Band Interview: The Lilac Hour
Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are pleased to bring you an interview with melodic rock outfit, The Lilac Hour.
1. How did you get started as a band?
The Lilac Hour is a London-based Alt Rock band, consisting of lead singer and guitarist, Jake McCollum, Matt Volpato on drums and Jamie Katz on bass. Jake and Jamie met at uni and played in cover bands together before deciding to start writing original music during lockdown. The Lilac Hour is the reincarnation of their previous band, “Emergency”. Having welcomed drummer Matt into the band and taken huge strides in our production and songwriting, we decided a change was required. We are releasing an EP in 2022, for which we have written a lot of music which we believe represents a big step up on our currently available catalogue.
2. How would you describe your sound?
We are influenced by many different types of music. We draw on rock elements like heavy guitars and riffs but also the kind of melodies you’d more often find in pop music. Have a look at our Spotify radio to see what we mean.
3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?
We love heavy rock bands like Nothing But Thieves and Muse, but are also into softer, more melody driven artists like Sam Fender. Our songwriter, Jake, grew up in a house with ABBA and Fleetwood Mac playing half the time and Stiff Little Fingers the other, so various bands have had an impact on our sound.
4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?
As a band starting out I’d say it’s helped us enormously in terms of finding an audience. The streaming model allows users to try out new music without incurring any extra cost, so people are more willing to try new things than in the download or CD era. It’s also a lot cheaper for us to distribute. Equally, though, there is now so much easily accessible music competing for people’s attention, which makes it harder to sustain people’s interest once you’ve got it.
5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?
Listening to music! We’re always keeping an ear on what’s popular in the rock charts to see how we can improve our sound. We have an entire Spotify playlist dedicated to songs we wish we’d written.
6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?
This year, we will release our debut EP. The first single, “Call Me”, is out Friday 22nd July. It’s a sort of soft rock ballad with a strong tune, but the guitar solo in the middle is the highlight.
We already have one other track recorded and ready to go and will be heading into the studio very soon to complete the others. This EP marks a significant departure from our previous works in terms of style and quality and we’re really looking forward to its release.
We also have plans to play several gigs this summer.
