Leeds band Menace Beach play Cardiff’s Clwb for Bach on February 3 in support of their new album Lemon Memory and its offspring single Give Blood.
The band which consist of Ryan Needham and Liza Violet will be joined by three further musicians for their Cardiff date. Andy Howells puts questions to Ryan.
How did you first start out in music?
I was just obsessed with music from a really early age but I think seeing friends bands playing around Derby when I was at college made me realise that it wasn’t just a thing that wasn’t just reserved for these people on TV and in my headphones. My first time playing with other people was when some friends were after a drummer and I lied and said I could do it just so I could go to a rehearsal room. It even got to the point where I was sat behind the drum kit before I had to come clean. We stayed though and I did some singing and it worked out okay.
Who or what has inspired you most on your musical journey?
I think just being around like-minded friends and sharing ideas and recommendations is up there, and for Menace Beach stuff in particular I think moving to Leeds from Derby was really inspiring.
Can you give us some background about your latest release?
Ideas for Lemon Memory mostly came together during summer 2015 whilst we were on holiday in Ibiza. We then spent a considerable amount of time putting demo’s together whilst back in Leeds and this is probably something that made this record pretty different from the first one. I think we knew exactly what we wanted this one to sound like before we started recording sessions.
You’re touring shortly are you looking forward to that?
Yeah definitely! We had a quiet 2016 in terms of live stuff, so I think it’s fair to say we’re pretty excited.
What can people expect from your forthcoming Cardiff gig?
We’ve somehow never actually played in Wales, let alone Cardiff and we’ve no idea how that happened – so obviously we’re really excited to finally play! We’ll be playing most of the songs off the new record and a bunch of the old stuff too. Any recommendations for Chippy Lane would be welcomed!
What are you enjoying listening to at the moment?
I know we’ve all been listening to Drinks lots – the project Cate Le Bon did with Tim Presley. We saw them when we played End of the Road festival and they were totally a highlight. I’ve been revisiting lots of Grandaddy, Sparklehorse and Wilco
What else have you got planned for the rest of the year?
Nothing set in stone yet but we’ve been invited to play at SXSW which is amazing as we haven’t made it to North America yet. Other than that, hopefully we get to play plenty of festivals (because festivals are great).
Keep up to date with Menace Beach online:
- twitter.com/MENACE_BEACH
- instagram.com/menace_beach