Wolverhampton unsigned band Deaf Balloons launch debut EP

The voice of Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets has earned legions of adoring fans through his lyrics that have seen him idolised in the same way as the likes of Morrissey, Ian Curtis and Nick Cave.

For Wolverhampton’s Deaf Balloons, they also point to the Sheffield-born rocker for inspiration. In fact he (almost) provided their name.

“The original idea for the band name was Death Balloons, lifted from an Alex Turner song on the soundtrack for the film Submarine,” says bassist James Comer, aged 25, from Tettenhall.

“However, on explaining that to a friend of Ed’s [Scott, 26, from Perton, vocalist and guitars] he pronounced it ‘Deaf’ and that just kind of stuck.”

It’s an origins story with almost Alan Partridge-esque quality, but this isn’t a band all about jokes and fooling around with their music.

James and Ed are joined by 25-year-old guitarist Alex Halcro, from Tettenhall, and Wednesfield’s Alex Fairfield, also 25, on drums to complete the Deaf Balloons sound.

The reason for their renewed determination is that their debut EP, The Black Country, is out this month. The title tells listeners all they need to know about Deaf Balloons’ pride in their roots and they want everyone to hear it.

“Initially, it was just a collection of tracks we’ve been playing over the last couple of years,” James adds. “But we realised the inspiration came from a very specific place both thematically and musically so we decided to give it a loose concept: it’s kind of a twisted oath to our youth and surroundings growing up in Wolverhampton.

“We’re all inspired by very different genres so we’ve all brought something different to the table. After gigging the Midlands circuit for a couple of years, we felt polished enough as a band to put something out there that we can all be proud of and, hopefully, people will enjoy.”

They recently took to the stage at Birmingham’s Castle & Falcon in support of a recent tenant of our The Ticket Unsigned page – Shropshire’s Black Bear Kiss.

And they only had good things to say about their fellow rising stars – and it wasn’t the first time their paths had crossed either.

“Those guys know how to put on a show,” James recalls. “They got the crowd moving and their sound was really tight. We’d played with them before and it was great to support their headline gig.”

And they are slowly becoming veterans of the local music scene. They’ve made some friends along the way and have shared both stages and rehearsal spaces with fellow acts they have come to bond with.

“We’ve been going a couple of years now; we started the band with the current line-up back in the summer of 2016,” James adds. “It’s been a lot of fun finding our sound and showing what we’ve got to offer.

“We currently share a rehearsal space with [Birmingham band] Tricky Business who are awesome, and we’ve got two great bands supporting us at our next gig who are ace as well – other than that there’s too many to count.

“We feel the music scene in the Midlands is superb at the moment and it’s only gaining momentum.”

And it’s with that positive energy they look forward to that next gig mentioned above. It comes on October 13, also in Birmingham, at The Sunflower Lounge and will launch their The Black Country EP. The support acts mentioned are Balm and Raphaella Kornarskis, and the boys are rallying the troops to make sure the night is one big party to celebrate their hard work recording.

“Our next big gig is the headliner where we are celebrating the release of our EP. It would be great to see as many people down there as possible so we can really show off what we’ve been working on the past couple of months.

“We’re really excited to see the reception and look forward to filling the place with our new sound.”

James also wanted to thank anyone who’s already taken the time to support them over the past couple of years.

“We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank every single person who has come out to see us at our gigs,” he says.

“The support of our family, friends, other bands and even complete strangers has been phenomenal.”

With an attitude like that towards those who pay their money to support them, why not join the ranks and hear their sound at the Sunflower Lounge show? You may even get a thank you of your own.

l Deaf Balloons can be found on Facebook @NotDeathBalloons and Twitter @DeafBalloons. Links to their shows are on the Facebook page, and tickets can also be bought for the upcoming EP launch from The Sunflower Lounge’s website.