Meet Brighton based punk-rockers The Jackdaw.
Their debut single 'Disappointed' was played on BBC Radio 6 Music and gained the attention of The Jackdaw’s biggest musical influence - Isaac Holman of Slaves - who described the track as a ‘good noise’.
They dropped second single 'Tales of a Blonde Wig' on the 4th of June 2021. It has the same chaotic aggression as their first track but comes with a catchier melody.
Dan Swift (Snow Patrol) took an interest in The Jackdaw after hearing their debut single and asked to record and produce their next 4 tracks. 'Tales of a blonde wig' is the first of these 4 singles, with the other 3 to be released later in 2021.
They also began to make a name for themselves amongst the Brighton punk scene due to the chaotic and fierce nature of their live performances. This allowed them to sell out 2 headline shows at The Latest Music Bar Brighton, just before COVID happened.
We can't wait having them play our gig on the 22nd of July at The Fiddler's Elbow in Camden - tickets via Skiddle!!
Please give us a little intro about the band - How did you guys meet? Who is doing what in the band?
The bands made up of five of us; Joe (vocals), Stan and Jamie on guitars, George (bass) and Tom (Drums). We formed after me, George and Stan watched my dad’s band (Fractured) put on a gig at the Green Door Store, after thinking it looked a fair bit of fun. Jamie and Tom where good friends of ours who we knew were crafty at their trade. Everyone sort of slid into place.
Have you always been interested in music? Was there a particular song/performance that made you say “Woah! I wanna do that”?
I didn’t really like guitar music until I heard God save the Queen by the Sex Pistols before that I was mainly into reggae and hip-hop music. I thought most guitar music was just pretentious and didn’t seem like something I could do and then I heard that and I thought I really wanna do this.
Please tell us the story of how you guys ended up with Dan Swift of Snow Patrol and how rewarding is working with him?
Our Mum is good friends with Dan’s wife Clare, who played Dan our debut single ‘Disappointed’. He really liked the track and approached us asking to work together at some point in the future. It’s great working with him and he provides the finishing touches and sprinkles a bit of fairy dust on our material.
Tell me about the latest single 'Tales of a blonde wig' – What's it about? What was the process for writing and producing it? What was it inspired by?
Tales of a Blonde Wig delves into a common issue I had with our guitarist after a night out. That being said I would have to explain everything that had happened because he had blacked out. So the whole song is basically me reciting a night to him as we downing Beroca in the morning. It was one of those songs where everything seemed to come together within one rehearsal and you all look at each other with a grin of disbelief. It took as a while to actually record things because of lockdowns but when we did we had Dan Swift to steer it all in the right direction.
Give us one fact each that no one knows about you.
Tom - Before I broke it, I clocked 8 million hits on my first electric drum kit in its 7 year life.
Stan - until very recently thought potato wedges were called potato wedgies.
George - only eats beige foods. Jamie - designs all of his own tattoos.
Joe - is grumpy and adores anime.
What do you do outside of music? / Do you have any hobbies that you turn to to rejuvenate your creativity?
Outside of music we are all students. Me personally I watch live clips of my heroes for inspiration. Old reading clips are usually good quality as it’s BBC footage.
What do you love about the Brighton music scene and which artists/bands should we look out for?
Brighton’s music scene is great because it is so diverse and you could easily find a gig worth going to for any genre imaginable. “Shaggy, the second” is an upcoming hip hop artist and he is definitely one to watch. We are playing a show with him on 10th August.
Little insider tip – best thing to do in Brighton?
The best thing to do in Brighton is to go to one of The Jackdaw’s gigs without a doubt. Other than that go shopping in the North Laine for some overpriced vintage goodies.