Columbia, formed in late 2017, are a new Rock ‘n’ Roll, guts ‘n’ glory powerhouse coming out of the North West. Created by a working-class group of friends with no musical experience, Columbia are obsessed with being a proper old school Rock ‘n’ Roll band, the likes of which haven’t been seen for many years.
Who Are Columbia and how did you get together?
We formed Columbia about 3 years ago now from scratch, we where all best mates from high school through to now but we had no musical experience, I’d say we loved Oasis but we didn’t listen to many other bands at the time. And we didn’t rate a lot of the new ones. We probably preferred dance music but we noticed sheppo could sing an thought why not give it a try we can’t be any worse than some of ones in the charts now so all bought guitars and went from there haha we couldn’t play a thing for about 12 months but we’re all good now
How did the Name come about?
We where stuck for a name for the band for ages, obviously we love oasis and we was having a party in the studio one night and one of the lads Cal said what about Columbia an that was that!
How would you describe the music you create?
I’d say our music is deffo a cross of throwback 90’s indie style music but trying to put a modern twist on it as well, like I said we loved dance music so when possible we try and get dancey bits and drops in the tunes but we like writing powerful stuff too think that always gets the best reception
Some of Your Influences are The Verve, Oasis, Rolling Stones, Stone Roses and The Beatles. out of these, what track would you love to over and put your own spin on?
Tough question on what to cover. I think being from Liverpool A Beatles tune would deffo be a shout, we’ve fiddled about with a few of there tunes. I reckon we’d do a heavy Columbia style cover of Come Together ! We done a little cover of Iron Sky by Paulo Nutini recently and Sheppo nails it so we might try that live as a full band sometime too.
Your Latest track Fat Catz is out, what is the track about and how did you write it?
Fat Catz came about after a bad gig funny enough, it was proper flat and we said after wards we need a few more in your face tunes, at the time most of our songs where a bit more melodic and slower so Swee just started blasting a few power chords in the studio, Jonny wrote the lyrics on the spot and it was done and dusted in about an hour, then we added in the drop an that to make it a bit more dancey an that was that. Been one of our best live tunes ever since we usually play it early doors to get everyone up for it, we’ve been sitting on it a while now about a year an a half waiting for the right time to get it out there and now’s the time.
What has been your favorite track so far?
It’s really hard to say what our favourite one has been up to now, BTG being the first one announcing ourselves on the scene and Showing everyone who we are will always feel a bit special but I think This Life would probably be our favourite up to now. There all bangers though! We change our mind every week
There are a lot of awesome bands coming out of Liverpool at the moment like Red Rum Club and Hushtones. Are there any bands at the moment from your hometown you are listening to?
Liverpool is the best city for new bands right now in my opinion, there’s so much competition at the minute it’s boss man. There’s ya obvious ones like Jamie Webster who are smashing it at the min rightfully so, a few we’re into at the minute are The Sway, The Heavy North, The Kairos, Reignmaker and The Higherside. If ya haven’t heard em already deffo give them a go there all heavy
How has lockdown been for the band?
Lockdown has been shite for us like most bands. We’re used to rehearsing 5 days a week minimum so to go from that to nothing for months was horrible but we’re back in there now getting ready for 2021. One positive that came of it was our fan base growing massively due to social media, we got great support from people like Sam Shiner and the virtual pub crawl guys early on sharing our music so we can’t thank them enough for shouting us out and putting us on the map it’s made such a difference for us! I’d be here all day if I mentioned them all but rest assured when we headline Wembley they’ll all be getting a ticket
A question we ask everyone, how would you change the music industry?
If we could change the music industry it would be to get all these fake ass ‘musicians’ out the charts and get proper music back in there. It’s sad to see people who dedicate there lives to writing and creating there own music get no attention then you’ve got people who are getting the tunes wrote for them in the charts making millions. The Music industry is very clicky too and we’re all about helping one another so it’d be nice if everyone came together and helped each other get to where they wanna be which is ultimately the top!
What’s next for the band?
We’ve got some big plans for next year. We’ve just signed up with Timeless music productions to help manage us, we’ve known Alice the director for a couple of years now and she’s been a massive help already helping us get organised and put some decent plans in place. We’re hoping to release another single early 2021 and a EP in the summertime with a tour coinciding off the back of it, we’ve got a few gigs ready to announce there so fingers crossed the world can get back to normal next year and we can get back out there. We’re ready for the next step now, we know we’ve got the best tunes about and once we get the platform to show the world they’ll be no stopping us.
Thank you for the interview!! Columbia’s latest track Fat Catz is out now.
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