Sing & Tell :: The Fifths

Credit: Mollie Lavelle

Four Cambridge-based 17-year-olds comprise newcomers The Fifths. The alt-garage rockers have just released their catchy debut single, 'Chance It', on July 20. They play The John Peel Centre For Arts in Stowmarket, Suffolk tomorrow (July 27).


Who are you?

I'm Simon Haynes, the vocalist and guitarist with The Fifths. Then there's Jack Ogden on guitar and vocals, Matt Turner, drums, and Jamie Went on bass.

Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.

Well, we're based in Cambridge. Me and Jack have played together since we were 13 (we're both 17 now), and had a little three-piece instrumental band that never really did anything because it was terrible! Then the drummer left so we just wrote songs together until sixth form when Jack met Matt in his music class, and we found Jamie through his bass teacher knowing Matt's dad.

Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.

Indie/garage rock. Energetic but crafted. Top influences include The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Television.

Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.

Production: bash out the instrumental in one live take in a live room, only use overdubs if absolutely necessary.

Writing: I'll come up with an idea and take it to the boys.In the past I had more of an iron fist on songwriting, but the other three are easily good enough to do their own bits now, so only the main vague idea and let them work it out around me. There's no way I could come up with the basslines Jamie does now for example because he listens to way more funk, soul and jazz than me and can draw from that.

Tell us a little about your new single.

First of all, 'Chance It' is our debut single! Probably our poppiest tune, and most formulaic in terms of structure. One of those songs that when writing it, everything just seems to flow and was natural and you end up spending more time cutting out ideas than trying to come up with new ones. All stemmed from getting the main riff and playing it over a little drum machine on my phone.



Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?

There's not actually that much set in stone at the moment. The gigs that have been announced are this Friday 27th July at The John Peel Centre For Arts in Stowmarket, and at the Cambridge Junction on Friday November 16th. We've got plans and had chats with venues and bands (a couple unannounced shows that we need to keep hush hush for now!) but we really need to crack on with it.

How's the rest of the year looking, plans-wise?

We have two more singles scheduled to release, the next one is coming August 10th. We've had chats of another recording session with some of our friends in Among the Citizens (check them out), and as I've said we've made plans for gigs around East Anglia. Before the year's out we want to hit (minimum): Norwich, Ipswich, Bury st. Edmunds, Colchester, Peterborough, Kings Lynn, Bedford, more Cambridge and of course, the big one, London. Wouldn't mind going further afield either though!

Where can we hear more of your music?

All singles will be released on Spotify - make sure to follow us to get notifications when they drop! In addition, Soundcloud has an early demo of our to-be-released singles. And we're also on Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal etc.

What social media platforms can we find you on?

Instagram // Facebook // Twitter