Littlehampton-band Absuma make their Festival of Chichester debut

It’s a place they know well, having played there on a number of occasions. For the festival they are promising an unforgettable night of live music blending folk rock, psychedelia and Americana spirit. Tickets £12 from The Novium.

It all comes as part of a good 2025 for the band. They enjoyed a successful 2024 and had launched five singles by Christmas. Later this summer they will be playing Victorious in Portsmouth. They are also bringing out a live album.

The band are Simon Keet –vox/guitar; Kristina Chapman – vox/bass; Simon Stewart – drums; Sophie Stewart – vox/percussion; Toby Bain – keys; and Jack Munnelly – vox/guitar.

Simon Keet said: “We have been trying this year to get some bigger festivals. We were wanting some bigger audiences and we are doing well this year. It's great to get a slot at Victorious. We're trying to do stuff further afield. The furthest we went last year was Worthing and Chichester. Now we're working in the Portsmouth area. We are wanting to expand that.

“With the live album it's going to take a bit longer than we thought. We're just doing the final mixing of it at the moment because our guitarist Jack is going to become a dad in a couple of months. But we have copies of it now that feel a bit home-made and that we've burnt off ourselves. It will be really good to get a proper CD out and maybe a limited vinyl edition. That might be towards the end of the summer.”

The live album is based on a gig that they did for Black Friday at the Havana: “We played the songs pretty well. At the moment we have had trouble trying to capture what we do on a polished recording. It's like it sucks the life out of it but the live album shows a bit more what we're all about.”

As for the name: “The name is a bit weird,” Simon says, “but my granddad was like a gypsy from the West Country and he came into some money through working really hard and he built a house at Burpham. The name comes from his name Abraham and his wife Maureen and their daughter Susan, my mum. We don't have the house now but I wanted a name that was significant for us and that meant something to me.”

As for the music, Kristina said: “I would describe the music as like an amalgamation of lots of different perspectives really and different talents. It is Simon's music but everyone brings something different to the band. We all have different styles and different talents. We all want to support Simon and help him make his music and his vision and really just bring it to life.”

Simon added: “Some of the songs are from the darker parts of my life when I would go out binge drinking but since the band I've not been teetotal but I have been sober all the time.

“I wrote a lot of songs during lockdown. There is a song about me and Kristina walking along the promenade during lockdown and talking about all the conspiracy theories. I've done a song that is Titanic set in space and we had a single that was called Animal which was about the idea of suppressing your inner spirit animal.

“I would say the music is psychedelic folk pop and people see it as a smash-up of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen and the B52s and Fleetwood Mac.”