Photo Credit: Luke Thompson
Manchester meets Yorkshire four piece The Sherlocks have fast become one of the UK’s modern faces of British rock ‘n’ roll and indie music. Comprised of members Kiaran Crook on vocals, drummer Brandon Crook, new bass player Trent Jackson and new guitarist Alex Proctor; the dynamic within The Sherlocks are a band bonded half by blood and all by friendship and a good ear for what makes a banger of an indie rock tune. Having toured relentlessly from small sweaty hometown pubs/clubs to selling out venues across major worldwide territories such as UK, US and Europe, it seems The Sherlocks are set to keep their already passionately loyal fanbase evolving and the bands success rolling. With a third full length soon to be expected, following on the heels of breakthrough debut record Live For The Moment and stellar second studio album Under Your Sky, we spoke to The Sherlocks before their special homecoming festival slot at Tramlines Festival all about the proud Yorkshire outfits soaring new single Falling, where the third full-length will sit in The Sherlocks’ discography and that mega Sheffield Wednesday Football Club kit launch.
So you guys are playing Tramlines later on. Of course, this will be a hometown festival show for you guys, do they always feel a little bit more special in comparison to say touring around the rest of the usual suspects in the UK?
Kiaran: Definitely, it feels like a homecoming show. We haven’t played a gig in 16 months, so it feels like an added bonus that the first gig back is in Sheffield which is very close to where me and Brandon are from, as we literally live 15 miles from here. It feels special today.
I think this set today will almost feel like the start of a new era, of course with new music receiving its live debut for the very first time and with line-up changes within the band happening in the past 16 months also. Does this performance today feel that way for you guys too, like this is a chance to wipe the slate clean from a turbulent time and start off this new era with a fresh pair of eyes so to speak?
K: It definitely feels like a new era for this band. For me though, it’s just another gig, but we need to see how these new two (Trent and Alex) fare today.
Speaking of new music, single Falling has been officially out for a little while now. It’s such a soaring tune, really massively anthemic and has this air of euphoria to it. However, on the other hand, the lyrics look at uncertainty from various different angles. How did this tune come about, especially in terms of that contrast between the sound and the story?
K: It came about after we came off tour in March last year, obviously we went into lockdown and wrote it not too long after that happened around April time. The first thing you hear on Falling is the sonic introduction and from there on the song started to unravel pretty quickly to be fair. We wrote it in lockdown and I suppose a bit of the song is about that time, but to me it’s an angry song I think, as the music always sounded like it had a bit of an attitude to it and I knew the lyrics had to match that same feeling. We just came off tour at the time and we only had half a band left, so it just felt like we had a lot of work to do and I think we were just feeling a bit angry around the same time this song came about.
Shortly after The Sherlocks released new song Falling, you guys dropped the accompanying music video to support the track too. Of course, the visual was shot in and around numerous infamous locations of Sheffield, from The Foundry to many other places. Do you have any particular memories and experiences tied to the places that make up the scenes in the music video?
Brandon: The performance element to the music video was recorded at The Foundry, which is a venue we have performed at and sold out a couple of times. We also went to The Leadmill, which everyone was commenting on, when they realised that in the music video.
K: We also shot some scenes in the Indie-go Bar too. It was nice to just shoot it all in Sheffield, as it’s a close to home location for us.
Staying along the lines of Falling, you dropped an alternative version to the song just a few days ago. The alternative version is fairly different to the original, as it’s a super sleek rendition but also retains that same anger and grit as heard in the original. What was the decision behind wanting to release an alternative version to Falling, did you almost want to showcase a second version of what maybe the original could have been?
K: Well firstly, we just had this alternative version of Falling in the locker and secondly, we just wanted to do something different. We never really done nought like that, so seeing as we are onto our third album now, we thought it was about time we did something like this. Also, the tune lent itself into trying to take it in a different direction, so we just went down for a couple of days to record it with a person called Gavin who actually recorded The Sherlocks’ first album. We also wanted to let Gavin have a little bit of fun with the track, as well as ourselves and it actually ended up sounding a bit psychedelic.
Of course, Falling is set to feature on The Sherlocks’ upcoming third album. You guys can’t reveal too many details about the record, but where is this third effort going to sit sonically and lyrically amongst the other two studio albums? Is it going to push The Sherlocks’ boundaries overall?
K: I definitely think so. I think the whole band feels that way because this third record eclipses everything we have done before and it showcases everything we love about music, from good guitar sounds to good choruses, I feel like we have achieved that on this record. I don’t think anybody is too bothered about the lyrics, but the music stands up for itself, it’s got big anthemic tunes in it. You could also say that Falling is a bit like a blueprint for this album, it’s just going to be more of the same. Bangers.
Outside of music, The Sherlocks were recently a part of the kit launch for Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. Bands teaming up with their local football clubs to launch the new season’s kits is definitely something that is becoming a prominent part of music now, which is a great avenue for both bands and clubs to tap into. For you guys being fairly close to Sheffield, how did this whole collaboration come about, of course it’s the perfect crossover for The Sherlocks and Sheffield Wednesday.
B: It’s a long story this, but I will try to keep it short. I got an Instagram message from someone who is from our local area asking if I am alright to pass on your band to the team over at Sheffield Wednesday and of course we said yes, because they wanted to launch the new kit and use our new tune Falling. It worked really well, because Falling has been all over the Euro’s, so we were like let’s do it. We shot the launch kit video on Thursday and it went live on Friday, so it was a really quick turnaround but we are absolutely buzzing, because the reaction has been incredible to be honest. It’s still blowing up now.
Lastly, just looking ahead to future festivals, as live music is starting to return and The Sherlocks have said in interviews previously that by the time the band reaches their second or third record, you would feel ready to headline a festival. Now approaching this third album cycle, as a band do you now feel even more determined to try and achieve this, seeing as you guys are on one of your highest ever festival slots two away from top at Tramlines today, this festival almost feels like the perfect future headliner for The Sherlocks?
K: We would love for that to happen, but it all depends if they would have us. For us, the main job is to just keep writing good songs and not lose track of what a good song is and just start churning out crap. We just want to keep writing bangers and keep building our fanbase for now.
B: We are two slots away from the top at Tramlines now, but we have only got two albums out at the moment, but wait until we get a few more out and we will be ready. Even writing the setlist for the slot we have got today, most of the tunes are singles. So far, you have only heard one single from this third album, but once we get another couple out that will fill that setlist up. It will be good to aspire to be a band like Stereophonics, where they are playing like 24 songs in a setlist and they are all singles and it’s just like how have they written all of these tunes? We just want to keep writing good songs like Kiaran just said and one day we could quite easily get there.
