For November's Band of the Month we visit Manchester, home of one or two legendary bands, to introduce you to a band we think have what it takes to join that legendary status, The Words.
We here have been liking this band since their 209 EP "All The Roads" calling it "encouragingly", "invigorating" and "that is guaranteed to put a smile on even the grumpiest face". Now it seems everyone else is catching up with us, especially in Germany where they played to 40,000 people, which as you will see below, the quartet are pretty excited about still and who wouldn't be!
With their single 'Everybody's With You' released this week, their album "Truth and faith" released 14th November and several live shows up and down the country throughout November, what better time to check out our Band of the Month, The Words.
Bio
The Words are a 4 piece indie rock band based in Manchester who are developing an exciting reputation as one of the top up and coming bands in the country by combining an incredible passion for music with the ability to create 'music for the masses'.
Drawing on an enormous range of influences from David Bowie through to The Strokes, The Words have managed to create their own unique style of music that both entertains and excites.
The Words have opened the Incoming Festival at The Fly in London, supported The Stranglers at the Wyeside Music Festival, played at Sound City in Liverpool as well as playing top venues around the country including Proud Galleries, The Cavern Club and appearing many times at various Manchester Academy venues. The Words biggest gig to date was at the Stuttgarter Sternstunden festival playing in front of 40,000 fans supporting 30 Seconds to Mars and Placebo in Stuttgart city centre celebrating Mercedes-Benz 125th birthday.
The band's music has also been recognised with 'Drum for a Soul' and 'I'm not listening' being licensed for independent films, 'Caroline' being selected for Microsoft's sponsored song program to promote Windows 7 and both 'Under the Sun' and 'FAG' being featured by Mercedes-Benz. 'Under the Sun' has been recently "introduced" by Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music where he described the band as "absolutely storming".
The Words are signed to Phoenixx Records and their single 'Everybody's With You' is released on October 31st followed by their debut album "Truth & Faith" on November 14th.
The Words are
Ste Draper - Vocals & rhythm guitar
Neil Rowbotham - Lead guitar & backing vocals
Tom Jackson - Bass guitar & backing vocals
Graeme Smith - Drums
Influences
Literally too many to mention, we're influenced by everything we hear in one way or another from David Bowie & The Beatles through to band likes The Strokes and 90s brit pop bands such as Oasis and Blur.
Up and coming bands you'd recommend
There are 3 bands we've played with over the past few years who really stand out for us, By Devices (formally called Lady Rain),
Auction for the Promise Club
Fly With Vampires.
The first two are both supporting us at our album launch gig in Manchester on November 12th.
Future Plans
We have our debut album coming out on November 14th which is a huge step for us and obviously we'll be doing some tour dates to support the release. We're looking to setup some European tours at the moment, we've got a large fanbase in Germany so we'll definitely be going back there sometime soon and we have fans asking us to go to Austria and Poland as well so a European tour is definitely on the cards. We're also in the process of booking a tour of Ireland which should be happening in February next year. We plan to release a couple more singles from the album in the new year and we'll also be on the lookout for a new label to record and release our second album with.
Upcoming tour dates
November
11, O2 Academy 2, Islington
12, Factory 251, Manchester "Album launch party"
16, Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
19, Vintage Rockbar, Doncaster
December
7, Dublin Castle, Camden
If you were prime minister for a day what would you do
Let everyone walk around naked.
If you could go back to any time in history, where would you go and why?
Definitely back to Stuttgart in Germany when we supported Placebo and 30 Seconds to Mars. Literally the best few days of our lives seeing so many people enjoying what we do was incredible and the way we were treated by the crowd and everyone who organised the event was amazing and we'd love to go through all of that again. GET US THERE NOW!!
Our thanks to The Words for answering our questions and we look forward to the album coming out on the 14th. In the meantime, here are a couple of tasters of what is on the album in the shape of videos for the tracks 'FAG' and 'The Void'.