In the spotlight

In the spotlight – Krooked Tongue

todayMarch 3, 2023 351 15

Background
share close

In the spotlight – Krooked Tongue are a Bristol based underground rock trio comprising of Oli Rainsford (vocalist, bassist), Dan Smith (guitar, backing vocals) and Harry Pritchard (drums) that are known for their fierce and captivating live performances and catchy alterations of a modern rock soundscape. The band released their debut single in 2019 to critical acclaim, they then embarked on their first UK tour.

What dynamics do the members bring to the band?

“Well we all have our own ways of going about things, but we’re pretty in sync to be honest.“

What music inspired you guys growing up? How does that compare to what you’ve been inspired by lately?

“We’ve all had different influences growing up but as a whole, we’re definitely influenced by the modern alt rock sound. Bands like Death From Above, Highly Suspect, Royal Blood, QOTSA etc. Those guys are bands we take as a big influence for sure.”

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

“I feel like we’re pretty good at balancing melody and the heavy aspect of rock. Like we have a fairly wide range on who we can appeal to.”

Musically, do you find the confines of a three-piece restricting?

“Nah, we wouldn’t say it’s restrictive. I mean sure sometimes you wanna add something new into the set up but we’ve been doing that anyway.”

Oli: “But writing for a three-piece, I find really exciting. It’s probably actually more beneficial to the songwriting because I know exactly the style I’m writing for.”

What can you tell me about your song ‘Lupines’ that’s currently in our chart?

“Lupines is one of our favourites. There’s just an energy as it ramps up to the chorus that we love playing live.”

I always love hearing about the song writing process. What can you tell me about yours? Does it come together in rehearsals or is there a primary songwriter? Do you have any particular habits or rituals when you create music?

Dan: “Yeah, so Oli will write the song to it’s fullest beforehand and then bring it to rehearsal, and that where we’ll mess around will all the new and fun ideas.”

Are you also thinking about how songs might sound on stage when you’re writing and recording them?

“Yeah without a doubt, it’s important that you feel the vibe as if you were the person listening to that song live, with no bias.”

What’s the best thing about performing to an audience?

Harry: “Definitely the being able to feed off the energy in the crowd. When you feel it and they feel it, there’s nothing better.”

Oli: “Yeah, that connection is incredible.”

What’s your favourite song to play live and why?

“Well we all have different favourites for sure, but collectively I think either some of the new ones (secret titles, haha) or of the stuff released, we’d probably say something like ‘Vampyre’. Something in the air just changes when we go into that song. It’s a beast to play live.”

What are your touring plans this year? Any gigs you’re especially looking forward to?

“Yes, lots of exciting stuff planned but not announced yet. You’ll have to wait and see!”

What’s been the biggest ‘pinch me’ moment in your career so far?

“Ah there’s been so many to be honest. Opening for Pulled Apart by Horses, getting played on Sirius XM, getting number 1 in the Dutch indie chart, there’s been loads of crazy stuff. We feel lucky always to get the reception we do from our tunes.”

Do you have plans to release more new music soon and a full collection of new songs?

“Our second EP is out this year and the last two single ‘Velociraptor’ and ‘Lupines’ are both on there. So it’ll be exciting to get that out into the world.”

What can you tell me about your art work? Who makes it?

“So yeah, Dan makes our artwork. Oli will come up with the idea and theme to make sure it matches the song and then Dan goes away and drafts up a bunch of ideas and then we whittle it down until we get the best one. They’re all sick though.”

What’s your favourite song from the Cool Top 20 and why?

“We really liked ‘Reflect’ by Electric Palace. Reminds us of Jungle. Pretty cool!”

What song would you like to add as a bonus track and why?

“Oooh tough, there’s so much good music out right now. Gotta go with Gang of Youths, ‘the angel of 8th ave’. It’s such a great song and reminds me a lot of Arcade Fire’s second album that I just fell in love with.”

Written by: leancool20

Rate it

Previous post


0%