Askies Sing & Tell on living in lockdown at No 43, the resulting single, and a big 2021

Leeds-based indies Askies follow up previous single 'Easy’ with the release last week of ‘Forty-Three’ (thd title arising out of spending 2020's lockdown summer at house number 43), produced by the Sugar House team, and available on Chalkpit Records.

Hi, we're Little Indie... and you are? 

Hi guys, cheers for having us on here! We’re Askies, in the band we have George Harris (vocals, guitar), Josh Steptoe (lead guitar), Ben Spruce (drums), and myself, Nathan Apps (bass).  

Give us a brief snapshot about yourself and what brought you to where you are today. 

We've been a band for over 3 years now, forming in Leeds in late 2017 after the Fresher's Week hangover settled down. George and Josh knew each-other from going to college together back in their hometowns, and Ben and myself met on Valentine's Day, and here we are. Having settled in Leeds over the past few years, whilst gigging and releasing music consistently, I think I can say for all of us that we're proper excited about releasing 'Forty-Three' and for what’s in store for 2021 once this year is finally over.

For those in the dark, provide us with a clue to your musical style and influences.

Walking a line between jangly indie and explosive alternative rock, we take influence from bands such as Foals, WU LYF, Thin Lizzy and Leif Erikson, to name a few. 

Can you explain a little about your production and writing process.

The writing process has always been a very collaborative one, consisting of locking ourselves away in a rehearsal room and just constantly looping and experimenting with new ideas until a song emerges, basically! It's always hard to pinpoint the writing process for each release, especially for 'Forty-Three', as it was written just before the
nationwide lockdown hit, so it was all a bit of a whirlwind really.

Tell us more about your new single.

After finishing up the writing process for 'Forty-Three' in our old shared house (number 43, hence the name), we were once again honoured to work with Ady and Lee from Sugar House in St Helens to really bring the track to life. Filled with angst alongside more mainstream sensibilities, we're proper happy with how this one turned out. We were also honoured to work alongside our manager Glynn Parkinson to create a music video for this track, as well as graphic designer and illustrator Charlotte Humphries, who designed the artwork. 

What do you have planned for 2021?

2021 is gonna hopefully be a big 'un. we can tell you that! We're honoured to have received funding from Help Musicians UK to help us record our debut EP, so I think I can speak for all of us when I say we're pretty buzzing about that! So yeah, you can expect plenty more music, and hopefully some gigs - if we can remember how to play them.

Where can we hear more of your music?

We're on all of the usual streaming platforms - Spotify,  YouTube, Soundcloud.

What social media platforms can we find you on? 

Facebook| Twitter | Instagram