Crying Lions Interview

Every band we listen to has started off from somewhere small. Practicing in their room, a school music class or even (however cliché) in a basement or garage. I even remember going to see a band in the underground of a comic store one summer! And these initial places in a bands life time is where our boys from the Crying Lions have come from, but 2016 is brining bringing bigger gigs and bigger crowds and even an amazing reaction to their EP release Rocket Science.

With an amazing year ahead of them I wanted to get an interview with the lead singer Ollie to find out more about the band and whether they intend to go further than what they have already achieved.

Tell me how the Crying Lions started?

Myself (ollie), joe and Chris went to sixth form together a few years ago now and kept in touch. It was only at the end of our first year at Uni that me and joe decided to start a band, and not until early 2015 that we managed to pull together the members that we have today and start writing properly. As for Michael our bassist, he was a recommendation from a mutual friend of ours.

And from that, what was the moment you realised that you wanted to take the band further than just a hobby?

I think from the start we never really planned on doing anything by halves. The line between hobby and something more serious is pretty blurred I suppose and not something we really think about. Our main concern is creating the best material we can and seeing where that takes us, as it always has been.

What aims did you all have for the band when it first began?

As for immediate short term goals, we aimed to write some tracks that would be worthy of playing at gigs in the local scene around Newcastle. That was great for us, because we had all attended these as a punter throughout the years.

With you all being so young, do you see yourself still growing as a band? In regards to music development and just the relationship the band has?

We'll probably kill each other by 22 if that's what you mean... Hahah but in terms of our music I don't think there'll ever be a time when we aren't growing as a band, developing our sound and trying to push the boundaries on what we are capable of. There's just so much, it's exciting and daunting at the same time, we never want to stagnate. We're already well underway planning our next release and will be trying our some new material at the launch show on the 4th.

So, your debuting the new EP the 4th right? What were your feelings when that was all confirmed?

Pride! The amount of time we spent in the opening stages of the band where there was a sort of revolving door in terms of members and the whole project seemed dead we wouldn't have dreamed of getting this far. We're delighted with the EP and hungry to write more.

How did it feel opening for the Hooton Tennis Club?

That was a great gig and we had a fantastic time. I hadn't heard much (any) of their stuff before we were booked to support but played it quite regularly in the days leading up to the gig. Both HTC and The Parrots are lovely lads and gave us some great advice.

How did you all feel when you listened to your EP for the first time?

As with when we announced the release date the overwhelming feeling was pride. We heard the unmixed versions on the last day of recording and all had a beer in the studio to celebrate.

Tell me about the song writing process? Does it differ depending on the song or is it pretty similar every time?

It definitely differs in some respects, Joe is fantastic at coming up with raw ideas and then we try and flesh them out into a song. Often we'll go into a song with a rough idea of what we want to achieve and that differs constantly as we want to give our set depth. Subsequently we sometimes approach a song from a drumming perspective, or bass, or whatever. Keep it fresh.

For people who haven’t heard your music, how would you describe it to them?

Energetic, catchy, big-sounding indie tunes, the type everybody has grown up with, knows the words to and can stick on at any time.

In love with the name of the band but tell me how you all came up with it?

I can honestly say coming up with a band name is one of the most torturous, frustrating and mind numbing processes we've had to endure. There are not enough words in the world. We ended up pulling it from the hieroglyphic for lion, then messing around with it until it's in its current form.

Excluding the 4th, any more exciting dates you want to tell our readers about?

Couple of things very exciting things in the pipeline but no concrete days just yet. Keep an eye on the Facebook page and we'll be announcing them as they're sorted. We'll keep doing our shit, basically!

#INTERVIEW #CryingLions