Manchester four-piece have had a jam-packed year thus far. Such highlights include releasing their debut EP ‘I Really Mean It This Time’, which blows the roof off of the teeny house depicted on the cover art, pushing the bedroom indie aesthetic to a boiling point and delving into all the fuzz and chaos you could ask for in a four-track blast. Since then, the band has toured the UK and Europe supporting The Sophs, before announcing a second EP of the year, ‘The Eight-Legged Band’, due for release on November 20th via Heist or Hit. This announcement was accompanied with the release of the single ‘Love You Better’, a track that features alt-pop soloist and promised more whimsical alternative goodness from the full EP. Positioned as another new-found gem within this new wave of indie band’s coming out of Manchester, we decided to have a chat with the Pyncher frontman Sam Blakeley about the EP and much more.
At the time of the discussion, Pyncher – Sam Blakeley (lead vocals and guitar), Harvey O’Toole (lead guitar and backing vocals), Britt Dewhurst (bass and backing vocals) and Jack Rainbow (drums and backing vocals) – are fresh off a little run of shows at Left of the Dial Festival in Rotterdam, a new music showcase that champions this entire cohort of new music fabulously. As Sam reveals: “We’ve never really experienced anything like it, in terms of a festival that really puts the musicians and making sure they get paid properly first, they seem to go the extra mile to make sure everyone is looked after.”
The nature of a welcoming festival is entirely in-line with the ethos of the new independent acts emerging out of the UK, fostering authentic and ground-up musical experiences that feel real and meaningful. This often means these bands in question are always very tight-knit groups. As Sam explains, the title of the new EP, ‘The Eight-Legged Band’ comes in part from the total of legs in the band, but also from the outset he had “this idea of us on the cover art as this one thing… I feel like we’ve maybe become some sort of creature over the four years we’ve been doing it.”
This acknowledgement of a rather grandiose undertaking as a band over this four-year period is treated as educational by Sam, stating that: “for all of us it’s our first band. We were all very naïve and sort of learned as we went to begin with, which was really hard at times because we didn’t know who to trust and who to work with.” However, over this time the band have really grown into their own, distinctly carving out their own niche in the Manchester scene and wider UK emerging music scene, something that has paid dividends this year thanks to a newfound level of critical acclaim after a set at in Manchester.
When it comes to differences in how this EP was written in comparison to its predecessor, ‘I Really Mean It This Time’, it all stems back to an idea of a counterbalance between the two EP’s. “A lot of it was written in my room, with my synths and drum machines and stuff… I had this idea that the first EP would be more live-sounding and the second one would be more electronic,” Sam explains. Despite this change in writing processes, once the second EP was tracked fully with live drums, it managed to easily match the first EP in energy. “It really just feels like an A-side and a B-side of a record really” as Sam puts it.
Lyrically speaking, Pyncher have delved into more emotional themes on these respective EPs. On ‘The Eight-Legged Band’, the words tend to express a longing or desire to be something or someone else, in a hopeless or wistful manner. Sam touches on his lyrical tendency to use his upbringing as inspiration, saying that “when we first started, I was quite scared to write something that sounded like it had been done before, so I think I probably tried too hard with the lyrics… as times gone on, my favourite lyrics have always been simple stuff. I’m interested in characters and people and the town I grew up in”. This sentiment matches the aesthetic of Pyncher well, especially leaning on a nostalgic element, which Sam reflects on in saying: “I think it’s because a lot of my influences are from a long time ago, it comes from there somewhere.”
Musical expression is often a tough thing to pin down. For Pyncher, you could perhaps learn something about them through their tunes that they wouldn’t tell you in person. “I’m naturally way more expressive through music than in person, so this story that runs through both EP’s, is about stuff I wouldn’t necessarily talk about with people… a lot of the lyrics are about friendships, and growing up and out of relationships, I suppose that’s the stuff I wouldn’t go around talking about” Sam recalls, which further adds to the creative makeup of Pyncher’s music, beyond the nostalgia is the musical release regarding situations in life that aren’t easy to talk about day to day.
Pyncher may be hush about some of life’s issues in person, but when it comes to empowering grassroots music, they’re open and honest as can be. Sam recently appeared on live television on BBC Breakfast to talk about the Music Venue Trust, as somewhat of a spokesperson for the cause. On the experience, Sam remarks that, acting as a last-minute replacement for an artist who had dropped out, “I just shit myself, and forgot everything that I wanted to say. I feel like I looked so lost… I haven’t managed to watch it back. It was a weird experience, we got lots of people commenting on stuff who started listening to us afterwards, which was good. I just don’t think I’m equipped to speak on BBC Breakfast,” Sam laughs.
Sam’s experience speaks to a wider disconnect between mainstream media and grassroots arts, two areas which should have more overlap than they do. “Even to the way they looked, they looked like wax figures with all their makeup, it was like seven in the morning, they did my makeup and got rid of the bags under my eyes.” Perhaps it’s a badge of honour in some respect that, despite these makeup-related obstacles, a grassroots band has successfully broken through the doors into the big bad world of breakfast television.
Often the most cherished and unique moments of the grassroots experience in music is the things that go not as planned. The feedback, something breaking, noise complaints, you name it. For Sam of Pyncher, a memorable grassroots gig moment stuck with him for months afterwards, quite literally. “I got a shard of glass stuck in my elbow, it was bleeding a lot on the night, I was probably was too drunk and did not go to A&E, like six months later I felt a lump on my elbow, went and got it scanned and there was glass stuck in my elbow, it was a pint glass handle.” Perhaps too gruesome a story to tell on breakfast TV, but a classic tale of drunken antics at a grassroots gig.
Astonishingly enough, Pyncher’s support for grassroots music doesn’t just stop there, with them boasting a healthy nine different support acts on their run of seven shows across the UK during November and December. Maybe in an effort to keep up to date with all the happenings in various scenes across the UK, Sam states that “It seems like there is so much incredible music at the moment. Everyone I see is so good and it makes us to up our game with writing and performing. We’re really excited to see each band play.” If anyone is upset about artists not putting their money where their mouth is regarding supporting others, Pyncher are definitely to be left out of this discussion. Their music is catchy, sincere and impactful indie rock that tickles the ears marvellously, and they are fierce defenders of a well-oiled and artist centred music industry which backs up and coming talent. What’s not to love?