On Thursday night, I headed down to a gig and had a great night. Coasts are a band that I have been loving lately and I was very excited when I got the chance to chat with Chris, the lead singer. I met the whole band and they were all lovely lads, they can give an amazing live performance too! I also got the chance to talk with the guys from Misfires, who were supporting Coasts at the time, and they were a great group of guys. You can read one of my previous reviews of their single, Come on Over, here.

Made up of Chris, James, David, Liam and Ben, Coasts gave an amazing performance and really got the crowd going. One lad ended up on somebody's shoulder with his top off! It was by far one of the hottest gigs that I have been to, but it was super fun! I have managed to get my hands on a few things for a competition. There are three prizes up for grabs and anybody can enter! 

First prize is a copy of Coasts latest album, This Life and a signed photograph.

Second prize is their current tour poster long with a signed photograph.

And the third prize is this signed photograph, where al of the lads mentioned how happy they all looked.

To be eligible to enter, you must RT the appropriate tweet and be following me on Twitter. Or like my photo on Instagram, follow me and tag three of your friends in the comments. You can also like my page, share and like my post on Facebook to enter. The more you do, the better your chances of winning are!

I'm going to move onto the interview now, I hope you enjoy it! There are a few little exclusives in here, so if you're a fan, keep an eye out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How are you enjoying your tour? What’s been your favourite performance so far?

Last night was pretty good, Cambridge Junction. We have played there a few time before. The whole space is really nice and well lit, the crowd were really up for it. It’s always good fun when the crowd are really energised.

There have been loads of others, that have been good as well, like Manchester, Southampton, Oxford, Bristol, Bath - loads of places.

Where would you go back again?

A lot of the places. We just love playing live, regardless of where we are it’s always fun to meet fans.

Some of the big places are really cool as there’s more space, I like to jump around a bit. When there’s low ceiling and not much space it’s harder. But then it’s nice because you get that instant connection with the audience; you can see the whites of their eyes.

What’s your favourite track to perform live?

That’s a tough one. There are a few on the new record that we have been enjoying playing, like Come on Over, Heart stops Beating. They are going down really well, which is cool.

Ocean is our biggest song, that’s always really fun to play, but we love loads of the songs. We just love playing.

This is your biggest UK Tour that you have done, how are you finding being on the road?

It’s great, really cool, because the places are so close to each other we don’t have to go too early. It’s pretty chilled. It is tough as you have to load into venues and soundcheck. There’s not much time to explore the cities but we have been trying as hard as we can. Especially the places we haven’t been to much, or at all.

 Leicester we have only been to a couple of times and usually it’s been to venues on the outskirts of town. We have been in the Church and seen Richard III today. We like going to interesting places like that sooner than just TopMan!

What are you missing most about home?

Friends, family, my girlfriend, and home luxuries I guess - like your own bed! We have been staying in Travelodges the whole way for ease. They are usually near motorway services so it’s easy to get on them. The beds aren’t obviously as comfy as your own beds. I really enjoy cooking, a couple of us in the band like to cook.

What’s your favourite dish to cook?

I like making my own curries from scratch. Anything, I like experimenting, just throwing stuff in a pan and see what comes out!

You have recently released you new album, This Life. Can you tell me a bit more about it?

It was made very different than our first record. Whereas our first record was all about our formative years, the band and being friends, it was written over the course of five years. Where this one was written in a short space of time, only a year, so it’s very of a moment. It has songs that deal with us breaking away from Warner, our label, the struggles that came with that. Obviously there were down moments but it was also liberating as were able to then say, “Right, what do we want to do?”.

We feel very fortunate that we have a strong fan base and we were able to continue, a lot of bands wouldn’t have been able to. We were also lucky our manager and the small label we were with allowed us to continue, so we were really fortunate. 

The themes on the record deal with a lot of things that have been happening to us, anxiety, and depression, that sort of thing. I have known people who have gone through that stuff, trying to navigate your way through life is hard, we just wanted to write about our experiences really.

What is your favourite song off of the album?

I really like Chase The Night, I love how that came out and Come On Over - that’s a really chilled track.

As well as releasing your music digitally and on CD, you released your album on vinyl. What made you decide to do that?

We released our first record and EP on vinyl, we love that format of music. We all have record collections at home, it meant a lot to us and our young fans. People in general are getting more interested in that, obviously they use Spotify and that to discover new music which is great but to have a physical piece of art is pretty special.

Initially on our first EP we released, we only printed like a hundred or so, it was more like for us to go, “Yes we are a band!”

You mentioned you have record collections, what was the first one you bought?

I don’t remember my first vinyl record I bought but my first CD was, I mean I was really young, about five or so.  Actually I think my first tape was Chocolate Salty Balls by Chef from Southpark.

You met at Uni but none of you actually studied music, what did you study?

We studied various things like Cultural Studies to Philosophy, Directing, Actor training. It was really varied. James and Liam did the same course and then Liam lived with Dave in halls. I worked with Ben at a restaurant and that’s how we all just kind of met.

We all met in first year and I started working with Ben, I said “I know you are a drummer, do you want to come and mess around?” it just went from there and here we are ten years later.

Coasts Official Video - Oceans

What were you ambitions when you started, did you think you would be where you are now?

We didn’t really have ambitions, it was just a way to hang out. We never, apart from Ben who had been in a few Scar punk bands, we had never been in bands before. It was all really new to us, we started and never really had any pre-conceptions of what we wanted the band to be.

Do you not have dreams, like in five years time I want to be playing at Wembley?

We didn’t in the beginning. We moved to Bristol and were getting a bit disillusioned in the music we were making before and it felt like we were chasing stuff, going down allies that we thought weren’t really right for us.

So we kind of re-set and started Coasts, we used to practice like four days a week, all day every day and then work three days in restaurants and rubbish jobs. We didn’t have much money so we were trying to work really hard and trying to get good as musicians. That time was really valuable as it made us really tight as a band and friends. We got like a really close bond. Coasts was really born from being disillusioned from the music.

So we have asked a few fans for some questions for you, @MeganJxssica asks, “What advice would you give to an upcoming musician?”

Just be true to yourself and if you are not enjoying it then don’t carry on or change it up a bit.

I don’t feel like I am in a position to give advice, we haven’t reached the point where I feel comfortable giving advice.

We figured if we kept going as a band and worked really hard, every other band would drop out and we would be left!

@dannidawda asks, “What inspires your songs and who are you influenced by?”

Life inspires our songs, relationships with friends, family, being on the road is tough at times. Reading and other music, I am really into literature. I haven’t read for a while.

What’s your favourite book?

I actually read the other day, although this isn’t my favourite, but Catcher in the Rye. I read it for the first time and really, really enjoyed it. I know it’s a bit cliché but I thought the writing was really cool.  I like beat poetry and that sort of thing. I like the fluency of it and that and that helped form a few of the songs on our first record.

@behzbydaylight says Glasgow was one of the best nights of her life and wants to know, “If you had to relate yourself to a TV character who would that be and why?”

I don’t get time to watch a lot of TV, the only TV I watch is like Netflix. I would go for Chandler (Friends) because he’s a bit mental!

@bradleymax_ asks, “If you could do a dong with any band/artist who would it be with and why?”

D’Angelo, he’s like a soul artist I have loved since a kid.

What was the last song you listened to?

Ben was playing something in the van by a girl called Cosomo, I think. She’s from London and has a really cool voice. We saw her live at Leeds last year.

Can you name one skill that you wish you had?

Flying, I would love to be able to fly.

If you could spend three months anywhere, where would it be and what’s the first thing you would do there?

I would go to the Isles of Scilly, which are near Cornwall. I go there every year, they are so peaceful. I would just go to a café, have some coffee and a cake and look at the sea.

I am sure everyone is dying to know, are you dressing up as anyone for Halloween?

We have got the day off so we might do something. We haven’t got a gig on the night so I might.

Pennywise! It would be tough but I don’t know.

Last year we were in tour in Bristol, we had a show and we all wore make up and ripped shirts and stuff, that was kind of cool.

Yeah I guess Pennywise is kind of in at the moment.

What can we expect from Coasts in 2018?

We are always writing new music, so even though we have just released a new record, you will hear some new music I would imagine. We are also touring hell of a lot, I think we are in the US and Europe, we are going to Australia and we are definitely going to be in the UK again.

Where are you looking forward to most?

Erm, I think there are some new places, I am looking forward to playing in Italy because we haven’t been there. I love Italy. But also places like Australia, Sydney, I have never been there.

Also visiting a few places in The US, like Chicago, that’s one of my favourite cities.

Finally, do you have a message for your fans?

Thank you for believing in us and continuing to support us, we wouldn’t be able to do this without them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you enjoyed that! If you haven't listened to Coasts before, let me know what you think of them! Don't forget to enter my giveaway! You can find Coasts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you're lucky, you might still be able to grab tickets to see them live this year! You can watch Come On Over live below too.

Until next time...