Words by Maddy Howell
Having made a triumphant arrival to the alternative rock scene with their first two EPs, Leeds quintet Fizzy Blood have proved an unstoppable force since their inception. With their rollicking rhythms and singalong choruses securing them spots on tour with the likes of Spring King and While She Sleeps, the five-piece blur all notions of genre, with their flexibility opening up a world of opportunity.
Burn After Writing: For those who are unfamiliar with Fizzy Blood, who would you note as some of your biggest musical influences?
Jake Greenway: This sort of thing changes all the time with us, but at the minute we’re into The Lemon Twigs, the new Arctic Monkeys album and I’ve been listening to a lot of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
BAW: Your band name spawns from the name of a Jamie Lenman track, someone who you’ve cited as a big influence in terms of songwriting. Have you had a chance to chat with Jamie about your namesake yet?
JG: Sadly we haven’t yet! We actually played Lenmania back in November and were hoping we’d bump into him, instead we had to get back in the van and do that sweet long haul to Leeds.
BAW: You recently released a music video for your latest single, Pink Magic. Could you tell us a little about the track itself and the inspiration behind the accompanying video?
JG: Pink Magic is probably the easiest song we’ve ever written. It kind of just fell into our laps when we were messing around with a Korg, we got a bit of a trance-like groove going and just decided to see how far we could take that. The video idea came together when we were in the studio recording the song, we wanted to do something that was really strong aesthetically and let the music speak for itself, from there the idea snowballed and things were added along the way.
BAW: Following on from this track, you’ve also recently announced that your third EP will be released in September. What can you tell us about the concepts behind this release?
JG: With the latest EP we were really just striving to experiment with our sound and try new things, go to deeper waters that we hadn’t explored yet. I wouldn’t say there was an exact concept but the lyrical themes and melodies tie the music together in a way that it can be presented as an EP.
BAW: You have stated that you’re happy to present these first three EP releases as a trilogy but that wasn’t actually the plan from the start. Did you have a different route planned for your music and why has the reality strayed from that?
JG: For a while, we thought we would release one EP and then go straight onto an album. We quickly realised this wasn’t going to work for us due to time constraints and the cost of making and releasing a record which we were really naïve to at the time. That’s when we decided we wanted to record three EP’s and take our time to put our debut out, after all, you can only release your first album once, so why rush it?
BAW: To accompany this new EP release, you have also announced two more headline shows, a hometown date in Leeds and one at London’s Boston Music Room. Throughout your musical career, have you noticed much difference between your Northern and Southern crowds?
JG: At the beginning most definitely, we didn’t like playing in London for the first few years as a band because it was always us and about three dudes who were too skint to buy our merch. However, as we started to release more music and get on bigger and better tours we’ve built up a solid following down South and now love playing down that end of the country!
BAW: You also have a series of upcoming festival dates booked in for this summer, including Bestival and Boardmasters. How are you planning to win over the weekend crowds during your sets?
JG: To be honest we just stick to what we know! We don’t change a lot depending on the sort of show we’re playing, sometimes depending on demographic we’ll swap a few songs out here and there but that’s happening less and less. We’re there to have a good time, as are the people who will hopefully come check us out, so we try not to think into it too much.
BAW: Coming from Leeds, a city with a strong musical backbone and a thriving underground rock scene, do you feel like your location has helped you in getting to where you are now?
JG: It’s definitely made it fun, local shows in Leeds are always class, people just love coming out to watch bands and there’s not really any bad venues anymore. All hail Nathan Clark.
BAW: Having pushed your own way through the underground scene, who are some bands that you’ve been listening to recently who deserve a shoutout?
JG: Go check out Celestial Green, Forever Cult, Household Dogs & Sea Legs.
BAW: Finally, what are Fizzy Blood planning for the remainder of 2018?
JG: We’ll be writing for our next release along with doing our headline shows in September and releasing the 'Pink Magic' EP! Apart from that, it's all hush-hush!
Watch the video for Fizzy Blood's latest single, Pink Magic, below.
Catch Fizzy Blood live at the following dates.
July
27 Vintage Bar Doncaster (Headline / Free show)
28 Y Not Festival
August
3 Bestival
12 Boardmasters
September
19 Brudenell Games Room Leeds (Headline) [tickets]
21 Boston Music Room London (Headline) [tickets]