Keighley based Sour Mandy are the latest bunch to face our interview questions for Band of the Day. Although the band have not been around long and are still in their early part of their career, Sheggs was suitably impressed by a recent live performance to interrupt the pre-production on their latest EP and feature them as our Band of the Day.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
“Keighley” (noun) pron. KEEFLY – a town where most pints cost under £3.50 and has the broad Yorkshire charm about it. Timothy Taylor’s is the proudest thing to come out of Keighley and it’s also the only place you can visit for an authentic Ibiza party experience – in the town’s popular nightclub, K2.
How did you meet?
Tom and Adam knew through a previous band venture and met Joe at music college while studying how to be bigger than Nickleback. Macauley knew Joe through another band venture and Liam met Adam after doing an acoustic performance of Rappers Delight, as Adam mixed the sound.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
Just over a year and a half.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
A friend of ours started seeing a lady friend who always had bad tasting saliva, the band name came as a funny reference for it.
What are your influences – individually or as a band?
Any projects involving Josh Homme, and Liam really likes Foals.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We like to play around with more quirky time signatures but not enough to be totally unlistenable and weird. We also like writing cool instrumental soundscapes to incorporate to our set, then we can have big exciting riffs mixed in with more intricate, mellow sections.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Not much, a lot of it’s what comes to mind at the point of writing. We dabble around certain areas but haven’t mastered the love-themed pop ballad just yet.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Not very big but very tidy looking. Played 20-30 shows, since we’re a new-comer band trying to play more than the pub open mic nights. We’re alright though, worth a watch! We do try not to have many gaps in our set, where the singer talks bollocks that nobody cares about to fill time. We put a lot of work into making our set as strong and tight as we can, especially as a new band. Often you see a lot of bands who can perform great songs but then lose the audience’s attention because they spend too much time in-between tunes nobbing about tuning up, and the singer ends up trying to fill with the usual “FOLLOW US ON OUR SEVENTEEN SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS” spiel.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
One member nearly shat their pants after bad food. The other members we’re a little sad it didn’t happen, as it would have made a great tale to tell.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
“All the gear and no idea”. Our guitarist is the hoarder of some lovely guitars and amps. We all put a lot of time and care to our instruments as it makes all the difference. Marshall, orange and ampeg rigs for our backline. Tom has a lovely vintage Les Paul junior, Macauley is currently playing fender strats and Adam even has a bass guitar. Joe’s currently smashing a lovely gretsch drum kit and Liam occasionally shares his Taylor acoustic guitars when we write.
What are your plans for the next 12 months?
We’re about to hit the studio in September and then getting more gigs where we can. We’d love to dream big and have a long-term plan but you’ve got to be realistic these days and plan short term, so we’ve not really thought much about a year’s time. We’ve got a bunch of gigs booked up in the run-up to winter, our next one being (insert shameless self-plugging) Saturday 8th October – 360 Club Leeds with a great band called Wuzi who are launching their new EP!
If you could be part of any 3-band line-up (as support or headlining) who else would you have on the bill?
QOTSA / Biffy would be the easiest ones to choose as we reckon our sound would suit the gig.
All photos (c) Emma Stone Photography
Sour Mandy: facebook | bandcamp
