“For me Brighton is a really vibrant place,” starts Black Peaks frontman Will Gardner. “There was a dip that finished about three years ago, for five years it was pretty rubbish. At the heart of the depression, it was tough. It’s been an amazing place though and there’s endless opportunity to meet older musicians who ‘ll teach you. It’s a great music town, no doubt about that,” he summarises.
“There’s been an amazing buzz here,” Joe Gosney continues. “There are some great bands coming out of Brighton. It’s funny, I went to watch Royal Blood down at Sticky Mikes and there were about 15 people there. I didn’t hear anything of them for the next few months but then all of a sudden, they’re one of the biggest bands in the country. That’s really inspiring.”
“They put the eye of Sauron back on Brighton in a big way,” adds Will. “It’s given us the chance to out there a bit more.”
“They’ve been great in terms of opening peoples ears to heavier music,” continues Joe. “There are a few bands that have really stood out and are getting that primetime airplay. Holy shit, you would have never got that a few years ago and it’s almost this massive resurgence, which could have really helped us.”
“Marmozets, Royal Blood, Mastodon are just opening all these doors,” explains Liam Kearley. “It’s rad. Fingers crossed people like our music.”
Reeling off the likes of Architects, Blood Red Shoes, Demob Happy, Tiger Cub and the Physics House Band, Joe suggests that “Competition is so high now, when you’re starting out in Brighton, you need to bring your music to a certain level before a promoter will put you on. Regardless of ticket sales, the music has got to be great. You can go and watch a gig any night of the week and guarantee you’ll see something cool.”
“We’ve been super lucky to get every festival we wanted this summer with Reading and Leeds culminating it at the end,” starts Will. ” But one thing we really want to do is hit the states in the next 12 months,” he admits “Whether we can or not is a different matter, but we want to do that. I think we would go down really well with our style because it’s a little darker and we can be put on loads of different bills. I think we could do really well out there but you don’t know until you try. We spend most of our lives in the back of a transit van at the moment and we love every moment of it,” he finishes. “We have the best time together on stage, playing music,” says Liam.
“We’re really excited,” Joe concludes. We just want to go everywhere and to play to as many people as possible, that is our number one aim.”
