Last week the second song of upcoming UK band LUCKY PUNKS was uploaded on Soundcloud, and it’s a great indierock tune! They are now in the process of recording their debut album, doing online promotion and playing gigs. With this professional approach and awesome tunes, we suspect that these guys will have their big breakthrough soon. So we decided to ask them about how the band started, and about the music that inspired them.
The three members Adam Pizey (Drums, Vocals), Ross Kelly (Guitar, Lead Vocals) and Tom Harrison (Bass) met at sixth-form college in the South East. They were already involved in making music, but were performing with different bands at the time. After college, they remained friends despite taking different paths, and it wasn’t until summer 2015 when the trio met up again.
So what happened in the meantime? Adam and Tom went to university, whilst Ross worked with a small independent label in London. During their time at university, Adam and Tom were part of the band Glastines, playing melodic guitar-driven songs. They formed late 2014, and achieved BBC radio airplay and had a successful UK tour. Meanwhile Ross was writing material that eventually would become the debut album for LUCKY PUNKS (release late 2016). Late 2014 he travelled to Los Angeles to co-write and record demos at Redrum studios, but got back summer 2015.
That summer the three friends started rehearsing and recording demo songs. The demo was picked up by LA recording studio where Ross worked. Next they planned some gigs and the band has been playing live since december. They’re now investigating options for a US tour. So everything is falling into place now, and 2016 is going to be a big year for this new band.
Their indierock sound is unmistakably British. Not strange considering the boys ‘were raised on a diet of baked beans and great British bands’ by their parents.
“We all grew up addicted to our parents’ LPs, especially the Beatles and David Bowie. I think both are incredibly important artists, especially Bowie – his theatrical and artistic talents opened so many doors for exploration.”
As they grew up, their tastes expanded. They have a shared interest in alternative 80s music, ranging from synthpop and new wave (e.g. Duran Duran) to post punk like Gang Of Four and Joy Division. But each has his own obsession as well, they admit. “Tom is a bit obsessed with Led Zeppelin, Ross gravitated toward Nirvana, and Adam to Blur and Oasis.”
Besides creating their own music, the band members considering themselves also big consumers of music, as they tell us. “We listen to as much varied stuff as possible. We’re still all keen discoverers of new music though, in all genres – recent vinyl purchases have been Miles Davis, Ravi Shankar and Violent Femmes.”
The band have uploaded two songs on Soundcloud: “Behind Closed Doors”, last week followed by “Sleeping Dogs”.
You can easily notice their British roots and inspiration. But to just call it britpop is a mistake, as the tag is strongly associated with mid-90s british music. Their songs are more spontaneous and raw, and you can hear the wider range of inspiration. The band’s youthful energy and spirit definitely add to their sound, comparable to early Arctic Monkeys for example. Both songs have great melodies and hooks, but especially the uptempo “Sleeping Dogs” is memorable due to the catchy refrain and the incredibly natural flow of the song.
To conclude: these two tracks are sufficient to get an idea of what they’re capable of. And that is writing compact indierock songs that will undoubtedly move the crowd when performed live! We want more of that contagious sonic energy!
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