The Lilacs made their Leeds Festival debut on Sunday, performing on The Ballroom Stage at Bramham Park. The Wigan-based quartet's frontman Ollie Anglesea admitted the band's first appearance at the festival was a significant moment, noting that Leeds is always one of their favourite cities to perform in.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Ollie said: "It's our first time at Leeds – if you look at some of their old line-ups, Oasis, The Killers, if you're looking now, it's gone more poppier. I'm told they're trying to bring back guitar music, I think that's why we got the call-up. Looking forward to it, I've never been."
An interesting setting
Sam Birchall, the band's lead guitarist and civil engineer, laughed about performing in a ballroom, calling it "an interesting setting for us." Ollie added: "Leeds, as a city, is always high up on our tours, it's always one of the first names down on the list, kind of thing, so I'm expecting the same stuff just in a tent."
This summer, the quartet—comprising Ollie Anglesea, Sam Birchall, Dave Gomersall, and Matt Johnson—has been exceptionally busy, performing at events such as Y Not, Tramlines, Latitude, Kendal Calling, Rock for People, and now Leeds. Speaking of their hectic summer, Ollie admitted it hadn't been easy for them. "We played to the best part of 40,000 people, and then you've got to go back into work on the Monday and switch your mindset," he said.
Juggling work and music
Despite their success, all four members still work regular 9 to 5 jobs and plan their music careers around work commitments. In just one week, the band played shows on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, meaning they had to take a considerable amount of time off work. "It is tough, we're not hiding that, it's hard," Ollie said, adding: "But you've just got to make it happen, and we do make it happen."
Sam commented: "I think that's one of the reasons we've done so well over the years is that, you know, we've always been prepared to take on every gig, take on every opportunity, and even though it is hard in the background to juggle things with work and stuff like that."
Despite the tiredness and long hours, the band refuse to let fans see this side of them. Instead, they energise themselves to deliver the best possible performance for those who pay to see them. This was reflected in their performance at Y Not Festival, with the band being upgraded from the Quarry Stage due to unprecedented demand. This also happened at Kendal Calling, with the band being moved to the Main Stage due to more people wanting to see them.
New single and debut album
Their new single, Put The World To Rights, was released last week, and it instantly went down well with fans. "It's got good vibes," Ollie said of the track, adding that the track, which lays bare raw emotion, "nailed" the message they wanted to put out there for fans.
Sam said of the track: "I think when we went into the studio, it was like, let's not completely write something just for the sake of it getting played on the radio and people hearing it. Let's write something we want to write and make it sound like we want it to sound, almost like we're playing it live in a room."
The band do not use any backing tracks and play their instruments completely live; that's not to say they won't make the most of technology in the future, but for them, "there's something about bands not using it," allowing them to connect with the audience on a more personal level.
Perfect timing for Sam
Their debut album, Keeping Up With The Joneses, is slated for release on October 9. Ollie admits that the writing process was a "pretty quick" one, taking six months. "We absolutely loved it. It was brilliant. It was probably the best sort of, you know, it took us six months, and it was a really, you know, it was a really fun six months."
For Sam, the chance came at the right time. Last year, he revealed that he was stepping back from the band for a short period of time in order to undergo chemotherapy treatment. "I then came back into it and felt like it was something to really get my teeth into on a personal level," he said.
Sam added: "I think it was just a nice, everything that we were writing, more from a lyrical point of view, kind of fit into this same umbrella of influences we were all being inspired by a little bit. Obviously, a lot of the initial writing comes from Ollie, but I felt like a lot of us were pretty aligned and that made for quite a smooth, exciting process."
"We wrote and recorded the Keeping Up With The Joneses album, in my opinion, at the absolute perfect time. Not only has it been highly anticipated by fans for a while, but on a personal level, being involved in such an amazing project after a full year of cancer treatment last year was extra special."
"Sometimes, having gone through that kind of physically and emotionally draining experience to battle such a serious illness, you can feel a bit lost and away from your usual life, but being able to focus my efforts on the album really gave me something to focus on and work on. I'm proud of all of the lads in the band for what we have created on this album, and especially proud on a personal level of myself, to have beaten cancer, allowing me to have my input in an incredible piece of work. I'm excited to see what October's big release brings, as I have a sneaky suspicion The Lilacs may be right up there with some of the big names in the UK charts!"
Biggest tour yet
In February next year, the band will kick off their biggest European tour, with a huge headline show at Manchester's O2 Victoria Warehouse on April 3. Ollie, while laughing, admits that he's nervous but also excited to hit the road. "People will have had six months with the album to listen to it, to kind of know the words and stuff like that. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to it," he said, adding: "There's some bucket list venues on there for us, you know, O2 Victoria Warehouse and other places, The Octagon in Sheffield, and SWG3 Warehouse in Glasgow."
He says that he has no preference between playing to a festival crowd or a headline crowd, as festivals introduce the band to new fans. "I love playing to our own crowd, the gigs are always better, because they're going off, and we love it, and the energy in the room's amazing. But I do, there is something about playing to a new crowd and having that challenge of winning fans over and stuff."
Sam went on to say: "I think the tour next year is going to be amazing. I think now we've got to those size venues as well that are on that tour, we can kind of have some fun with like, you know, doing a longer set and kind of upscaling like just the whole show. It's always a nice time leading up to those tours where you kind of decide the set list."
