Interview with Leopards

Leopards, from the South West UK, are Jenna: Vocals, Ben: Guitar, Rhys: Drums, Mat: Bass and Tom: Guitar and are one of the UK’s most exciting young bands right now. This Alt rock band have just appeared in Kerrang!’s new music issue as “ones to watch” and who are we to argue?

Leopards latest video ‘Home’, which you can catch below, is a great track and the band are heading out on the ‘Stop, Drop, Rock’ UK tour in February along with Bentley Park, Reachback and Glass City Vice. You can pick up tickets for the tour from the bands Big Cartel store. We spoke to Drummer Rhys about the tour and the bands upcoming EP.

Please introduce yourself to our readers?  
I’m Rhys and I play the drums (make the most noise)

Where did the bands name come from?  
It was just stumbled upon when shouting out names and it everyone liked with so we just went with it.

How did you get started?  
Ben originally playing music with his cousin, who used to be in the band, and its just grown from there.

What have you got going on at the moment?  
We’re currently finishing off our new EP and we plan to record that in April. We also have a 9 date tour in february 16-24th.

Favourite music and why?  
My personal favourite is british rock/hardcore, bands like Young Guns, Mallory Knox, Deaf Havana, Hildamay, Bring Me The Horizon and While She Sleeps among others. But then some American bands like Paramore and LetLive

Favourite book and why?  
I’m a huge fan of Spiderman graphic novels, so those would be my shout, if you can call them books.

Favourite film and why?  
Step Brothers, love both Will Ferrel and John C Reilly. Such a funny film, never stop saying the quotes.

Whats Leopards best experience in the business so far?  
Seeing ourselves in Kerrang! magazine in a feature about the future bands of 2013. Great feeling to be listed with bands such as Marmozets, Yashin and Tonight Alive.

What’s the best and worst things about touring?  
Best thing is travelling to new places and meeting new people at shows but for me there is no bad part, I love every minute of it!

Most embarrassing thing to happen to you while in the band?  
Turned up to a show with no cymbals or snare having left them in our practice room. Shocking effort by me, Haha!

What’s your writing and recording process?  
Ben and Tom (our guitarists) throw ideas between each other and then send them to me and Jenna for us to bring more ideas to practice.

For recording we make sure the songs are perfect and exactly how we want them to be, then we head to the studio to lay down the tracks individually. I always go first, then the guitars and bass and finally Jenna records her vocals. Then the tracks are mastered by the producer

What inspires you?  
For me personally its going to other bands shows and festivals and seeing how amazing the life of being in a band can be. Its the life I want for the next 10-15 years and it’s something that i’ll keep working hard at until I get there.

Whats the best thing about playing in Wales?  
We played a couple of shows in Wales on our first ever tour with a band called Population Four and the Wales shows were great. The crowds were fantastic, really responsive and polite after the show, as were the promoters and support bands.

Who are your role models or idols?  For me as a drummer its people like Eddie Thrower (Lower Than Atlantis), Ben Jolliffe (Young Guns) and Josh Farro (Ex-Paramore).

What do you think the hardest thing about the current business is?  
I think theres a lot of difficulties but if you work hard, show you are dedicated and your music is good then you give yourself the best chance of getting to where you want to be.

Finally, the one question we ask everyone, who is your favourite Batman actor? 
For Batman I’d have to go for Val Kilmer, but for any other character in the films I’m going Micheal Caine as Alfred, great guy.

You can check out Leopards on any of the links below and don’t forget you can get tickets for the ‘Stop, Drop, Rock’ tour from the bands webstore.

http://www.weareleopards.co.uk
http://www.leopards.bigcartel.com 
@weareleopards
Facebook.com/weareleopards