Label Music is celebrating student talent by catching up with Loughborough student Lewis Wood to ask him about his band ‘The Quickfires’. The indie-rock group will also be played on LCR’s Label Music Show on Saturday from 5-6pm.
When and how did the band get together?
The three of us have been friends for a long time, and jammed together before. I think it was roughly October-November 2012, we were playing gigs with different bands when we thought maybe we should play together, and after trying it a couple times we realised this could actually work.
Best gig you’ve played at?
Difficult question – over the summer of 2013 alone we probably played at least twenty gigs. A particular highlight for me would be playing at Nambucca in Islington – a venue where I saw my idol Frank Turner three years ago. In a similar fashion, Chinnerys in Southend was pretty special, as it's a stage that acts such as Arctic Monkeys, Pearl Jam and Babyshambles have graced, so to even play where they've been was a nice feeling.
What are your musical influences and is there any band that you particularly admire?
Having been compared to them on a few occasions, I think Arctic Monkeys would probably be the one influence that unites us as a band. We're pretty friendly indie-rock, so there's clearly other bands that we admire, such as The Wombats, Biffy Clyro, White Stripes and Black Keys.
What are you hoping will happen to the band in the future, any particular ambitions?
Keep gigging and hope that someone notices it. We've already got an EP out, so it'd be nice to maybe record a few more tracks and keep being playing on radio stations in the hope that eventually someone in the business will have a listen and maybe something will come of that.
Is it difficult trying to keep up with the band whilst being a student?
Extremely difficult. Obviously I'm in Loughborough, the lead singer/guitarist is doing a foundation art course in Southend, and the bassist is on a gap year and lives half the time in Wales. But every time we're back, we make a point of trying to practice and sort a few gigs out.
Where can Label readers hear more about ‘The Quickfires’?
Our facebook page is www.facebook.com/thequickfires, where most information and links can be found. We can also be found at www.youtube.com/thequickfires and www.twitter.com/thequickfires. A few months ago we also brought out an EP called 'Surprise, Surprise', which can be listened to and downloaded at www.thequickfires.bandcamp.comas well as www.soundcloud.com/theq-q-q-quickfires.
