Industry insight | The Sheratons Interview
June 26 | Written By Kirsten Moreton
This week, The Music Mag interviewed the up and coming The Sheratons, a group from Leeds who have been taking the UK music scene by storm. Having just completed a UK tour, upcoming festival spots, over 400,000 Spotify streams and radio plays, it is safe to say this group is going places. Keep reading to discover more on the past, present and future for this hidden gem in todays music scene.
1. What is the story behind The Sheratons and the name, how did it begin?
Contrary to belief we are not named after a certain chain of hotels and resorts with the same name, it came about when me (Fin) and Kane the singer got into bands such as oasis in secondary school and clocked on that Noel Gallagher played an Epiphone branded guitar called the Sheraton, the rest is history.
2. What are the current aims for your music?
We are pushing to make our music our professions, the dream would be to be able to do this as a job, and we are giving it a damn good crack
.
3. What would you like to bring to your music?
I believe we all bring a vast array of influences that give us a unique sound, each member has a slightly different musical flavour and I believe this can be heard within our music
4. What was some of your inspirations when starting out?
As previously mentioned, us and many teenagers our age were captivated by the likes of Oasis, The Smiths, Stone Roses and this played a factor when we first started out, I mean who wouldn’t want to live the rock and roll star life. Alongside this for me personally I was extremely interested in early Punk, the likes of The Sex Pistols and The Clash, bands ripe with attitude. An influence I still feel is present today.
5. Do you have a dream record you wish you could own?
Me and Kane are both avid record collectors and have amounted many great records over the years, if I had to chase down one it would be a first pressing of Never Mind The Bollocks, however it might be slightly out of my price range at the moment haha.
6. What was the inspiration around your latest release ‘Mystic Pizza’?
‘Mystic Pizza’ is another fun yet heartfelt tune conjured up with inspiration taken from the 1988 Rom Com of the same name. A highly energetic track primarily shown with the theme of what’s on the menu and how one could gain thrill in life. Mystic Pizza of course has room for comical duality though, as maybe the premise doesn’t run that deep, it may just be an ordinary story of a bite to eat in a three star establishment.
7. What are your thoughts on the Scottish music scene and community?
My first ever trip up to Scotland was earlier this year when we played Broadcast in Glasgow and a sold out Sneaky Petes in Edinburgh. What a couple of shows! The crowds were all so welcoming and bang up for having a good time, we had people flinging themselves all around the room a proper rock and roll show. The scene up in Scotland is just something else, full to the brim with talented bands, fantastic venues and wild crowds, anyone that hasn’t been definitely should!
8. Do you have a favourite venue to visit or play in?
Our favorite venue is Leeds own Brudnell Social Club, a 400-cap room that is teaming with personality and history. It’s a dream come true that we can finally headline this venue later in the year on Friday 20th
October. Tickets available here.
9. What is your favourite show you have played?
There has been some absolute worldies recently, the few that come to mind were our first festival shows last year at Isle of Wight Festival and Y Not, it’s a dream come true to play these types of shows, and our most recent show at Oporto in Leeds, we managed to sell out the whole place in less than 24 hours and it was certainly wild!
10. What is the main goal for The Sheratons where would you like to be in ten years?
The dream would be to make it big as it should be for all musicians, play crazy shows week in and week out to thousands of people and love ever second of it.
11. Live, The Sheratons have a talent for engaging the audience and creating a buzz within a room. How do you do that and maintain that energy throughout?
I think it comes down to us being fans of music and knowing what we like when we go to a show, I love to see bands that are gunning for it with high energy, the audience can definitely feel what the band is feeling on stage and will always respond to that. And that’s something we have tried to emulate in our shows, at the end of the day our job isn’t just to play songs to people its to entertain and put on a damn good show for the punters.
12. Following your tour and with the upcoming spots at festivals this year, how do you prepare for live shows and overcome any nerves?
Honestly, we’ve been doing this properly since 2018 and have been musicians for years before this, there aren’t many times I get nervous these days, occasionally when there is a lot on the line or you’ve reached a milestone that you haven’t before you tend to get those butterflies in your stomach. The best remedy for that is to use that energy and channel it into your performance, as soon as you play your first chord those nerves go away and you feel at home.
13. What are you listening to right now?
Currently me and the drummer Tom are obsessed with a band called Bad Nerves, they have a phenomenal look and sound, taking influence from the punk bands back in the day, awesome songs top to bottom on their debut 2020 album, and stellar live shows to back it up.
14. Are there any bands or artists in the UK scene you think deserves a some more recognition?
I’ve been a big fan of band from Sheffield called Jetski, they blend genres like pop punk, indie and alt rock and just make such refreshing tunes, definitely on the cards to be a massive band, they are already touring with Microwave and Cant Swim who are heavy hitters in the emo scene and I wish them all the best in their careers.
15. What are some of the challenges in starting out as a musician?
Being a musician is extremely hard these days, just getting a group of musicians in the same room is extremely hard. If you manage to crack this you soon realize that being in a band is just like running a business, you have to figure out all those entrepreneurial tasks like marketing and what not and its not easy. My advice to these bands starting out is to just stick at it, we see so many bands with potential just end up giving up, to this day we stick by bands don’t fail they just give up, so stick at it you never know what might happen in the future.
16. What are you looking forward to most for your music and career in music?
For me I’m looking forward to travelling the world, visiting historic cities and venues to play our music would be the absolute dream.
17. What has been your proudest moment so far?
I think the last year for me has been collectively the proudest moment, we seem to have really caught some wind in our sails recently and there’s been countless shows and moments where I look back and think 16 year old me would not believe this.
18. What is next for The Sheratons?
We are back in the studio in August with legendary producers SugarHouse, responsible for tracks from bands such as Corella, The Feens and Voila Beach, so expect new music soon. As stated before we play our biggest headline show to date at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, get those tickets guys. And of course how can we forget festival season, we play Truck Festival, Y Not Festival and Bingley Weekender, we cannot wait.
Get tickets to see The Shertons here.
Check out ‘Mystic Pizza’ here.
Check out The Sheratons on Spotify here.
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