So Download Festival is just over 2 weeks away and we know it’s always so hard to pick who you go to see. There’s always so many news bands to check out along side some of your favourites at Download Festival and we figure if we give you a bit of a preview of each and let them introduce themselves to you, it may make your planning easier.
Camberley based Drones formed out of a love for loud, fast and melodic music. They have set out to emulate their punk rocks heroes and bring with it a very lively performance. We’ll let them introduce themselves to you.
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Mitchell Thomas, I am the drummer and one of the founding members of Drones.
How did you get started?
Myself and Daly (guitar, vocals) has been in past musical endeavours but never anything serious – just college bands. Then one month into university I quit because I hated it. Once I got home we realized the only people that hadn’t gone off to different corners of the country were each other. Daly asked if I wanted to give it another go, and really try and put our hometown Camberley on the map. We recruited a friend of a friend down the pub (who is now one of closest friends, James) to play bass and began playing local football clubs and pubs. We never thought we’d be playing the legendary Download Festival in our dreams just a few years later!
What stage and day are you playing at Download Festival?
We’re playing the Red Bull Studio Stage on Friday. We’ve got a great slot – not on too early when everyone’s hungover, but not too late that we clash with the headliners! Our plan is to play, then head over to the Pepsi Max Stage to catch Flogging Molly and Bad Religion!
What’s the best thing about playing Download Festival?
I think the part we’re looking forward to most is getting our music out there to a new audience – people who aren’t there necessarily to listen to punk, and an audience who’s never heard of us. In a way it’s a challenge to win them over but it’s also a privilege. Getting a pass to see loads of legendary bands for free is a huge perk, too!
Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Download?
We were all in the same tent a few years ago at Reading Festival to see Flogging Molly and had a massive dance-off, so being together and watching them again is going to be a bit of an anniversary almost. Seeing The Offspring play Smash in full will be a treat. We’re also stoked for Ducking Punches, Lamie Lenman, Bring Me The Horizon, Avenged Sevenfold, Steel Panther, Fall Out Boy… too many to name really!
Have you got any surprises in store for you Download set?
We’re reining it in this year, no pole-dancers and fire-breathers. We’ll be playing a couple of old tracks which we haven’t aired live in a while, however to most people watching all of the tracks will be new to them anyway! To be honest, we’re just going stick to what we do best – a stripped back, high energy punkrock performance.
What’s your best festival memory either personally attending as a fan or in the band? And what’s your advice to all the festival goers?
We played Rebellion Festival a few years back. It was our first time on a large stage and we were bricking it that no one would turn up to see us, that this massive room would be us playing to five people. It ended up being packed, and the entire hall turned into a circle pit. That was a really cool moment for us – we were the talking point of the weekend!
Advice to festival goers – don’t queue up from 6am at the gate before the arenas open to get to the front. Have a lie-in, get there late and crowdsurf your way to the front – it’s ten times more fun!
This is your chance to have your say to make people come see your set at Download.
We’re four genuine guys who really believe in our music and our lyrics touch on issues and topics that really matter to us personally and the world as a whole. We don’t follow trends and we sound different to every other band on the lineup. We also give 110% in every performance. Plus, we’re going to absolutely tear the tent up. You’d be crazy to miss it…
The band are on the 4th stage, The Red Bull Studio Stage on Friday at 17:10.
