Tell us a bit about where you are from and how you got into music?
As a band, we are based in North East Wales, practising at One Foot Studios in Mold. Mikey (singer), Ian (guitar), and Joe (guitar) are all from Wrexham. Dom (bass) is originally from South West England but has lived in North Wales for 35 years. Darren (drums) is originally from Wolverhampton but lives in Kinmel Bay, North Wales.
I think all of us started playing as kids or teenagers, and each of us was bitten by the music bug in some way. We’ve each been in a number of different bands across different genres, and each of us has a great wealth of experience to bring to Rogue Angels.
What’s the live music scene like in North Wales right now?
Getting better by the year! We have a renowned music venue in Buckley, North Wales. The Tivoli Live Venue has hosted such luminaries as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Oasis, to name just a few, and the management there have been bringing some great music and revitalising the place over the last 15 years. We are lucky to be playing there as a support act on 23 October.
Also in Wrexham, one of the highlights of the year is Focus Wales, which brings together new and emerging artists from across the UK and beyond. We’re applying for next year because it’s become such an important event for discovering new music. Later in the year, we have Wrexfest, where venues across the town come together to host live music over an entire weekend. Both festivals create an incredible atmosphere and really showcase the creativity that’s thriving in the area.
This is just a small snapshot, as Motorsport Lounge in Llandudno and The Rocking Chair in Wrexham are amongst a host of venues pushing music to audiences.
Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
We met several great bands at the Radio Wigwam Awards last year in Balham. Two Tonne Machete are a punk rock band local to us, whose lead singer, Emily, is also from Mold. They’re great fun.
We are also in contact with a hard rock band called Orion Pax, whose drummer, Iain, used to play with our bass player, Dom. We’re looking to share gigs, as we have a similar vibe, and our audiences will probably enjoy both bands.
Also on our radar is a punk band based just over the border in Cheshire, called Kicked in the Teeth. They’re really going places, having recently played Academy Manchester. We also have to mention The Royston Club from Wrexham, who are growing and growing, Gallops, whose sound is mesmerising, and Neck Deep, whose American success is well known.
We are always up for meeting and working with other bands. We don’t think the music scene should be competitive – more a collective of like-minded creative people who benefit from sharing ideas, feedback and contacts with each other.
Do you think it’s easy to become a victim of our surroundings sometimes?
‘Victim’ is maybe too negative a word? We are certainly a product of our upbringing, including the culture of the places we grew up in and settled in. North Wales is an amazing place, and of course it shapes our view of the world. Yes, in some ways living somewhere like central Manchester might be handier as a base for the band, but then we’d miss out on living in one of the most beautiful places in the UK. On the whole, we wouldn’t change anything.
What are your ambitions for the band?
We have an album in the works, and we’d really love to release this on vinyl as well as on streaming platforms. There’s a growing market for vinyl in the rock and metal world, and we’d love to be a part of that.
We have a huge backlog of song ideas, so we won’t be running out of material anytime soon. All members of the band are highly creative, and we are only just starting to pull together the creativity of every single member. It’s really exciting to see what develops when writing together.
We’d like to play bigger venues. One of the advantages of being an originals band is that it’s easier to get support slots backing bigger bands in big venues. This would be an amazing experience in our musical development as a band, as well as the kudos of playing big stages.
What’s your favourite social media platform to use and why?
For us, it’s Facebook, as it’s the first platform we used, so our community is growing and engaging more and more with us. It’s great to get the messages coming in, and we always answer, as we feel it’s flattering that people take the time to get in touch. Instagram is beginning to feel more enjoyable as the numbers grow and people interact, we have to say.
We believe it’s essential to have a presence on Facebook, Instagram and X to introduce yourselves to all the different types of audiences out there; what are your thoughts on that?
No creative endeavour can ignore social media. The exposure and the interaction mean it’s really crucial. It can be hard, as the level of involvement now with bands is pretty much every step of the way, and bands who feel this is intrusive have to realise it’s part of the experience now for fans. In the past, radio, TV interviews and the odd signing session were all fans could get, but now they see pretty much everything from practice to concert! It’s a bit warts and all at times, but we feel it makes it more real.
What are your views on the music industry today?
The music industry is a strange place these days. There are some amazing working bands who are barely scraping by, and yet there are some viral superstars who become millionaires overnight. It’s a good job we are not in the industry for the money – we just want to make great music and connect with our audiences. If people are smiling and dancing, we’ve succeeded.
What are your thoughts on AI-generated music?
We have to admit that we initially flirted with some AI tools to turn our rough song ideas into listenable tracks for our own evaluation, but we have moved away even from that now. It is our view that creativity comes from our unique experiences as human beings, and that AI-generated music takes from human artists and generates a bland, soulless product that will never match the magic of music wrought from the pain and elation of the human experience. All industries face this, but we are not worried. Music will always be a live experience.
What’s the biggest thing you have learned recently as you progress with your music?
We are constantly evolving and learning – as the saying goes, “Every day’s a school day”. Probably the biggest lessons recently are in just how much every member has to give in terms of creative input; and secondly, how to manage our relationships as human beings in a sometimes-stressful environment where we all have ideas and opinions that don’t always align. We are constantly learning how to work together effectively and compromise to make the best music.
What’s currently in your ears and on rotation at the moment?
On Dom’s playlists recently have been Queen, My Chemical Romance, Nightwish, Mozart, Be’lakor, Epica, Perturbator, Theatre of Tragedy, and Oh Hiroshima. Mikey’s back on his old Foo Fighters albums, Ian and Joe are listening to Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch and the classic rock bands, and Daz has a lot of Opeth and King’s X on his playlist currently.
What was your worst experience on stage? Any funny stories to share?
There’s a few, and some are ones a lot of bands have experienced. The band couldn’t make a festival, so Mikey and Ian covered the changeovers by playing acoustically, but the sun was beating down. Ian loved it, but Mikey almost passed out.
Dom’s main bad experiences have come from poor sound monitoring. He finds it really hard to play when he can’t hear what he’s playing.
As for funny stories – setting up at the wrong venue! We were down the road! Mikey was playing a gig in a previous band and the announcement went out, but the curtains wouldn’t open, which took the drama out of the opening song. Then, on the same night, the guitarist had to drag him back as he was pretty much standing on a pyrotechnic that was about to go off, which he didn’t know about.
Got any fun, funny stories from life on the road?
All we can say about that is Mikey hates a certain brand of whiskey, and those flowers will never grow back. We’ll leave that there.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
Our new EP – Right Side of Midnight. Five tracks and a debut for the band. We had previously released an EP under the name Gung Ho, but things changed so fast. Ian and I started the band to jump on the Wrexham-is-famous bandwagon with a song called “This Is My Hometown”, but the recordings were eclectic and a bit messy. We advertised for a band, more hopeful than anything, but the result was more than we ever could have expected.
It took time, and this first EP went through a long process as we re-recorded the drums when Daz joined, but it was so worth the time to get it right. Daz, Joe and Dom have brought such a creative energy and such a bond between us that changing the name to Rogue Angels was a necessity.
What was the recording process like?
On this recording, a little harder than it should have been, but that was our fault. We recorded backwards as we waited to fill the band line-up, recording with samples, etc., first. Ian and I laid our parts down thinking it would be quicker, but it meant the band was working to previous recordings, and we got too far into it to change course – but! We are happy now it’s finished.
We recorded at Mike’s small home studio – all guitars, bass and vocals – then Daz recorded the drums at One Foot Studios in Mold, North Wales. We enjoy the recording experience and are looking forward to more now we can do it the right way!
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
Probably would start with rehearsals and then record the drums first, but definitely have put more rehearsals in. We are happy with the recordings, but feel so much happier with the songs now we have almost finished the rehearsal stage as a band.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
Kane. Our band mascot.
Naming the band proved extremely difficult, to say the least. We endeavour to be very democratic, but we are all strong characters, to say the least! The name Rogue Angels was actually the only name no one hated, but it was no one’s first choice! So it slipped in as the band name, and I don’t think any of us were convinced at first, but that all changed.
Dom was drawing logos, etc., and a hooded figure with horns and a halo was one of them. We all sort of started riffing off it and decided to run with this character being our cover star. This ended up with a short backstory of being born of an angel and demon, and we loved the idea of inner conflict as a theme we could develop over time. Not a concept album as such, but a way to visualise our ideas and song themes.
Kane seemed the perfect name, so let’s see how Kane and us develop.
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