First and foremost, favourite bands and artists do not necessarily have a huge bearing on the band’s songwriting process. I think it’s fairly safe to say that as a rule we are mostly fans of punk and the post punk scene. You’ll definitely hear that in our songs. The Clash, The Jam, The Cramps along with old blues individuals.

 

 

Some of our song structure comes from the 12-bar blues of old and indeed this was carried on to some extent by The Meteors and The Cramps albeit punking it up and creating the genre of psychobilly. Personally, I find the bog standard 12 bars a little bit old fashioned and predictable. It does have a place in our set but we generally find it more acceptable to change the format slightly with perhaps a slow start/finish, a change to the turnaround or a longer or shorter solo break. We sometimes drop a few bars but the bite and drive of an Eddie Cochran or Poison Ivy style riff does wonders for the soul and ears!

 

Because the band is a three piece with Mark doing vocals and guitar often the bass and drums are left to drive the verses. It seems to work well on some songs. We play our fair share of instrumentals in our set list. The influences of these tracks are drawn from the surf music period coming from the States, you can’t help but move to this genre of music. 

What comes first the lyrics or the tune? In all honesty it’s 50/50. Mark has a notebook of lyrics and is constantly scribbling songs down to be called upon. Every now and again it just so happens that something will fit a guitar riff just right! On occasion there’s no guitar to be heard, just drums and an old blues holler for vocals. In this day and age? Why not? What goes around comes around.