River Knight

How did you all meet?

Mark: Do you wanna take this one?

Darren: OK bro. A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away, no no no haha, but it was a while ago.

Mark: Fuck me, yes it was. We actually spoke about this at rehearsal last night.

Darren: Yeah, we’re looking at over 20 years ago. I was in a band called Happy As Larry and Mark was rehearsing in the same building in a band called This Black Static. Well, HAL were rehearsing one night and in came Mark and offered his services as a singer.

Mark: Yeah, I’d been listening and I couldn’t hear whoever was singing for them at the time. Turned out it was the lead guitarist but he was happy for me to step in.

Darren: And after a while Mark nabbed me to play rhythm guitar in TBS, so we were both in both bands.

Mark: And the rest as they say, is history.

Who were your musical influences growing up?

Mark: My first albums were One Step Beyond by Madness and Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants, but that was when I was really young. It was around 12 where I discovered heavy metal and it was all I listened to for years. Everything had to have distorted guitars and the blokes had to have long hair just like me hahaha.

Darren: I grew up listening to my dad’s old Beatles albums. I constantly had them on, and he had a guitar that he never played so I picked it up and taught myself. Although I felt more comfortable playing it left-handed, even though I’m right-handed, so I restrung it to suit.

What made you want to be in a band?

Darren: Playing music is the best thing ever, and playing it with other people is brilliant. And there’s always the sex and drugs that go with it hahaha. Or you think that’s what goes with it when you’re a kid.

Mark: Yeah, singing in a band when you’re 18 definitely helps with that hahaha

What has been your best gig?

Darren: We did a charity gig in a pub in what used to be my local village when my wife was still here. She passed away through cancer and that’s what the gig was.

Mark: Was a cracking gig. The pub was filled to the rafters, people were singing along at the top of their voices, dancing, and we raised a fair bit for Cancer Research UK.

Can you tell us a bit about your music?

Mark: Well, funny you should mention it, our latest single is out now and it’s called Unsprung. It’s a nice tune with some great orchestration. We recorded it with a full band feel as opposed to our intimate live sound.

Darren: And our album, Grow, has been out a while now. 11 tracks for your listening pleasure, but really it should have been 10 songs with a bonus hidden track. Unfortunately hiding a track on a digital release is not easy hahaha.

Mark: Don’t forget our original single, Heaven’s Door, which if anyone purchases from Bandcamp, we donate that money to Cancer Research UK.

Describe your music in 3 words.

​Mark: Acoustic, Relatable, Cool

​Darren: Emotional, Enjoyable and Epic

What makes your band stand out from others?

Darren: I don’t know that we do? Does anyone really stand out from the others? We’ve spoken about this in practice and our harmonies do kind of make us different to the other bands playing.

Mark: Our album is a journey and our new song is a continuation of that journey. The album should be listened to as a whole. There was thought that went into the run order and to be honest, even though it’s a cliche, I genuinely don’t think we sound like anyone else.

What are your plans for the rest of 2022?

Mark: The usual things that every other band is doing… rehearsing, writing, recording and gigging.

Darren: London in March, festivals in April and August. We have some new songs on the go and like Mark said we’ll hopefully get in the studio to get them down.

If your band had to be remembered for one thing apart from your music what would you want it to be?

Darren: Apart from the music? Um…

Mark: That the band was made up of two long term best friends who were generally nice guys.

Darren: Yeah, that’ll do but ideally we’d like the band to be remembered for the music.

Any gigs coming up?

Mark: As Darren mentioned, we are returning to London in March. Can’t give the full details just yet, but if anyone is interested please follow us on any or all of the socials.

Darren: The follows and likes and shares are always appreciated.

Mark: Well, thanks for having us, it’s been a blast.

Darren: Yeah, thanks for chatting, I’ve enjoyed it.

By Siân Parker 

Abby Simone

Singer-songwriter Abby Simone’s debut single ‘Same Sunrise’ set the Singaporean artist out for discovery, landing on a globe-trotting selection of New Music Friday playlists, and picking up an array of UK tastemaker tips. The second stage of her introduction to the world now continues as she shares the follow-up single ‘Walking Away’.

Darlin

How did you all meet?

“Dan forced us together haha! But seriously, we’ve all kinda know of/each other since back to id say, 2007? Dan and I have wanted to make music together since we met and he finally put out a post on facebook, to test the waters and see if anyone wanted to get on board. We kinda knew what we wanted to go for but never expected there to be six of us! Rob, who Dan knew from Maven and Chasing Cadence reached out and we all hit it off straight away. We then met Joe, who was living with Rob at the time and convinced to hop on too…after a lot of persuading and hobknobs. Dave, who I always knew as an awesome drummer and all round good guy from back in the day, came on after about of year as Dan, Rob and I were writing material. Si and Dan had been in The Younger about 8 years proper and let’s face it, are best mates, so it was right to finish the last piece of the puzzle by bringing him onboard. The rest is history”.

Echoseven

How did you all meet?

Allon: “I met Justin first and from there. I was introduced to Stef and the rest is history as they say lol. Luke answered an ad we had up at a local music store and I’ve know Marcus for years”.

Heathen Hearts

We are Heathen Hearts, rather new 5-piece metal / hardcore act from Finland. Antti – Vocals

Jere – Guitars / Backing vocals

Lauri – Guitars / Backing vocals

Juhana – Bass

Ville – Drums We were only formed last fall 2021, but all of us have played in various bands throughout our teens and adult life. So far we have released one digital EP accompanied with two music videos.

CKRAFT

How did you all meet?

Charles (CKRAFT’s bandleader): Hi there, thanks for having us today! I met most of these lovely people in Paris’ national conservatory (CNSM) where we were studying at the same time, except William our drummer who was at Berklee. I had met him earlier in my formative years, in a conservatoire in Metz (eastern France) and, already back then, he struck me as someone who could just play anything. Combining him with my Conservatoire friends created the magic that I was looking for to execute this music!

Pressure

We are Pressure from Sweden. We are doing what we call Story Metal, it’s kind of a subgenre of Heavy metal but we found out that we didn’t really fit in anywhere so we actually invented our own genre and style.

Crybabyamy

20-year-old newcomer Crybabyamy aims to normalise every kind of emotion through her pop-based music. She is writing, producing and singing her way to removing the shame that comes with being somebody who spontaneously bursts into tears at the worst of times – and we’ve all been there. Mixing influences such as SHY Martin, PVRIS, Gracey, Adele and Julia Michaels, her raw, emotive style will speak to fans of Holly Humberstone, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo.

Begonia

Begonia became established as one of Canada’s biggest breaking artists with her 2019 debut album ‘Fear’, which was nominated for a JUNO Award for Adult Alternative Album Of The Year and was longlisted for The Polaris Music Prize. Now Begonia – real name Alexa Dirks – introduces herself to UK audiences with her new single ‘Right Here’, which previews the February 24th release of her second album ‘Powder Blue’.