In between their two sold-out Liverpool shows, I headed down to speak to one of the most talked about bands of this generation; the Irish rhythm and blues quartet, The Strypes.
This is what they had to say:
Hey guys, how are you?
“Hey man! yeah were good thanks, yourself?
You’ve already played a show in here today, how was the crowd?
“Great! a really appreciative crowd. Certainly as lively as you can expect an afternoon gig to be”
For such young lads your extremely talented and are having an incredible amount of success, how did the band come about?
“We were mates at school and just started jamming together really, its just gone from there”
What brought the name ‘The Strypes”?
“We played a one off school concert in 2008 and one of us had a stripey jumper on, we were trying to think of a name for the band and my brother said how about the Strypes? its just always stuck and the y is the classic mis-spelling haha”
What bands influence your music? you don’t hear many young bands making rhythm and blues music very often, its a refreshing change!
“Thanks man! yeah, older bands influence us more than anything, The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry id say”
Your first EP reached number 1 in the iTunes blues chart the day after its release, that must of been an incredible feeling, right?
“We released it in April 2012, It was a complete shock and surprise to see it number 1 in the blues chart, we had no expectations like that at all. It was recorded on an A-Track with my dad and we made the artwork ourselves too!”
You signed with Mercury Records late in 2012, how did that come about? did you have offers from any other labels?
“We signed with Mercury in December 2012, it was a bit crazy with all the negotiations and stuff. It all come about with the success of the EP I guess!”
“Offers started coming in when we started gigging in England, Universal Ireland and a few other major labels came in but we decided to go with Mercury because they have an international team, they seem really friendly and we felt like they wouldn’t mess us about”
Your reputation is quickly growing and your fan-base is getting bigger day by day, how far do you think your band can go? maybe headlining arena’s one day?
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and arrogant, you never know what will happen. Were just going to see what happens”
Cheers for the interview guys!
Its safe to say I’ve never come across four 15-17 year olds that are having the success like they are that have their feet so firmly on the ground. Quite possibly the nicest band I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and catching up with. It really wouldn’t surprise me if the next time Fortitude catch up with these guys its in a pretty big venue!
We wish The Strypes all the luck in the world.