Sixth Form Students, Jack Heath, Joel Gilbourne, Dan Brennan & Ethan Lambert are creating Sheffield indie rock with a hook and a twist by the name Oddity Road. Having already released one EP and supported many well known acts on tour, they are certainly getting their name out there. We spoke with the band to get a better insight into what actually is, Oddity Road?
Tell us about your aims when creating music, and where does that aim stem from?
We hope to write good live songs and songs that connect with people. It sounds really obvious I guess, but we like to enjoy ourselves and we hope that people who listen to us want to join in, we want our songs to encourage a singalong or have a beat that makes you bounce!
What was the catalyst for picking up instruments and wanting to start a band?
We’ve all played instruments from a very young age and been in lots of bands as we’ve gone through school. Three of us have known each other since we were 10 and we’ve always played around making music. We met Dan when we all started at the same sixth form last year and we all quickly gravitated towards each other as friends. Starting Oddity Road really stems from that initial friendship and the love of playing music, so we’re doing something we love with people we love.
We’re you very influential to music when growing up or did you establish your own musical preferences?
We’ve all got parents and family with pretty wide musical tastes and we’ve been indoctrinated with everything from Led Zeppelin to the Stone Roses and The Fall to The Flaming Lips. But we’ve also been lucky enough to live on top of 2 great musical cities in Sheffield and Manchester and we’ve been able to regularly see great bands, big and small over the years.
What’s the music scene like in Sheffield at the moment? Any band recommendations?
The music scene in Sheffield is great with so many bands out there and good venues to play, most people are really supportive and encouraging and help each other learn the ropes. If we had to name one band we’d recommend listening to Kong – a great sound and a great set of lads who have helped us out a lot this past year!
We’re also loving The Sherlocks and genuinely so excited to be playing with them during their UK tour in February and March!
You’ve recently supported the likes of Hooton Tennis Club, October Drift and All Tvvins. Tell us about those performances?
These were all great gigs and great opportunities for us to play with different bands in great venues and to a variety of audiences. Supporting All Tvvins was a highlight though cos we are big fans!
What and who influences you musically?
As we said earlier we’ve grown up hearing a lot of different music and we like to think this has helped us. We’ve used all this and more recent influences such as Catfish and the Bottlemen, Peace and The Sherlocks and tried to throw it all into a pot and see what comes out!
Oddity Road Performing – Lanty Zhang Studio
Describe your song-writing process?
Writing for us is usually very straight forward. We always start a song on an acoustic guitar playing around with ideas and then bring other instruments into play to start to flesh it out. We all play a role but it’s very fluid
What was it like recording your debut EP, ‘Handshake’?
Recording ‘Handshake’ was exciting as not only was it our debut EP but the fact we were working with Alan Smyth of 2fly studios – who worked with the Arctic Monkeys and so many other Sheffield bands. We didn’t have much of a budget and we would like to have spent much more time on it, there is so much more we could have done with the songs, but it has helped to get us out there and people could hear what we were trying to do.
Although you are in a band, do you have any other commitments in-between live shows?
We’ve got to finish our A levels in the summer!
How would you like people to respond to your music? Do you wish to connect emotionally with the audience or is it just about having a party?
We hope we have songs that will connect emotionally, a line in one of our songs may mean something to one person and something completely different to someone else. But we love to party and that’s a big thing for us, we want our gigs to be a good night out!
Do you ever see your sound changing from the type of indie you write?
We’ve grown up as musicians playing in all sorts of bands, jazz bands and I think we’ve even done the odd orchestra, so we’d like to think we could play around with our sound and see where we can take it. But don’t expect a jazz version of ‘Handshake’ anytime soon though!
Do you ever see Oddity Road expanding with more members?
No way in. No way out!
