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While humbly describing themselves as a group of beer drinking pals who just happen to make music together, North England-based four-piece band Viola Beach has caught the eyes and ears of many already. Their first single “Swings & Waterslides” brings the summertime feel that makes you want to get up and dance but also has a swagger that is not often found on indie pop records.
The young band was officially formed in May and consists of lead vocalist Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe, and Jack Dakin. Although they have just started releasing songs, the music has the quality of a band that has been together for years, and with major moves such as working in studio with super-producer Ian Grimble (Communion Records founder and producer for Mumford & Sons, Rhodes etc.), that trend will be sure to continue.
Today we’re excited to premiere their new song “Cherry Vimto” and help introduce the band with an interview. Carrying a little more of a rock edge, this song is the b-side to “Swings & Waterslides” and is an excellent follow-up to their Brit-pop channelling debut. It tells the story of the initial battle of trying to get over a breakup and the defeat when you cave in and plea for your significant other to stay.
Check out the song and conversation we had with Kris below. Viola Beach’s debut single “Swings & Waterslides” is available for purchase on iTunes here.
What’s the story of Viola Beach, how did you guys get to where you are today?
Well, me and Jack, the drummer, have been friends since we were four in primary school. We went a while without seeing each other and then bumped into each other at a bus stop and I told him I was starting a band. He said yes to joining and we messed around with a couple people for a few years. That’s why there’s some confusion on when we started because we were messing about for a few years prior to this.
I met the bassist Tom at the bar that we both worked in and I met River during a music course in college. We all got together in May and to be honest it’s all just kind of went mad. It’s taken a life of it’s own really. We put out one song and have done Reading Festival, just finished our tour, and it’s not even the end of our first year. It’s been a bit crazy, we’re just tryna keep it going.
Describe a typical day in Warrington. What was it like growing up there?
Honestly, there’s not much to do. It’s a small industrial town in the north of England. It’s quite a sort of a grey town. Other than drinking a bottle of cider and smoking a lot of cigarettes, there’s not much we could really do. This is while we were older of course, not as a child. So yeah, it was just that and writing songs about drinking the bottles of cider and smoking the cigarettes. And girls, obviously.
It’s never wrong to get inspired by someone, but there’s a fine line between being inspired by someone and copying them.
Who in music today is inspiring you? Any of your peers? Who do you consider your peers?
To be honest, musically I try and keep away from going down that road. It’s never wrong to get inspired by someone, but there’s a fine line between being inspired by someone and copying them. I tend to take a lot of inspiration from a lot of other things like the weather, or rather the lack of nice weather, and wanderlust. That want to travel Europe and the States and everything, the life we don’t have that we obsess over. Bands do inspire me to be successful, like the band we just came off of tour with, Eliza and The Bear. Young, hardworking bands like Hidden Charms inspire me to work hard. It makes you realize how much work you have to put in before you reach a certain level of success.
But obviously there are always going to be the big comparisons drawn & I’m not gonna be one of those people who deny liking a band, when I was younger I was into Arctic Monkeys and The Kooks. I still kinda try to do my own thing rather than become the next Arctic Monkeys or the next Kooks.
So it seems like the fact that there isn’t anything to do in your town is the driving force behind a lot of your music.
Yeah, there’s nothing to go off of. This is all kind of just a hope to bring something so that one day someone can be in our situation and say that we’re the reason they started doing it. That kind of drives us a bit, ya know? The hope that one day someone might pick up a guitar because of something that we’ve done.
How do you plan to approach the challenges associated with trying to break into the extremely competitive indie/rock/pop boy band world?
I mean, I get the indie boy band thing. It’s just not something we’re trying to stick to. We’re not really thinking about it honestly. I didn’t even expect to get this far, so to be even remotely compared to anyone influential is just amazing. I think that’s kind of it with us, the approach of not really expecting anything and just having fun with it. Just keeping it going, getting as big as we can. I don’t think there’s a point where we will be like, “Okay that’s it guys, we’ve gotten as big as we’re gonna get.”
I think that’s kind of it with us, the approach of not really expecting anything and just having fun with it.
There is a huge market as you’ve said, but I think that bands can get bummed out by things like that rather than just doing what they want to do. Just have fun, we have a dream job. Don’t think about it too much, keep it cool.
This approach seems to be working! You guys take elements of both indie and pop, blend them, and take it to a higher level, as shown with both “Swings & Waterslides” and for sure with “Cherry Vimto.”
Definitely, I don’t think that genre plays a part in it or that all we are doing is writing pop songs. We have been brought up listening to a lot of pop, but I don’t feel like we have any restrictions. “Swings & Waterslides” and “Cherry Vimto” are two very different songs yet very similar in the sense of where they’re from and what we’re trying to say with them.
You guys seem to kill it live, your Twitter feed shows a lot of fans praising you guys’ performances, what is a live Viola Beach set like? What should one expect?
Well, I mean it’s not really planned. We are very tongue-in-cheek. Although it’s been said plenty of times and will sound very cliche, we are literally just four mates that live, drink, eat, and now make music together. I think that comes through because we just like to have fun, have a little dance. Things may go wrong sometimes because of that, you know, a drum might fall over, but we pick it up and I think people get that and like that.
Sets don’t have to be robotic, like if they just wanted to listen to the song they would just play the record at home. They came to see and feel our personalities, and that’s what we try to bring to every show. We just have a good time really, it’s not very planned like some bands. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe it’s not. But if it turns out that it’s a bad thing we can always change it.
Yeah we’re definitely in a time where artists have lost track of that feeling of just having fun and bringing it to the fans.
Definitely man. It’s what it’s all about.
You once said that “any musician who says they don’t want their songs heard by the mass of the population is lying.” Some artists reach a point where they release an experimental project and say things such as “I made this for myself.” or “I don’t care about the response to this.” Do you think that you guys will reach a point similar to that where what you want to release and what the masses want doesn’t match up?
Mainly what I meant from that was, you find a lot of British bands who are like, “Oh, I don’t wanna be on the adverts,” or “I don’t want anyone who listens to music on the charts to listen to my music.” 99% of the songs that are on the charts are great records.
I do believe that there is a certain level of concern on what the people like but I don’t sit down and say, “I’m gonna write a song people like.” I write a song and say, “I like this record,” if it doesn’t make me feel then there’s no point. There are gonna be experimental songs but there will always be a conscious effort to make songs people like. A part of every musician wants to be remembered, no one just wants their music out there doing nothing.
How was it being in the studio with Ian Grimble?
We love Ian, he’s a great producer. He brought out a good live element and brought the energy to our tunes that we weren’t able to achieve before. It was interesting to record in a different way, different studio, different setting. We have much more creative control over this record, I mean we had a lot with “Swings & Waterslides,” but there was a lot of advice in terms of dynamics. With this one he just let me do it and if he didn’t like it he just told me to try something else. Everything’s been mixed really well and we mastered everything, we’re actually going back in with him at the end of the month to record four more tracks. He’s definitely had a great effect on us.
So is there a plan for a project soon, or is that going to be later on in this year or next year?
Nothing is set in stone yet but we’re going to see how this next single goes and then decide from there. Maybe another track, or an EP. It’s the decision of out managers and the team behind us really, of course with our blessings. I do want to get things out as soon as possible though. I don’t want this all to fizzle out.
Let’s say you were able to go to the festival of your dreams, dead or alive, who would be headlining?
I’d have to say Blur. I wouldn’t say that you hear them in our music, like I said I try to stay away from doing that, but I saw them once in a ballroom in Blackpool. I could never get bored of watching them. I’ve only seen them once, but that era of ’90s Blur, that would have to be my answer. There’s something very gripping about their songs and their performances that I love. I watch old videos and documentaries and kind of obsess over them. Would have to go with Blur.
I think that’s the most telling sign of influence, when something inspires you to make something equally as impactful as the influence it had on you instead of just wanting to copy.
Yeah, the big ambition is to do what Blur and Oasis and others did, which is start something kind of bigger. There’s great records in pop but besides the Miley Cyrus and Justin Biebers, who have controversial things going on, there’s not enough bands or artists with top quality sounds and are having fun.
I just want to bring some kind of movement or be involved in one at least. I’m not saying that we have to start one, we just hope for one.
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Image via Viola Beach/ Credit: Georgia Park
