Introducing... Status Quo inspired quartet Those Handsome Animals, who have their eyes firmly set on the Pyramid.
1. Who are Those Handsome Animals?
We are a four-piece involving guitars and lyrics from Thomas D Millett, Thomas Beavis on the bass, Gary Batt shredding the drums and myself (Gavin Hankins) on the other guitar. Me and Tom share the lead guitar duties, which is nice because we get different sounding solos a lot of the time! We all live in London (and consequentially most of the music is about life in london) and three quarters of the band hail from the mighty Enfield, which not too many people have been to. Beavis is our import, from South Africa, but now lives in the depths of Lewisham. We formed in late 2014 from the ashes of other bands. Me, Gary and Tom were in another band previously and we added Beavis because he's got cool hair and is great on the bass (he's even got his own little shimmy he does when he plays live which you have to see). After a long time not doing anything musically a strong love for music pulled us back together and the lack of predominantly guitar based bands pushed us on. We set about making music we love and have been enjoying it ever since. Really enjoying it.
2. How would you describe your sound?
I always struggle to describe exactly how we sound because one of our influences is Status Quo, and I think that sometimes tends to put people off. You can usually see peoples faces turn a little when you say that. We've lived through the indie era (which we fully indulged in) and there are influences in our music from that but what we really try and draw on is that 70s guitar sound. Nothing too fancy, just straight through the amp and turn it up as loud as possible usually. We really love a solo and we try and put in some harmonised guitars where we can as well. Put in Tom's clever lyrics and thats something like a description. Plus the guys who do our recordings at Soup Studios really have done a great job of capturing that sound. Anyway I think I'm going to cop out and give Tom's answer as well which i think works. Instead of collecting a list of artists as influences, we have just songs. Bit’s of music that have interested us in one-way or another. Some songs that have helped mould us have been “Wings – Jet”, “The Cars – Just What I Needed”, random bits if Status Quo & ‘The Bachman-Turner Overdrive – You Aint Seen Nothing Yet”. Basically a lot of Dad rock.
3. You've just released the video for new track, 'Doing Fine'. Tell us a little about the track?
The track was the first song we ever learnt, Tom had it in his head for a while and it shaped the entire sound of the band. We had a set of unconventional influences and this was the track which showed us they could work well together. It's fun to play live because me and Tom both get a solo, his is first and mine is in the outro. It kicks the crap out of a crowd this one!
4. Where do you see yourself in five years time?
Pyramid stage.
5. What's next for Those Handsome Animals?
We're back in the studio in August to start work on new stuff, it would be nice to get a single out this year. We also have a new video in the pipeline for Right Fit For The City, another track that has gone down well from the EP. Tom has been playing a new song to us recently about an encounter on the DLR (Yes the docklands light railway, if your not from london its just a train). It sounds bloody good and I cant wait to get in the studio to record it. Tom's lyrics are really coming together and are sounding really really strong. I've been finding that i've been singing this one to myself quite a bit. Quite embarrassing when your singing your mates lyrics. He'll probably revel in that.
6. Where can we hear/find out more from you?
We've got loads going on!
Best place to listen is here www.soundcloud.com/those-handsome-animals.
Unfortunately we don't have any gigs lined up at the minute but we are working on some. But the best place to keep updated is our Facebook and Twitter pages. We've got a lot of good stuff happening at the minute and it would be worth following us to keep up to date!