This year has been a year of firsts for me. First-time photographing gigs, first time looking into suing my landlord…but most importantly it was earlier this year when I made my debut trip to Newcastle as I went to cover my first festival – Hit The North. While squeezed into a top competitor for worlds smallest venue, i.e The Head of Steam, unknown at the time, I was about to cross the grooviest synth-pop duo Toon has to offer – Drive. Being obsessed with them ever since I decided to let Andy and Fletch do the speaking as I got to know the ins and outs of the band better.
AN INTERVIEW WITH : DRIVE
Q1. ‘After seeing you live, I got major ‘Blossoms’ vibes. Would you class them as inspiration?’
A: Thanks for coming to the show! Yeah, there’s definitely some Blossoms in there, we especially enjoyed their last album. We grew up listening to the same bands so we draw inspiration from similar places.
Q2: ‘How would you describe each other?’
A: Andy: Fletch is fashionable.
Fletch: Andy’s an encyclopaedia.
Q3: ‘You have 3 songs out at the minute, can you give us more of an insight about them?’
A: We put up the three tunes to give listeners a taste of what’s to come later in the year when we have our first official release. All the tracks are self-produced, so we can spend the time and ensure the songs are the best they can be. All the songs are autobiographical to an extent but we try and come up with original themes for each one.
Q4: ‘What’s the biggest life lesson being in a band has taught you?’
A: Learning how to be skint gracefully.
Q5: ‘What’s the most challenging thing about being an upcoming band?’
A: Getting people to be open to your music – there’s a lot of noise out there and it’s hard to be heard above it all.
Q6: ‘What’s one band or artist that everyone seems to love but you think is shite?’
A: George Ezra – beige.
Q7: ‘Where’s the best and worst places for a night out in Newcastle?’
A: Best place is easily the Ouseburn – there’s a lot of things to do and it’s full of creatives who seem to be on the same wavelength. We can’t decide on the worst place to go in Newcastle but we’ve narrowed it down to anywhere.
Q8: ‘What’s the worst question I could ask you and how you answer it?’
A: Based on the argument we’ve just had, probably question number 7.
Q9: ‘What can we expect from ‘Drive’ in the foreseeable future?’
We’ll be releasing some more music later in the year – we’ve got a bunch of tunes so it might take the form of an EP or something else.
Q10: ‘What’s the best/worst gig experiences you have had?’
A: We’ve only had the one gig so far at this year’s Hit The North festival so it was the best and worst show we’ve done in equal measure… Obviously, in the other bands we’ve been in we’ve had every pub rock cliche that could possibly happen, from playing to one person to really fun sold-out shows.
Q11: ‘Have you ever felt like quitting, if so, how did you manage to overcome it?’
A: Definitely not, we’ve been all in since we were 16. For all that it can be really difficult, we’re writing music because we enjoy it, so if someone else likes it too that really means a lot.
Q12: ‘What’s one misconception about being in a band you hear that you’d like to bust?’
A: That success happens overnight. A lot of people having wider success at the moment have been plugging away with nobody listening to them for years.
Q13: ‘If you could change one thing about the (music) industry, what would it be?’
A: It’s not all about the numbers – sometimes a good song might be enough.
Q14: ‘Finally, as this is Cool Dog Blog, what’s your favourite breed of Dog?’
A: Well Andy has three dogs, so can’t really choose between them. Out of the three, Fletch’s favourite is the border collie, Barry.
SUPPORT THEM!
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/drivesounds
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/drivethebandofficial/
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/drivetheband_?igshid=1ulvpsw95r4m5
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