East Yorkshire dream-gaze quintet Priestgate have just released their third single, the radio-friendly Sugar House Studio-produced 'Summ(air)', last week. A bittersweet, summery affair, it highlights their post-punk elements, as well as the more intrinsic shoegaze side.
Who are you?
My name is Cam Sampson, I play bass for our band, Priestgate, alongside our self-taught guitarists: Connor Bingham and Isaac Ellis, our hometown’s prodigal drummer, Bridie Stagg, and our youngest and - allegedly - prettiest member and vocalist, Rob Schofield.
Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.
The whole band spent our school lives in Driffield, where the band is based. Funnily enough, we formed the band in mine and Connor's last year of sixth form, so these school years make little to no difference to our material or relationships within the band. I actually learnt to play bass for the band as Con and Bridie were dying to start making music with literally anyone who had the time. Hence, Rob and I set out on the steepest, and most gratifying learning curve of our lives forming our sound (and learning our instruments) last summer. We steadily gained listeners and a few dedicated mates who followed us to our gigs, as we became bigger we gained further reach in terms of audience numbers.
Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.
We all have similar music tastes, so it was exciting to see our post-punk/ shoegaze sound coming together, born from bands like The Cure, DIIV, Beach Fossils, JAWS etc. Bridie has been drumming since she was seven and has developed this funky sound that drives all of our tracks with an exceptional rhythm which allowed our band to develop and bounce off of each other compositionally from the beginning, backed by her in-depth musical knowledge.
Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.
To begin with, the lyrics came from myself and Rob, while Bridie came up with a lot of riffs which later became a shared talent between her, Con and Isaac who came to the band much later when I met him at work and invited him to jam with us. A lot of our lyrics, especially those from our new single, are pretty nostalgic, in the sense that the emotions felt in the tracks are often retrospective, and are linked to the residual feelings of confusion, bitterness, but also longing when something or someone is no longer part of your reality. You could say that our first single, ‘Skism’, relates to the initial blow of a bittersweet situation, while ‘Summ(air)’ identifies with feelings of resignation to the reality that those moments have passed.
Tell us a little about your new single.
Our newest single, 'Summ(air)' was written earlier this year as we relocated our practise space and began to gain momentum with gigs and audiences outside of our local area. The single deals with the sentimentality that you feel for a person in your past, or more literally a summer gone by, that perhaps gave you a lot of grief, but instead takes on that bittersweet nostalgia that memories often do: epitomised in the lyrics, "Summer, I miss you, the things you put me through." The heavy reverb emphasises this echoey retrospective tone, and the somewhat upbeat riff casts an ironic contrast for the bitter context.
Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?
We’re continuing to grow our audience and we have a few exciting gigs lined up, as below. Also, a new programme is being drawn up with the Yorkshire Music Consortium which will include bands from each area of Yorkshire, which is really exciting for us with bands such as The Feens on board. Keep an eye out for more info on that and all upcoming gigs on our Instagram and Facebook - as well as Rob's over-zealously promotional social media accounts.
Aug 10 Bridlington The Telegraph
Aug 13 Hull The Polar
Aug 18 Hull O'Rileys
Aug 23 Scarborough Headland Festival
Sep 9 Hull Hang Out Bar
How's the rest of the year looking, plans-wise?
This year is going to be another good one for the band. We will continue to refine Priestgate’s authentic sound, networking with studios such as Sugar House. We will be recording one more single later this summer and exploring our audience reach as a band, perhaps making a few trips out and about, but we won’t give too much away just yet.
Where can we hear more of your music?
Our tunes are available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Soundcloud and iTunes!
What social media platforms can we find you on?
Facebook // Twitter // Instagram
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