Say hello to Leagues, an alt-rock band from Kingston upon Thames and despite only being together for a little over a year they have gained a substantial following and deservedly so. While being influenced by modern bands such as Deaf Havana and There For Tomorrow, they have their own personality and sound.
The recent release of the ‘Carry the Sun’ video has had a positive response from fans, boosting their support and popularity, I was given the opportunity to get a first look at the video before its public release and I was impressed. The video which is a mixture of clips from rehearsals and a live gig has a very real, slightly gritty feel to it, complimenting the songs melodic vocals, punchy guitar riffs, and poetic lyrics.
With the promise of their next release ‘Kings’ I had a chat with Leagues drummer Joshua Kwei about everything from the band and future plans to superheroes. I introduce you to Leagues…
Who are Leagues?
Rhys Williams (Vocals) David Royce (Guitar/Vocals) Dan Horscroft (Guitar/Vocals) Joshua Kwei (Drums) Adam Kendal (Bass).
You’ve done really well in such a short space of time. How much work goes into getting so much done so quickly?
We put in a lot of work; it’s taken over most if not all our spare time in the last year now. We literally do everything ourselves, from recording to printing t-shirts. We don’t begrudge any second of it though, we love it. This is what we want do for a living. Out of the band we all work pretty all right jobs, but the band takes up all our time. If it’s not practise it’s a meeting, if it’s not a meeting it’s recording, if it’s not recording it’s down time, if it’s not down time it’s the group what’sapp and so on and so forth. Don’t get me wrong we go out and socialise at pubs and clubs but the best hangs are the party’s we have after shows, where we can really relax and enjoy what we’ve done together.
So how did you all get together?
I met David at a campfire in reading 2010, first time I’d ever met the guy and we started playing acoustic guitars together, music was definitely something we connected on. In November 2011 we had our first jam together with two electric guitars and a drum kit in a small practise room owned by my friend. We quickly realised we were onto something and tried out other members, I put down the guitar and took up drums so we had more to go with, that’s when we brought our first guitarist into the band, Mitch. We played open mic nights in our local watering hole ‘the Kingston mill’ we got a nice response and thought we should push it further. We needed someone who could sing, that’s when we got Rhys in the band. We needed a bassist and Mitch knew Adam he was good, so once he was in that was the original line up. (Tom Lawn, a friend of ours filled in for bass but nothing proper before Adam joined.) Once we’d had a few shows under our belt we set off to write more tracks together, Mitch didn’t feel it was his style and we all agreed it was best to part ways, he’s still a good friend though. That’s when we had try outs for guitar, Dan came along and we were set on him from the first song we played at practise.
How did the name come about?
The bands’ name came from us throwing around words Leagues just sort of stuck!
Your new video is up, how as the initial response been?
We haven’t had any bad feedback yet; all we’ve done so far is gain followers, likes and plays so hopefully we’re on the right track!
How did the video shoot go?
It was a lot of fun, I’m really proud of the fact we just played it live at two shows and then a few times in a practise room. We managed to keep in time and not mess up without a backtrack being played. We enjoyed it to because our good friend Ben Ogunbiyi took on the video. We filmed it with both guitarists because Mitch left after the live shots and we didn’t want to cut him out of it completely he was a part of that song, so we added the practise room shots with Dan to and put them both in it.
Have you got any tours in the pipe-line?
We’ve had chats with some people about next year, we’re not promising anything right now but our aim is to be on a UK tour next year for sure.
And just for fun, Batman or Superman?
Batman, any day of the week!
You can check Leagues out on Facebook and the video for ‘Carry The Sun’ at the link below.
http://www.facebook.com/leaguesuk
