Penkridge band Sugarthief talk ahead of new single release - unsigned interview

Formed in summer 2015 by brothers Jordi and Jack James and featuring ex-school mates Luke Owen and Reece Downton, the band enjoyed a successful 2016 establishing themselves on the local scene and beyond.

This began when the group released debut single New Ends that saw them being regularly played on both BBC Introducing WM and Amazing Radio. The group released their second single, Crowing Youth, and they were invited to perform an unplugged live session for BBC Birmingham. The first two tracks led to Sugarthief to become the first band to be included via submission of a demo on the Flying Vinyl music subscription service. It led to a succession of headline shows at popular Birmingham venues such as The Oobleck, The Sunflower Lounge, O2 Academy and The Victoria.

The band's latest single sees them channelling a sense of indie-rock nostalgia of the mid-noughties with a sound not far removed from early Arctic Monkeys, Reverend & The Makers and The Strokes that's certain to take the band to the next level. '

"All of these songs are really about my view of the world," says frontman Jordi.

"As a typical teenager I like to question everything I read, hear and see. You start to unearth different emotions and experience new feelings, and music helps me to explore and express these.

"The title of the song, When Did It All Go Wrong, seems more apt now than when we wrote it – but the track is really about people's ever growing fear of rejection or desperate need for recognition."

Accompanied by a pastel tinged video, When Did It All Go Wrong provides an assault on the visionary senses that harks back to a vintage age of video making. "The video brings together the typical stereotypes seen every day on social media sites – all fighting for attention instead of just living their lives," says Jordi.

When asked about what the future holds. he says: "We really want to just keep on writing more songs and performing them to as many people as possible. The past 12 months have been great fun and a fantastic experience, the more we play, the more we learn and the more people we meet . . . we just want more! The dream would be to play some of the bigger more established music festivals – we're playing Bands on The Beacon in Walsall in July and have just been selected to play When in Manchester festival on the Flying Vinyl Stage. Our launch show at The Sunflower Lounge sold out – which was amazing, as Circa Waves and Magic Gang also played.

"We'll have a couple of other headline gigs later in the year, and are hopeful of supporting more bands as they tour through Birmingham. We also want to get back in the studio as we've written some amazing new songs. The plan is to crowd-fund an album or EP – we are all poor students so any money we get from ticket sales or merchandise sales goes straight into recording music." Having been listed as one of 20 Birmingham Bands You Need To Hear Now on Fred Perry Subculture as well as being played by Steve Lamacq on his BBC Radio 6 Music show, the future looks bright for this Staffordshire four piece. "Hopefully as more people hear us and the words spreads we'll get more national airplay, but we have no illusions – there are a lot a great new bands in the Midlands – let alone the UK, all hoping for a little break.

"The West Midlands often gets overlooked but there is such amazing talent out there – go to a gig and see for yourself – it's million times better than watching a manufactured talent show on TV!"

By Dan Earl

Follow the band on Facebook.com/sugarthiefuk, Twitter @sugarthiefuk, or Instagram.com/sugarthiefuk