AN INTERVIEW WITH SHEAFS AT AMP LIVE FEST - 03/11/2016

SHEAFS at AMP Live Fest
From left to right - Callum, Charlie, Charles, Chris and Lawrence

 SHEAFS are a five-piece band based in Sheffield.

Identifying as indie-rock this quintet were labelled a ‘punk Libertines’ by Christian Carlisle of BBC Introducing Sheffield because of their live performance.

Made up of Lawrence Feenstra (lead vocals), Chris Goodacre (guitar and backing vocals), Callum Wright (bass and backing vocals), Charles Mellor (guitar) and Charlie Eastap (drums) this band have been creating quite a buzz surrounding their live performances.

Also just last July they played a blinding show at Frog & Parrot, Sheffield which was (just like AMP Live Fest is *but at The Rocking Chair rather than Frog & Parrot*) part of the AMP Live Promotions Tramlines event at that venue.

Ahead of their set at AMP Live Promotion's very first AMP Festival at The Rocking Chair I got to interview Lawrence and Chris of the band!

Lawrence and Chris playing the first ever AMP Fest

 

How did you all meet?

Lawrence: 'What happened was that we all went to uni at Sheffield Hallam and I met Chris and Charles and after that we put an ad out and we found Charlie and Callum who are bass and drums and we all came together.'
Chris: 'It was sound found out that me, Charles and Lawrence all liked the same music and we all wanted to play music and so we needed to recruit.'
Sophie (interviewer): 'What music was that, like which bands and artists?'
Chris: 'Who are the main drivers? All of us are pretty much avid fans of like Slaves and The Libertines are up there as well. There's Milburn from Sheffield which is great cos they've kinda made a come back this year.'
Lawrence: 'And we're quite into our new music too aren't we, like if there's a band we've heard about like we will go and watch them. I think The Blinders are a good example of that.'
Chris: 'Hidden Charms too, they're another good one.'
Sophie (interviewer): 'Yeah, The Strawberries kept playing them earlier in the van. They're amazing.'
Lawrence: 'Ah they're boss you know.'
Chris:  'I can see that, I can see why they'd be fans. Who else, urm Blossoms we like them.'
Lawrence: 'We've seen JUDAS before a few times as well haven't we Chris.'

If you could play anywhere in the world, where would you play?

Lawrence: 'I know where I'm gonna say.'
Chris: 'And I know we're I'm gonna say. Shall we say it at the same time and see if it's the same place? 1, 2, 3.'
Lawrence and Chris: 'Glastonbury.'
Lawrence: 'For me, you can't beat Glastonbury.'
Chris: 'I went the other year in 2013 and it is just another fucking world.'
Lawrence: 'Yeah that's the dream.'
Chris: 'I'm glad we said the same thing there.'

When we last spoke after your insane Tramlines set, there was talk of a 4 track EP coming 'later this year' when can we expect that EP?

Lawrence: 'Mid November.'

How are you looking forward to your set at AMP Live Fest?

Chris: 'Should be good. Aaron's scratched our back a bit and has given us a pretty good set time so we're excited for that.'
Sophie (interviewer): 'You're good enough to have that set time though.'
Lawrence: 'That's very nice of you to say that, thank you.'
Chris: 'Yeah, it's nice.'
Lawrence: 'It's kinda hard too because its difficult to judge who is there for us really cos I don't know about you Chris but I still feel like we're brand new.'
 

For those who don't know many or any of the bands on the AMP Live Fest line-up, who would you recommend they listen to?

Lawrence: 'There are quite a few to choose from but just off the top of my head Glass Caves, No Hot Ashes and The Strawberries.'

Do you prefer your own shows or festival sets?

Lawrence: 'It's quite hard to compare the two Sophie but I think I can speak on behalf of all of us when we say that the best gig we've played has to be tramlines, so maybe leaning towards festivals.'

Throughout the rest of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, other than the EP, what can we expect from SHEAFS?

 

Lawrence: 'We are still at the stage of trying to get our name around so I guess 2017 for us is about playing as much as we can and just upping our exposure with the hope we can get a bit of a following, especially in Sheffield, you'll have to wish us luck.'

 

 

The debut EP from the band 'Nobody's Watching' can be pre-ordered from here and is set to be released on the 25th of this month. Until then,you can listen to the band's debut track 'Punchline' here:

 

Written by Sophie.