Birmingham Pop Punk Quintet You Know The Drill have released their debut EP ‘Losing Streak’, via Scylla Records. The title is derived from a lyric on their lead single Less Than You. We posed them some questions to learn some more about how the Birmingham music scene compares to York and the pop-punk revival.
By Jane Howkins
You released an EP called Losing Streak a few days ago, which we liked a lot! What can you tell us about that?
In a nut shell, it’s our first proper EP. It was recorded at Steel City Studio in Sheffield with Drew Lawson and it’s a record about feeling self critical and fighting back against those kind of thoughts.
Do you have any plans for a full length release in the future? We would love a copy if so!
It’s very tempting as I personally feel that you can express yourself more as a band musically on a full length but when trying to build a fan-base, it’s better to have your music come out in small doses. Believe me though, when we make an album you’ll be the first to know!
You also recently released Less Than You as a single from the EP. What can you tell us about that and why was that the first single?
It was the first fully written song for the record and it set the tone for the way we wanted to write the rest of the EP, having fast, happy punk music with very real, honest lyrics, throwing in a soft heartfelt section here and there.
How do you come to writing and recording music, and where do you draw inspiration from?
Inspiration comes in the form of many things. When I’m at my day job I find myself just tapping out rhythms on my keyboard and then writing riffs in my head that would go well with it and stuff like that. The drums very often are what a song will be based around. Brad [drums] will also very often send me just entire songs solely made of drums and I’ll pick and choose the bits I like and write stuff over the top. The opening track off the record Peer Pressure was written exactly like this.
Who or what would you say you are most influenced by, and do you recommend our readers check any other acts out?
I’m influenced by so many bands, it’d be hard to list them all but a band who definitely inspired me lyrically are In Her Own Words. Everyone should definitely check them out. They just dropped their first full length and it’s crazy good.
There has been a bit of a pop-punk revival recently. What are your thoughts on this?
It’s incredible, definitely one of the best things that could of happened to music for me. Growing up I kind of missed the pop-punk hype by a few years, but it was still cool because it meant I had all that music there for me already, so I spent a lot of time listening to that and just as I kind of got through all the old jams, all these new pop-punk bands started to crop up, so it’s all worked out pretty well really.
Do you have any upcoming tour dates that we should know about?
We do, but as of this moment nothing’s been announced yet; although our next show is in Birmingham supporting ROAM on the 20 November. Definitely keep your eyes and ears peeled for tour announcements soon though.
You’re from near Birmingham. What is the music scene like in the area? It used to have quite the reputation for heavy metal…
Well technically we live 30 miles outside of Birmingham, but we are still aware of how strong and passionate the pop-punk scene is up there. There’s so many crazy good bands from there at the moment and all the kids love it and everyone is just so supportive of each other. We love playing there!
Why do you think people should come and see you live, and what can people expect from a You Know The Drill live show?
We always try our best to put 110% into every single show we play. We try to make our stage presence as exciting as possible and whenever we do a headline we always try and throw some sort of a gag or gimmick in. One of my favourites that we’ve ever done was a Hawaiian beach themed show in January. Inflatable palm trees and drinking out of coconuts – perfection!
Any last words for the fans?
Thank you so much for waiting on us while we sorted the release of the EP. It’s been a long time coming and we can only hope it was worth it. Get associated with the songs because we plan on playing them in a lot of new places next year.
Losing Streak by You Know The Drill was released 28 October 2016, available here