and brought in the majourity of the crowd for the night but something I would really like to see is them letting loose a bit more on stage, they’ve got the talent, the catchy tracks and the following but it’d be great to see them move around the stage and go a bit more wild. Saying that I still really enjoyed their set and found myself becoming a bigger fan that I already am! Like a lot of bands in the local scene they’ve got so much potential and I’m looking forward to their next move.
THE FRANKLYS
The Franklys brought some girl power to the night, you don’t see a lot of fully female bands at Fibbers, in fact I’ve never seen one but these ladies put on one hell of a show. They supported Airbourne on their tour last year and played Download 2016. They’re a four piece signed to Halta Halta Records. Annoyingly though a lot of the crowd left before The Franklys began, this gig should have been sold out, sweaty and full of people giving it there all in the bit. But as I’m sure many of you will agree, Fibbers seems to only sell out for a certain few bands who have a large following of teenage girls. But ignoring this, The Franklys absolutely killed it on stage. They watched every single support band as a member of the crowd and they all seemed so sweet, but the second they got on stage they transformed into four sassy rockers who played loud and gave it their all. There was so much energy, long blonde locks were flipping everywhere, you can see why this band were picked to play with Airbourne! The members of the audience that were there specifically for The Franklys quickly became obvious, a lot of head banging took place. Despite the small crowd these ladies still gave it there all, musically they were all crazy talented, the drums were heavy and they shredded their guitars. They moved so much on stage, the energy was so high and front woman Jennifer Ahlkvist was outstanding, her vocals were raw and fit perfectly into each song. I know I’ll definetely be at the next gig they put on nearby.