G:Tell us about your band?
We’ve been performing as Villiers since 2011. Me and Daniel both started playing instruments around the same time and being brothers, we listen to a lot of the same music so as our playing ability grew so did the ambition to start a band. Then one day Danny (Drummer) text me and asked if we wanted to get together and have a play around and within ten or so minutes we knew we were going to form a band.
The inspiration to start definitely came from our dad. Although he’s not a musician himself, he bought us our first guitars and transformed the garage into a music room so we could play. He’s also got an impeccable taste in music. He introduced us to bands like Echo and the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Joy Division and New Order and that ignited the passion. When you first start writing, subconsciously you want to emmulate someone and we definitely wanted to be the Bunnymen.
The name is taken from The Bunnymen track “Villiers Terrace”. We spent ages thinking of a name and wanted to avoid being a ‘The’ band. I think that had been playing in the car on the way to rehearsals or something because it stuck from that day on.
G: What are you working on right now?
We’re currently working on our next single. Its probably our most ambitious project to date in terms of the structure and sound. We’ll be taking that and another track into the studio with our mate Nick who did the last single. We’re listening to a lot of Frankie Knuckles and Marshall Jefferson at the moment and I think thats come through in this one.
G: What was your most successful or most enjoyable gig so far?
It definitely has to be our first ever festival slot at BeatHerder Festival last summer. The festival is literally on our front door and being a local band, we drew in a great crowd. It was great to hang out with more established bands that were playing the same stage like TOY and Temples as well.
G: How would you describe your typical fan?
Good pair of brogues, a waxed jacket of some sort and a strong liver.
G: Who writes the lyrics to the songs?
Ben (Guitar) is always making demos on his laptop, he’s got ‘demo-itis’ as we call it. He’s terrible with remembering melodies and lyrics so he records them and sends them to all of us and we go from there. For the past two/three years we’ve all been at away University or working in different parts of the country so at first we thought the whole songwriting process would suffer and but it seems to have worked well. Lyrics wise, Ben and Daniel (Vocals) write either together or separately then we’ll all chip in and edit them.
Because we’re all on the same wavelength and have similar influences its never difficult to explain ideas to each other. We always say that if when we jam a new song and get it first time then thats the one we stick with and it hasn’t let us down yet. We’ve been getting into the habit of not rehearsing new stuff until after we’ve recorded so were learning the song as we record. We’re still young and learning so processes always change which is great.
G: What are your plans for the future?
Keep writing, Get bigger, play around the world and always make sure the fans enjoy it.
