There is an indie three piece from London, Narrow Plains, who I love but can't even begin to explain. Earlier in the year I thought it would be best if I got them to help explain themselves.
First of all, who are you ?
We
are Narrow Plains. An acoustic-indie, trio based in London,
consisting of Charlie Ferriday (guitar/vocals), Stuart Connick
(drums/back-up vocals) and Roger Connick (bass/back-up vocals).
Is
there any meaning behind the name 'Narrow Plains' ?
Narrow
Plains doesn’t really mean anything special – we just liked the
sound of the words together and thought that it fitted our type of
music.
Who are your
influences as a band ?
There
are lots but we all love to listen to acts like Goo Goo Dolls, Ben
Howard, Newton Faulkener, Mumford, Bon Iver.
The most difficult part for me as a music blogger is trying to
describe a bands style/sound. What would you describe your sound as ?
We
call it “acoustic-indie” but our music probably crosses a few
genres and many people term our music “folk rock”. We just try to
write and perform songs that are acoustic-based, have strong lyrical
content and are fairly simple and straightforward in terms of the
melody.
As a sound
comparision, what other bands have a sound similar to yourselves ?
That’s
a bit difficult for us to say but we are really honoured to have been
compared to some great modern artists, like the ones I mentioned and
Ed Sheeran. Also even to other amazing artists like Bob Dylan and
Simon and Garfunkel.
2015 is quickly coming to a close. A year of big festivals and huge announcements in the world of music. What was 2015 like for you as a band ?
It
has been a brilliant year! There have been a lot of exciting things
for us, like winning the Hard Rock Rising competition at the Hard
Rock Café in London. We also won a US-based talent competition,
Bands4Good and got the chance to go over to North Carolina and record
with John Davenport at his Deep River studios.
We
have also signed an album deal with Smart Indie and have spent a lot
of time in the studio recording our debut album. This has meant
though that we didn’t have as much time to play live so we are all
looking forward to getting out on the road next year and sharing our
new songs with audiences.
Your an upcoming band with a lot going on. As you mentioned, you haven't toured much this year, so what has been the best show you've played so far and what is your ideal venue/festival to play ?
We
have been fortunate enough to play a lot of great gigs at places like
The Cavern Club, 100 Club and Barfly as well as a lot of festivals.
However, our favourite show to date was at O2 Academy in Islington.
It is a great venue and a very special audience who really supported
us and sang along to all our songs. We are playing the same venue for
our album release show and hope that will be an even better
experience!
There
are a lot of amazing festivals but for us the pinnacle would be to
play at Glastonbury. We have all been there many times as fans and
seen some brilliant acts. It would be amazing to play there!
Glastonbury's
your pinnacle place. Who would be your perfect band to play alongside
?
Any
of those great bands and acts we mentioned before (Goo Goo Dolls, Ben
Howard, Newton Faulkener, Mumford, Bon Iver, Ed Sheeran) would be a
dream to play with!
All
great musicians and bands. What advice would you give to bands who
are just starting out, earlier in the music making process than
yourselves ?
We
would just say that it’s important to stick at what you do best and
keep working to improve.
Is
being in a band all you thought it would be?
Being in a band has been a great creative experience but has also been a lot of hard work. We do look forward to every new challenge though.
Talking of new challenges, the new years coming quick. Do
you have anything planned for 2016 ? Any challenges to overcome ?
Well,
our debut album is due out in January 2016 so that will obviously be
the major event for us. We will release another single ahead of the
album (our double A-side single So Rewind and Keep You Anyway will
both feature on the album but we have recorded new versions). Then we
will have to see how the album is received before we can really make
any other definitive plans to tour and so forth.
Finally,
what would you like to say to your fans?
We
are really grateful to all our friends, followers and fans for all
the amazing support they give us as a band. We love playing to and
recording music for people who really appreciate our songs. We really
hope that you all enjoy our new songs on the album.
Don’t
forget that our debut album is coming out on the Smart Indie label in
January 2016!
Couldn't
have said it better myself.