Having been around for under a year, Seasons have made quite an impact in their local scene in the South West. Having seen this band a few times, and absolutely loving them, we got our intern Becky to have a chat with lead singer Mark Holley about the band and what they are upto. We are big fans of Seasons at HTF so check them immediately!
You can check out more from the band at myspace.com/bandseasons
HTF: Who did you grow up listening to?
M: Well even though we were all into very different bands and genres at a young age, i’m going to list some bands we ALL grew up on at some stage : Metallica (Mainly Drew, In fact Drew only listened to Metallica for 4 years of his life), Midtown, Blink 182, Starting Line, Fugazi, Saves the day, Jimmy Eat World, AFI
HTF: Who are your influences?
M: If there was one band recently that have influenced the band as a whole more than others it would definitely be The Dangerous Summer, they kind of just came out of nowhere, but we’re more a band that get influenced by watching others succeed. Watching Futures grow from Tonight Is Goodbye to getting signed to Mercury records instantly gave us a push to try harder as a band. The latest Xcerts album which is flawless gave us inspiration to try new things too. Also local bands definitely inspire us, Room 4 1 more probably gig more than any other band i know, whereas were one of the laziest bands i know, so they really motivate us to just do more fuckin shows. I know after watching The Deering the other day we went straight to writing a flowing set, they’re definitely a band to watch live, really awesome!
HTF: What music do you listen to now?
M: Ohhh man its so varied, I know Drew is a HUGE Modest Mouse fan and with our new songs he’s really been bringing that influence across. Again I’ll do a list of bands WE ALL love atm : Brand New, Jimmy eat world, Modest Mouse, Xcerts, Motion City Soundtrack, Dangerous Summer, Comeback Kid. Its really hard to write down everything, we’re all into such different stuff.
HTF: How did the band get together?
M: Well me, Josh and Jack have grown up on the same street all our life and were always in bands as kids. The first serious band we did was ‘stand with the skyline’ with a dear old friend Nathan Whitham may he rest in piece. Then later we decided we all hated Uni so we formed Seasons about 8 months ago, things didn’t work out with our last guitarist Rob so we got our mate Drew in. At first we didn’t know whether Drew would dig it at all, but he came in with so many good ideas and just instantly felt right. We’ve always made sure we’re a band of friends first. Just want to point out Nathan isn’t dead he’s just in London.
HTF: You’ve got an American vibe about your music, are you influenced by American bands? If so who?
M: Hmmm most of the bands we listen to are American haha. To be honest if you hear a guitar riff that sounds like Modest Mouse in the new stuff we have wrote then Drew’s probably nicked it. Josh Street stole Dangerous Summers entire drum tracks for the live your life with colour e.p. And i just steal vocal melody’s of every band i like. But Jack has never really had an input in our band so he just plays root notes.
HTF: The video for Shermer Oaks looks like you guys have a lot of fun on the road, are you currently touring?
M: We’re not, we really really want to be though. We’ve got the van, we’ve got beds in there. We are playing a fair few local shows though at the moment. We had a stint of playing a shit load of shows all over the place, we even went up to Margate in Kent for a one off gig. Got there at 11, left at 1 and got back that morning at 8. Horrific drive, well it was for Josh i fell asleep on Rob.
HTF: Live your life with colour is the new EP, can you tell me a bit about it?
M: We may as well call it a single from now on haha. Ummm there’s not too much to say about it, apart from the fact we decided to record those 2 tracks, purely because they were the first tracks we wrote getting away from our old shitty, breakdown pop style.
HTF: What’s the best part of being in a band?
M: You cant really bullet point one thing. We’re always going to have different opinions as a band as to whats the best bit, but i can say on all of our behalfs playing shows to people that want us to be there is definitely the best bit of it. Theirs nothing worse than playing a show too 4 people that don’t give a flying fuck, but you have to go through the crap gigs to get the good ones. And the good ones Hands Down outweigh the bad ones. At the end of the day whether the gigs awful or not, we’re still 4 best mates getting drunk and playing music. Put it this way I’d much rather play a gig to 5 people with my best mates than be on the xbox all night.
HTF: Do you have like a 5 year plan of where you want the band to be?
M: We’re not dreamers like we were when we were 14 (although Jack still thinks he’s going to headline reading next year), so we know were not going to be the next Beatles. We would however love to be able to continue to be able to record and write as a band and just progress in general. Me and Josh are travelling for 3 months in America this Summer, so the band will take a break during that. But we are currently half way through recording a 4 track e.p that we will release and tour with as soon as we come back from the states. We’re very, very lazy people, but after playing at the cavern the other day to a packed out crowd and realising some people actually think were alright, we cant wait to start writing again and getting tours set up!
Cheers for interviewing us too, we never get interviewed. I’m going to get fistfucked by the band now for writing terrible responses to your questions haha
Interviewer: Becky McCabe
