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I met with Coatbridge band Forever Rivals to have a chat about their music and their plans for 2012.
The band started with three ex-schoolmates from Coatbridge High of Lewis Bryce, Ross Fenwick and John McLuskie. Lewis said “We decided to jam with our talents on guitar and drums. We then decided to form a band with Ross as lead guitar, Lewis as rhythm guitar and John on drums. After a while we decided we wanted to add to the group and make a 5 piece band band, so we searched on websites for a bassist and out of the hat came Adam Wilson from Cambuslang. Adam was a perfect fit and joined the first day we meet him. We then decided to look for a vocalist and found Jordan Duffy, again from Cambuslang. Also Jordan was perfectly fitted for the band and we fully formed in May 2011.”
I am always interested in finding out how bands got their names and Lewis explained “The name was just randomly spurted one day from Adam while we were all online. We thought it sounded great and have ran with that ever since.”
A band’s inspirations are always of interest to their fans, and I for one like trying to match their sound with their influences. Lewis said about their main influences “Well it’s an odd one because the band have such a variety in taste of music. I'd say our main inspirations are from You Me At Six, All Time Low and anything with that punk rock sound.”
I asked Lewis what’s playing on his iPod at the moment and he replied “My iPod’s been playing a band called Zebrahead recently. I’m also getting into The Black Keys’ new album. Locally though there’s a few great bands - Ripley for example from Coatbridge. They have a similar sound to us and it’s been a pleasure playing with them twice so far.
Although Forever Rivals’ line up was completed in May of this year, they have hit the ground running. When I asked whether they have released any singles Lewis explained “We have just got 3 tracks recorded in December. We recorded them in Soundwave Studios by Matthew Nevans and we’ve released them on our page and are available to download for free.”
Forever Rivals have also made plans for 2012. Lewis stated “Our future plan now is to hit the road next year and gig as much as we can really.”
Lewis and the boys have huge ambitions, saying “Our ambition at the moment I would say is to play that big gig like an opening slot for a big band in Glasgow or anywhere. We would love that.”
Despite Forever Rivals being relative babies on the Coatbridge music scene they have got some gigs under their belt. Lewis described their best gig as “Our first one. Loads of people came and we played great and the first buzz you feel is like no other. I think after that gig we really felt we could do this more and more and always enjoy it. It was also great due to the other bands we played with. Ripley were on after us another band from Coatbridge and they were great lads and ended up playing with them again in their own home show and another band from Manchester called Rainband who are getting big now. They were great lads, it kinda felt surreal just having a beer with them after it.”
But for good gigs there are doubtless bad gigs and Lewis laughed when he said “I’d say our worst gig was the one after that our second one. Just purely for the fact we were meant to go on first then had to go on last instead. It was a long wait and we didn’t get going so well when we eventually got on.” Lewis added “But since then we've been in top form.”
I asked Lewis if he could put into words how Forever Rivals are different from other bands and he pointed out “I’d say we are really unique. What makes us different is that it’s hard to stick our songs in a genre so to speak. Our music varies a lot and I think it’s great. This isn’t something we mean to do but when we write our songs and look back on them we’re even asking ourselves - what genre are we ? And to be honest I still don’t think we know!”
In closing Lewis had some words of wisdom for other bands trying to make it in the music industry. He said “My advice would be to get some songs recorded, promote them then gig as much as you can. It’s great practise and you never know whose ears are listening. It just takes one person to pick your music up and take it further.”
Visit Forever Rivals’ Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/foreverrivals.
