Combining punk with hard rock and various other genres, plus a rather amusing story about beetles and Beatles, it’s your latest dose of new music.
Simple things first – where are you from?
Newbury, West Berkshire and Basingstoke, Hampshire. Whilst we love the bright lights of the big cities, there’s no place like home.
How did you meet?
Frank and Lance have been friends for most of their lives, and have also been in many bands together over the years. Skinny Pete, Carl and Lance all played together in a band called The Black Bullets, so it didn’t take very long for this line up to start putting together some new ideas. We hang out a lot at Studio 91, on the old Greenham Common Air Base, so we get to mix with a lot of different musicians and hear a lot of different influences going on, which is pretty cool. Kinda reminds me of the Aerosmith / Run DMC “Walk This Way” video…
How long have you been playing as a band?
Small Town Saviours has only been a fully functional band for just over six months… But in that time, we’ve written and recorded 3 singles and an EP, all to be released soon.
Where does the band name come from?
A friend of ours said it once, while just hanging out, having a few drinks etc.. Think he was quoting some song lyrics or something, but it sounded kinda cool and we went with it
What are your influences?
We always say this band is for fans of The Wildhearts, Green Day, Kiss, etc. We say this because it gives people a more immediate idea of what they are gonna hear, but we have influences from rap bands like Insane Clown Posse, Kottonmouth Kings, plus metal bands, garage punk, and more melodic stuff like the Beatles. Hey, here’s a funny story I like to tell about The Beatles:
So when we recording some tracks, a few of us were sitting around in the control room, right? Skinny had popped outside to have a smoke….The conversation came round somehow to The Beatles. Lance was saying his favour Beatle was John Lennon because of how cool he was, good voice, etc. Dave Draper, who was producing our record, says something like his favourite Beatle was Paul McCartney because of the great songwriting, or something along those lines, right? At this point, Skinny comes back in from having his smoke and someone says: ”What about you, Skinny? You got a fave Beatle?” He looks at ’em and straight away goes: “Yeah, I reckon it’s gotta be The Dung Beetle.”
Describe your music, what makes you unique?
Our music is kind of a melting pot of all our influences. It’s a constant flux between complicated sections and striving to keep things simple. When we write our music we tend to take a theme apart and rebuild it, exploring all the different kind of variations on that theme. Sometimes it’s nice if the carpet matches the curtains, sometimes it’s nice if they contrast, as long as we can keep the musical thread running through the track. Mainly though, its big riffs, catchy hooks and a bottom end to shake your bottom end…
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Lance will write lyrics which originate from observations and stories in his own life and of those around us. What I like is that he has a knack to take a personal experience and make it accessible to everyone. As we are a new band, there is a certain kind of vibe of letting go of the past and looking forward to the future in the lyrical content at the moment. As we go along, we can tell our story and the themes will more than likely change as we take some more snapshots of our experiences.
Whats your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We have only played a handful of shows so far. Being brand new, and starting this thing from scratch, we are by no means the finished article, but our shows so far have been pretty well received. There’s a lot of energy that goes into our live show, as we genuinely love what we do. Our debut gig was opening for Warrior Soul, which felt pretty awesome and was a great opportunity for us to road test our songs. Our set will evolve as we go. Whilst playing the same set over and over again gets a band tight, it’s also pretty boring, so we will be looking switch it up as much as we can.
Whats the wildest thing you have seen or done at a live show?
This is a great question. There’s a lot of things I could say here that would get me in trouble. Performance wise, I think one of the wildest bands we have seen lately would be Starsha Lee.. you can’t take your eyes off em! One of the wildest venues we have been to is Percy’s Cafe, Whitchurch, in Shropshire. They got stuffed white tigers, a Waltzer stuck to the wall, all kinds of mad stuff going on. The owner’s adopted a crow that will attack you if you go near it..
What Kit do you play, guitars, etc.
Gibson guitars, Gordon Smith guitars, Marshall stacks, Mapex Drums, Groove Cymbals.
What, if anything are you plugging / promoting at the moment?
We have a video single out now – “Boy Who Cried Wolf”, and a handful of shows booked for 2019. We ain’t doing too bad for being 6 months old, and we appreciate the support we have received so far. We totally love those guys that have gotten on this thing right from the very beginning, and it’s something we won’t forget. So many people like to hang out at the finish line and congratulate the winner, but the ones that stick around for the whole journey are the best. We just got finished shooting our second single for a track called “Cry” and looking towards releasing that in a month or two. We also have more studio time booked for September, so looking to have a full record out by the end of the year.
If you were on a 3 band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open up for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with or a mates band we’ve not heard of before?
- Stevie Pearce & The Hooligans
- Small Town Saviours
- Bandits!!
