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The group's sound is dominated by impressive basslines and a standout trumpet player. Since their formation back in 2016, the band has amassed countless fans through their upbeat live shows and performative nature.
As part of Music Is To Blame's What's to Blame? interview series, lead guitarist Tom Williams and drummer Neil Lawson sat down with us for a chat before their main stage performance at Y-Not festival.
If you could just start by introducing yourselves and where you're from.
Hi, we're Tom and Neil from Red Rum Club, from Liverpool.
We want to know what's to blame for the name Red Rum Club? Where did that come from?
It came from The Shining. We had a few early demos that were kind of, no vocals. Just kind of instrumentals. We were thinking of a name, and a friend said that the demos sound like eighties post-punk stuff, but there was a spooky vibe to it. He said, 'You should watch a few horror movies. ' At the time, I didn't like them too much. I love them now, though. I watched The Shining. It wasn't really a revelation moment, it was more like 'it's in this film somewhere and I'm gonna find it'.
What do you think is the biggest difference between your sound now and when you started?
I think it's more cinematic now. I think it feels more liberating. It's more of what we want. I think at the end of the day, at the beginning, we didn't have many options. We felt like we had to provide something. It sometimes felt like we were writing for people and not ourselves. Now, we can kind of revel in what we like. We've gained the freedom to write what we like and what we want. It's come quite full circle as well from our first album, which was quite heavy. Well, not heavy, but it was like raucous. The first album sounded nothing like those first demos. I feel like now it has kind of come full circle. We can kind of just do what we want, a little bit.
So, I want to know what the difference is between playing festivals and playing other gigs throughout the rest of the year?
The festivals feel like a bit of a mission to win over new fans. Compare it to your own shows, where people have bought the ticket and they know what they're in for. Although we still go out and we do what we do, we don't really cater to what we think people might like anymore. But there could be people here who this is their first time, they've never heard us, so we try to make an impact on them.
Are there any other artists playing Y Not who you would like to see?
The Cheap Thrills, who are on after us. Cassia, The Last Dinner Party, I'm a big fan of. We might try to catch the start of Courteeners. I'm looking forward to seeing Cassia. I've never seen them, but I've seen the stage set up and what they tour, and it looked really cool. Looking forward to seeing them.
We're over halfway through the year now, so what do you think has been your highlight this far?
Probably when we played a headline show in our town, at Aintree Racecourse. That feels like a big one. That was nice with a lot of familiar faces. People whom we've grown up with and stuff. It felt like a bit of a milestone moment for the band. It was just like serendipitous with the album being called 'BUCK', us being Red Rum, and then being at a racecourse. It felt right. I remember being on Facebook a week later, and I'd seen people I'd been to school with who I'd lost touch with being at the gig. That's mad. It's like 'do you remember me in school?'. It was definitely that.
Emily Teague
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