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You blew us away in the Hipshaker Lounge at Isle of Wight Festival. How did that experience feel and did anything about the crowd stand out to you?

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Playing the Isle Of Wight Festivals ‘HipshakerLounge’ was out of this world, it really felt like a massive step forward as a growing London band. The crowd were great, they are true music fans and the room and people resonated so well together. Its as if the exact emotions and energy we wanted to create from each song was felt by the crowd.

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You’ve started the genre ‘Grit-pop’, where you’re blending punk attitude with poetic energy. Can you talk us through what ‘Grit-pop’ means to you and how it shows up in your music?

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The genre Grit-Pop was the best way to sum us up as a band, Indie was too broad, Brit-Pop was too niche, and Rock & Roll just wasn’t right. So for us to make a Grit-Pop pie, we first need our love of punchy, punky music and dirty guitar tones for the ‘Grit,’ and groovy, heartfelt, and catchy melodies to give it that ‘Pop.’  

Our new single ‘Sunshine’ - out June 27th - is full of all those yummy ingredients, which we hope will tickle the tastebuds of many fans, and give them a taster of the genre Grit-Pop. 

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Your lyrics and instrumentation shift between raw energy and vulnerability. What’s the spark or emotion that usually sends a song into that space?

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I think our energy and emotion comes from our chemistry as a band, we present an idea to one another, nothing much more than a rough riff or progression, and we just ‘Feel it out.’  

A great example of this is our song ‘Sometimes,’ if you happened to have caught us live, its definitely a standout song due to its massive emotional contrasts and musical crescendos.  

The song began with some simple guitar chords and a vocal hook, and we were jamming to this soft, cozy song, when all of a sudden, our drummer Dani, comes in with a huge dynamic change which really brought the song to life and gave each of our individual parts energy. When we play together a little bit of each of our emotions bleed onto one another, which really shows up in our music 

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Stage confidence seems key to your live identity. What rituals or prep do you run through before going on stage?

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Our pre gig ritual consists of constant bullying and ridicule of one another, so much to the point that we go completely feral once we are let on stage… Only joking! Kind of… We are honestly just best mates, and we love hanging out together, so being on stage is just like going mental in the club together and having a laugh. For example, me (Leon) - Bass Guitar, and Tom - Rhythm Guitar, sometimes just try to just see who can be more stupid on stage. And, well, the crowd seem to love it, so why not!  

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Which Flare products are you loving right now, and how do they contribute to your current lifestyle?

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We were recently gifted the Flare E-Prototype earphones by the wonderful Molly, and as a production & sound engineering student, I can say with great pleasure that these are some of the crispest, Hi-Fi earphones I’ve ever used, and help me do my mixes with insane accuracy! If you like to hear every detail and nuance of a song like I do, then these are a great piece of kit. They are up there with big budget studio headphones I've tried, but can be worn much longer and comfortably, so I can keep my work going for hours more! 

Written by Leon, Sweet Unrest