It is not an unusual circumstance for an upcoming indie act to achieve a level of praise and recognition before releasing any music, and as for Manchester alt-country outfit Wyatt, cruising on the burgeoning wave of fresh guitar music out of the North West of England, this has become their reality. Released at the end of September this year, debut single ‘Morning’ – released via Manchester-based label Heist or Hit Records (Her’s, Westside Cowboy) – is a warm welcome to their sound and is a fitting opener to their recorded catalogue. Despite this, a single YouTube search can lead you down a Wyatt rabbit hole of gig recordings and a jaw-dropping live session, recorded at Low Four Studios in Manchester, which offers a better picture into this new jewel in the crown for the music scene for England’s second city.
The band met and formed in Manchester, where frontman Harvey O’Toole and guitarist / trumpeter Emily Mason had been living for several years. Harvey scoped out Joe Ward (drums) when in search for a sturdy backbeat to accompany the songs he had been writing, aside from playing in other groups. Himself and his brother Evan O’Toole (bassist) had grown up together, playing music throughout their teens and playing together in his dad’s cover band. Harvey described this cover band the brother’s participated in with their father as to have played “an array of 70’s and 80’s hits, you know? It’ stuff like The Cure, R.E.M., Talking Heads, stuff like that…”
The band have recently collaborated with Manchester-based label Heist or Hit Records to put out their first single, ‘Morning’. Heist or Hit have had quite the roster of talent from its surrounding region of the England, taking the best from a city like Manchester which had seemingly “not much local industry support”, especially “for such a strong city music-wise” when the members first arrived in the city. Heist or Hit’s support to local bands has been invaluable to a band like Wyatt, who cite the relief of an emerging act like themselves no longer having to traverse to London to play in front of Industry folk.
Moreover, it would certainly seem that the presence of a sprinkling of industry support and a well-connected network of talented musicians within Greater Manchester has bore fruit again, much like the hallowed halls of Manchester music greats that came before them. Even better, the new wave of Manchester bands can confidently proclaim that the reputation of the Mancunian songbook hasn’t defined their sounds by any means. Bassist Evan remarks that “it takes one band in a place for people to realise they can make it too”, furthering that “it opens the door for other bands in the same sort of area to go down that path and express themselves”. Harvey retorts, “it’s not like we thought, there’s an alt-country thing happening let’s do that… I’m not sure which comes first, the band or people’s desire for it”.
These reflections echo a common thread amongst emerging bands of today, one of self-awareness and authenticity, personality beyond their music. Perhaps in an age where so much heavy lifting is required of a band beyond their tunes, this has become an essential of being in a musical outfit. Harvey backs this up through a feeling that bands needed to make “music that was more personal, introspective and really down to the core rather than a wider view”. For Wyatt, the ebbs and flows of music trends in genre, are also followed in the intentions of those who create them. They are a band of their time, because what else would they be?
For bands of the moment in Manchester, the so-called ‘common thread’ through each of them, has a name. Putting on events that sell out in a blink of an eye, acting as an outlet for activism through music, is an artist-led music collective named No Band Is an Island. Put simply by Emily, “it’s rare to have artists run artist-run nights”. Wyatt’s involvement with the movement began at a gig ran by the collective last October, supporting Dove Ellis, and has since evolved into them closing the last show put on by them. Emily continues, explaining that “its music embedded into politics, everyone that’s in this place believes in what they believe in and it’s tied in with their music, it just feels so organic. It doesn’t feel like a political night, it is just what it is”.
The existence of these events is vital for the scene, with Evan explaining: “it’s a trust thing too, they’ve managed to build something which sells out before the acts are even announced.” A phenomenon which has brought a good deal of attention and credibility to Manchester bands and artists, Harvey cherishes its existence, “since we’ve been here, we haven’t seen anything like that in Manchester. There is no ulterior motive apart from good music and a good cause, it’s the purest thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
Wyatt are also iron clad on their musical influences, with the brothers Harvey and Evan agreeing they often race to say Wilco. “We keep saying that, but we grew up on bands like that, especially Wilco, through our dad” says Harvey. But as for the rest of the group, it’s a slightly different tale. Emily follows up that “they asked me to be in this band, and I’m quite selective with what I say yes to, but I’ve grown up playing jazz. I don’t play the trumpet; I play the trombone. My musical upbringing is so much different to the boys. It’s like Luther Vandross and Wham.” Emily’s switch-up from jazz to alt-country indie rock has provided a level of shock, but adjustment was fairly easy, “we all come up with our own parts, you’d never hear me playing a Miles Davies solo over Wyatt music”.
Despite a certain degree of separation in formative musical influences, that doesn’t hinder the collaborative process for the band in any way, “I think the way the music comes together, there’s not much talking about it, there never has been” Harvey explains.
Wyatt’s laid-back ethos is just as apparent in the music video of their debut single, ‘Morning’, filmed by friend of the band Seth Lloyd. “We’d love to say we had any of those ideas,” Harvey laughs, recounting the scenes on the bandstand – filmed in Walkden, Salford on a Tuesday morning at 9am. As for the rest of the video, Joe remembers “we ended up doing it in a place called Brookside, which is like a garden centre”, which turned out to be something of a childhood throwback for Joe. True fact: Brookside Garden Centre’s miniature railway track was featured in Blossoms’ music video for ‘Gary’ featuring Rick Astley.
As for the formulation of ‘Morning’, it was written in a BnB post-gig, where Harvey learnt a valuable gigging lesson in trusting the venue amp, which promptly broke mid set. “When you’re any band from the North, or just far away from London, you go to a London gig and there’s a lot of weight on it, it’s quite draining. You put in all that effort for half an hour, and the amp breaks,” Harvey retells. To salvage this expedition to the capital, ‘Morning’ was written to feel like something was gained from the trip; in the early stages bringing the song to the band, an opportunity arose to play the song at a gig, despite minimal band practice with the tune. Despite this, after some convincing and a good performance “everyone was scared, I was scared, but we did it, and it worked, and I thought, I like this song. It reminds me of being on stage and not really knowing what we’re doing,” says Emily.
If the journey to releasing their first single was one of self-belief, feeling the fear and doing it anyway, then this sort of preparation would definitely suit them for supporting Westside Cowboy on every date of their European, UK and Ireland tour. “it’s become really real really quickly. We got asked to do it at the end of April. It was amazing because it became a thing to work towards, and release music around too” says Harvey. After weathering the trials and tribulations of a debut tour, the band bookend the year with their first headliner at The Abbey, in Manchester. “it’s going to be fantastic, I mean, I work there!” exclaims Emily, “it’s nice to have it be really fully circle”. Evan furthers the point that “whenever we’ve closed a show, we’ve been hesitant to call it a headliner and now we have, we’ll give it our best.”
Wyatt’s 2026 has been a year of triumphant firsts by all accounts. With a lengthy stint of tour dates and a finale of a packed-out homecoming show, they’re certain to enter 2027 as a Bonafide success story of Manchester’s new musical offspring. Better yet, they’re just getting started.
Wyatt will headline The Abbey, Manchester on December 11th.