Tell me a bit about yourselves, what have you been up to over the past 12 months?
We all met last year at university in Leeds when I was frantically trying to get a band together to support a friends band back up in Newcastle. That's when I recruited Teruki, James and Isaac and we started writing as Rushbonds. We all had very different styles and influences but for some reason we gelled really well and have managed to create a cohesive sound we’re all really proud of. After Teruki went home to Hong Kong for a while, we regrouped and started to push as much as we could and get as many gigs as possible. We’ve been gigging so much in the Leeds circuit and supporting a huge variety of bands it’s been great! We’ve only just released our debut single which seems to have surprised a lot of people that follow us as they all assumed we’d already released music!
What has been the biggest highlight of Rushbonds so far?
For me it definitely has to be supporting Trudy and the Romance as I’d been listening to them since I was about 14 and they’ve been a dream support of mine for a long time. For the rest of the band, however, it was a gig we played at Royal Park Cellars. It was super intimate and the crowd was amazing; we all pushed the boat out on our performance and had our friend Nika join us on keys. I think it was a gig that made it click with us that we can push Rushbonds really far! Another highlight from them would be the first time we played our song ‘Hush’ live, it builds to an absolutely massive sound and I think it even shocked us when we first played it.
So how did you first get into making music?
I started writing music when I was 11, obviously it was all rubbish but I really loved the creativity outlet. From there I started teaching myself guitar and writing music I was really proud of, I knew I wanted to work with other musicians in a band and start gigging so I enrolled on a music course at university after college and wanted to make a start straight away
How would you describe your sound?
To be honest, I think it’s very hard to pinpoint because we take influence from such a wide range of artists. Teruki and Nika have a jazz background which has really elevated our sound alongside mine, Isaac’s and James’s indie background. I take influence from artists like Haitus Kayote and Patti Smith when writing songs, and take a lot of influence from the Post-Punk genre.
What was the process like in recording your latest single 'Close But No Cigar'?
We recorded the track with our good mate and super talented producer Bruno Dickie at a studio in university for his group project. We were really happy to be part of his project as it meant we could release the track to a standard we are extremely proud of. We all absolutely love his work on it and we will definitely be working with him again in the near future!
What is 'Close But No Cigar' about?
The song is about being in a relationship and trying to make it work when you know realistically it just won’t. It’s about coming to that realisation and attempting to come to terms with it, knowing they’ll still have had an effect on your life and gaining a sense of independence afterwards
What can your listeners expect from your upcoming music?
Our other songs still have the Rushbonds sound, but the next tracks we want to release have all taken influence from completely different things to ‘Close But No Cigar’, we love creating a different feel with each track! So I’d say expect the unexpected.
What's next for you as a band?
We’ve got a headline gig at Bobiks in Newcastle on the 17th of June which we’re super pleased about! There's a lot of exciting gigs we're set to announce over the next few weeks which is great too. We’re also working on getting another single recorded that we're really looking forward to releasing
By - Katie Graham
Photo - Rae Hughes
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