After last week’s release of ‘Give A Little Love’, the new single from Peasant’s King, we spoke to frontman Danni Lafrombé about how the band started, how it feels to hear people like Fearne Cotton and Huw Stephens talk about your band, and where they see things going for themselves after the release of forthcoming debut album ‘David’. Also, be sure to check out their cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ below. Hilarious (but also pretty damn great).
Hi guys! Firstly, tell us about your background: when, where and how did you start the band?
Okay so about five or maybe six years ago Lewys (bassist) and I started a small band in school with some friends. From there we went on to play many gigs around our local area and really loved that feeling of performing and writing your own music. However, due to other commitments we had decided to call it a day. It wasn’t until six months after that band folding that we decided we wanted to carry on with music. We then met Harry, Rhod and Josh and it all clicked and we really tried to make an impact with our music. From there we went to on to do things we never thought we’d accomplish!
You come from South Wales, which is well known for churning out some of the best bands of the last couple of decades. Do you think you’ve been influenced by where you’re from?
In Wales, particularly where we’re from, the music that the majority listen and play falls into the category of post-hardcore. That being said there are other bands that break the norm like The People The Poet and Safari Gold – those guys really made a big impact on me growing up in the local area. We are very proud of where we come from but we’re more influenced by where we want to go rather than where we’re from.
Who and what have you been influenced by as a band?
We have a very broad taste of music in the band and our influences would go from Michael Jackson to Biffy Clyro to Norah Jones to even Bob Marley. What inspires us? When we started the band I would have had a completely different answer for you. Now I’d say making a difference. It’s very easy to get caught up in what we do and not really look at what’s happening around us. That’s always a constant reminder in the band. We’re five boys from a small town in Wales who hope that we’ll get to travel the world with our music. Just thinking about that influences us!
You’ve just released your new single ‘Give A Little Love’. It’s ridiculously catchy! How would you describe your sound?
It’s a tricky one, but we’re going with indie-soul. That’s probably the best way to describe us!
You’re also releasing your debut album ‘David’ soon. What can we expect from it? Is ‘Give A Little Love’ a good idea of what the rest of the album sounds like?
We decided to release ‘Give A Little Love’ as the first single because it really painted a good picture of what to expect from the rest of the album. It’s taken us so long to finally have this ready and we are so proud of it. We write honest pop music with a huge variety of influences and hopefully people will be able to listen to it and feel what we try and do!
Tell us more about the album – I heard that it was all based around frontman Danni’s grandfather. Is that right?
Yes it is. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away before I was born, and my Nan did everything to keep his memories alive in all of us – stories, holding onto his photos and letters etc. Since I can remember I’ve heard so many stories about their life together, and it really inspired me to write. Its definitely a very personal album in that sense.
You’ve had a lot of good reactions from some key names like Fearne Cotton, Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens. How does that feel?
It’s a great feeling to know that people who influence such a massive audience with their musical tastes are liking what we do. It’s very reassuring and another reason to carry on doing what we do! When we started this band we never thought that we’d reach out past our town so to get our music played on any radio station, let alone BBC Radio, is amazing. It’s a chance to gain new fans and we couldn’t be more grateful for that!
You’ve already done a lot of cool stuff as a band, playing festivals and the like. What has been your favourite thing you’ve done so far?
We played Reading and Leeds a few years ago on the Introducing stage. We got there ourselves without any management or label: we did that on our own. It was a great achievement as it was our main goal for the year, as I’m sure it is for most bands! We’ve now gone on to play loads of festivals around the UK and even played our first UK tour supporting Young Kato a few months ago. We’re always having a laugh and a good example is our recreation of ‘Thriller’ last November for Halloween, which is on YouTube. That has to be up there with my favourite thing. It was so much fun and we had a great response!
What else have you got coming up this year? What are you most looking forward to?
Well for starters, the release of our debut album! We’ve been working on this for almost two years and now we’re finally releasing it! We don’t have an exact date yet, but it’s a very strange feeling to know that it’s actually finished. We have so many people to thank that have got us to this moment. It’s been a very exciting year and the icing on the cake will be releasing ‘David’.
What are your main aims as a band? Where would you like to see yourselves in five years?
In five years anything could happen. Just look at how Ed Sheeran’s career has changed in the last five. He just sold out Wembley three times! Now I’m not saying we’re going to sell out Wembley, but it would be nice. If we can make a living with what we’re doing, tour the world and reach out to as many people that would be the dream. Making a difference to people is something we will always aim to do.
LAIS MW
http://www.facebook.com/peasantsking
http://www.twitter.com/peasantsking