When Rivers Meet line up Shoreham date

Since bursting onto the UK blues scene with their debut The Uprising EP in April 2019 followed by their second EP Innocence of Youth in May 2020, Grace and Aaron Bond have released two critically acclaimed studio albums – We Fly Free (2020), then Saving Grace (2021).

It’s just great to be back, Aaron says: “Obviously we lost all our gigs when the pandemic hit. We just lost them straight away and there was nothing we could do, but we saw how other people were starting to do some live stream things and we thought we would give it a go. We did the first one and it was a bit surreal and then we did another and another and we’ve just kept going and it has been great.” And as Grace says: “It has been a really good way to expand our fanbase. Because we are married we locked down together and the majority of time during the lockdowns we were just trying to keep the music moving and find a way where we could let people still enjoy what we are doing. And actually the last couple of years we have worked harder than ever before, I would say.”

Aaron adds: “We first got together when we were doing our own projects to be honest and it didn’t really occur to us that we should really do something together. We went out as a duo just doing bits and bobs and when we decided to get married we just carried on and we took on the name When The River Meets. We took the name because it just kind of fits with the flow of the music but also we were in Sardinia and we were looking down at a ravine where two rivers met and it just occurred to us that that would be a great name for us.” As for the music, as Grace says: “The music that we have put out over the last three years is very much in the blues genre. We love the feeling of blues but there is also an element of rock.”

“The new album came out in November last year,” Aaron says, “a year since the first one and I would say there is a progression between the two. When we did the first album we just put all these songs in our heads out there and now the second one is a continuation but in a slightly different style.”

As for the title, Grace insists it’s not really about saving her specifically: “We went on holiday straight after finishing the album and we were listening to the masters on holiday and we were trying to come up with a name for the album and what it was about and I was just saying that music has just literally been our saving grace during this time.

“We both had jobs that we hated. There was nothing wrong with the jobs but they were not right for us and we were just wanting to make music and we were having to keep it local because of the day jobs and then we made the move and we bought an old van that we could travel around in between gigs. Things started happening; that’s what I meant by music having been our saving grace!”