STANLEYS

ARTIST FEATURE

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ARTIST FEATURE 〰️

Being no strangers to the hardships of the Northern music scene in the UK, Wigan’s answer to the next best thing are back and better than ever. Emerging from the saturated market of the North West, Stanleys’ melody-driven indie tracks are keeping the scene alive. After a year off and time to reconnect with their roots, the band are back with their latest single ‘Pass The Time’, exploding into the new year and potentially a new era.

We sat down with Tom and Jake to discuss all things new music and the importance of the foundations the industry is built and so heavily relies on.

tell me about the new single ‘pass the time’. where did it come from, what’s it all about?

Tom - It was written quite organically and quite quickly, in a session with me and (Harry) Ivory, where we discussed what we wanted our sound to sound like over the next few years. Trying to push towards a live sound that was more energetic and more powerful. He (Harry Ivory) came up with this bass riff that was that good we based the entire song around it.

Jake - Then Rob did these rapid drums for the verse and chorus, mixed with Harry’s bass riff, we were able to build the song from that. Then Rob added this like drivey hi-hat and straight groove and it still sounded like us just with a bit more emphasis.

Tom - I feel like we’ve delved slightly into this genre before with songs like She’s Done It Again, adding that bit more depth to our sound. Some of our stuff has been, in a good way, quite simple and euphoric. But we’ve done that now. We wanted a new era of sounding different. Even just for ourselves, for writing and for playing gigs - its fun to kind of reshaping and changing.

Jake - I think we want to kind of mix up the live show a bit too in more detail, where we haven’t before. We’re trying to focus more heavily on the sound of our live performances and the gig, whereas previously all focus was on how we sounded in the studio. Maybe we subconsciously took that onboard when writing Pass The Time.

how do you think the new single will translate live?

Tom - I think live, the new track is really going to help develop our set into something that isn’t just like a stand and watch gig. We’ve found our set to be a little but too static over the last few years and want to focus on bringing a bit more energy and power to it.

Jake - I think it’s hard because a lot of our songs don’t have that ‘sing-a-long’, catchy vibe that bring more rowdy crowds. Whereas this one (Pass The Time) is back to basics, dead simple, catchy chorus and almost ‘chanty’.

Tom - I found like most of the people know the chorus after like two listens, which will hopefully translate well live.

how has your year off been?

Tom - It’s been really good. I think we wanted to prepare a load of music and be way ahead with our recording process so we can control how we release music. It’s quite a hard industry these days, with the market being so saturated. With the fickle nature of people listening through services like Spotify and Apple Music, they flick through genre to genre and band to band so quickly, there’s always something new to listen to. You’re not spending your monthly pocket money on buying a record anymore.

What are your plans for live music?

Tom - Just do it haha.

Jake - Hopefully a tour around September maybe?

Tom - I feel like because we’ve been dead silent and just started our socials again, the posts we’ve been putting up had so many comments from all over the UK and wider afield asking us to play, and we just feel like we now owe it to them to give them a show wherever we can. If they want us haha. Or if they fancy getting us a Maccies haha.

Jake - That’s how it works.

Tom - It’s all we get out of bed for these days.

ANy festivals?

Tom - Yeah we want to play all the festivals. I think because we’ve been so quiet, we need this release and our Manchester gig to put us back on the radar.

Who’ve you been listening to then?

Tom - Still like the same old stuff, but like recently a lot of up and coming bands have been influencing me anyway. I listen to Geese quite a bit. Also I listen to a lot of the Irish stuff and find their melodies are miles ahead of the stuff over here haha. People like Fontaines D.C., Kingfishr - proper like folky stuff. I love the Pogues, I went watching them at the Apollo.

Jake - Do you like the Cranberries?

Tom - I do like the Cranberries yeah. The Sundays too and Imelda May. She’s still fit and she’s like 70 too haha. She’s gorgeous with a voice like whisky.

Jake - I’m liking a lot of 50s stuff, like Dion (Dion and the Belmonts). Actually, there’s a guy from Manchester - someone sent me his song - I think he’s called James something (Elliot James Ray) - and he sounds just like Elvis haha. He did a good cover of Unchained Melody. He’s definitey one to watch.

You can catch Stanleys comeback show live at Manchester’s Night and Day on Friday the 10th April, where they will be playing songs from an incredible back catalogue and debuting their latest track ‘Pass The Time’