Hiya Atlas Rivers, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
It doesn’t feel like something we decided, really. We became friends through bands we loved and were playing together before we knew what was happening.
Introduce us to you all and your musical history.
Steve is guitar and lead vocals, as well as the main songwriter, Glen and Gav are bass/drums and both add backing vocals. We played together in a previous group before life took us off in different directions around the world. So, we had a few quiet years, but we could only let it sleep for so long. We love working on music together and started up again remotely in 2023, and it’s just exploded from there.
What’s the live music scene like in Manchester right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
We have to give a shout out to South City Studios in Stockport – we’ve been working with their artist development scheme since last year and through that we’ve found some great bands like Elephant and the Rider and Oceans on Mars who are doing great stuff – go check them out. Of course, the gigs at the big new venues are great at the moment too. We’ve had brilliant nights out already at Co-Op live and Aviva studios; they’ve added a lot to the city.
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry?
Well there’s no shortage of passionate musicians and fans, people are listening as much as ever, and we can all communicate instantly, so it depends on the type of support we mean, but financially anyone even just trying to break-even is having a very hard time at the moment. The promotional tools we all have access to now also take up a lot of time when artists are already often working around day jobs. It’s amazing to think what many artists could achieve if they had the freedom and resources to dedicate more time to creativity.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
We’re a very new band in industry terms so from that perspective we’re just getting started, and banging on the door. We don’t seem to sit neatly in a scene though. We love a lot of current bands but we’ve found people have struggled with comparisons, so musically we feel a bit different, which we’re fine with.
Tell us two truths and a lie about you.
We live in Manchester, Carlisle and Barcelona but somehow make it work.
We have a signature cocktail
We once gigged a fashion show in Madrid
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
We don’t worry as such, but for the most part we’re discussing our music or creative process. Cancel culture has been one of the most interesting conversations in society in the last few years though. We’ve seen greater expectations for accountability, and then also perspectives from artists like Nick Cave who have discussed the effects on artistic expression.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not, why not?
Glen sometimes gets mistaken for Chris Martin, and we’ve never seen them in the same room together… coincidence?
What was your best experience on stage?
This is maybe a strange choice but after far too long not playing live together, the sound check before our first gig is a great memory! We played at AMP in Stockport which was already open while we ran through one song, and we got a massive reaction from the mid-afternoon crowd – we couldn’t wait to get started for real after that.
What was your worst experience on stage?
If we go back to our previous band, we once started a gig playing different songs to each other, in different keys and even different time signatures, which sounded exactly as bad as you would imagine. We had opened with the same tune for ages and changed the setlist just that one time. Some remembered the switch and some didn’t… no names!
Tell us something about each member that you think people would be surprised about.
Glen can’t go to a wedding without working at a pop up bar.
Gav can find you a jar of olives in the streets of Barcelona in the middle of the night.
Steve once slept in Sydney airport for 2 nights. Oh and Gav slept in it for 4.
What are the next steps you plan to take as a band to reach the next level?
Every release feels like a step forward for us, and we’re planning to keep moving in 2025 with lots of new music. We’re writing constantly and have four singles planned before summer and most likely an EP in the Autumn. Alongside that we’ll keep telling our story through socials, but more than anything we’re looking forward to a lot more gigs this year – we build momentum with every performance.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
Our third single ‘Revolutionary’ will be out on January 24th. It began as a fairly gentle acoustic demo, but Gav insisted it should be played twice as fast and much, much louder! Now it’s one of the most energetic and popular songs in the live set. The lyrics are about being stuck in a rut but knowing that one event can be enough for you to break out of it, and that moment could be just around the corner. We did a lot of the recording ourselves and also shot our own video in Ancoats.
What was the recording process like?
Really good fun – we were very happy with the shape of the song and just needed to capture it well. Gav recorded the drums at South City Studios in Stockport, then Steve and Glen layered everything else on top at home.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
Getting into a smooth workflow with remote working.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
No – captured and don’t worry about it.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
Go and grab some of our new merch, and wear it to one of our shows in 2025
CHECK OUT THE BAND HERE // PRESAVE THE NEW SINGLE HERE
FIND MORE TOP BANDS COMING OUTTA MANCHESTER CLICK HERE