“2025 is the South Arcade takeover!”
Vocalist Concord Cavelle’s proclamation isn’t fallacious. Whereas 2024 has been an unbelievable time for the Oxford Y2Ok core trailblazers, plans are already in place to take the band’s rise even larger. Really, this time subsequent yr, they could possibly be wherever.
Joined by guitarist Harry Winks, bassist Ollie Inexperienced and Oodie-wearing drummer Cody Jones, South Arcade meet Kerrang! amid a “loopy week of bulletins” to take a breath and look again at how they bought right here, in addition to what’s on the horizon.
“I believe the start of the yr was fairly robust,” admits Ollie, “as a result of there’s no definites on this world, and particularly doing music. However when it began getting a bit higher is once we stopped worrying. There’s a lot of stress to have a good TikTok or good no matter, and it was the second we form of went, ‘Let’s simply try to get pleasure from it, and seize the bits we get pleasure from.’”
It’s an method that’s labored wonders. With the quartet choosing up new followers and followers due to a regular string of very good singles all through 2024, to not point out behind-the-scenes social media movies inviting folks of their brilliantly chaotic world, South Arcade are killing it on each degree.
And, crucially, they’ve confirmed that on-line numbers can translate into actuality, as they discovered once they stepped onstage at August’s Studying & Leeds to a packed BBC Music Introducing crowd. (In order for you an thought of simply how effectively that went, subsequent yr they’re coming again to play the primary stage.)
At present, South Arcade cap all of it off with their debut EP 2005 – a six-track launch that collates their 5 newest singles, and the brand new title-track. Right here, the band inform us all about it, and reveal why they’re so excited to take it internationally subsequent yr.
“I don’t know if I’ve bought a suitcase large enough,” laughs Concord. “I want to purchase some new garments! We’re excited to have a correct plan, and meet all these new folks. It’s gonna be unbelievable…”
How would you fee 2024 for South Arcade? From the surface wanting in, it seems like all the things’s just about exploded…
Concord: “Positively! It’d be impolite to not give it a 10/10, proper? Nicely, it’s a 10 thus far, I don’t know if something will change in the remainder of the month (laughs). However actually, I don’t suppose we might have requested for extra this yr. The help we’ve had – whether or not it’s from folks coming to gigs, or on-line, or no matter – we’ve been so fortunate. Folks have actually been reacting to the movies we’ve been doing, and the music… I don’t wish to jinx something, however it’s all gone very effectively! We’ve been very fortunate.”
Has all of it caught you off guard, or did you begin the yr like, ‘Issues are going to occur for us’?
Harry: “I believe stuff like numbers on-line doesn’t actually really feel actual till you see folks within the crowd. We had our first gig again at Studying & Leeds after some stuff had occurred on TikTok, and we bought to see the brand new viewers that we’d gained for the primary time, and that was actually particular.”
Cody: “I cried. In a great way! It was a type of issues which you can’t actually comprehend – it’s simply, ‘Oh my god, that is loopy.’”
The entire yr has most likely been like that – simply continually going, ‘How do I course of this?’
Concord: “Oh yeah, undoubtedly. We completely set out at the beginning of the yr, ‘Come on, guys, we’re gonna actually hammer this dwelling and do all the things we will.’ However like Harry stated, till you step out on that stage and see folks’s mouths truly transferring alongside, it feels so surreal! But additionally, I suppose it’s spurring us on for subsequent yr, going, ‘How can we take this to the subsequent degree?’”
You’re wrapping issues up properly with the 2005 EP. Was it all the time the plan to get the singles collectively and put out one thing a bit extra substantial?
Concord: “It was a actually large factor for us to have folks see the world and all the things that we’re attempting to create with the band. And when the singles began falling into the EP – the primary one on it’s Nepo Child – it’s the primary time once we actually began to really feel like we’d discovered our sound. It was like, ‘Okay, that is our lane and we really feel sturdy right here.’ We all know what we wish to create.”
Harry: “It was very pure. Nepo Child was the primary track we dropped in 2024, and it felt like a new period of music, so it was the pure factor to place all of the songs collectively. And it additionally feels prefer it encapsulates the entire vibe.”
Concord: “It’s been such a enjoyable EP to make, and there’s totally different vibes in every track – all of them create a totally different world. And now it’s so good to have all of them collectively, and for folks to have that as a factor to pay attention by means of and know that it’s how we wish it to be introduced. It means a lot to us, and it’s actually thrilling.”
Harry: “We’re doing one thing totally different with every track. Folks know that we coined the ‘Y2Ok core’ – effectively, I don’t know if we made that, I suppose I heard it on the radio…”
Concord: “It’s what I put within the bio of Spotify!”
Harry: “It’s a cool phrase to simplify what we do, however it’s greater than that. Every track pulls from a totally different favorite style of ours from the 2000s – whether or not it’s nu-metal or pop-punk. There’s a lot of Britney and Gwen Stefani, even when it’s simply delicate.”
Concord: “After which there’s the Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park reference.”
Harry: “With Linkin Park coming again not too long ago, too, that’s spurred us on. That sound is cool once more.”
Concord: “Yeah, it’s like, ‘We’re heading in the right direction!’ However with the EP as a complete, there’s the Y2Ok core factor, however we additionally do like so as to add a trendy spin to that. And what all of us actually need from it’s to finish up in everybody’s playlists. Whether or not it’s the individuals who get the references and are in that demographic, or the younger children who’re discovering this music for the primary time – that’s superior, too. We simply need to have the ability to present that nostalgic escapism.”
What are you most enthusiastic about for followers listening to the title-track right now?
Concord: “I need it to be the one the place, for everybody who hasn’t bought us but, they’re like, ‘Ah, okay, I get what this band’s about now!’”
Harry: “It’s form of like us slowly however certainly discovering our sound. It’s bought the riffs however it’s additionally bought the TikTok-coded glitches… in case you hearken to that track, it explains what we’re attempting to do rather well. Folks will get South Arcade once they hear this track.”
Do you are feeling any stress by way of this being a correct debut physique of labor? Or as a result of folks have heard a lot of the singles already, you’re fairly relaxed?
Concord: “I believe as a result of we’ve been waterfalling the tracks, it’s good to have everybody on this journey with us, from the begin to the tip. We’ve picked up all these new folks on the way in which, after which with 2005, we’re hopefully introducing much more folks. It’s nearly just like the household or fanbase which have been with us this complete interval, it’s a present for them, and it ties us all collectively.”
Harry: “We’ve had this journey with the followers, track by track.”
Concord: “As a result of they’ve been those the place, all this superb stuff that’s arising subsequent yr, they’ve made it doable.”
As you’ve been choosing new listeners up alongside the way in which, how a lot do you stress about, ‘This single has to go rather well’ each single time?
Harry: “There’s a lot of issues we fear about (laughs), if sure songs or movies do effectively. However on the core of it, it’s about making music that we actually love – which we’ve solely actually began doing with this EP. We just like the songs we’ve made previously, however discovering this sound has been actually enjoyable. We do stress a bit about venturing into new territories, as a result of folks may be used to a sure sound, however hopefully within the new yr, no matter comes subsequent, that may proceed to push issues ahead even additional. However so long as we’ve enjoyable with it, it’s cool.”
Trying again at what you’ve achieved this yr, one of many standouts was acting at Radio 1’s New Music Dwell in Halifax. What was that have like for you?
Ollie: “It was petrifying – that was a hell of a day! I’ll provide the redacted highlights: we had a six-and-a-half-hour drive on icy, snowy roads, with Cody caught in motorway site visitors and couldn’t present up till the final 5 minutes of the soundcheck. We have been stressing within the dressing room after which went upstairs realizing that it was technically the largest gig of our life, as a result of there’s so many individuals listening on the radio. Then I realised one of many laptops with our click on monitor wasn’t arrange correctly, so I needed to re-AirDrop one thing. I stated to Harry, ‘I want one minute,’ however all the things is run to navy precision, and Harry stated, ‘You’ve bought 34 seconds.’ I was onstage watching this laptop computer loading…”
Cody: “And the presenter had began saying us…”
Ollie: “And fortunately it wasn’t filmed at that time, as a result of everybody would have seen me crouched behind her by the laptop computer, determined to attempt to get it arrange in time! I loaded it up, and by some miracle, simply as we performed the primary observe, all of it kicked in.”
Harry: “It was like a joke – it was proper to the second.”
Concord: “It provides to the drama, and makes all of it extra thrilling!”
Ollie: “After that, the adrenaline was superb (laughs) and it was considered one of my favorite gigs. It’s all the time the essential ones, isn’t it? At Studying we broke our tools, as a result of we gave out a great deal of water pistols, after which folks sprayed us with them…”
Harry: “And it broke all our pedalboards!”
Ollie: “And you may’t actually cease halfway by means of and go, ‘May you please not? That is truly fairly costly!’ It makes you look a bit naff, so we needed to preserve going.”
Concord: “However it was value it! And it goes hand-in-hand with all the things that individuals see of us on-line, which is chaotic.”
What’s been your favorite present thus far?
Cody: “It was Studying.”
Concord: “Yeah, I’m gonna agree with Cody. When it’s your personal gig, you realize individuals are coming. However when it’s a competition, and we have been the final slot on that stage, you don’t know if anybody’s gonna come and test you out.”
Harry: “And it was the primary gig after we’d had a wave of latest followers on TikTok – we hadn’t performed a gig in six months, and we had no thought if folks would present up. We didn’t anticipate anybody to return!”
Concord: “After which whenever you step out from behind the display screen, it’s like, ‘Oh my god!’”
Harry: “However they arrive so shortly, so 10 minutes earlier than, it was actually about 5 rows of individuals. After which within the house of 10 minutes, it simply crammed up.”
Concord: “It was so scary – however a actually good scary feeling.”
Are you already eager about that second subsequent yr, on the primary stage, the place you’re peeking out from behind the scenes?!
Cody: “I had a nightmare about that the opposite night time, the place I ran in direction of the drum package, as a result of I’m the primary to run onstage, and I tripped over my drum stool and completely decked it in entrance of nevertheless many individuals have been there.”
Harry: “I all the time have goals the place I’m operating to the primary stage to play, however I can’t fairly get there, and I by no means get there and issues are all the time in my manner (laughs).”
Cody: “It’s going to be a lengthy eight months…”
Harry: “We’ve joked about how with the drama final time and the group spraying us, perhaps we’ll attempt to get them again one way or the other – get revenge on them, on a a lot greater scale!”
2005 is out now. South Arcade play Slam Dunk Pageant and Studying & Leeds subsequent yr.
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Posted on December thirteenth 2024, 10:30a.m.
