It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here is Sweet May who play the New Blood stage on the Sunday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Will (guitarist/frontman) is half Swedish/Ecuadorean, Piers (bassist/vocals) is from near London, and Al is (drummer) from Manchester…but we formed at the University of York.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
We’ve been jamming together for 14 months, and had our first gig a little under a year ago.
Where does the name of the band come from?
It comes from us having formed on the last day of May, and how refreshing it was to finally play together with the best kind of people after a long year of lockdowns, deprived of jamming and live music.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We think our uniqueness comes from firstly our flexibility in songwriting and improvisation because we are a trio, and secondly by constantly blending our shared pool of diverse musical tastes ranging from old school heavy metal and rock, blues, funk, prog, and various world music, which we love experimenting with and incorporating.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
We unleash our wildest sides on stage and always make sure to connect with the crowd to bring them along into our zone. We hope others will come to see us because were 20/21 years old, and still pay homage to the classic rock giants while moving the genre forward.
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
Piers has been going for 8 years consecutively and has always been a die-hard Bloodstock fan. Will went last year and fell head over heels in love with the community and talent. Al is about to experience his first Bloodstock this year.
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Which M2tM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?
We got the opportunity through a video submission to Adam.
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock?
Bloodstock?! We may have puked and shit our pants simultaneously.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
You can expect a selection of musically diverse tracks with the highest energy from our basket of originals.
Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
Lamb of God and Behemoth!
What are you working on at the moment?
We are currently working on finishing up 5 new songs for our live sets and developing old and new ideas to incorporate them. However, individually we are always working on improving our technique and getting tighter with each other while doing increasingly more demanding things.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
At the Ox and the Loon The Who Tribute show in LA, Will saw 7 of the most beautiful drum kits get completely destroyed to shreds on stage at the end. It was heartbreaking.
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
Will has a Red Bull and a cup of tea, and Piers will have one and a quarter pints (saving the rest of the three quarters for the show. A crucial strategy). Al maintains an optimal state of hydration with a brutal mixture of water and H20.
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