Features
The Romance
Dan Carney wined and dined Teesside indie guitar pop combo The Romance...
"I've got the 'guns', Matt's a biter, Sean's got looks to kill, and Danny carries weapons" It's often said that in this great and glorious land of ours, you're never more than ten metres away from a kicking. OK, so we might have made that one up ourselves, but one band who would nod in agreement are Stockton guitar pop quartet The Romance, whose debut single 'Brannigan Brawl' is a feisty, knockabout tale of a drunken night out with an all too familiar, pointlessly violent ending. We spoke to Adam (vocals/bass), Matt (vocals/guitar), Sean (drums) and Danny (guitar) and discovered what makes them tick.
What inspired you to form a band?
Adam: "Listening to our favourite bands and musicians and deciding that it would be good to give it a go ourselves. It's not really inspiration that makes you form a band; it's the need and necessity to do it, to realise that sound for the songs you have bouncing around in your head and realising you just can't go it alone."
What happened at your first ever rehearsal?
A: "It was at our local venue Ku-bar - we ran through a few ideas and nicked beers from behind the bar. We played our very first gig there the next night. We had about five songs written, or at least chords, melody and a theme for lyrics. Matt would just make the lyrics up on the spot there and then. It was much the same for everyone with their instruments; everyone would just ad-lib around a structure. That's also pretty much how we write today only we practice and have everything set in stone before we add it to the set. But for that gig we just had to go for it. Luckily for us it paid off."
Why did you choose 'Brannigan Brawl' as the first single?
A: "At the time we heard we were going to be putting a single out we hadn't even written 'Brannigan Brawl' - it was about a week after we had heard the news, but we struggled to decide and settle on one as we thought each song in our set could be a single. So we thought we'd pick the winner out of a hat."
Tell us a little bit about what inspired the song.
Matt: "It's just about the mentality of some people you see on nights out in every town in this country nowadays. For them it literally isn't a night out without a fight - they're not happy until they've given you a brain hemorrhage for looking at their pint. As sad as it seems this is the way things are these days. So this song is basically describes that and tells the story start to finish of a night out I had not too long ago."
Are The Romance pretty democratic or does one person write all the songs?
A: "We all bring ideas and jam around with them until we're happy, and then Matt adds the lyrics, so it's a bit of both really. We just find a structure and all add our own bits, and then once we're all happy we'll keep it."
There are a lot of guitar bands around at the moment - what do you think you've got that sets you apart from all the rest?
A: "We draw influences from everywhere, we don't just write one style or genre music. We could be writing a blues song one week, and then a ska song the next. It's good because it keeps us on our toes and makes sure we don't drop our game."
What has influenced you, musically and non-musically? Who are your heroes and why?
M: "Johnny Cash and Richard Ashcroft. Johnny Cash proved that you don't have to be an exceptional musician to be successful; he wrote some of the simplest songs but they came from the heart."
Sean: "Bob Dylan and Reg from 'The Bill'. He's both a poet and a musician. Dylan wrote some good stuff too."
Danny: "Lou Reed and Carlton Palmer. Lou Reed because his music stood out at the time and still does even now, and Carlton Palmer because he is all that is great about English football."
A: "The Clash and Thom Yorke. The Clash because of their live presence - when you look back at their gigs, they always put their all into it - and Thom Yorke because he's not afraid to be diverse and push things forward."
What's been your best gig so far and why?
A: "We played a gig in a tiny venue in Huddersfield earlier this year, we had to set the PA up and do the sound ourselves from onstage. We only had one mic between three of us so really it should have been the worst gig ever, but the venue was packed, the crowd were right up next to us, and we had a good laugh onstage. The atmosphere was wicked."
Have you been pretty excited by the reaction so far?
A: "It's been good yeah, we're just enjoying the gigs and having a laugh on the road, that's main thing. And also the reaction from industry has been great as well. We'll turn up to some gigs and it?s a complete shock to find a buzz that we didn't even know was going on, you can be taken aback by it sometimes."
Who would win in a brawl between the band members and why?
A: "It's a tight one, I've got the 'guns', Matt's a biter, Sean's got looks to kill, and Danny carries weapons. Wouldn't like to call it really! But one thing is for certain... it'd be a messy one."
Describe your band in three words...
"Like a peach."
What's the next step for The Romance and how far do you ultimately want to get?
"Whatever the next step is, we just want to make sure we keep on having a laugh and hopefully be able to keep making music we enjoy for as long as possible."
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