Introduce yourself and where you're from.
I’m Ollie from the band The Lilacs, and we’re from Wigan.
What do our readers need to know about you?
We’re currently going through our biggest milestone as a band with our debut album coming out this Friday. Highly anticipated, so I’m told. It’s been a long time coming anyway!
What have you got coming up that you’re most excited for?
Our debut album ‘Keeping Up With The Joneses’; we’re super looking forward to it. It’s been five years in the making for the band, we’ve been toying with putting it out for a while, but this timing felt right. A little bit nervous, as always; it’s probably the biggest thing we’ve ever done. I think most musicians, or any kind of creative artist, are always nervous about putting their latest piece of work out there because you never know how people are going to take it, but it’s exciting all in all.
What’s the best run-in you’ve had with a fan?
We’ve got a lot of great fans, and we’re lucky enough, after shows, to bump into them in bars and have a couple of drinks with them. We’ve had some really good chats. There are definitely a few that spring to mind!
What’s been your biggest ‘I’ve made it’ moment so far?
I think this week and the week to follow obviously will be up there. We’re lucky that we get to do what we do; we’ve played a lot of great festivals, and thousands of people buy tickets to our tours. This year we played to 30,000 people at Y Not Festival, which was pretty crazy. Selling out O2 Ritz Manchester was special, then we doubled it and played Manchester Academy. This time we’ve got O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester coming up. Next year’s headline tour is exciting too; it’s the biggest one we’ve ever done, and we’re looking forward to getting out there. All of those things make us feel like we’ve made it.
What are your three “desert island” albums?
‘Born in the U.S.A.’ - Bruce Springsteen
‘The Stone Roses’ - The Stone Roses
‘St. Jude’ - Courteeners
Sum up your sound in three words.
Energetic. Fun. Northern.
Eve Waterhouse
Image: Niall Lea
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