Riffed

The Whereabouts chatted to us yesterday. The lads appear to be following in the footsteps of fellow Irish band The Strypes, are they set to top them? Here's our interview with The Whereabouts:

1) Who are The Whereabouts?

We are are four lads who want to show and express our music and play and make it their career.

2) You played Liverpool Sound City recently, how did that go?

It went really good yeah, we met Attorney for the 2nd time and he gave us some really good updates on the band and what he has coming up for us. Also the club we played was really welcoming, and looked after us like we were some famous band! The club was packed and and we played a 40 minute set which went down a storm.

3) You are a young band from Ireland, similar to The Strypes, have they inspired you?

The Strypes are another great band outta Ireland but we aren't inspired by them no, but we are inspired by what they have done..

4) Where do you see yourselves in 5 years time?

Hard question to answer but we hope to be wowing crowds and sustaining the importance of old school rock "n" roll maybe? But we're confident in our ability that we can do it... "WE'LL DAMN GIVE IT A GOOD GO THOUGH"

5) What's next for The Whereabouts?

Well what's next is that we'll be playing several festivals and releasing an EP very soon.

Big thanks to The Whereabouts for the interview.

You can find all of The Whereabouts' tracks and socials via their webpage: http://www.thewhereaboutsofficial.com/

RIFFED x

Cardiff lads The Cradles chatted to us this week. Supporting Professor Green on his Cardiff date last year is the highlight of the rock band's career to this day, but The Cradles could well have a huge future ahead and for this reason we grabbed an interview with them and here it is:

 1) Who are The Cradles?

We're a rock band from Cardiff formed in the summer of 2012 made up of Joe Norman (vocals), Toby Andrews (Guitar), Kieran O'Brien (Guitar), Luke Haines (Bass) and Declan Andrews (Drums).

2) You recently supported Professor Green, how did that go for you?

We're not big fans of Professor Green's music so it was a slightly strange scenario to be acting as his main support but it was a good night. It gave us the chance to play a venue as good as Cardiff's Great Hall and also to a large audience. That's something you want to be doing every night so you don't rest contented with having done it.

3) Who are the biggest inspirations for The Cradles?

Any bands and artists with great melodies and lyrics such as The Beatles, The Kinks and Arctic Monkeys always have a big influence on what we do and aim to do. We also draw a lot from bands such as Pixies, The Strokes and The Doors when putting music together.

4) Where do you see yourselves in 5 years time?

Glastonbury. Hopefully not as spectators.

5) What's next for The Cradles?

We play Dempseys in Cardiff on the 5th of July and The Fleece in Bristol on Thursday 10th of July. After that we'll be gigging regularly across the UK and should be recording a couple of new tracks in July.

A big thank you to The Cradles for the interview.

Listen to The Cradles via Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Spotify:

https://soundcloud.com/the-cradles/sets/the-cradles

http://vividriot.bandcamp.com/album/the-cradles-do-you-wonder-why

http://open.spotify.com/artist/0DP6Mke28ThoHShGLmCfkr

Follow The Cradles on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCradles

And like their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCradles?ref_type=bookmark

RIFFED x

Recently we chatted to Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods. The Mods have recently released their latest album 'Divide and Exit' and have commonly featured in NME of late, 3 albums down and it appears the Mods are on the rise. Jason was on hand to tell us a little about 'Divide and Exit' and what the story is behind their inventive name this week. This is how it went down:

1) Who are Sleaford Mods?

Jason Williamson (vocals) and Andrew fearn (music).

2) You've recently released your new album 'Divide and Exit', tell us a little about that?

It's an account of our little lives under the weight of England in 2014. It's hard and funny and progressive. It's important to aim for new forms of music and in part we have acheived that.

3) What's behind the name, Sleaford Mods?

Nothing really. I'm an old mod and Sleaford is a town close to Grantham my home town.

4) What's next for Sleaford Mods?

New album, more gigs more recognition.

Big thanks to Jason of Sleaford Mods for the interview.

You can find all of Sleaford Mods music, socials and purchase 'Divide and Exit' via Sleaford Mods' webpage: http://www.sleafordmods.com/

RIFFED x

The Sales of Germany spoke to us this week, the band may be of German ethnicity but when listening all that springs to mind is Britpop. Here's how our interview with the Germans went down:

1) Who are The Sales?

We're an indie band from Passau, Germany. We play indie/alternative/post-punk stuff, somewhere in between probably. We formed in winter 2012 and did our first professional recordings in 2013 in Berlin.

2) Favourite gig of which you've played?

That's not a hard question, since we've only played two gigs just now. Our favorite gig was definitely the second one. We played with two other bands in a nice venue in our hometown called 'Tabakfabrik' (german for tobacco factory). Kind of a run-down place, but pretty cool. The other bands were really nice and good to work with. And the audience was just great.

3) Who are your greatest influences?

Our greatest influence are definitely 'The Strokes', that's quite obvious. But there are many different influences in all of our songs. For example, one with some kind of disco-like 'Daft Punk' influence, or one with a bit of an 'Eagles of Death Metal' sound.

4) Where do you see yourselves in 5 years time?

That's hard to tell. Of course we hope that we'll be successful and maybe even get a record deal, but we won't just wait for that. We work hard and our songs are good, so things will be looking up eventually.

5) What's next for The Sales?

What's next? Gigs, gigs and gigs. As many as we can play. We also want to shoot a selfmade video for our song 'No Mas'. We're no experts with videos, so we don't know how that will turn out but we'll try our best. And since we've just finished setting up a little home-studio, we'll be able to record more of our songs now. So, we will be quite busy the next few months.

Cheers to The Sales for the interview.

Follow The Sales on Twitter: @thesalesband

Like The Sales on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesalesband

Visit The Sales' webpage: http://thesalesband.com/

Listen to The Sales via Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-sales

RIFFED x

Synth-pop fueled band Ballet School chatted to us recently. Ballet School are best described as Haim and 80's/90's pop mashed into one, and are tip-toeing forever closer to the release of their album this September so we grabbed an interview with them on their forthcoming release and much more:

1) Who are Ballet School's biggest inspirations?

The magic hour, like 7-9pm in the summer when the sky turns peach.

A beautiful face. I guess I watched too much Disney as a little girl or read Death In Venice too many times or watched Hustler White too often cos I really have a thing about beautiful boys.

Musically, I love melody. Some people love beats first but for me it's melody first.

Pop music. From every era. And the history of pop music. Owen Pallett and Paul Gambaccini - these are the type of people I'd invite round for tea.

Crossover. Artists and music that began in the underground and translated to the masses. You know the story of Gee Street? Like how PM Dawn sold millions of records in America? It always really moved me that little clip in Live!Tonight!SoldOut! where Prince Be says 'I really, really like Nirvana' Nirvana were the ultimate crossover band. They smashed the door of everyone's heart. I love that.

2) Favourite gig of which you've played?

We feel like we're on the rise with our live thing right now so everytime we play it's a new fave. Legendary moments have been Tampere, Finland. Tallin music week, The Great Escape and then our first ever show in New York when the whole Bella Union crew was in town and we played with Marissa Nadler who is a goddess. Omg.

3) Personal favourite of the songs you've produced?

Production-wise I feel that the album version of Heartbeat Overdrive is the best thing we've done so far. Me and Louis worked on it and we were really in the zone. The template was the classic extended mixes that used to be in vogue back in the day before 12" vinyl singles became a specialist purchase. My fave 12" mix of all time is probably The Cure's Lullaby. That one is genius. But because I am the biggest Madonna fan ever obviously I love Madonna's entire extended mix catalogue. And also the one that changed my life is probably Nile Rodger's 12" mix of Carly Simon's Why. I've always thought that Rihanna should cover that. That iconic Bernie Edwards bassline gives me Rihanna-life. Anyway, basically I had all these ideas and Louis was vibing hard with his epic production skill and we just sat in front of the computer for about three nights and bashed it out.

4) Your album is out this September, any plans for the summer?

Yes our album is out in September! And we'll be playing plenty of festivals this summer.

5) Who's on your playlist 

I've been listening to Ellen Alien's Weiss Mix again. And also Mya. She had incredible pitch, on her early records, you know. Great purity and control. I love good singers. Always learning.

Big thanks to Ballet School for the interview. 

You can find links to all of Ballet Schools music and socials via their webpage: http://www.balletschoolband.com/

RIFFED x

We chatted to Kassassin Street recently. The five piece from Portsmouth are the defintion of psychedelia, a sound of which sends you into a subconcious daze. They're Temples but with their own twist. Having recently featured in NME's Radar, RIFFED stepped in to grab an interview with the lads.

1) Who are Kassassin Street?

Kassassin Street are a Psychedelic band from Portsmouth, Hampshire. Birthplace of Charles Dickens and exactly 9,366 miles from Ayer's rock, Australia…

2) You've recently released your new single 'The Royal Handkerchief Ballet', tell us a little about that?

Ah The Royal Handkerchief Ballet. I was sat up one night, pretty hazy at 3 am watching old episodes of Button Moon (as you do) and an episode came on entitled 'The Royal Handkerchief Ballet', it kind of really stuck to me, like art imitating life. I suppose we're all part of The Royal Handkerchief Ballet to a degree. We're all performers, and no one ever gets the joke...

It's been great to get our first track out there. It was a pleasure to record at Konk in London with producer Tristan Ivemy (Frank Turner/Tubelord). We've had an amazing response, far better than we anticipated! It's all still very fresh to us, we feel like we're right at the beginning of the road and we've got so much more to prove...

3) You're playing a few festivals this summer, how excited are you?

We love playing live, it's what we do best! Taking our circus to festivals this summer is going to be something else. We've got some amazing line up slots, some of which we're still not allowed to announce, so I must keep my mouth shut slightly. We are very excitable, though that could be a side affect of the hay fever drugs...

4) Where do you see yourselves in 5 years time?

Hmmm that's tough. I'm a simple soul, alive would be good. Alive and playing music would be better. Alive and playing music to someone who wants to listen would be bloody perfection!

5) What can we expect next from Kassassin Street?

Apart from all of the great shows we have lined up, you can most certainly expect another single before the summer is out! We're very excited about the next one...

Huge thanks to Kassassin Street for the interview. Expect to be hearing plenty more of these lads in the future.

Kassassin Street's debut single ‘The Royal Handkerchief Ballet’ is OUT NOW:

Purchase via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/royal-handkerchief-ballet/id867463933

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvmmh6T1Weo

Follow Kassassin Street on Twitter: http://twitter.com/kassassinstreet

And like their Facebook page: http://facebook.com/kassassinstreet

Visit Kassassin Street's webpage: http://www.kassassinstreet.com/

RIFFED x

Suffolk lads Cemetery Junction spoke to us this week. The alternative rock band as they brand themselves upon have recently released their new single 'Eighteen' and were willing to chat to us about it:

1) Who are Cemetery Junction?

We are a four piece band, all mates from school. Toby Mills (singer) Leon Bishop (guitar) Tom Ashby (bass) Craig Barrott (drums). The band formed in 2011 playing just covers. In 2012 we started to write and perform our own material and it went down well so we pushed that side more. We consider the covers gigs as our apprenticeship and they have helped us to craft a professional live performance.

We are kind of 'what you see is what you get'. When we play we like to absolutely have it! Loads of energy. Loads of movement and we try to get the same out of the audience. Love a good bit of banter and when asked opinions we'll give a straight answer.

2) You've recently released your debut single 'eighteen', tell us a little about that?

Eighteen was written about a particular lad, touch on the nuts side. Basically it's about being young, bold, stupid, naive, but at the same time very free. The line 'I'm yours forever' is something I'm sure plenty of people have said to another at that age and whilst its nice to hear, I'm sure it's said without massive thought and wisdom. It's a bit of a party tune too to try and celebrate being young, embrace it and not to over think your future to early.

3) Favourite gig of which you've played?

Cliche, but we love them all. Gigs local to us are decent as we get a good, familiar crowd. Camden Crawl on the 21st June is going to be mega and we are really looking forward to that! Couple of festivals last year were good too.

4) Where do you see yourselves in 5 years time?

Hopefully still doing what we love. Our fan base is growing and we want to keep it that way. Best way to achieve this is to keep writing good songs and stay very true to who we are. Two things we don't plan to change. Maybe sailing into a Caribbean island on some rich fuckers yacht because he likes one of our tunes. One can dream. But in all seriousness, it would be great to make music a living as well as a massive hobby so yeah, we would like to be doing that.

5) What's next for Cemetery Junction?

Well, we have a single release on the 8th September and a couple later in the year. Then hopefully jan of 2015 we will have another EP out with more tracks so more material is coming. We are working on establishing ourselves in other areas around the country and giving people the chance to hear us and hopefully they will like us.

Big thanks to Cemetery Junction for the interview.

Like Cemetery Junction on Facebook: Facebook/cemeteryjunction

Or follow them on Twitter: @cemeteryjunc

Follow Cemetery Junction on Instagram: cemetaryjunction

Listen to Cemetery Junction: soundcloud.com/cjunction

Keep up to date with gig announcments on Bandsintown: Cemetery Junction

RIFFED x

Hull band Breeze spoke to us this week. Branded by themselves as an alternative rock band, the yorkshire lads have already supported bands such as SKATERS , Drowners and Girls Names and are set to support Catfish and the Bottlemen next month. The future is looking bright for the 'ull boys, so we grabbed an interview with Aron from the band and here it is:

1) Who are BREEZE?

We're a four piece band from Hull, two guitars, one bass, one drum and three vocals. We don't really want to categorize ourselves as a certain type of band because that's for every body else to decide but we quite often get the words grunge and lo-fi slung about in there.

2) You're set to release a new single and EP soon, tell us a little about that?

Yeah we're releasing a 3 track single/e.p in August called Post Youth, it's quite exciting really to think about as it's the first time any of us will of ever had our music in a physical and digital form. In terms of sound it's sounding really heavy and dirty. The guy who produced it (Paddy Tobin from Mountain Sound Recording Studio in Hull) kept giving us these baritone guitars to record with to give it that extra bang. Sounds really cool though, we'll be releasing it after the first music video.

3) You are supporting Catfish and the Bottlemen at the Fruit in Hull in July, a gig RIFFED are going to be at, how excited are you for this?

Yeah we're quite excited to be fair, we've played Fruit a few times before and often with big bands like Skaters, Drowners and Girls Names so it's not really new to us but Catfish are a really exciting band so it'll be a good experience to share the stage with them. Plus our mates in NEED are playing and they're starting to sound mega. I've got to say that because I used to be in a band with two of them... But all jokes aside we're dead excited for it.

4) What's next for BREEZE?

Whats next for BREEZE is getting the single and the video out really and getting it around the country, we're hoping to book a series of out of town gigs and give the single a big push, but for the foreseeable future the main plan is just to gig gig and gig with us spending quite a bit of time in the studio this year. We've also got a few massive shows to announce as well in the next few weeks or so.

Big thanks to Aron of BREEZE for the interview.

You can check BREEZE out here: www.soundcloud.com/wearebreeze

And follow them on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wearebreeze

Or like them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/wearebreeze

Also you can follow BREEZE on Instagram: www.instagram.com/wearebreeze_

RIFFED x

Hull band Breeze spoke to us this week. Branded by themselves as an alternative rock band, the yorkshire lads have already supported bands such as SKATERS , Drowners and Girls Names and are set to support Catfish and the Bottlemen next month. The future is looking bright for the 'ull boys, so we grabbed an interview with Aron from the band and here it is:

1) Who are BREEZE?

We're a four piece band from Hull, two guitars, one bass, one drum and three vocals. We don't really want to categorize ourselves as a certain type of band because that's for every body else to decide but we quite often get the words grunge and lo-fi slung about in there.

2) You're set to release a new single and EP soon, tell us a little about that?

Yeah we're releasing a 3 track single/e.p in August called Post Youth, it's quite exciting really to think about as it's the first time any of us will of ever had our music in a physical and digital form. In terms of sound it's sounding really heavy and dirty. The guy who produced it (Paddy Tobin from Mountain Sound Recording Studio in Hull) kept giving us these baritone guitars to record with to give it that extra bang. Sounds really cool though, we'll be releasing it after the first music video.

3) You are supporting Catfish and the Bottlemen at the Fruit in Hull in July, a gig RIFFED are going to be at, how excited are you for this?

Yeah we're quite excited to be fair, we've played Fruit a few times before and often with big bands like Skaters, Drowners and Girls Names so it's not really new to us but Catfish are a really exciting band so it'll be a good experience to share the stage with them. Plus our mates in NEED are playing and they're starting to sound mega. I've got to say that because I used to be in a band with two of them... But all jokes aside we're dead excited for it.

4) What's next for BREEZE?

Whats next for BREEZE is getting the single and the video out really and getting it around the country, we're hoping to book a series of out of town gigs and give the single a big push, but for the foreseeable future the main plan is just to gig gig and gig with us spending quite a bit of time in the studio this year. We've also got a few massive shows to announce as well in the next few weeks or so.

Big thanks to Aron of BREEZE for the interview.

You can check BREEZE out here: www.soundcloud.com/wearebreeze

And follow them on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wearebreeze

Or like them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/wearebreeze

Also you can follow BREEZE on Instagram: www.instagram.com/wearebreeze_

RIFFED x

The Palace Wolves, all the way from Atlanta chatted to us recently. The Americans are a very powerful alternative band, with plenty of vibrancy and we expect there to be a bright future awaiting them. This is what they had to say us:

1) Who are The Palace Wolves?

The Palace Wolves are a Shoegazey influenced, synth-rocksplosion! ...ehh but in real terms, we are Shannon Small (keys, vocals, lead guitar), Ryan Pace (lead vocals, guitars) Matt Katis (keys), Ryan Pincott (drums), and Daryl Weber (bass). I Shannon Small and Ryan Pace formed the Palace Wolves late in 2011, eventually adding the super talented people we're lucky to play with now.

2) Best gig you've played so far?

Best gig so far...I'd say a small bar at what is known in Atlanta as The East Atlanta Village. The spot is called 529. It was St. Patricks, and everybody was moving together. In the end, that's all we want to do, to reach the crowd, have everybody forget whatever bullshit they left at the front door, and move with us.

3) What can we expect from The Palace Wolves in the future?

Right now we are preparing to go into the studio and record our first full length record. It will be a more organic experience I think, but we've stayed pretty close to our electronic roots. We're super excited for everyone to hear this stuff, most of the tracks are brand new to our outside Atlanta audience. That said, old favs like "lights that fade" and "three am" are getting a facelift and going on the new record.

4) Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?

In 5 years....could be anywhere. We have a plan for the future but we live in the now. I'd hope we get the chance to go overseas and tour. We've got some bucket list items like playing in Japan and the UK. I don't know, 5 years is a pretty long time, anything will happen;)

5) Who's on your playlist?

There are five of us, but I've narrowed down our top ten playlist: 

Bombay Bicycle club

Local Natives

The Stone Roses

The Cure

Weezer

The National

Ride

My Bloody Vanentine

Oasis

Phantogram

Big thanks to Shannon from The Palace Wolves for the interview.

Like The Palace Wolves on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Palace-Wolves/413761098685991

Or follow them on Twitter: @ThePalaceWolves

Visit The Palace Wolves' webpage: www.thepalacewolves.com

Listen to The Palace Wolves:

Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/the-palace-wolves

Bandcamp - http://thepalacewolves.bandcamp.com/

RIFFED x