Walsall-band The Assist get ready to release their debut album

And for Walsall band The Assist, being able to rehearse and play music together is something they now value even more.

They are getting ready to launch their debut album, Council Pop, and are looking forward to taking to the stage for gigs in London, Manchester and Birmingham next month

"The pandemic taught us to no longer take an opportunity to play music for granted. If we can continue to play shows and rehearse as and when we feel like it then that is a massive victory in itself. If we impact people's lives with the message we preach along the way then that’s even better," says lead singer Mikey Stanton.

Since forming in 2014, The Assist, also made up of guitarist Ryan Stanton, drummer Ben Faulkner, bass player Jorge Poole and Luke Jones, have attracted a loyal following and shared the stage with the Happy Mondays and Blossoms, Black Honey and The Twang.

The latter was particularly poignant as Mikey says the Birmingham group was one of their biggest influences when starting the band.

"My first memories of really feeling music were as a young boy listening to bands like Hard-Fi, The Editors and Blur on the way to football with my dad. My dad, being in his mid-thirties at the time, was always championing noughties era bands.

"Little did he know of the influence it would later have on our lives as brothers growing up hearing these sounds in the backseats of his car.

"Although we were in to music from such a young age it wasn’t until bands like The Enemy and The Twang started to tour, that we actually realised we wanted to do this.

"As teenagers, being let out of our hometown of Bloxwich for the first time to be able to go to gigs without my dad was a dream.

"Me and my brother saw Oasis at V festival in 2009. Little did we know at the time that it was going to be Oasis’s last ever gig.

"It was from this point onwards that our aspirations to play our own music on a stage started to shape," explains the 25-year-old.

"We admire noughties era bands like Hard-Fi and Blur. It was great to revisit the records of the bands that we admire whilst being musicians ourselves.

"You find you listen to music in a completely different light when you have composed music yourself. Less obvious artists like Cage The Elephant and Dua Lipa impact our songwriting massively. I also admire composers like Ludovico Einaudi too."

The band, known for their soaring indie rock anthems, featuring hip-hop-inspired beats and dance rhythms, released EP Lost in 2018, followed by singles It's Just A Dream Away and I Don't Care in 2019.

In April 2020, they released charity single, Life, to raise money for NHS Charities Together, in honour of the hard-working the staff working on on the Covid frontline.

"Nurses continue to risk their lives for the sake of others, I felt that as an artist I could encourage unity and influence people to try and make a difference," said Mikey at the time.

The first single from Council Pop, Irrational Movements, described as an honest interpretation of how social media influences society's behaviour, was released in November followed by the second single, the upbeat Television Kid in January.

Their debut album has been seven years in the making and they are excited to share it with the world.

"I’d describe our music as real. It portrays exactly how I felt growing up as a child oblivious to all of the worries in the world. It’s upbeat and in your face with a reckless drive that allows listeners to lose themselves in," says Mikey.

He describes the new release as "an honest depiction of how society continues to deceive the impressionable and plays ignorant to the terrible things that are happening in the world".

"Throughout our new record we do not only touch on this but we also touch on our personal battles and how we as individuals have learned to shut out what’s going on around us in order to think about what’s best for ourselves. Our music has an array of influences, there are real poppy elements to our sound yet there are also darker tracks on the record too," explains Mikey, who works as a zookeeper when not playing in the band.

The stand-out track for Mikey is Numb which was written during a difficult time in his life.

"It will forever be a reminder to me that no matter how low you get, we must always be grateful for life and the opportunity to hug someone, smile at someone or laugh with someone," he explains.

"Water is our favourite song to perform. It’s the opener to the set, it depicts a message that we strongly believe in and we deliver it with intent. If there’s one way to get a crowd ready for a live show, it is this track."

Over the years the band has performed at a number of iconic venues in the UK.

"O2 Ritz Manchester was a particular favourite of ours to play. We also have played all over the world enjoying shows in a famous Paris venue called Supersonic and also the main stage of a festival in Russia," says Mikey.

The Assist will be performing at The Victoria in London on April 28, Night People in Manchester on April 29 and Dead Wax in Birmingham on April 30 to celebrate the launch of Council Pop.

Recording the album and getting ready to share it with the world have given Mikey and the rest of the band a real sense of achievement.

"Regardless of how successful the album is or isn’t. I have one for myself. The gatefold vinyl will be framed in my hallway and will act as a constant reminder of the incredible journey me and my best friends have been on over the last eight years of our lives. We have a lifetime's worth of memories leading up to this record," he tells Weekend.

*Council Pop is released on April 8. See the-assist.co.uk/music