Interview: The Lounge Crusade

The Lounge Crusade was still a new band when they were featured here for about a year ago. The band are based in Lincoln, UK, and are known for their great combination of melodic pop/rock/folk, which resulted in debut EP (released in September ’10) and several shows around the UK the same year.

For anyone who doesn’t know The Lounge Crusade, give us a little background:

The Lounge Crusade are a Pop Rock Band from Lincoln in the UK. We’ve been together since Summer 2009 but have all been involved in music before. We had been in other bands individually with various success. What brought us together was the want to do something inspired and original. Something that we believed in and something that we could take beyond the local band scene level. it was something that we all knew we were capable of but had never found the right combination of people to do it with. Some of us knew each other already and we all came together through an online request for band members. As soon as we started to play together, we knew we had something special. As I said, we’d all played in bands before and knew how hard it could be to gel and write genuinely heartfelt music as a group. This time it just flowed. Of course it took a lot of time to develop the sound and really start to understand each other musically but we were all so into it that we would play for many hours a night, several times a week. We started gigging at the beginning of 2010.

How long have you been involved with writing & performing music?

We’ve all been performing and writing music for the last decade, since leaving school. There are plenty of examples of past work from all of us available online if you search hard enough The genres and styles vary greatly from Dance music to Comedy Songs. We’ve played hundreds of gigs between us and worked with some recognisable names (not that I would want to name drop hahaha

How would you describe your sound?

I would describe our sound as…. It’s quite a difficult question to answer actually, even though it’s probably the most common one asked. It’s always cliched things that spring to mind. Genre wise, I would have to say pop rock. We are up tempo and our music is generally happy music. We are a piano led band with strong rhythms and syncopations (I’m not just trying to sound clever by the way . As the singer and writer of lyrics, I always strive for the perfect melody. Something that will hook in the listener and make them feel the feelings that I am feeling when I play the songs. I believe that much more of the meaning and feeling of the song comes to the listener through the melody rather than the words. The words come after and just clarify the exact story of what the melody line is already telling. We write songs that people can sing along with. We have been described as having a retro sound. I think I can hear that, especially in some of the lead guitar riffs. Ultimately, It’s better to let other people describe your sound, it’s not something we think to much about. We just write and what come out, comes out.

You spent a lot of time touring and playing shows last year, any favourite moments?

Favourite moments… There were so many but a few that come to mind: Our first London headline gig at the Monto Water Rats in April. We took a coach load of people from Lincoln and played at one of London’s top small venues. The place was so full you could hardly move and we started the set with ‘Ten More Years’. As we got to the chorus, everyone started singing and that was an amazing feeling. When we left the gig that night, 15 minutes into the coach journey we realised we’d left a couple of people behind!! That was funny

Supporting Tinchy Stryder at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium in October was a pretty cool experience. Personally I really enjoyed our acoustic set on BBC midlands radio back in May. I love playing acoustic and the show was videoed for their YouTube channel. We got over 8000 views in the first month.

What kind of music/artists do you listen to when you are not playing your own?

We all have different musical tastes which I think helps massively when writing as a band. I listen to Muse, Radiohead, The Doors, Johnny Cash, Audioslave, Lifehouse, Our Lady Peace, ‘Mumford & Sons’ and many more. It’s also great to listen to other genres such as Jazz, Classical, Country etc. The freedom of expression that you hear in Jazz and the story telling that you get from country music. It’s an education and pushes your boundaries when you sit down to write. I think it’s really important to keep listening to new music and also to look back at music from before your time. Many people get hooked on what they grew up with and everything that follows but forget to look at where it all came from. I think there is a lot of inspiration to be drawn from listening to other peoples music. It definitely aids musical creativity for me.

What have you been up to recently?

We’ve been really busy recently. We have taken a break from gigging for a couple of months to record our 1st album. It should be ready within the next month. We are working with a small independent label called V92dvg. We are working on our website www.theloungecrusade.co.uk (which will be online in the next few weeks). We have also been organising some European gig dates.

What were your favourite albums from 2010?

For me, ‘Sigh No More’ from Mumford & Sons (although technically released at the end of 2009) was the best album. It brought folk music to the masses and is one of those rare albums you like instantly. Every song is a gem and i’ve had the album on the repeat in my car.

How do you promote your music?

Things like this interview

We use the normal methods like Myspace, Facebook etc, but we also try to think outside the box a little. There are so many bands shouting to be heard, you have to think a little differently. They say that it’s who you know that counts so making the right contacts is a big part of it. Gigging is always going to be the major way to take your music to an audience when you are an unsigned band and we travel the country with our tunes. We’re always looking for new, innovative ways to promote ourselves so if anyone has any ideas then get in touch

What’s the plan for 2011?

We have big plans and high hopes for 2011. Armed with the new album, we intend to play plenty of gigs. We have two weeks booked in Belgium, gigging in March and are already talking with several festival organisers about summer slots. We are concentrating our efforts on securing support slots for signed artists to follow on from the couple we have already done. We are looking for management and of course, always looking for that elusive recording contract. Who know’s whats around the corner but one things for sure, we’ll be there to greet it with open arms

Follow The Lounge Crusade in Facebook, MySpace and Last.fm.