Washington are a Brighton based Alternative Rock band consisting of vocalist Liam Floyd, guitarists Andrew Cheeseman and Tayte Ross, bassist James Westerman and drummer Craig MacMillan. The band released their debut single ‘Wake Me’ earlier this month and are now getting ready to take over Brighton with their distortion based sound and strong vocal line up.
Here, guitarist Andrew Cheeseman talks about their latest release, the band’s inspirations and the Brighton live music scene.
How did you guys start?
Me and another guitarist at the time were looking to form a band, so we advertised for other members online and Craig was the drummer that got back to us on the back of that. We went through a few line-up changes since then before we got to where we’re at now. Liam responded to another post we made after our original vocalist left, Tayte was in a few of my classes and James and I live together so it was just really convenient.
Your debut single ‘Wake Me’ came out on the 24th of March. How was it to release your first single as a band and how has the response been so far?
It’s really surreal having something that we wrote out into the world. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re all very proud to have something to show for our work.
Can we expect more music online soon, a debut EP maybe?
Yes, very soon! We have our self-titled EP coming out April 20th!
Why did you choose the name ‘Washington’?
It gives Liam an excuse to vent about US politics. The EP is going to be a combination of songs like ‘Wake Me’ which is about a girl and more political songs like this one song we’ve got on there called ‘Fuck The Ballot’.
You played at The Hope & Ruin earlier this month. How was it to play one of Brighton’s best live venues as such a young band?
It was very enjoyable! The sound was great and the rest of the bands were stellar. The Hope & Ruin is kind of a rite of passage in the Brighton music scene. A big shout out to Charlotte over at Ten Tonne Promotions for taking a chance on us and putting us on that night.
Is there any other venues that you’re hoping to play soon?
We’d love to play Sticky Mikes’ and eventually The Haunt would be amazing once we know we can pack out some bigger spaces.
Who are your main inspirations as a band?
I think it’s safe to say we’re all quite heavily inspired by Queens Of The Stone Age and Foo Fighters, but we all bring our own influences to the band as well, bands such as Biffy Clyro, Deaf Havana and Nirvana. I personally tend to stick to using the bigger sounding chords when I’m writing my parts because of my love of the alternative music scene.
How did moving to Brighton and studying at BIMM help you get to where you’re at now?
Brighton is a great place for up and coming bands, particularly rock bands with some grunge influences like ours. We’ve mostly been sticking to what we’re getting offered off the back of the quality of our music, our live shows and us as a band, but we did all come to study in Brighton because of BIMM so we can’t say it hasn’t done anything for us and we have to thank them for providing a platform that brought us all together.
How do you plan to stand out from all the other Alternative Rock bands in Brighton?
I think our vocal arrangements are a bit different to a few bands in the area. I’d like to think James and I have a good ear for harmonies, and while the stuff on the upcoming EP was written before James joined the band, we’re working on incorporating him into the songs more. We like to think of our sound as a combination of grunge and alternative rock, combining the attitude of the former and the anthemic sound of the latter. I think that despite the fact that we’re a pretty new band, we have a strong live show which we can only improve upon from here.
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