Rascal made their debut headline at the Brand New Club at Independent on the 23rd of November. After causing a riot and making a memorable first impression, they’ve left their already expanding fanbase waiting for their next opportunity to cause a rhythmic ruckus again.
Who are Rascal?
Rascal is a four piece band made up of Noel (Vocalist and guitarist), Louis (Drummer), Laurence (Bassist) and Lou (Guitarist)
Who is your biggest inspiration and why?
As a band, we take a lot of inspiration from Nirvana and Green Day and bands of that form, and also other bands like Bilk and Ratboy which helps us to make a blend of those genres and styles of music.
How did you start making music?
Personally, I (Noel) have been writing originals for a while and only in the past months have taken these songs (lyrics and chord progressions) to the rest of the band to create something we can be proud of. The band originally was formed of me and the drummer Louis, with the intent of creating a indie rock band. We both were on the Level 2 music course at Sunderland college at the time so we had access to find a bassist, but the first person that came to mind was Laurence as not long before he’d asked me personally to start a band and i’d turned him down as i didn’t think i would have time. Once we’d been playing different covers and different genres together we came to the conclusion Indie rock wasn’t fully where we wanted to stay. We still do indie rock covers and have indie originals that we are going to use to help create the mixed genre style we want to go for, but we noticed we wanted to focus a lot on punkier styles of music as that is where our music tastes all overlapped. Eventually many months later we decided to add Lou to the band, who happens to be Laurence’s twin brother – which in itself is a statement piece for a band lmao! In the past few months we have just been working on all of our originals making sure they’re tight and changing them up to ensure they all sound perfect and the way we are wanting them to.
What have you/the band been up to recently?
We’ve been working on posters and different logo designs and photos we can use on social media to ensure that now we have made a proper start as a band we have material we can use.
What is your earliest musical memory?
For me (Noel), my earliest musical memory is my Grandad buying me a cheap small guitar when i was maybe 7 or 8. I loved it and played it all the time even though i couldn’t play anything I ended up leaving it for a while and not playing anything – however still kept it and played it every so often. Only the past year or two have i been properly practicing and putting time and effort into it. I’ve always loved singing too, done that since i was little. There’s videos of me doing musicals in primary and things. I adored it. What helped was growing up in a very musical household, my Mum sang, my Nana played keys, my Grandad played guitar and my Dad just has the greatest music taste known to man (after me)
Noel as described in his youngest musical memory
What kind of people do you want to listen to your music?
We want a wide variety of people to enjoy our music, from indie lovers to punks and anywhere inbetween. We want our music to be something everyone can enjoy no matter what their taste is. Fans of people like Bilk, Green Day, Nirvana, RATBOY, Jamie T, Deftones, Catfish and the Bottlemen and Linkin Park to name a few.
What is the bands dream gig line up and why?
Well obviously any band ever would be any one of the bands we mentioned like Ratboy or Cleopatrick. However locally, we’d love the opportunity to play with Divine Image again. We’d love to play with Calvoas, Boycott Kenny, Precious Ink and Swindled would be amazing. Pretty Velvet too.
Where do you see yourself in 2 years?
I’m hoping that in two years we’ll still be doing gigs locally and potentially around the country. We’ll have released music and maybe even the EP that i’ve got planned in my notes app. In two years me and Louis will still be in college doing the degree course, meaning we’ll still be around the local area and able to do a lot of gigs.
What have you got coming up in the future?
We are hoping to secure a few more gigs, especially after this first gig giving us a lot more promo material and evidence of what we are like as a band. Like i said previously too, i have a whole debut EP planned out in my notes app that i would love to be able to come to fruition at some point in the (hopefully near) future.
Who is your favourite local artist and why?
My favourite local artists would have to be either The Voyd or BigFatBig, both of which i’ve seen live and enjoyed incredibly.
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