Leeds rockers Weirds are definitely dedicated to the art of the axe, having been jamming away together since their mid-teens.
Drawn to the edgier side of psych, they temper their primal rock ‘n’ roll instincts with something stranger and darker, like The Melvins wigging out with Hookworms.
Fresh from their UK tour with surf/doom trio The Wytches, they’re playing a homecoming gig at Live At Leeds Festival (tomorrow) before heading off to The Great Escape and their own headline tour in May and June.
With debut album Swarmculture due on 26 May via Alcopop! Records, there’s plenty keeping them busy this year. We grab 30 seconds with them to find out more…
We first started making music because…
We were bored at school. We used to practice religiously (albeit awfully) in our school's practice rooms at lunchtimes. I guess we wanted to be like all of our favourite bands back then.
We have been making music since…
We were 15 years old. But even earlier than that, we've always been fascinated by music and the idea of recording sound. I remember in my dad's car as a child - the only two cassettes we would listen to were Sounds of the Seventies and The Beatles. I played them so much that the tapes wore out and they started to sound ghoulish and distorted - that hypnotised me.
Our music is…
Dark, heavy, psychedelic, intense, honest.
You'll like our music if you listen to...
You'll like our music if you listen to artists like Foals, Suuns, Slowdive, Nirvana, The Black Angels.
Our favourite venue is…
Our favourite venue is the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. We're probably slightly biased being from Leeds, but it's a joy to play there, and just to hang out. It attracts such a wide range of people and puts on bands from all over the world. They've just announced that they're expanding and building another live room too. If you ask any band that has toured the UK, the majority will namecheck Brudenell as a highlight for them.
Music is important because…
Music is the voice that everyone has inside that wants to get out. It unifies people, brings comfort, solace, pain, joy, anger, whatever it is- it draws out all that stuff inside that really communicates. It's primal and essential. It's the best thing on the planet.
Our biggest inspiration is…
Our biggest inspirations are probably artists that tread the line between weirdness and accessibility. We grew up listening to everything from intricate, technical math rock, shoegaze, nineties grunge, 2000-onwards era indie, pop, all sorts. Every song we love always has a great rhythm and a pop sensibility/melody. It’s something we try to achieve in our own sound.
Our dream collaboration would be…
Our dream collab would be with Toploader for a psychedelic version of Dancing in the Moonlight.
To try us out, listen to our song…
Listen to our song Phantom. It's our newest single and is almost a microcosmic snapshot of what we do. It's dancey but also heavy, with a deserty guitar riff and dreamy synths. It's also one of the shortest songs we've written.
If we weren’t making music we’d be…
If we weren’t making music we’d be completely and utterly lost. We've been together through thick and thin for over a quarter of our lives, so maybe we'd be doing something else together that involves lots of travelling up and down the M1. Traffic police maybe?
In 10 years’ time we want to be…
Still playing hopefully! If we haven't got sick of each other by then. We've always admired bands that stick it out through everything, it takes a lot of commitment, hard work and effort.
https://www.facebook.com/weirdsband
https://soundcloud.com/weirds
Drawn to the edgier side of psych, they temper their primal rock ‘n’ roll instincts with something stranger and darker, like The Melvins wigging out with Hookworms.
Fresh from their UK tour with surf/doom trio The Wytches, they’re playing a homecoming gig at Live At Leeds Festival (tomorrow) before heading off to The Great Escape and their own headline tour in May and June.
With debut album Swarmculture due on 26 May via Alcopop! Records, there’s plenty keeping them busy this year. We grab 30 seconds with them to find out more…
We first started making music because…
We were bored at school. We used to practice religiously (albeit awfully) in our school's practice rooms at lunchtimes. I guess we wanted to be like all of our favourite bands back then.
We have been making music since…
We were 15 years old. But even earlier than that, we've always been fascinated by music and the idea of recording sound. I remember in my dad's car as a child - the only two cassettes we would listen to were Sounds of the Seventies and The Beatles. I played them so much that the tapes wore out and they started to sound ghoulish and distorted - that hypnotised me.
Our music is…
Dark, heavy, psychedelic, intense, honest.
You'll like our music if you listen to...
You'll like our music if you listen to artists like Foals, Suuns, Slowdive, Nirvana, The Black Angels.
Our favourite venue is…
Our favourite venue is the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. We're probably slightly biased being from Leeds, but it's a joy to play there, and just to hang out. It attracts such a wide range of people and puts on bands from all over the world. They've just announced that they're expanding and building another live room too. If you ask any band that has toured the UK, the majority will namecheck Brudenell as a highlight for them.
Music is important because…
Music is the voice that everyone has inside that wants to get out. It unifies people, brings comfort, solace, pain, joy, anger, whatever it is- it draws out all that stuff inside that really communicates. It's primal and essential. It's the best thing on the planet.
Our biggest inspiration is…
Our biggest inspirations are probably artists that tread the line between weirdness and accessibility. We grew up listening to everything from intricate, technical math rock, shoegaze, nineties grunge, 2000-onwards era indie, pop, all sorts. Every song we love always has a great rhythm and a pop sensibility/melody. It’s something we try to achieve in our own sound.
Our dream collaboration would be…
Our dream collab would be with Toploader for a psychedelic version of Dancing in the Moonlight.
To try us out, listen to our song…
Listen to our song Phantom. It's our newest single and is almost a microcosmic snapshot of what we do. It's dancey but also heavy, with a deserty guitar riff and dreamy synths. It's also one of the shortest songs we've written.
If we weren’t making music we’d be…
If we weren’t making music we’d be completely and utterly lost. We've been together through thick and thin for over a quarter of our lives, so maybe we'd be doing something else together that involves lots of travelling up and down the M1. Traffic police maybe?
In 10 years’ time we want to be…
Still playing hopefully! If we haven't got sick of each other by then. We've always admired bands that stick it out through everything, it takes a lot of commitment, hard work and effort.
https://www.facebook.com/weirdsband
https://soundcloud.com/weirds