The Gospel Youth are without doubt one of the UK’s best up and coming bands and having recently announced their signing to Rise Records and debut album ‘Always Lose’, we caught up with vocalist Sam Little and drummer Kurtis Maiden on the final day of a weekend full of incredible performances at Slam Dunk Festival.

Obviously we had to start by checking in on their weekend so far and vocalist Samuel Little got us up to speed: “It’s been really really good, we’ve had a better response then we ever could have imagined. It’s amazing to see everyone turning up and watching this small little band of ours.” It obviously means a lot to these guys that they’re supported but what has been the guys’ favourite of the three Slam Dunk sets so far? “Ooh controversial question!” Little exclaims “I’ve always got a soft spot in my heart for Hatfield, there’s just something about it and a lot of my friends live in London and we’re obviously from down south so we have to go for Slam Dunk South.”

So is this the first time The Gospel Youth have graced the Hatfield site with their music? Well, yes and no, as Little explains: “I’ve played here before but this is Kurtis’ first ever Slam Dunk.” Maiden continues “I’ve always wanted to play and I’ve always wanted to go. I had tickets last year but we got offered the Hands Like Houses tour so I had to sell my tickets and I was gutted. The tour was great obviously but it’s great to finally make it here and to be playing too.”

The band’s debut record ‘Always Lose’ is almost upon us so we wondered if the guys had decided to include some of those wonderful new tracks into their sets over the weekend. Little had this to say: “This is my favourite setlist we’ve ever put together. It’s got my favourite track from the new record which is ‘Gin & Black Coffee’ along with the new single ‘Moods Like English Weather’ and then it’s just like a weird mix of older songs like ‘Mixtape’ which we’ve only ever played about 4 times since we started and was one of the first songs we ever wrote. So it’s just a really cool set and there’s something for everyone and I think that a lot of people will enjoy it.”

Last year The Gospel Youth embarked on a wonderful experiment which saw them release a single every month with priority given to fans willing to give a small donation each month to keep the guys going. So how did they find the whole experience? “That was fun,” Little says. “We were still finding our feet a little bit and we wanted to try to find out what kind of thing we wanted to do. So we set ourselves the challenge of writing a song every month and giving a gift to the people that actually cared about what we were doing.” But it wasn’t entirely plain sailing through the year as Little explains: “There were definitely months where I wish we hadn’t done it, there was a lot of swearing and a lot of moments where me and Julian would be up until 4am the day before the release hating each other but it was all worth it. There’s some great tracks in those releases and there’s even a new version of one of them ‘Wildfire’ on the album which is cool,”

So did this sometimes stressful process help them when it came time to write their first fully fledged album? Apparently not. “I would say no, if anything for me it made the writing process for the album a lot harder,” Little explains. “If you think, we’d just finished writing and recording twelve songs and each one was relevant to how I felt that month or what I was going through and then at the end of it all we were like ‘great! Now let’s write an album’ but I’ve poured my absolute heart and soul into this record and in my musical career it’s the thing that I’m most proud of.” Maiden jumps in with “It sounds pretty obnoxious but we literally haven’t stopped listening to it since we finished it.”

So with the album finished and about to be set loose into the world what have the guys got planned moving forward? Little tells us they’ve got a pretty big summer ahead. “We fly out to America to join the Warped Tour in two weeks which is the literal dream. Thirteen year old me is just losing his mind. We’ve also got some things in the pipeline, it would be a bit stupid of us as a UK band to release an album and then not play any UK shows. Although it could be quite a clever marketing ploy to release an album and then just not play any shows. But we’ve got some big plans and if we can pull it off then it’ll be a lot of fun.”

Back to the weekend at hand, we wondered if the guys had managed to find the time to check out many bands themselves. “So many bands! It’s great because you watch bands but you also make so many great friends because everyone’s in it together and it’s actually been quite humbling. There’s been such a huge level of respect around our band from everyone else which is amazing.” Luckily a few of the bands playing this weekend are also heading out to the states for the Warped Tour as Little tells us: “The guys in Too Close To Touch and Neck Deep are out on warped with us and they’ve both just been super nice to us and about the band and record which is lovely.”

Talking of bands playing both Slam Dunk and Warped Tour we wondered if they thought the two festivals were similar in any way. “It’s definitely a lot colder here,” Little says. “But I think the family vibe between the bands is definitely something that’s gonna run strong and I’m excited for it.” Speaking of the bands forming a family vibe between themselves, we asked who the guys were excited to be playing along side over in the states and Maiden told us “I think definitely the other English bands going over, I know it sounds stupid but it’s great to have such a strong English contingent going over especially when they’re friends.” Little adds to this sentiment: “I think seeing friends do well is the most amazing thing. I was chatting to Creeper earlier about how it’s going to be so good to watch them doing well and supporting them. I’m also really excited to see Carousel Kings because I love that band. There’s such a weird line up this year and we’ll be able to see CKY which will be nice and there’s just a whole bunch of bands that I never thought I’d get to see let alone in America with all their fans singing back to them. It’s gonna be sick!”

So how do the guys think the American fanbase will react to The Gospel Youth? “I don’t think they’re going to get our sarcasm,” says Little. Maiden continues “It’s hard to say. When we actually announced we were going on The Warped Tour the response from our American fanbase – that to be honest we didn’t really realise we had – was incredible. I’ve seen a few people that are quite excited to see us which alone is great, let alone the new fans that are gonna find us when we’re out there. It’s pretty exciting.”

On that note we let the guys head off to get ready for their final set of the weekend. Their debut album ‘Always Lose’ is out 14th July on Rise Records and you can preorder it here.