A couple of weeks ago at the Young Amphibians’ EP Launch we had the pleasure of speaking to Regan and caught up about what 2017 holds amongst many things. Here’s what they had to say..
How did you all meet then?
In the beginning, it was just James in his own band, not well known but based in Bradford, they put an ad out which I saw for a guitarist and I thought I’d love to get involved with that – James didn’t turn up on the first day so I had to fill in for the vocals and since then I’ve just stuck with it. Then really we’ve just grown and maybe a year ago we were ready to push forward then it broke down and we had to start all over again with people leaving and that.
How would you describe your band’s sound?
I’d say its our own brand of alt-rock, I don’t think it sounds like anyone else out there so yeah, edgy, energetic, infectious, you get into the choruses and wanting to sing along.
Is it hard for you as lead singer to not play an instrument?
Yeah it can be hard to get people to connect with you when you’re on early in the night. Later on in band list when people have had a few they get involved a bit so it’s ok that’s why I try to get people involved with tambourine.
You’ve got a big show coming up with JUDAS, you looking forward to that?
Definitely, we’ve seen them at Kazoopa festival at Headrow House. Me and James were there getting the gear on stage and stuff for them that day and they were great and can’t wait to support them. It’s in Bradford as well and it will be good for our reputation and obviously we’ll bring a load of people down so it’s gonna be a great night I think.
Hows the recording schedule looking for this year, are you planning on getting some tunes out?
We don’t really look to far ahead just a few months at a time. We’ve got recording to do, we’re doing two tunes on 11th/12th March, Broken Promises and Four Fingers which we played tonight. We wanted to have a bit of contrasting music really. It’s gonna be a double AA – we’re looking to record in March, get some radio attention and promote it and then get our own gig night to promote it later on.
If you could change one thing about the industry what would it be?
One of the most annoying things about the industry is we want to get on festivals in front of loads of people. I’ve applied to about 150 festivals and I’ve probably had about five replies. All of them ask the same questions about views and likes. They don’t give the unsigned bands a chance really. People love music but they all wanna sit and listen to it on headphones and I don’t think it’s because they don’t wanna, its just easier. Take Facebook, Twitter, nobody wants to socialise face to face and it’s the same.
I’d say that venues care more about the bands. Making sure venues are doing it more for the bands not the money. 360 is different, you get the tickets you try sell them but they don’t pressure you to sell them. Some places they’ll be like how many people can you get – I just say I don’t know, it depends what my mates are doing. They focus on tickets and money not the bands and it means we can’t play some gigs. Yeah if London says can you bring people I’ll say we can bring a mini-bus but it’d be better to not care so much. Venues are shutting everywhere as well like The Cockpit really upset me to be honest all I wanted to do is play there and never got the chance.
On that note, have you got a dream venue?
Obviously like for me, Barmines played the Etihad stage there at before the match, I’d love to be at Old Trafford just before the game. Soccer AM would be good actually I’ve seen Pigeon Detectives on that jumping round it’d be great. We’d like to play venues like The Wardrobe but a lot of places want bands with agents and it’s so hard to organise.
This time next year where do you see yourself?
Playing at festivals really. I’d like to see us explode, get on radio, BBC introducing, Bingley Music Live would be good, we applied there last year and we’re much better now. The annoying thing is Social Media is the driving factor now though; where people would drop into a bar before, it just doesn’t happen now so it’s hard to say. That one recording can take you somewhere.
There was so much more said in the interview that was great personally for me and the guys really helped me with my confidence interviewing so thanks for that. They said “We appreciate this kind of thing. You want people to say what they feel about the songs and stuff so I love this.” That’ll stick with me for a while and hopefully this band will blow up very soon.
Halfway 2 Nowhere 