www.facebook.com/recruitsUK
From: Scunthorpe, UK
Sounds like: Rock
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Recruits” and is there any meaning behind it?
The band originally formed in late 2014 without a singer, it formed from a couple members of an older band, including Ben; gathering new members Eddie and ex-bassist Keiran. We learnt covers and eventually got our singer Steve Smith. We kept practicing and then recorded our first single 'Right Words' in May 2015. We decided things weren't working with our drummer so we got rid of him and replaced him with Jonno. From then on things went uphill and we started gigging in July. In November last year our bassist left us and he was replaced by Steve Heather. Our sound has always seemed to come to us naturally from the variety of music that influences us all. We always write what we want to write and let it develop naturally, so we can't say how. There is no meaning for the name "Recruits" really, we literally listed some band names we liked the sound of and picked that - haha.
2. You guys just got back from being on tour. How did it go?
For our first tour it went very well, probably better than we expected. It was a good opportunity for us to get closer and spend time together as a band. It surprised us to see fans that we didn't know we had at some venues and even more surprised by the amount of fans we made and people we met. The downside was half of us fell ill which meant we had to drop out of the Manchester gig and go home early.
3. How has the response been thus far to the "We Are Recruits" EP? What do you want listeners to take away from it?
We haven't had chance as of yet to push the EP as much as we'd like, however the response we have got has been very humbling for us. We haven't really had a bad word mentioned about it or a negative review yet, everyone seems to appreciate the songs and the effort we put into them. Everyone will take different things away from the EP, but generally we want people to listen to the lyrics and be able to relate to them, we want them to enjoy the music, we want people to at least appreciate what we do, and if we make it onto their iTunes library and make a fan out of them then that's a bonus.
4. What can people expect from your live show?
In terms of our live performance, we are a very honest band. Each song has a different emotion and this reflects in our stage presence; some songs we just play and feel the music and hope the audience do the same, some songs are 'bouncy' and have us all over stage going crazy. We're not the type of band to jump around a stage for 35 minutes pretending to have a good time when our lyrics reflect a serious story. Regardless we always put 100% into our shows, we've recently introduced backing tracks and backing vocals into our set and now we're working on some cool visuals to add to make things more interesting. I think you'll also find that if you listen to our EP and then come see us live, we sound a bit more 'raw' and 'Rocky'.
5. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Without a doubt; Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and 30 Seconds to Mars.
6. Any crazy show stories?
There's one crazy story for us which may not seem crazy to anyone else, haha. We had a show in Sheffield one night, and we were meant to be bringing the back line. Our drummer turned up without a snare and we were the only band with a drum kit. We searched all around Sheffield, ringing up people we knew, looking in pubs, trying to contact bands and eventually we got in touch with Phil from Steel City Studios to see if we could borrow one. He was in Australia at the time touring with All Time Low and he messaged us saying we could go to the studio and get a snare from the engineer who was in there. We were so relieved we got one and the journey to Sheffield wasn't wasted. To make things better still Jonno came back with the snare and a smug grin on his face; turns out the engineer gave him one of the snares Bring Me the Horizon used on the recording of "Sempiternal" - we was so chuffed! Went from being the biggest nightmare to "oh my god, we are using the snare BMTH have used to record one of the biggest Rock records to come out in years"!
7. What’s your take on the current state of rock?
Personally, we think its great. Modern Rock bands are really stepping it up a notch, some bands even going on to play Arena sized venues such as Wembley Stadium. The best coming out of the UK right now have to be Bring me the Horizon, Lower than Atlantis, Deaf Havana, You me at Six and Mallory Knox. Even Enter Shikari are going on their first Arena Tour. People may have fallen out of love with these types of bands because their sound isn't as heavy as it was 7 years ago, but they have all developed their sounds into something amazing and unique. These bands have collectively helped to get Rock back onto mainstream radio which is helping to get it more popular again which is great. People may disagree, but its true that all music and genres naturally develop. Today Rock is a new genre, completely different to what it was 20 years ago, and people need to accept this. If you want heavy music then listen to it, but don't stop music from evolving. Its exciting listening to these bands and not knowing what to expect from their next releases!
8. What’s the current music scene like there in the UK both locally and country wide?
The music scene in the UK isn't as big as it was in 20/30 years ago, which relates to the question above. People in the UK don't want live music as much any more, the majority of people want what's on the radio, they will pay £300 to see a load of Pop artists sing over a backing track at a festival, but wont pay £3 to see a talented band at their local pub. It's sad, but rock is slowly making its way back out there again. This also applies to our local scene, and there's too many bands trying to copy what has already been and gone, bands like oasis and the stone roses. Not many bands are taking risks and trying to develop a new sound which is a shame. Thankfully, in our small town there are a lot of amazing promoters and people that stand out to really make Scunthorpe the best place it can be for music. People in our area work very hard to put on great events and bring some big acts to the town, which in turn gives Scunthorpe a better reputation - we respect them a lot.
9. What’s your take on legal/illegal music downloading?
It's tricky, for now it's not an issue for us, we lose money from the band anyway, if people want to steal our music then we find it cool that its more people listening to the band. It gets to a certain point though when you are with a label and you need to bring the funds in and the band will eventually become the job which brings food to your table. I guess at this point it is very irritating for bands, but the harsh fact is it can't really be avoided, people always work their way around illegally downloading your music and always will. I guess you just have to trust your truest fans to buy your CDs and merchandise.
10. What’s next for Recruits?
The exciting thing is we don't even know! We have just signed to DMF Digital and teamed up with From the Depths Entertainment which is opening a lot of doors for us. We will be using these guys to help us with our re-branding and our next release. We have been demoing songs for another EP so we hope to have started work and be well on with the process by the end of the year. We've got a few shows on here and there too so I guess we're just taking it steady until we have something planned out! Our label are taking our songs to LA in the next couple of weeks to pitch them to get used for television which is very exciting, that could help us out a lot in terms of exposure and funds.
11. Any shoutouts?
Shout out to Phil from Steel City, Mike at FTDE for being awesome to work with, and the guys at DMF Digital for the friendly welcoming to the label!
