Hoping to make their mark on the world of music are new band Alphas, with a genuine and passionate sound that should resonate with listeners not just in the UK, but all over the world.
With big ambitions and a lot of talent, we got the chance to chat to the guys about what's ahead, their material and more in a new and exclusive interview. Read on to find out what they had to say.
For those who may be new to your music, how best would you describe your sound?
I'll defer on this one to a review of our first single by someone on iTunes who put it as "If The Killers and Franz Ferdinand had babies they would sound close to this. Add some Talking Heads and boom! You've got Alphas" - We'll happily take that!
What challenges have you faced in the music industry so far?
Really - just getting the music listened to. The idealistic idea of sending a CD to a label or radio station and them listening to it or giving it a spin on air is quite detached from how the business actually works. You really need to get adept with the plugging and PR aspects to really start to make inroads.
How difficult would you say this career path is in terms of making a name for yourself?
Making it really big is probably a genuine one in a million type deal. But developing a solid fanbase and being able to have a meaningful career in the industry I think is achievable. But the amount of work needed is huge so you need to go into it with your eyes wide open.
How important is it for you to have creative control over the work you produce?
This is massively important to us and thankfully up to this point, as the recordings we've produced have been self-funded, we've had full control over all aspects of the recording (well, with a little nudge here and there from the producer we've been working with). Perhaps idealistic but we'd be fighting to maintain the same level of control in our future work too.
Where do you draw influence and inspiration from your work?
From a song-writing perspective, although not immediately obvious when I read/listen to the lyrics after I've first written them it's normal that after a few months that I can associate the majority of songs with something that's happened to me personally. Be that during my childhood, schooling, my first forays into adult life and (probably most predominantly…) when I turned really cynical after being in the professional world for a few years! I'm not one for writing songs about world affairs, it's all much more close to home than that.
If you could collaborate with anybody going forward, who would you choose and why?
The band's bassist and I were asked this same question on a radio interview recently and without prior discussion / prompting we both, in perfect sync, said "Jonny Marr". An all too often use of the term Legend can be attributed to him without any doubt whatsoever. Plus I could get him to teach me some of The Smiths' riffs first hand, which would be slightly amazing!
Tell us a random, funny fact about you that not many people know.
On holiday in New York one Christmas, around 8 years ago, I was coming down the escalator in the M&M shop (that's right, the sweets) in Times Square and out the corner of my eye, on the escalator beside me going up I thought "wait a second….. that was…" - so being the starstruck soul that I was, I rushed back up and indeed it was Liam Gallagher who had been playing at Madison Square Garden with Oasis a couple of nights before and had been spending a few extra days in the city. I embarrassingly managed to approach him and got my girlfriend to take a picture of us… I was really more of a Blur fan...
Do you have definitive aims or goals for your career?
There are the "maybe one day" dreams that all bands have - headlining Glastonbury etc. But in a more realistic vein, we'd really like get to a point where us making music and touring is a sustainable mode of income.
Where do you hope to be this time next year?
Delivering our "Best Newcomer" acceptance speech at the Brit Awards would be nice… too much to ask!?
What should we expect from you in the coming weeks and months?
Well we've got our second single, 'Waves', coming out on 6th July and then we start to ramp up for release of our debut album, 'New Fire', in September (watch this space for the release date).
In support of both of these we'll be playing gigs throughout the UK so keep an eye on our social media for announcements on this!