Colchester 4-piece Anorak Patch have created quite a stir. And now they are set to release their debut EP By Cousin Sam via Nice Swan Records 0n 29 April. The whopping 7-track EP includes previous singles ‘Irate’, ‘Blue Jeans’, ‘Delilah’, ‘Cousin Sam’ current single ‘Paris Will Be Paid For‘ an ‘Intro‘ and unreleased track ‘Polyfillar‘. A remarkable achievement, especially given the young age of the band members: Effie Lawrence, Vocals/Keyboards (17), Eleanor Helliwell, Bass (16), Oscar Ryland, Guitar (18) and Luca Ryland, Drums/Vocals (15). Of course it’s all about the music and given the quality of singles such as ‘Delilah‘ and ‘Irate‘ Anorak Patch are worthy of the accolades they are receiving from the likes of BBC Radio6 Music.
I caught up with guitarist Oscar to find out more about Anorak Patch……..
Welcome Anorak Patch! And congratulations on your debut EP By Cousin Sam which is out on 29 April via Nice Swan Records. As way of introduction could you describe how Anorak Patch came to exist as a band?
Luca and I (Oscar) had been playing together for 7 or 8 years by the time the idea for Anorak Patch had started, but we definitely knew we wanted to play music together because the chemistry was already there. Effie’s dad put on a local festival and asked us if we wanted to play, we were very keen to do it. We had also recently learnt that Eleanor had started playing bass so we kind of just forced her to join.You are signed to Nice Swan Records, the home of bands such as Sprints, English Teacher and Sports Team. How did that come about?
After we released ‘6 Week Party‘, we were looking for managers and labels and things like that. We went on this long search and spoke to so many people and Nice Swan came up at the end of our search and fit what we wanted, so we we went with them.Could you explain your song-writing process? Do you work collaboratively? and what is the main inspiration behind your music?
When we first started, it was very much Luca and I working on something at home and bringing it to band practice but as time has gone on, it’s much for collaborative. It’s always been a democratic writing system though, we vote on choices for songs and what to do with them and what we need to change and all credits are equal – no one’s input or contribution is no more important than anyone else’s.Our new (ish) collaborative writing system works much better as we can get more ideas down quicker and we can communicate easier about what it is we want.Our inspirations come from everywhere but mainly its rooted in guitar music but after that initial idea comes out it can be bent and moulded into anything by anything.
It is impossible to ignore the fact you are such a young band with drummer Luca Ryland just 15 years old. Have you experienced negativity because you are so young? Were there barriers you felt you had to overcome in order to be taken seriously as a band?
When we started to play live, there was a healthy scene in Colchester of young bands so we never felt out of place when playing around the town. Even when we started to play all over the country, I don’t feel like we had any barriers and judgements from our age. If anything, it’s a good thing because you can prove people’s thoughts wrong of ‘they are a young band so they’ll be bad’.
What can we expect from the EP? At seven tracks its almost an album! And what are your plans for the rest of the year?
Our EP contains a lot of musical variation and differences. In some ways, its a bit of a compilation album where it had previous tracks like ‘Irate‘ and ‘Blue Jeans‘ – songs which helped build us up. The new tracks on there are our best stuff so far and we are incredibly proud of it. It’s all been about contrasting and having extremes of everything.Right now we are writing and focusing on road testing it all. We are planning to play much more when the summer starts.
If I looked in your fridge right now what would I find?
Probably something out of date.
For more information on Anorak Patch check out their facebook and bandcamp.
Their debut EP By Cousin Sam is set for release on 29 April via Nice Swan Records.
