Episodes have described themselves as commercial indie, and whilst there is a clear indication of their modern influences, Episodes set themselves apart with their own unique sound combined with stunning vocals and have firmly put themselves in the ‘one to watch category’ for 2016. The four piece, consisting of Alana Westall on vocals, Richard Carden on guitar, Cowan Williams on guitar and bass and Harry Parkes on drums, all of whom are from Brighton. After an incredible EP and a spot on BBC Introducing on BBC Sussex and Surrey, Bjournal interviewed them to find out more about what’s in store for the band in 2016.
Tell me about yourselves: We live in Brighton, we met through school around two years ago. We were all playing music but we weren’t playing gigs and stuff so we thought ‘yeah let’s doing something together’ so for the past two years we’ve been playing gigs and finding our sound. We’ve been really pleased with what we’ve got.
How would you describe the band to someone who’s never listened to you before? It’s very much commercial indie, we’ve got a lot of electronic features as well. We’re quite inspired by the 1975, Jack Garratt, Alabama Shakes, so we quite like the electric feel and we like putting that in our music. But I would say I have quite a twee voice. It’s singer-song writer sounding. It’s quite difficult to describe how we sound though.
How did the BBC introducing come about? We uploaded a couple of our tracks onto the BBC introducing page and they got a few listens but we didn’t think anything of it. Then a few months after we had uploaded them, we got an email through saying our track had been listened to again and they wanted to feature it on BBC Sussex and Surrey as their track of the day. It was pretty cool; it was really nice of them.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a band? Just keep at it, it can be difficult and draining but it’s so worth it. Once you do a show you feel so great and you’re full of adrenaline and you want to do it again. Coming on stage and knowing people are listening is so rewarding. It’s all about being yourself as well, always push that bit further to get what you want.
What have been the highlights so far? Probably playing London, we got an email through and they asked us if they wanted to play and we’ve never done that before so it was our debut in London. It was so much fun, it was really great. We have a headline show in Brighton tonight [last weekend] which should be good. Our EP is being launched in April, so that’s in the works at the minute.
What’s in store for 2016? We’ve got a new EP out, and then hopefully a support tour, and hoping to get on the festival circuit. We’ve sort of changed our direction as well, we’re focusing more on what we want. Last year was really about finding our sound and trying to get some music out there but this year is more about how rather than when.
Have you got anymore gigs coming up? We have one on the 13th February in Southbourne and then we’re playing on the 10th of March in Fleet but we’re keeping on the down low because of the EP. We don’t to overplay Brighton before the EP comes out.
Their first EP, Motions, is on iTunes or you can listen to it on Soundcloud. You can also follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook.
Holly Martin
image credit: Daniel Hills and Max Mason
