A (not particularly little) chat with: High Tyde
(in full)
It's a cloudy Sunday night, most people are at home watching I'm a Celebrity or catching up on overdue coursework...but not me. I'm at South Sea, in Sheffield, having a chat with the High Tyde lads.
Cody Thomas-Matthews - Vocals, Bass
Spencer Tobias-Williams - Lead Guitar
Connor Cheetham - Guitar, Vocals
Louis Semlekan-Faith - Drums, Vocals
To start with how did you guys form as a band?
Cody: We met through mutual friends, Louis and Spencer knew each other first.
Louis: We went busking all the time- we started off with bluesy-stuff. Then we one day we thought, ‘let’s start a band’, but Cody and Connor were already in metal bands at the time.
Cody: Eventually we all got together and thought, ‘lets start this indie band’. It was just as a side project and then it took off.
High Tyde is a pretty cool, specific name. Is there a meaning behind it?
Spencer: There is this song with the lyric ‘high tide’ in it.
Connor: Yeah, there’s a Noel Gallagher lyric.
Louis: It was on the first practice, and we were all stuck on the songs we were listening to at that minute and Noel Gallagher’s song was hit at the time…me and Spence were into mod stuff…and 'High Tyde' just really clicked.
Cody: And also in Brighton we live by the sea!
You’re in the middle of this little tour at the minute, are you enjoying it so far?
Everyone: Yeah!
Cody: We pretty much finish today but then we’ve got next weekend aswell. Leeds last night was cool- it was sold out. It’s really nice to play a town you’ve never played before.
Louis: Last night there were about twenty people that could sing every song back- out of our town that was weird.
Spencer: Yeah, cause you’re used to your own home town being your thing, but to go somewhere completely different…its weird.
So, has Leeds been your favourite city so far?
Everyone: Probably, yeah.
Spencer: But everyone has been really, really nice.
Got any festivals planned for the future, then?
Louis: Yeah, definitely.
Spencer: We’re gonna work our arses’ off to play them.
Cool. So, what’s your major aspiration as a band? Number one album…or headlining Glastonbury?
Louis: There are so many things in the category of number ones.
Connor: To play a show every night- like at the minute.
Cody: What we really wanna do is just get our name out there and have everyone hear us and be like, ‘Ah, they’re fucking cool. I wanna see them.’
Louis: You get a sense of what all the big bands have done. I read Keith Richards’ book and back in the 60s this guy was going across America- I want something like that one day.
You’ve been
comapared to The 1975 a lot, are they an influence of yours?
Louis: We go through phases really.
Spencer: You can’t be just like one band, really. You’ve got
to have your own sound- but we wanna take a little bit of everything and put it into one band.
Cody: But, we do really really like The 1975…we like what they’re about. You take tips from all bands- but we wanna do
our own thing.
Connor: Yeah, I mean we started off way into Two Door Cinema
Club…
Yeah, you’ve been
compared to them a lot too.
Connor: Yeah, yeah, but then we started listening to DJs.
Then 80s music.
Louis: The 80s are mental at the minute.
Cody: Bands like Churches, we listen to them a lot. We have
major inspirations.
So, if you could collaborate with any band, who would it be?
Cody: Personally, for me, I'd pick something like...Disclosure.
Spencer: Or, like a remix.
Louis: Or, if Amy Winehouse was still alive...she's incredible.
Connor: It's mostly DJs now though...
You should bring collabs back!
(laughs)
Connor: Yeah, we'll bring them back.
So, I went on tumblr and I asked about. Some fans have questions, so I picked a couple of clean ones out. (Seriously, some of you girls need a cold shower)
Louis: Clean ones? (laughs)What were the others?
(YOU CAN SEE THE TUMBLR QUESTIONS IN THE VIDEO)
Do you write all your own songs?
Louis: Spencer comes up with the foundations and then we work together with the rest. We'll just jam something out.
Cody: Subconsciously we started writing about our lifes and what we're about.
Louis: You can see in our songs how we started out quite naive, maybe, when we were young. Like, the lyrics were really innocent.
Connor: But we did a thing with the BBC and they said the one thing they liked most about us was the fact we could've written about going out and getting drunk...but we wrote about having a cup of tea (laughs)
Spencer: We're little cuties at heart.
So, what do you do in your spare time?
Cody: Have a sleep? Or listen to music.
Louis: We all study music aswell! So everyday of the week, we're doing something musical.
Cody: And we do a lot of clothes shopping!
Louis: Yeah, nothing we get is ever really new. (laughs) Kilo sales!
Spencer: Going to Morrisons is a big one, we love our meal deals.
Louis: I'd happily play a gig in Morrisons cafe
Everyone: (laughs)
Where can people buy your music? And will there be merch out soon?
Cody: iTunes! Or you can buy a physical copy after a gig!
Connor: Yeah, we want merch out too!
Louis: No tie dye though... (laughs)
Overall, after talking to High Tyde and seeing them perform, I came to the rather quick decision that these guys are super passionate about what they're doing. Their live performance was, also, impeccable. Not only that either, but they are genuinely nice, fun lads. I'm pretty sure they're gonna be hugeeee some day! So, do yourself a favour now and give them a listen!
Thank you for taking the time for the interview too, if you're reading. Plus, a big shout out to Jazz for stepping in as my camera girl and being super helpful and lovely!
EXPECT THE VIDEO VERY SHORTLY: SORRY FOR THE DELAY! BLAME YOUTUBE!
Sometimes a song means something to you because it marks a moment in your life. 'Robbers' has marked a very specific moment in my life- which I can truly say was simultaneously one of the best and most exciting moments of my life so far.
It was an amazing experience- even if all we saw actually saw/heard was Robbers, Chocolate and Sex. However, each of these songs were amazingly performed and I could not have been happier.
