Sounds From The Street

[sftswigan]

Middlesbrough quartet, Swears, tell us about the latest single and idea behind video and their direction on latest EP, Seersucker.

George and Joel from the band join us... Can you tell us a little bit about the band, who plays what and how the band formed?

We got together in the summer of 2017. We’d known each other for years via various bands and jamming together, admired each other’s work and decided to give it a go together. George (guitar) and Stephanos (drums)come as a duo on account of the whole ‘blood bond’ thing and teamed up with Joel (vocals/guitar) to write a few early demos. Tom joined the band around a year ago, replacing our original bassist Craig.

Having only been together for a short time, you’ve released quite a bit of material. How would you describe how your music has developed from when you released ‘Faith In The Nation’ to your recently released EP ‘Seersucker’ and how has the latter been received by fans and critics?

Loud, high energy shit but quite melodic. When we started this band the idea was to do music a little more pop-orientated and accessible than in our previous bands, but as time has gone on and we’ve defined our sound, we’ve ended up becoming darker and heavier, both in terms of the music and in lyrical subject matter.

The reaction has been really good. We put a lot of effort into spreading the word and it's been heartening to see it be so well received. We've had radio play in places we've never reached before, such as USA and Australia, which is super cool.

Your first set of songs are really catchy and as soon as I heard Subliminal I was hooked. Loving this new EP too! I like the direction it’s going. I first came across the band via a sponsored ad video. Thought I’d take a chance...turned out I like it what I heard/saw. How well did the ‘sponsored as’ work out and would you consider doing that kind of promotion for your next video?

Sponsored ads these days are a must for a band of our level. The way social media works these days is to limit the reach of non-paying brands in favour of those who pay. We don't like to spend too much but just enough to make sure people actually see our stuff. We put a lot of effort into our songs and videos etc so we're glad to hear that they are working and we are really grateful you managed to find us. We will be definitely using them for our newest video for 'Say Nothing'. We'd recommend any band use them, even if it's just a spare £10.

So let’s talk about your new single ‘Say Nothing’ that you released recently. What made you choose that particular song and theme for the video?

We chose to release 'Say Nothing' as a single from the EP as it’s one of our favourites from our EP 'Seersucker’ and we really liked the idea for the video. It’s had a good reception and was regularly picked out as one of the stand out tracks from the EP too, which is nice.

We came up with the idea for the video back in January this year. Joel and George were drunk at a bar in Manchester and they made a voice note on George's phone, shouting barely coherent instructions at the phone on what the video should go like. Later, we listened back to it when we were sober and expanded it from there. But really we just wanted to wear matching suits, pretend we were gangsters and shoot each other.

Great idea for a video and I love where the idea came from. Fits in well with the song. I see Sound Music Group are involved with the band now. How did that come about and what will they do for the band?

Thank you, it was a fun video to make. We were recently approached by Sound Music Group to work with us as a booking agent, and the idea is to book a tour with them at some point. Super excited to get back to gigging when we are all allowed to do so!

We can’t wait to see you guys play and we were gutted when we had to postpone the gig! Do you have any pre-gig rituals to prepare yourselves?

We can't wait to finally play for you too! We have various secret rituals to prepare ourselves. We might also go for a quick cigarette and/or extensive toilet breaks. But mainly we all get together separate from everyone else, talk about any last-minute set changes and hype each other up.

Who’s the worst for pre-gig nerves?

We've all been in bands and playing gigs for the past 10 years or more, so at this point I don't think anyone suffers too badly from nerves. As long as we know the set is well-rehearsed we are pretty confident that we will be able to handle anything that could go wrong during the gig - we've had enough experience with all that in the past! There's always a little bit of nervous excitement I guess, but that just shows you give a shit about what you're doing.

We’ll end the serious part of the interview with some more fun questions...

Big UK fest slot or support your favourite band?

Joel: UK fest slot

George: supporting favourite band

Favourite film/series?

A Scanner darkly, The Last Kingdom, The Rush Hour movies, Drive, The Nice Guys, anything Tarantino really. Theres too many to mention really.

If you were to be sent off to a desert island what album, book and other item of your choice would you take with you?

Joel: I would take...

For album I'll go for Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited. A timeless album, every track on it is a classic and it's got my favourite Dylan song 'Ballad of a Thin Man'

For book I'll go for Stephen King - The Stand. Because it's really long so will keep me occupied for a good amount of time, plus it will be fun to read about a fictional pandemic again.

For item I would take:

Either my guitar to give me something to do and stop me going crazy, my laptop so I can write, a big ganja plant if I want to sack off trying to escape and just get high all day on a beach, or something useful like a compass.

George: I would take...

The album I would take is Badbadnotgood - III. The item I would take is my guitar and the book I would take is a Macbook so I can record music. I know it's not a proper book but it says book in the name.

Favourite beer?

That one is an easy one. We all love Keo Beer. It is a beer from George and Stephanos' homeland of Cyprus. Please sponsor us Keo. The only place we can get them from is at one of the supermarkets and they come in those big bottles were you get 3 for £5. But we need more.

Last question...

Summer or winter?

Joel: Winter, "Cos it's cold and dark like my heart".

George: I would say Summer because it reminds me of Cyprus.

Big thanks to George and Joel from the band! go and check their social media pages and give them a listen on the streaming formats!

[sftswigan]

New band on the scene, Divide The Sun, tell us about their lockdown as a band, their influences and why not many of have heard of them...yet!

Alright lads, firstly, who are Divide The Sun and can you tell us a little bit about the band as we here at SFTS take pride in knowing the local scene very well but we’ll be honest and say that we know nothing about you guys! Why is that?

Phil: OK, so the initial introductions for Divide the Sun are...

Robin Bailey - Rhythm guitar & vocals

Gaz Moore - Lead guitar & vocals

Will Waddington - Bass Guitar

Phil Moore - Drums

We’re a band who are a little “late to the party” in that we only met initially about 2 years ago, and only formed as the current line up about 12 months ago.

Robin and I met at TMP Music College, and when we decided to wanted to continue to make music, we recruited Gaz and then Will, who had previously played together (some years ago) in a number of bands. We’ve discussed recently how we want to start to take it to the next level, gigging and promoting etc. Sadly Coronavirus has made a dent in those plans.

Robin: I think we were clear from the start our goal was to write, produce and play original songs. We are still on that journey. Also, we’re probably guilty of being too perfectionist or maybe its a bit of impostor syndrome??

However we have released our first single, Green and Brown, (second single on its way, soon) and made a couple of surprise gigs at TMP, both of which were very well received! Like you guys the response so far has been “why have we never heard of you before”!!

Well it’s great to have another Wigan band in this amazing scene we have.

What is the writing process in the band and how did the song ‘Green and Brown’ come to fruition?

Robin: The writing process usually starts with me or Gaz having the basis of a song and we take it to the band, who all add their bits. In fact some songs/ideas don’t get Divide the Sun’s approval and are rejected. ‘Green and Brown’ was pretty much accepted from the outset and developed by all the band. Its a song that covers all the light and airy themes of war, terrorism, religion and death....set to a nice jangly indie groove!

Phil: Yeah, the structure of the song is definitely driven by the two main songwriters, but they do ‘allow’ Will and I a certain degree of autonomy in how we add to the song!! Once the structure is there, we’ve found that the process to a final format is pretty quick. We then just take time to tweak and perfect it.

Love the fact that such topics can be turned into a song, I remember back with the Bush era in th US brought out a lot of new material for bands like Greenday, System of a Down etc and probably other bands too. Have these dark times with COVID, protests, the government etc inspired the band and songwriting whilst not being able to gig?

Phil: In all honesty the band as a whole have been in somewhat of a hiatus through COVID. We’ve only managed to get together once, but we’ve stayed in contact pretty consistently. In fact, probably more so than before lockdown!!! The two songwriters have been sending ideas across, and we definitely have things to get straight into once lockdown is lifted.

In the meantime, Robin is very prolific with his songwriting, and is definitely not afraid to progress any songs that he feels are worth it, but that are maybe not DtS material.

Robin: Its funny three songs I have written have been inspired by all those themes. One called “Alone together” deals with those whose lives have always involved self-isolation even before lockdown. The “Luckiest Man in Rock and Roll” is a jealous song aimed at those who have made it in the music industry. And “Us and Them” deals with lies, corruption and oppression. I may try and write a happy song one day!!

The way the world is at the moment there’s plenty for the band to write The way the world is at the moment there’s plenty for the band to write about and it’s all very relevant and people can relate to it too.

What’s the plan for the band once we get more normality back?

Gaz: What is normality, though? The World is always in chaos, just in different guises. There’s always plenty to write about!

Will: Get back into practice, get a set together and play a gig!

Robin: Yes, that’s the answer!

Phil: Yeah, I think it’s about catching up on the material we already have, and getting that back up to standard. But the guys have been working on some stuff that we’re going to begin developing as soon as we can!

Gaz, you make a very good point.! There’s always bad things going on so spot on there but it’s often ammunition for bands to write about I suppose.

When you get back gigging is there anywhere in particular you want to play or bands you’d like to gig with? Or is it a case gig wherever and as much as possible?

Phil: We’re still at the stage where we’re getting the material together, to a standard that we’re happy to take to a (potentially paying) audience. So I think it’s fair to say we are only just beginning to think that far ahead. One particular venue is like to play is The Old Courts in Wigan but also The Boulevard. Having said that, we want to make sure that the material is good to go before we rush into anything. Will’s lives in Preston and there are apparently a number of venues there that we hope to play at. In terms of supporting, you’ve got to aspire to someone like The Lathums but that may be a stretch given their meteoric rise!! The Lilacs and Island Dam are also obvious local choices given their quality and current experience.

Will: Some of the Preston venues that is like to play at are, The Ferret, The Continental, 53 degrees. There were more but I heard they closed.

Good local bands we could support; Blues Harvest, Zvilnik, Doug Perkins and the Spectaculars, Fighting, dat brass, Ward 16 and Jackpot Golden Boys.

Yeah no rush and this is the perfect time to get it right whilst gigs aren’t really as we know them just yet and people are understandably not ready to go out to pubs/venues.

We’re very lucky to have so many good bands not just in the northwest but in the UK.

What bands are you listening to at the moment and does that have an influence on the bands songwriting?

Robin: I think a lot of bands indirectly influence my songs however I never sit down with an artist orgenre in mind. I think it’s probably more subconscious. I am often maybe more conscious of not sounding like anyone or copying anyone. Historically [I listened to] Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, The Smiths, Leonard Cohen ... currently Elliot Smith, Sufjan Stevens, King Krule, Aha, early Prefrab Sprout, Wu Tang Clan, Laura Nyro....

Gaz: [I’m] Currently listening to Future Islands a lot and although it’s not the sound I would want from my own band......

I do find it is inspiring my own writing. I definitely have a connection with the vocal both melodically and lyrically.

Good to see quite a mixed bag of music there.

That was our last (serious) question. We’ve got some, more hypothetical fun questions now....

If you could open up for any band (Alive or dead) who would it be?

Robin: Super Furry Animals

Gaz: Well for me it would have to be the best live band I’ve ever seen..............the mighty...............pigeon detectives. Jokes. KASABIAN!!

Phil: Biffy Clyro. Definitely.

Will: Erm, queen at wembley.

Interestingly, the bloke who taught me guitar when i was 16 was previously in a band who did genuinely support queen in their early days.

Some great choices there! Streaming music or Vinyl?

Robin: Would love to say Vinyl, but I would never have listened to the range of music I have, if it wasn’t for streaming. So from a purely selfish and indulgent perspective, streaming.

Gaz: Streaming through the week. Vinyl on Sundays!!

Will: I'm not nearly hipster enough to be interested in vinyl nowadays, just for the sake of trying to be cool, so streaming all the way :)

Phil: I listen to a lot of music on the go, so Vinyl isn’t really practical!! Also, I’ve never owned a Vinyl record without scratching it to hell, so definitely streaming for me, too.

Also, you can choose an album, a book and one other item to take to a desert island with you. What do ya take?

Phil: I’ll go first then.....

Album - The Wall - Pink Floyd (without question)

Book - Difficult one this. Probably the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes (I’m sure it’s available in one volume somewhere)

Item - can I take my phone?

Robin:

Album. Desire- Bob Dylan...

Book: Finnegans Wake-James Joyce...(never understood it, so might work it out on the Island).

Item: Mini-Brewery.

Will:

Album - 1977, ash.

Book - Lord of the Rings.

Item - survival knife / multitool. Or maybe a saltwater still, depends if the island has a fresh water source or not...

Gaz:

The Bends - Radiohead

Book of local wildlife

Guitar :)

Thanks very for taking the time to chat to us lads!

Please go and visit the band's social media pages and follow on the streaming services.

[sftswigan]

Manchester garage punks, Tinfoils, George from the band tells us about their latest single, their money raising effort for BLMUK and how a game of pool completed the band...

Alright hope you’re doing well through this shit time.

Can you tell us who Tinfoils are and where did the name come from?

TINFOILS are a mardy northern bastard garage punk band based in Manchester. There's three of us, and we've all moved here from Yorkshire.

The name came from when I was on an X Files hype. Thought it was a good name for a band, so I just got the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages before we'd even done a rehearsal! I think it was before we even met Will. I just thought it was a good name, the other two agreed and we ran with it.

Sounds like you had confidence in this band early on then. How did you find Will and what has he brought to the band?

I don't know if I had loads of confidence in the band before we started really, I just thought the name was cool! We didn't really take it very seriously for a long time, took us about 6 months to bother looking for a gig. Was just an excuse to meet and get pissed up at first.

Me and Alex had known each other for a while, and went to a pub in Fallowfield. We were having a game of pool, when two blokes came up and asked if they could play doubles because no other tables were free. We agreed, and one of them turned out to be Will. After that they invited us to some flat party, and at about 6 in the morning on some unknown persons kitchen worktop he mentioned he played bass. We met up a couple of days later and the rest is history.

He's an amazing bassist, and his love for funk has a massive impact on every song I write. Tunes always come out sounding better once I show them to Will and Alex.

Love the bass lines in your songs, The Abyss, especially. Could’ve been a different story if you and Alex decided that was your last game of pool and just handed it to Will and his mate!

Like The Blinders, you also (and I think one or two others have followed suit) made the journey from Doncaster to Manchester. How much of a difference has that made to you and the band?

Definitely! All credit for that goes to our mate Breezy to be fair, he was the one who suggested doubles. He drops it in to conversation every time he's trying to convince us to come out.

Yeah I moved from Doncaster about 5 years ago, I do love it to bits but I wouldn't have been able to do half the stuff I wanted to if I'd stayed. Wouldn't have met Alex and Will, and probably wouldn't have ended up starting a band. There are some decent bands in Doncaster but a lot of it was indie stuff at the time, which I do like but not something I was interested in doing. The music scene in Manchester is amazing at the moment, there's so much music and it's all really different and interesting. Best place for music in the country at the moment I reckon.

Manchester is definitely a great place for music but I think the UK in general has a really good music scene at the moment with loads of good bands about! Though places like Manchester have some unreal venues and bands love playing there.

I wanna talk about your latest single ‘Spitting’ which was released during lockdown. Absolutely love that track! You went to Magic Garden to record it. What did recording it there bring to the song?

Cheers mate, we're really happy with it. I think it added a lot going to Magic Garden, Gavin's brilliant. First of all, it's just way higher quality than anything else we've put out, and I think it manages to sound a lot like we do live. Gavin also suggested we add some vocals in to middle 8 bit, which was originally just instrumental. I quickly wrote something down on a bit of scrap paper in a few minutes, and recorded it in one take, and that's the take in the final song. It's the whole "lap me up I'm stagnant water" bit. We'll hopefully get some more tunes recorded soon, would love another trip to the garden. The music video for the song is just clips of our time at the studio mixed in with some live clips, had a really good time there.

I hear quite a few bands speak highly of him and his influence on their time in his studio. He does seem to get great results.

You recently released some songs on bandcamp that were live demos if I remember correctly. Are they going onto Spotify at any point and also will you be recording any of these? Peeping Tom is probably one of my favourites of yours.

Yeah they're a load of demos we did at Dead Basic Studios last year, we thought it was a shame to have them just lying about. We decided to put them out and donate all the money from Bandcamp Day to BLMUK, every little helps doesn't it. They won't be going on Spotify, but I reckon we'll probably record a couple of them properly one day. Peeping Tom's a bit of a favourite, would love to get that recorded in a studio but there's a million tempo changes so I think it'd probably be tricky to nail down. Its one of my favourites to play live, especially when we're headlining and get the chance for a self-indulgent 10 minute jam with a big sing-a-long. The demos will stay on Bandcamp for the foreseeable, but I think we'll probably take them off at some point.

A great cause, did you manage to raise much? Some really good tracks on there would love to here them recorded like you say.

So what are the bands plans once lockdown is relaxed to a point bands and musicians to get out there and do proper stuff without fear again?

Yeah we raised about £60-70 I think? It was only for the day, when Bandcamp waived their fees. Props to Lewis from Dead Basic for recording and mixing them all.

First things first we need to get in for a rehearsal! I've written a load of new songs which I'm looking forward to working out, I think it'll be a lot of new tunes in the set list when we're back gigging. Hopefully reschedule our tour that had to be postponed, play some tunes, get some recording done, and go out and see some bands! Just got to hope it's not too far off.

That’s awesome! Excited about the new tunes and future recordings...and gigs again obviously.

Hopefully you can squeeze a rearranged gig for us on the tour!

You mentioned how highly you rate the Manchester scene. Which bands should people go and see once bands get to gig again?

There's a tonne of bands to go and see, to name a few: Loose Articles, Blanketman, The Early Mornings, Swine, Springfield Elementary, Giant Boys, The Red Stains, Cold Water Swimmers, and loads of others. There's a lot of different styles about but I do feel like there's a sort of coherent feeling between all the bands around here at the minute. It got to the point just before pandemic where no matter which venue or what day, if you turned up you'd probably see something amazing. Fingers crossed it all survives the lockdown!

There’s some good bands there, really like Springfield Elementary and Swine what I’ve heard of them and also Red Stains. I need to check the others out but we’re very lucky to have so many good bands about and more people these days that are very much into new music!

We’re gonna end the interview with some quick fun questions...

Favourite album/EP of this year?

I'm gonna go with either Zero Dollar Bill by Do Nothing, or The Non-Stop EP by Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard. Can't pick between them!

Also really looking forward to Fontaines DCs new album, and Idles, and The Blinders.

If Tinfoils could tour with any band alive or dead who would it be?

Would love to go on tour with Fontaines DC, Idles or Sleaford Mods. If I had to pick between them, at the moment probably Fontaines. Loving their last few singles, and Dogrel was banging.

Ah wait, Thee Oh Sees! Maybe Oh Sees actually. Any of the above would allow me to die happy.

Is there a song that at least one member isn’t keen on in the set but are outnumbered?

I don't really like The Royal Baby Machine that much, but the other two do.

Chinese food or Indian?

Indian

Lager or Real ale?

Ale, but more of a standard bitter to be honest. Not West Coast passionfruit and jasmine infused with lemongrass IPA stuff, it's rank and I don't get it. Give me a pint of John Smiths over that wank any day.

Festival you’d love to play?

Wouldn't turn down Glasto!

Last one...

Best live band you’ve seen?

Best live band I've seen is probably Idles.

Alex, our drummer says Cabbage at Night & Day was probably the best gig he’s been to recently

Thanks to George from Tinfoils for chatting to us! You can listen to their music on all the streaming services and go and visit their social media pages. Here is their latest effor, Spitting.

[sftswigan]

Wigan band, Dirty Circus, return with a point to prove and reveal name of new single

We’ve got Binns, frontman of the band with us. Alright man, how’s it going?

Good mate, just trying to adjust to this new world we live in as well as trying not to drink too much.

You guys have recently, over the year or so returned to the scene after a long time away. What made you come back and how would you compare the music scene now to how it was then?

Long story shortish...after we split from Sony we carried on for a few years but all wasn’t well within the band and cracks had started to show and we split in 2010. Even though we we’re all best friends the heartbreak of the split with Sony caused us to start blaming each other. We didn’t speak with each other for 8 years pretty much but there may of been an occasional text etc. Then in 2017 Stevie invited us all to his wedding and 3 of us decided to go and as soon as we saw each other we realised that the magic was still there. We decided to book a rehearsal room and see what happened, I contacted the other 2 lads they didn’t want to do it so we moved on as a 4 piece. Soon as we started playing we knew we wanted to play some shows again we had unfinished buisness. We booked a comeback show at the Old courts and sold it out it was only meant to be 1 show but because of the reaction we decided carry on.

The music scene now is completely different, it’s not enough to just be a musician anymore you’ve got to be so many other things. If you want to be successful, social media manager, record label owner, video director etc it’s great in the way that you don’t need to have a big label to release a record but it’s more difficult to really make a mark if you don’t know all the other stuff. But at the same time there’s always new music to listen to and new bands coming through. I just wished a few more of them would get the credit they deserved.

It’s mad how when we originally came through all it was about was finding a label now you can run your own label from a phone.

A real shame it didn’t work out with the label though isn’t it. Why do you think that was?

Yeah mate it just wasn’t the right time. Labels were losing so much money especially the big ones. Mad thing is we had our pick, we met with 6 labels 4 majors and 2 big indie labels. We could of picked any but unfortunately we chose wrong. If we would have had a manager in place before signing I reckon we would of signed elsewhere.

The Suzukis were on Deltasonic during their career and Moco we're well liked on the scene so Wigan bands were being looked at it seems.

Every band wants to sign to a major (in theory) but so many smaller labels do well now, Modern Sky are doing well with the bands they have on their roster. Are they a label you will approach?

We are good friends with Pichilingi who runs the label. We nearly signed to him and his previous label Robot.

The plan was to get the record off Sony and put it out on Robot. So Pichilingi paid for us to go to Wales for a week to record B-sides.

We recorded ‘Middle class masterclass’ on those sessions but couldn’t get the masters for the record in time and due to this it didn’t get released on Robot.

You mentioned interest from other labels, any stories about that?

When we were signed , Atlantic offered us a pretty big US deal including publishing. We turned it down because we were told Sony wanted us to sign a global deal with them so we missed that boat as well. It’s mad, I genuinely think we were cursed!

During the time you were signed to a major label like Sony, how was it? What positives have you taken from that experience?

It was mad really everything happened so quickly we had only been together 6 months with that line up we didn’t have a manager or anything and we started getting label attention. It was weird, after the first label reached out to us it felt like a different label was in touch everyday and were gradually getting bigger and bigger. It got to the point where we were playing small shows and people from Sony or Parlophone were pretty much the only people in the crowd, in-fact once we played a small festival on the back of a wagon in Ribchester which is near Preston and there was A&R from Sony there. We were all pretty intoxicated as we had been drinking all day and we pretty much told him to fuck off because we thought he was lying. Mad really, it got to the point where we had spoke to pretty much all the major labels and quite a few of the big indies.

Being signed was amazing at first. We got to quit our jobs and got paid for pretty much rehearsing and writing all day, it was the dream. We had all come from working class backgrounds and had that work mentality so we treated it as we would a normal job. We had a rehearsal room just outside Manchester City center and we would practice Monday to Friday 9ish till gone 6 everyday and learnt a lot in that time. I think it stands us in good stead today, we just fit together now we all know each other as musician and know exactly what each other are thinking on stage. We could go weeks between proper practices but as soon as we play it’s like we’ve been playing everyday.

In regards to our experience, like I said, it was amazing at first all our dreams had come true but it started to become frustrating. At about 8 months in, before we signed, we had a huge amount of momentum. Labels were all over us. We were selling all our show’s out, our MySpace (remember that) was going mad at one point we were getting about 600/700 plays a day which at the time was huge. We were playing every week, sometimes twice. We had just been mentioned in NME as part of the radar page and clash magazine had named us ones to watch. Then we signed the deal and the label told us to stop playing live and spend the next 6 months writing our album with the promise they would put everything behind us when we’ve finished the album. That completely derailed all the momentum we had built. We stopped booking shows and spent everyday writing and we wouldn’t see anybody from the label for months, when we did they would tell us yeah we’re speaking with producers about the album. At one point it genuinely looked like we were recording the record with Butch Vig in the US, well that’s what we got told. We had started to look at visa’s and stuff but then that went quiet. We had a manger at this point it was Phil Saxe who had managed the Happy Mondays and worked for Factory for years but he was appointed by Sony so he had his hands tied. Anyway, it got that bad we started to book some shows on the sly and we booked ‘in the city’ not on the main stage but one of the fringe shows we smashed it and had another raft of labels approaching us asking what’s the deal with Sony. We even got named as one of the acts of the festival by Clash Magazine. We hoped this would give Sony the kick up the arse they needed but it wasn’t. It’s key to mention, this was the mid noughties and illegal downloading and counterfeit Cd’s where rife. There was no Spotify or Apple Music and the labels were losing huge amounts of money. Sony had just put out kasabians second record and lost a huge amount of money on it . We had heard that a few our our label mates had been offered settlements to terminate there contracts, The Go Team and infact Primal Scream. So the label had started to cull less profitable bands. We had a meeting and got told they were still happy with us and to keep preparing the record so we cracked on for another 3 months but nothing happened and we still weren’t playing regularly. It was then we got an offer.

3 or 4 months after we left, Mani asked us to go and play a show he had put on. We played and the same A&R guy we told fuck of back in Ribchester who we had since become friends with came to watch us. He’d lost his job as part of the cuts and he told us that one of the reasons the label initially signed us was because they saw us a threat to Kasabian who were also on Sony and they wanted to keep us out the hands of other labels.

Which looking back made sense because early on in signing us they started asking us to write some ballads etc which we thought was strange.

Definitely seen the highs and lows of being on a label there. If you were in a new band starting out now, knowing what you know now, what advice would you give them? And also looking back, would you do anything differently?

Trust your own instinct definitely and don’t rush it. Wait to make the right decision and don’t get blinded by the lights. The music industry was a different beast back then it wasn’t as easy to put your own stuff out streaming services were in their infancy as was social media and you needed a label to release music properly. Just take your time and release your own music and don’t get obsessed with getting a label you don’t need them anymore you’ve got google.

The one thing I will say though is gig as much as you can, don’t refuse shows big or little even if it’s in someone’s back garden, play it. That’s why we got signed because we played everything, 2 or 3 gigs a week but never really got any money. We did it for the love of it and the crowds just got bigger and bigger.

Would we of done anything different, yeah we would of taken our time and not rushed. We got blinded by Sony a little before we signed. They sorted us a manger and took us to loads of fancy London parties and paid for everything. It was amazing but it was all just buttering us making sure we didn’t go elsewhere and it worked at the time we had the pick of the labels indies, majors, big indies the lot. We should of listened to what they had to say but we got blinkered. It could of been a completely different story if we would of given one of the other labels the time.

Great advice that but you make a important point about the strength of social media and labels not necessarily being as important as they were. Though there are some good ones about especially indie labels. I do believe in gigging as much as bands can, obviously do your research first and network with bands from other towns first maybe.

Can we talk about your new material? How’s that sounding? And also how much are you releasing and how are you going to about it?

Yeah it’s sounding really good mate. We’re super happy with it. We were always more experimental and been influenced by more than just guitar music. We loved dance music, hip hop, garage etc back in the day. We had a huge set up with loads of analog synths and drum machines only problem was we never really worked out how to use them properly so we were limited and never really got to the sound we wanted.

In a weird way though it worked and give us a kind of rawness at the time.

The difference is now in 7 or 8 years we were apart I got more into the electronic side of music through the likes of four tet, Jamie xx, SBTRKT. So I decided to buy a MacBook with logic and teach myself how to use it with the aim of doing something on my own. In that time I wrote and wrote learning more and more how to use it properly. I never planned on doing anything solo and when we reformed I had a raft of ideas to take to the lads. I wasn’t sure how it would translate with the lads because it was a lot more routed in Dance music with loads of samples and more modern drum patterns but they litterally lapped it up. We managed to build songs really quickly and I’d say we sound more Dirty Circus now than we did when we recorded the first record.

We’re going to release our first proper new music in over 10 years in August. We’re putting it out on our own label ‘Clap it off’ and we’re hoping we can do a video etc. It’s an absolute summer banger hugely influenced by Chicago house and punk rock! With the new stuff, I always say imagine Jonny rotten on ecstasy in the hacienda. The plan is to do it old skool like a lot of the late 90’s bands we are into and do the single with 3 or 4 remixes on it and here’s a world exclusive...it’s called SUNSHINE.

After that we’ve basically got another 5 songs in various stages of mixing but the plan is to do another single after this then put everything together for an EP.

Unfortunately, everything costs money so things don’t move as fast as they would do if we had a label behind us but we’ll get there.

We’ve got a point to prove and that’s what we want to do with these songs.

Well, there you go people...some exclusive news! I love the sound of that though the Johnny Rotten comparison. Is the songwriting process much different to how it was back then?

Not really just a bit more advanced plus there’s only 4 of us now as opposed to 6 back in the day. It’s usually starts with a synth line or drum machine loop then we build it up from that although we have loads of samples and loops we still structure the song pretty traditional. A little secret...we got a deal and we didn’t have any verse lyrics to the songs! I used to make them up every gig and freestyle them. We had choruses that were always the same and a melody but I genuinely used to make the verses up on the spot.

That’s mad innit, but you got away with it and was enough to impress people.

You’ve told us so much about the band and the stories of the highs and the lows of the band.

We’re gonna end on some quick fun questions...

What venue would you love to play?

Wherever you could fit as many people as possible. Not bothered as long as there is 60k+ people watching.

id like to do a massive hometown show in Wigan at the DW or something.

Streaming or Vinyl?

Streaming

If you could gig with any band (alive or dead) who would it be?

It’s difficult, but probably peak Happy Mondays, around 89-90 era.

Facebook or Twitter?

I’m personally more Instagram, but out the 2 Facebook, just.

Thanks for taking the time to chat to us, we’ve learned so much about the band!

Thanks for everything mate. Thanks for all the support over the last few months mate.

[sftswigan]

Manchester gutter punks, The Battery Farm, talk to us about horrific crime inspiring a song and how they just had to form this band...

We’ve got frontman/guitarist Ben from the band.

Alright Ben, can you tell us about the band. Who plays what and how the band got together?

Hallo! We are The Battery Farm, four gutter bastards from Manchester playing gnarly, seething punk rock music.

Ben Corry on Vocals and Guitar, Dominic Corry on Guitar, Paul Worrall on Bass, Sam Parkinson on Drums. Me and Dom formed this band from the ashes of a band we'd previously been in together for 8 years. At the point we formed The Battery Farm we were in a low place, feeling like failures, feeling defeated by this thing that we'd built for years just imploding, feeling angry and scared and hopeless at the utter state of the world. We basically decided to do this in the pub one night when we felt like we had absolutely nothing to lose. It was formed as a desperate reaction to two lives and minds spiralling out of control in a hostile, hateful world.

That must have been tough but, seems like it’s worked out well and the band from what I can tell is going from strength to strength. How soon did you find the remaining members, Paul and Sam? What have they brought to the band?

It has actually. Helpfully, it was a fertile environment from which to create. The first wave of songs - stuff like I Am a Man - are the purest distillation of that sense of lashing out, that sense of desperation we were feeling at the time.

We found Paul pretty much straight away. I'd known him for years through Manchester's Fringe theatre scene, having been in a couple of plays with him. He'd come to see me in a play, I knew he was a musician as well as an actor (although I don't think I'd grasped just how good he is), so I asked if he fancied playing bass for our new band. Sam we actually didn't know before the band, and it took a little longer to get him in. He works for the same company i do and I'd heard he was a drummer, so I got his contact details, asked him if he fancied coming for a rehearsal with us. It all clicked, and the rest is history.

Paul and Sam bring a massive amount to the band. They lift the songs me and Dom write and add a very particular combination of power and melody which you'll be hard pressed to come by very often. They're fucking ace and they know what is good for the song. No ego, no fucking about. They know what's important.

Sounds like you needed that new band to form quickly and to find drummer and bassist when you did you was very fortunate. I watched an interview of you and Dom recently and you talked about inspiration for songwriting and I was interested in where 97/91 came from. When it comes to writing where do you first look to for ideas?

Yeah we did, finding a drummer was comparitively difficult and I think if we'd have really struggled then we honestly would have just given up on it. 97/91 came about after I read an article about the murder of Suzanne Capper in Moston, north Manchester, which is where me and Dom grew up. I'm not going to go into details but if you look it up you'll see that it's the most horrific thing you've ever read. It stuck with me for weeks afterwards, and part of that was because I knew the streets where it had taken place and the community in which it had taken place. The houses it happened in - numbers 97 and 91 - are still there to this day. I got to thinking about why I reacted so viscerally to that story in particular; atrocities happen every day and we don't bat an eyelid, not really. It had such an impact because I was so familiar with the setting, so familiar with the type of person involved. It was too real. 97/91 explores the idea that we make a trade-off in our lives, one which enables cognitive dissonance that shields us from the impact the mass, relentless violence of the world. It also means that when something evil happens in a familiar setting the impact is much greater.

How can it only be real when you can see it? 97/91 isn't necessarily about the Capper murder itself, but the murder is a jumping off point to explore the faustian pact at the heart of the human condition, the one that keeps us sane but also ebbs away at our souls.

Our ideas just literally come from trying to explain our perspective on the world, we don't necessarily make a conscious effort to look in one place for ideas. We just write about whatever moves us. That can be mental illness, corrupt political systems, or the fact that I've never been to Gorton, which is literally the title of one of our new songs.

I find reading about crime stories really interesting, it’s madness what goes on in this world! This is one I’m not aware of but this must have been difficult to write about with it being so close to home? I love the anger and aggression in your music and lyrics.

You mentioned being an actor earlier, do you think this has an influence on your performance as a front man?

Yeah I went through a short phase of listening to true crime podcasts earlier this year but i had to stop bec it was all too grim. It was difficult to explore the ideas that particular incident led me onto but the endgame wasn't to just write about the murder itself, so I suppose keeping that in mind kept my head clear and made things easier.

Honestly, i try to keep any ideas of acting and theatre separate from the band. The actor thing can be frustrating at times because people conflate that with what I do in the band and think that everything must be a performance of some kind, which it isn't. The whole idea of putting The Battery Farm together was that it could give us an outlet to express ourselves honestly, and to me the stuff I do as a frontman is just an honest reaction to what I'm singing and what it makes me feel. I try not to overthink that aspect of it because I feel like to do so would water it down. It needs to be raw, it needs to be stark, it needs to be reality. If it's an actor's performance I'm not really getting anything out of it.

It’s amazing how reading/listening to one can lead on to another one. But yeah hard to shake off once you’ve learned about them.

You’re performance on stage seems very honest and I love to see in a frontman.

Moving on to the music scene...Manchester in particular is buzzing at the minute. Did the band find it easy to slot in? What’s been your favourite gig up to now?

We did actually. We knew a couple of people anyway from being in previous bands but until now I'd always found the Manchester scene a little unfriendly. It's totally different now. Not only is it overflowing with incredible, original, exciting new bands but it's also full of amazing people, and in the year we've been gigging we've made some wonderful friends. There's a proper sense of inclusivity and community, a lack of ego and aloofness that wasn't there before.

My favourite, and I think the others would agree with me, is our first headline set which was at The Peer Hat last November. It was an Abattoir Blues night and they're always amazing. The venue was packed to capacity and the atmosphere was electric. It was the kind of big, simmering sweatbox that seems impossible to imagine in the current climate. I want every gig we play to be like that one.

Yeah it’s great to see bands appreciating each other’s music and plugging their stuff on social media etc. I love going to Manchester for a gig. It’s a great time for guitar music in the UK at the minute with bands like Idles, Fontaines DC and Sports Team doing really well. And also The Blinders bringing album 2 out very soon!

That gig sounds like a great night!

When all this is over and we get some normality back...what are the bands plans?

Well, we're heading into the studio later this summer to begin work on... something. Beyond that it's hard to say because like everyone else we can't really make plans at the moment. Like everyone else we're pretty much having to make it up as we go along. We do have gigs booked for November and December but whether they'll happen or not remains up to fate. Everything going to plan, we may be in for an exciting end to the year. Maybe.

Gonna be very exciting for all bands and music once gigs/recording etc can happen again isn’t it.

Got so many new bands I want to see. Have you discovered any new bands during lockdown? If not, what have you been listening to?

Lockdown's actually been really fruitful in terms of new bands releasing amazing stuff. I've been listening to a lot of Tinfoils recently, they're a delight! Also been loving new stuff from Cold Water Swimmers, The Red Stains, Richard Carlson Band, The Maitlands, loads of stuff. I've also recently discovered John Shuttleworth, a comedy singer from Sheffield who does weird Phoenix Club-type songs about stuff like margerine and vans. I love stuff like that, real end of the pier nonsense.

I love Tinfoils and down to have them on here in Wigan but then lockdown came. The other bands I’m aware of too but not the solo artists you’ve mentioned.

Yeah Tinfoils are great. John Shuttleworth has been around for years i think. I can imagine he won't be to everyone's taste. Richard Carlson Band are actually named after the actor Richard Carlson, who was in The Creatire From the Black Lagoon. There is no Richard Carlson in that band! They're absolutely ace, they released their debut single a few weeks ago and I've had it on repeat.

I’ll be sure to listen to your recommendations, love finding new music to listen to.

We’re coming to the end of the interview now, I’ve just got a couple of questions. You’ll get two options, you pick one answer...

Winter or summer?

Sex Pistols or The Clash?

Roast dinner or Chinese?

Film or Book?

Winter

The Clash

Roast Dinner

Book

Thanks for having me! Hopefully see you soon

Thanks Ben for taking the time to chat to us. Hopefully we’ll cross paths at a gig soon.

If you want to listen to the band please go and follow them on social media and their music is on Spotify etc.

[sftswigan]

Wigan band, Rivver, join us for a chat about their debut single and plans after lockdown...

Alright lads, how are you doing and can you just give us a brief insight into the band, who plays what, how you formed etc.

Matthew: Yeah man we're doing good so we're Rivver we're made up of Matthew Barber on vocals and rhythm guitar, Danny Harrison and lead guitar and backing vocals, James Snow on bass and synth, and Tim Glynn on drums and pads. We formed when Barber, Danny and Tim were sort of thrown together by a mutual friend and then after struggling to find a bassist for a while, we decided to get Snowy involved and we've gone from strength to strength since.

Yeah it seems like you’re name is getting out there more and more which is great to see. You recently released your debut single Elena earlier this year, what made you record and release that particular track?

Tim: At the time it was the one we felt most confident playing live. For me, the lyrics are solid too which I think would resonate with a lot of people and interpret them differently. We also loved the lead riff from Danny and it just became the obvious choice at the time for us.

Seems like a good enough reason to release it then, would you say it’s a popular one amongst your fans? How have the gigs been going since you started? What’s been your been your best gig so far and why?

James: I'd say it is a popular song among fans simply because it's what some people know us for. Regarding gigs I feel our gigs are just getting better and better as our confidence and stage pressence grows. My personal favourite gig was studio 2, in Liverpool in February this year becausse of the amazing atmosphere and venue.

TIm: Yeah studio 2 was my favourite as well

Is that the footage you have online as a teaser for what will be your next single? What would say are the bands musical influences and what are you all listening to at the moment?

Matthew: So the footage that's out at the moment is a song we wrote in February called Smile Back, it's something we're definitely working on and getting ready but it's not going to be our next release. WIth the next release we're keeping our cards close to our chest, there's no footage or recordings of it available yet aside from those we as a band have, the only tease we have given is the name is Essence and we're hoping to have it ready soon.

Danny: In terms of bands influences I’d probably say popular bands from the 80’s such as The Smiths, Simple Minds, The Cure and New Order musically we also derive some influence from today’s indie scene with the likes of Foals, Bloc Party, Catfish and the Bottleman and The War on Drugs.

Matthew: I'm always listening to different stuff like I'm loving some of the music coming out of the Wigan scene by the likes of the Stanleys and the Flechettes but that'll be intercut with some stuff like Panic at the Disco so its a real mix-mash for me.

Tim: I have been listening to Sea Girls, The 1975, Kings of Leon, Don Broco and Bombay Bicycle Club, but also Post Malone, Future and Swae Lee, I like Rap and dance tracks because I can be diverse and creative with the drum beats when playing along.

James: I listen too a lot of different music from ska too metal but some of my biggest influences as a bassist are mötorhead and muse.

Danny: I’m always listening to a mix of bands like Kings Of Leon, HAIM, Fleetwood Mac and the Cure and sometimes the likes of Magic Numbers and even ABBA. For artists I like to listen to Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green and Prince.

That is quite a mix but having kind of diversity in the band can give you lots of options of where to take your music. Love hearing about how you, Matthew are enjoying some of what Wigan has to offer. I see a lot of people talking about the music scene in Wigan. What do you think about the Wigan scene at the moment?

Matthew: it's crazy the amount of top artists we have around here now, I only really started to recognise what was going on when we started to gig. Our first show in Wigan was at indiependence and I think that's what showed me how much talent wigan had to offer from the likes of the Facades, the Flechettes, The lilacs, Pink shirts for pale people and Jack Connah. And since then it's sort of opened my eyes to bands like the Stanleys, garden party, island dam and others so it's a real privelege to be part of this scene that seems to be packed with top artists and bands.

Yeah it’s quite a long list of bands isn’t it which is great. A good variation too as we’ve also got bands like Shallow Waters and Dirty Circus.

So I’d imagine your very eager to get back to where you were before all this happened. What are your plans as soon as it’s safe to do band stuff again?

Tim Yeah we can't wait to get back into the studio and play some of the gigs we had coming up pre-lockdown.

Matthew: Yeah we just can't wait to get back at it.

How many tracks can we expect to hear and which studio will you be going into?

Matthew: You can expect around 4-5 songs to be coming out in the next 6-9 months, as mentioned the next one is called Essence and there's a video of Smile Back on our Facebook from a live show which is on of the next singles but as of now it's all early stages on the other couple we've got in the works. In terms of the studio we're still in the process of making that decision.

Lots for the band and your fans to look forward to. I’ve read in other interviews with bands that they’ve been able to skype/zoom etc song ideas to each other. Have you been able to do this and if so have new songs come out of it or have you just jammed songs you’ve already got?

Matthew: We've mainly been keeping in touch with each other via messenger and WhatsApp, we tried to do a zoom practice but it didn't really work for us. But the second any of us had any ideas we put them straight in the groups we had and worked on individual parts from there. The other thing we mainly benefited from is that Danny's good at using logic on his mac so we've ended up coming out of lockdown with some new material.

That’s handy isn’t it having some recording knowledge in the band. Good to hear how bands have been able to still carry on and come out the other side.

Ok last question before we do the last feature...

Why should people listen to Rivver and where can they hear your music?

Danny: Anyone that has a taste for new music, in particular new indie/rock should give us a listen, we also have a nice element of “tip the fedora” if you like, at classic 80’s sounds as well. We are currently available on Spotify with our first ever recording ‘Elena’ a very driven, upbeat indie rock track.

There’s definitely a hint of Smiths in there, a great band! 'Elena' is a really good track and found myself singing it around the house the other day!

The last feature is 4 quick (one for each member) questions. Just a bit of fun really.

Danny - Lennon or McCartney?

James - Custard cream or Bourbon biscuit

Matthew - Tea or coffee?

Tim - vinyl or Spotify?

Thanks lads for answering my questions, I’m really looking forward to future Rivver releases and for you hopefully play at one of our gigs soon.

Danny - McCartney based on divine intervention because molodies came to him in dreams

James - bourbon

Matthew - Pint, because I don't drink tea or coffee

Tim - Spotify for how easily accessible it is

Matthew: Thanks for having us Dave and we can't wait for the first Sounds From the Street show we're at.

Bands/Solo acts that would like an interview please get in touch with us [email protected]

[sftswigan]

Hey everyone, this is our first ever interview and we're very pleased to have Matthew from Wigan band, Island Dam.

SFTS: Alright Matthew, how is your lockdown going? can you tell us a little about the band, who plays what and how you formed the band?

ID: Alright Dave, we’ve been trying to keep ourselves busy and we keep in touch pretty much daily during lockdown. Obviously we’ve had to cancel all of our gigs due to the ongoing pandemic. It’s been quite fustrating after we released our new single on Friday 8th May as we were looking forward to tying in a hometown gig with this. Although it’s disappointing that our gigs got cancelled, it’s comparatively not the biggest issue and our new single has been a nice silver lining for us..

The band Island Dam consists of 5 members, Nick Calderbank on lead guitar and vocals, Conal Cunningham on guitar/backing vocals, Dan Henthorn on rhythm guitar/ keys, Matthew Blakeley on Bass and Rob Carroll on Drums. We got together approximately 2 years ago now, from Nick, Conal and Dan jamming in Conal’s garage, to later adding Matt and Rob as the final parts to the puzzle. Since forming we’ve had gigs in Wigan, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, securing two headline spots at the Night and Day Cafe and Jimmys in Manchester. We released our debut EP in May 2019 and have since released two more singles. We have many more songs in the bag and can’t wait to start recording them and start gigging again!

SFTS: How important do you think it is for bands to release new material at this time? And how has it been received by your fans?

ID: Yeah mate I think it’s worked out for the better definitely, got our name out more.

SFTS: I personally think you made the right choice to release it and you’ve reaped the benefits, I’ve read bands have delayed releases because of all this. Some a week or two and others a few months. Are they any tracks/EPs/albums released during lockdown you’ve enjoyed or looking forward to?

ID:During lockdown, the Strokes and Tom Misch’s albums have both been very good.

SFTS: Great to see Radio DJ’s and football clubs giving bands more airplay these days. How did those opportunities come about for the band? The Strokes are a band I’ve not really listened to since room on fire I’ll give the new one a listen and Tom Misch is an artist I don’t know much about so I’ll give him a listen. What song would you recommend of his?

ID: We messaged Wigan Athletic privately and then didn’t hear anything for a day, then they followed and messaged us which was a nice buzz. New Strokes album is really good, Tom Misch’s album is a different vibe, a lot more chilled but still good. Off the new album Nightrider is good!

SFT:I bet that felt amazing having your music played by the team you follow and love and also the fact they’ve got thousands of followers on social media! So, let’s talk about your latest single No Fire Here. How did the song come about and is there a general process of songwriting in the band? How does it work for you guys?

ID: Yes it felt quite special, was a very nice touch from them. And yes as you say 300K followers was a great audience. We’ve actually played this song in every set we’ve done, it just felt new as we’d finally got it ready in the studio and could finally upload to streaming services. The songwriter for this tune was Nick. Essentially was normally happens is someone will come with an idea and then other band members will sort of write their own part to fit the song. Our drummer Rob is very solid and has been playing for around 13/14 years so to have someone so good to hold things together it really helps.

SFTS: It’s great to see the band is beginning to gain momentum and even in these dark times bands can do things to push to promote theirselves! What can we expect next from the band and when?

ID: Next is the Boulevard gig mate, we are hoping it’ll be on but a second wave for Covid seems inevitable now. There are more important things going on in the world currently and they take priority. If circumstances deem us fit to play at the Boulevard then we are hoping it’ll be a huge night for the band and all involved!

SFTS: Fingers crossed it’ll happen as we’re very excited to be working with the band. What can people expect from a Island Dam gig?

ID: People can expect an explosive performance, we’re confident that we are better live than on social streaming sites, that’s all we can say other than to come and witness it yourself.

I’m gonna ask you 5 quick questions before we finish...

Beatles or Stones?

Beer or wine?

Kebab or Pizza?

Book or Netflix?

Spotify or Vinyl?

ID: 1 - Beatles 100%

2 - Beer (but preferably real ale)

3 - Kebab - people have referred to me as Madonna meat

4 - Would have to go with Netflix, I get restless reading books and do not have the attention span for reading

5 - Tough, Spotify is obviously convenient for driving etc but there’s nothing quite like sticking a vinyl on and chilling out!

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us and we’ll hopefully see you 30th August at The Boulevard Wigan.

Island Dam’s music can be found on all streaming platforms and go and visit their pages on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for gig news, releases etc.

[sftswigan]

We’re really missing the music scene at the minute...which bands do you want to go and see when this is over?

[sftswigan]

Hello music lovers! this is our first day on Tumblr but we'll be using this page for our gig photos/videos, gig announcements and band interviews. We'll hopefully have our first interview up by next wee.