With a plethora of UK rock bands emerging in recent years, the likes of Young Guns, You Me At Six, Mallory Knox and Deaf Havana have influenced many new bands throughout the UK and Europe. Lancaster are one of those bands. Emerging from Barcelona, Spain, the quintet are set to unleash ‘Journeys’, their debut full-length later this month and having heard the record, we can certainly say it gives their influences a run for their money.
‘Journeys’ is ten cuts of bold, melodic rock that is delivered in a honest manner with tons of hooks to keep you interested from start to finish. From the stirring guitars on ‘Runaway’ to the soaring choruses on ‘Thorns’ and ‘As Wild As Tigers’, Lancaster provide a strong showing on ‘Journeys’. Don’t be surprised if you see them playing alongside their British counterparts in the near future.
As they prepare to take on the world with ‘Journeys’, we caught up with vocalist Anth Alonso to find out more about the album, their background and the apparent non-existing Spanish rock scene.
Already Heard: Can we get your name and role in Lancaster?
Anth: Anth here and I try to sing.
AH: Can you bring us to date on the story of Lancaster so far? How the band come to be?
Anth: Well, we released our debut EP ‘Squaring the Circle’ in 2012, consisting of three introductory songs. The first objective was achieved, people now know who Lancaster is. Due to lack of time and other priorities some of the guys gave up the project.
But we couldn’t stop and it wasn’t enough, after a successful Spanish tour introducing our debut album and many member changes we needed to move forward, Spain wasn’t enough for us, and our market is out of its borders.
We started writing the first album and we recorded it with the producer Marc Martin and the sound engineer Santi Maspons (Spain), two celebrities in Spain; they understood very fast the project and made it easy. For the mastering we worked with Dick Beetham (Young Guns, Funeral For A Friend, Enter Shikari, Natalie Imbruglia…) such a legend in the music industry.
AH: In November you’re set to release you’re first full-length (‘Journeys.’) What can we expect from the record?
Anth: Epic hymns, catchy melodies and dark lyrics with a hopeful background. ‘Journeys’ is everything, and it’s the first step in this long road.
AH: You recently released the video for ‘As Wild As Tigers.’ What’s the story behind the track and the video?
Anth: We wanted to release something fresh, with no fears, no regrets, ‘As Wild As Tigers’ talks about youth and freedom. About the wild in our lives.
AH: Despite coming from Spain, there seems to be a definite UK rock influence in your sound?
Anth: Definitely, our sound is very influenced by UK rock, we don’t feel we are that far from this, which is good, our intention is to be part of that UK scene.
AH: From researching the band, you’re already been compared to UK acts like You Me At Six, Young Guns and Deaf Havana. You must be pretty happy with those comparisons?
Anth: Well, of course! They’re such an amazing bands! Young Guns and You Me At Six are a big influence for us, we are very glad that people compare us with them. Deaf Havana is the band that always will be in my iPod, so, yes, very happy with those comparisons! Next step would be sharing a stage with them.
AH: It’s not often we come into contact with a band from Spain. Can you tell us about the Spanish rock scene? Do you have any friends or bands you’d like to recommend?
Anth: 5 years ago the Spanish scene was full of new great bands, but there’s no market here. There’s low attendances at gigs. It’s so hard to be an interesting band and everything is against the musician. So it is not a good deal. They gave up. At this time, I can say the Spanish rock scene is a bit dead.
AH: With ‘Journeys’ being your first UK release, can we expect to see you playing some shows over here soon? If so, what can people expect from a Lancaster show?
Anth:
Yes, and we are very excited to announce this very soon! Energetic, passionate, epic show, every song is a hymn so we always want to make people part of the show singing along. You won’t regret coming to our show.
AH: Finally why should Already Heard check out Lancaster and ‘Journeys’?
Anth: People should listen to our music because we offer them 10 catchy hymns to singalong, a powerful live show and true love for music which most of the bands have lost. We promise we won’t deceive you if you give us a chance!
‘Journeys’ by Lancaster is released on November 17th.
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Words by Sean Reid (@SeanReid86)
