"Ryan put us forward to the competition and seemed to keep quiet about it until we all eventually found out"
The Rascels
We all met at school in Long Eaton - Trent College, Oliver Hayes and James Hughes played together in other bands and formed The Rascels. Oliver invited his brother Charlie Hayes for Vocals & Bass and this eventually led on to drummer Ryan Lampon being asked to play in the band. We started playing together about two years ago but have only recently over the last year had the time to pursue it properly.
How would you describe your music?
The songs we write are of a pop/rock genre. On our last EP My Summertime we recorded and produced the music ourselves, as well as directing & filming the music video for the single My Summertime which is the song that got us into the competition originally.
What was your reaction to the news that you’d be playing the FSN final?
To be honest it came to us as a bit of a surprise as we know the amount of acts put into the competition was extended so it was good to know we just got into it. We have been played on the podcast before through Nusic but Ryan put us forward to the competition and seemed to keep quiet about it until we all eventually found out. So yes.. a bit of a surprise.
What can the Rock City crowd expect from your performance?
We pride ourselves in our live performance as it is very important to us that audiences/fans are entertained as well as just enjoying the music so we try to give anyone watching a real show. The judges and audience can expect a high energy performance.
Why did you enter FSN?
Ryan entered us into the competition after seeing about it, he thought it would be an awesome opportunity for us on the chance that we may win. We all think its a great competition for bands wanting to break into the industry as its an amazing opportunity to play along side big music names at Splendour.
Who are your biggest musical influences?
As a band we would have to say The Beatles, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys & Mcfly. However we all have individual interests, Oliver is big into The 1975 and Coldplay whereas James is big into his rock from bands such as Foo Fighters. Its great to have different individual influences in the band because they all come together to make something completely different.
What are your biggest non-musical influences?
Individually we all have different influences. The majority of the band were in drama/acting and are still acting when not in band rehearsals, there are too many names to mention in this category as this speaks for Oliver, Charlie & Ryan. James didn’t do drama and in his spare time is doing a Private Pilots Licence at East Midlands, this came from meeting Ben Murphy (an ex Red Arrows Pilot) who is a massive influence to him, and wanting to pursue flying as a hobby. We even get influence and motivation from speakers, but the usual kind, such as Will Smith who has taught us that if you believe in what you do and you do what you want to do it will come. It still all relates back to music, how can it not when we have such a passion with it?
What other Nottingham artists do you love at the moment?
We love Josh Kemp and his loop pedal, he’s awesome as he is a one man band. We also came across a new artist when we played at The Salutation Inn a couple of weeks ago, The Retrospectives the way he played the guitar on a cover of Slow Dancing In A Burning Room by John Mayer and got the room to silence was impressive.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far?
It has definitely got to be getting to the final of this competition to play at Rock City, what a great opportunity it is. Other highlights would have to be performing with The Struts who have recently supported The Rolling Stones and also creating and producing our videos.
How can people find out more about you?
As we mentioned before you can really get to know us through our performance so we suppose Rock City. You can see what we are up to on Facebook, and we also do videos on YouTube often so be sure to subscribe there.
Any last words for LeftLion?
We just want to say a massive thank you to everyone involved in making the FSN competition and good luck to all the other bands playing this year at the Final. It’s going to be a great night and we hope that everyone who can comes down. We will also be performing an exclusive first performance of at least one of the tracks from our new EP scheduled for release this summer.
The Future Sound of Nottingham final takes place at Rock City on 22 June, free.
Future Sound of Nottingham 2014 Final Facebook event
Nusic website
The Future Sound of Nottingham final takes place at Rock City on 22 June, free.
Future Sound of Nottingham 2014 Final Facebook event
Nusic website
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