Crawley band releases new single ‘love/them' to celebrate the LGBTQU+ community

The band, made-up of band members Ash, Charlie and Michael, describes themselves as a ‘Sleepy Punk’ band and can be often seen playing venues in London.

Their music is inspired by 90s grunge and 00s pop punk and their lyrics can be seen as a response to the current political climate.

Although the band can often be seen in venues in London and Brighton, they are keen to play more gigs in Crawley.

Ash said: “I've played in small bands in Crawley since I was a student at Hazelwick, but everything had fizzled out over the years. I'd been writing some new material I was excited about and decided to try and pursue another project back in 2019.

“I was commuting to central London for work at the time and discovered both Charlie and Michael online who worked close by. We decided to meet up at a local pizza place to see how we got on.

“We immediately gelled and the two shared my vision for a punk band that infused 90s grunge and 00s pop punk. The political climate at the time (which has only amplified since) felt ripe for a resurgence of punk, but with a focus on the barrage of issues unique to today's younger generations.

“We have quite the array of influences, and draw different bits of inspiration from different places. We wanted to take the melodic, anthemic chorus' from bands like Sum 41, Green Day, and Nirvana, but fuse it with the riffs of bands like Rage Against the Machine and lyricism of bands like Rise Against and System of a Down.

“Basically, if you ever watched Kerrang back in 00s, you'll understand the sound we're going for.

“We gigged as much as we could before the pandemic hit, mainly playing in places like Crawley, Horsham, Brighton and London. It was during lockdown that we started releasing music, and had to get creative when it came to music videos (we built blanket forts in our homes for our first single).

“Our latest single 'love/them' is one I'm particularly passionate about. We recorded it with engineer and producer Chris Coulter who's worked with the likes of Arcane Roots and IDLES. It's an angry, yet loving celebration of the LGBTQU+ community.

Our new single love/them is a protest song against the parents of LGBTQU+ children who fail to accept and embrace their kids. It's something that particularly enrages me because I remember when my mum came out to me and my siblings when I was a teenager.

“We found it so overwhelmingly easy to embrace and celebrate her; after all, she was our mum. Yet time and time again I've watched as the families of my friends have failed to accept their sexuality and/or gender identity.

“We filmed the music video over Brighton Pride weekend with some friends of the band. The concept was very simple, we wanted to capture some of our queer and/or gender non-conforming friends having fun and celebrate them being themselves. We felt it provided a nice contrast to the anger and intensity of the song.

See more: Crawley’s rising music scene: ‘We play music that our girlfriends and mates like to jump and dance to’, ‘The Liam Gallagher of magic’: Crawley’s own magician reveals his secrets to a career in magic, Crawley Blues Club founder reminisces on 25 years of hosting the blues at The Hawth Theatre as it prepares to shut its doors for the final time

You find out more about the band’s upcoming tours here: https://twitter.com/youngfatigue