Time to get bouncing to some post-hardcore courtesy of a band who may or may not be from or have been from Leeds. Look, it makes more sense if you just read the article. Also, listen to the song at the bottom. It’s a belter!
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Leeds, North UK [North, pah, we’re in Glasgow! That‘s north! – Mosh]
How did you meet?
Rik (singer, guitarist) and Sean (drummer) had played in bands together and around each other for years and Liam (lead guitar) met Rik working in a music venue in Leeds called Rio’s [I’m old enough to when Rios was still in Bradford! – Mosh], James used to play in another Leeds/Bradford band called This Party Sucks and when we we’re looking for a new bassist he was well up for it, it feels like he’s been with us the whole time!
How long have you been playing as a band?
A long long 11 years, we had a hiatus for a couple of years around like 2015/2016, we’re pretty road-worn (that’s the nice way to put it).
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
We’re named after an American Football film of the same name, it’s such a great story and feel to it and the Explosions in the Sky soundtrack gives it the kind of feel and tone we wanted to go for with the band so it fit really well in our heads
What are your influences?
Lots of old school post-hardcore stuff, Texas is the Reason is a big one as well as Hot Water Music and Jawbreaker, also brit stuff like Reuben and Hundred Reasons and sprinkles of other stuff like Everclear, Jimmy Eat World and Japandroids… lots of stuff!
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We sit on the edge of sounding like lots of stuff. We feel like we really distinctly mix all our influences together, so we end up being slightly unexpected sometimes, which I think always makes music more interesting.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Well most of our stuff is from what our lives are like at the time but obviously the context on our perspectives at the time colour it. Lately there’s a lot of stuff about nostalgia and looking back.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Overall we’ve played a lot, we tend to do maybe a show every month or so. Over the decade it adds up, we pride ourselves on being as tight as possible which is something that seems to come across when people say “you can tell you’ve really practiced” when in fact we haven’t played together in 2/3 months! We like to keep it relatively loose for shows, other than the set-list and sometimes knowing when a song is going to roll straight into another song we just try to let what’s going to happen be natural and fun, so lots of jokes and lots of energy.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Our first gig in Ukraine in 2015. There was a point in this little bar called Luft where a circle pit started, then somewhere down the line Liam ended up crowd surfing across the dancefloor. Same in Kalush, they’d have Sean while he was playing drums if they could. We also had loads of people in Kalush start doing the rowing boat on the floor, then a guy ran up on to stage almost knocking over the drumkit, then sprinted and jumped head first over a row of about 9 people all rowing on the floor. That was pretty crazy, I almost had to stop I was laughing so hard.
If you like what we do, consider ing us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Rik – Fender Jim Adkins signature telecaster guitar, through a Seymour Duncan palladium and among other pedals a Strymon TimeLine (we love delay) usually into a BlackStar series one amp head and cab.
Liam – LTD PS1 guitar, run through wampler plexi-drive and mesa Throttlebox (again among a few other pedals) into either a fender frontman 100 or a Marshall MG100dfx.
James – Fender Jaguar P Bass through a SansAmp DI bass driver
Sean – a nice old Sonor or D Drum kit with a few Zildjian Black cymbals mixed between some other Zildjian cymbals, oh and Vater 5a sticks.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We have a new single out now called “Bridge to Engine Room” [check it out below – Mosh] , which alongside our last single “3 weeks 3 months” will be on our next EP out next year.
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
So we’ve all had a pretty hectic time the last year and at the moment Liam lives in Wales and James lives in Liverpool. After carrying on with gigs as much as we could, after the next gig in Blackpool at the Talbot on the 28th of Oct we’re going to take time off until January to try recuperate and also get on with finishing the recording of the other songs on the next EP. We recorded all the drums and most of the bass for all the tracks but aside from the two singles we’re only about half way through guitars for the remaining songs. There’s some absolute beast songs there so we just need to get back into Bob’s (Cooper – WSTR, Ginger Wildheart, Itoldyouiwouldeatyou, Ducking punches) cave and finish getting the other parts down. We’ve been sat on these songs since before lockdown for the most part, but obviously that world altering event shook everything up for everyone.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be ing and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
I think the headliner would have to be either Texas is the Reason or Anberlin, and the other slot would 100% go to Slackrr from Southampton. Hardest working band in the UK right now, although we’d def be their ing slot instead of the other way around.
Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
If you want to check out more new music, then fire up our Headline Act playlists on Spotify and YouTube!
Friday Night Lights: official | twitter | facebook | instagram | tiktok | spotify | youtube
