Larkins (band)
Larkins | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Manchester, England |
| Genres | alt-pop |
| Years active | 2014-Present |
| Labels | Good Soldier Songs |
| Website | larkinsband.com |
| Members |
|
Larkins are an English alt-pop band formed in 2014, originally meeting in music class at Longdendale High School.[1] Based around Manchester, the band consists of vocalist, songwriter/producer Josh Noble, guitarist and pianist Dom Want, bass guitarist Henry Beach and drummer Joe Gaskell.[2]
Building a fanbase through online communities and social media, Larkins describe their sound as "alternative pop" and are known for combining bass driven songs with lyrical topics such as self-destruction and the impact of rape culture.[3][4][5]After the band signed to Good Soldier Songs in late-2018 the band began work on their debut record JCOY that is due to be released on October 8th 2021.[6][3][7]
As of September 2021 Larkins have accumulated over 20 million streams across all platforms.
Background[edit]
The band formed at school after Josh and Dom met in music class aged 12. After playing niche covers at charity events Josh began searching for a bassist and drummer while at college, skipping lessons and sneaking into the local studio to record guitar parts and learn how to produce.[8] Originally Josh enlisted the help of school friends Jamie Spencer and Matt Williams to fill the roles of drummer and bassist. [9][7]
Josh and Dom began writing songs at 15 and discovered the famous Manchester venues such as Night and Day cafe, The Soup Kitchen and The Whiskey Jar when attending Loreto college in Hulme, Manchester.[10][11] After playing their first showcase shows and pondering over the success of other bands round them, Josh started to become obsessed (later to be found to be the beginnings of OCD[12]) with live sound, stage performance and production.[13][14][15] From here Henry and Joe joined the band to secure the line-up. It was this that allowed the band to focus in on their sound, determined to be different to any other artists breaking out.[16] With their first two releases of 2019 - the ‘TV Dream’ EP and the ‘Not Enough Love’ single - Larkins quickly amassed 5 million plays, their potential further underlined with support from Radio 1 (Jack Saunders), Beats 1 (Zane Lowe), BBC Introducing and Radio X.[17]
In a recent interview with Notion magazine Josh said “We had this crazy music teacher. All we ever wanted to do was go to that lesson, we never wanted to do anything else. And when we went to study music in college, we used to skip all the other lessons so we could go to music technology. There was a little studio there where we'd hang out and make music. Both of our parents had a great record collection, for Dom it would be Bob Dylan and the Beatles. And for me, it'd be Led Zeppelin and Duran Duran. We'd try to teach each other guitar, listening to bands like Foals and Bombay Bicycle Club together. We were trying to be hipster and cool, and just wanted to be in a little band.”[7]
Career[edit]
2016-2018: Early Demo's[edit]
Larkins self-released 3 songs during their early stages: "Hit and Run (Demo)", "Wasted Years" and "Sugar Sweet (Demo)".[18] Alongside a string of self-promoted shows across the UK and Europe the band started to be featured on University radios and local blogging websites[19], quickly gaining the attention of BBC Introducing.[20] The Manchester Evening News called the band "Manchesters next arena act".[21]
2019: TV Dream EP + Live At The Albert Hall[edit]
In early 2019 Larkins released their first EP TV Dream which included the singles "TV Dream" and "Something Beautiful".[22] The band had begun work with producer Chris Zane (Friendly Fires,Passion Pit) at The Dairy Studios in Brixton and completed the EP with a reworked version of "Sugar Sweet" and a B-side called "Wallflower" that Josh produced. The EP amassed over 7.5million plays on Spotify, combined with over a million hits on Youtube. The lead single "TV Dream" gained the support of BBC Radio 1, Radio X and Apple Music leading to a sell-out show at Manchester's Albert Hall on March 2nd 2019.[23] The live recording of this show was released on both digital and physical format on April 19th 2019.[24]
2020: Hit and Run EP + "AWHAFY?"[edit]
The band began 2020 by releasing their second EP Hit and Run.[25] After reworking the demo with producer Mark Crew (Bastille, The Wombats) the band moved towards a more modern and alternative sound enlisting the help of Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodigo, Caroline Polacheck) adding the songs "Flood" and "Make You Better", a song inspired by the vocal production of artists such as Bon Iver.[26][27] [17]By this point Larkins were touring extensively across the UK and America, including playing festivals such as Reading and Leeds Festival[28], and gaining further support from the likes of NME saying that Larkins were "one of Manchesters best new hopes".
Later in 2020 the band released the single "Are We Having Any Fun Yet?", co-written by Josh and Dan Nigro.[29] The song gained extensive media attention for its bold sound and lyrical content gaining the band a nomination at the AIM awards and attracting support from Travis Mills and Annie-Mac.[30]
2020: animalsincostume[edit]
In early 2020 released the first garments from their ethically sourced/sustainable clothing brand animalsincostume.[31][32]
2021: JCOY[edit]
Larkins are due to release their debut album JCOY on the 8th October 2021.
Band Members[edit]
- Joshua Reis Noble (born Feb 6th 1996) - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter, producer
- Dominic Want (born Aug 23rd 1996) - lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
- Henry Beach (born Sep 28th 1997) - bass guitar, backing vocals, synths
- Joseph Gaskell (born Dec 7th 1997) - drums, percussion
Discography[edit]
Extended Plays[edit]
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| TV Dream |
|
| Live At The Albert Hall |
|
| Hit and Run |
|
| JCOY |
|
Singles[edit]
List of singles, with year released, Spotify Streams (as of Oct 2021), album shown and significant chart positioning[edit]
| Title | Year | Streams | Album | Chart position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "TV Dream" | 2019 | 4.4 million | TV Dream EP | 1 | iTunes (PER) |
| "Something Beautiful" | 1.8 million | ||||
| "Not Enough Love" | 970,000 | - | 3 | iTunes (PER) | |
| "Sugar Sweet" | 950,000 | TV Dream EP | |||
| "Are We Having Any Fun Yet?" | 2020 | 4.2 million | - | 2 | iTunes (PER) |
| "Are We Having Any Fun Yet? ayokay remix" | 1.4 million | ||||
| "Hit and Run" | 540,000 | Hit and Run EP | |||
| "if + when" | 2021 | 60,000 | JCOY | 14 | TikTok charts |
| "This Is Gonna Hurt" | 65,000 | ||||
| "-" denotes a single not part of a larger body of work | |||||
Festival appearances[edit]
Significant global festival appearances (excluding smaller day events)[edit]
| Festival | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Great Escape | Brighton, UK | May 17th, 2018 |
| Dot 2 Dot | Manchester, Bristol, Nottingham, UK | May 25th-27th, 2018 |
| Tramlines | Sheffield, UK | July 21st, 2018 |
| SXSW | Austin, Texas | March 13th, 2019 |
| Soundcity | Liverpool, UK | May 4th, 2019 |
| Live at Leeds | Leeds | May 4th, 2019 |
| La French Escapade | Paris, France | May 6th. 2019 |
| Neighbourhood Weekender | Liverpool, UK | May 25th, 2019 |
| YNOT | Derby, UK | July 27th, 2019 |
| Reading Festival | Reading, UK | Aug 24th, 2019 |
| Leeds Festival | Leeds, UK | Aug 25th, 2019 |
| Neighbourhood | Manchester, UK | Oct 12th, 2019 |
| London Calling | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Oct 26th, 2019 |
| 110 Above | Gopsall, UK | Aug 14th, 2021 |
Awards and nominations[edit]
List of awards and nominations, with organisation, award, nominated work, and result shown[edit]
| Year | Organisation | Award | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | AIM awards | One to Watch | Nominated | [33] |
| Sunday Times | Breaking Act | Included | [34] | |
| BBC Introducing | On The Playlist | [35] | ||
| 2020 | NME | The NME 100 | [36] | |
| One Unique | What to Watch Out For | [37] |
References[edit]
- ↑ "Getting to know... Larkins | Dork". readdork.com. April 11, 2019.
- ↑ Benjamin, Mark. "An Interview with Indie Pop Band, Larkins - RAIN Magazine". Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Larkins Put Us Straight Into Our Feels With Their New Single". Wonderland. July 22, 2021.
- ↑ Charpentier, Abigail. "Larkins Debut New Single via Good Soldier Records". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ "Larkins: Manchester's Next BIG Thing..." Music Republic Magazine. 2019-02-15. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ Charpentier, Abigail. "Larkins Debut New Single via Good Soldier Records". BroadwayWorld.com.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Interview: Larkins Are Setting Their Own Standard". Notion. August 20, 2021.
- ↑ Walters, Sarah (October 1, 2016). "Meet Larkins: the band who could be Manchester's next arena act". Manchester Evening News.
- ↑ Stars, Even The. "Whisky Sessions Unsigned - Manchester Whiskey Jar - 29th October 2014 (Beck Lanehart, Larkins, Troubadour, The Tapestry, The Jordan Allen Band, Death To The Strange, The Gramotones)". Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "The Larkins go back to college!!". Loreto. March 10, 2016.
- ↑ "The Mancunian Band to Watch: Larkins on Their History and the Politics Behind New Single, 'TV Dream' | Highlight Magazine". highlightmagazine.net.
- ↑ "Larkins – Student Rag magazine – Scotland's Best Student Magazine". Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ Stars, Even The. "Larkins - Manchester Night And Day Cafe - 27th December 2014".
- ↑ "Interview with Larkins front man, Josh Noble". December 31, 2019.
- ↑ "Larkins: Life on the Road as One of the UK's Best Upcoming Bands". Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ "Larkins". Spotify. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 "LARKINS - Complete 2019 with new single "Make You Better"- Listen Now | XS Noize | Online Music Magazine". www.xsnoize.com. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ "Hear This: Larkins - Sugar Sweet". www.thenationalstudent.com. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ theindiependent (2015-09-10). "Live Review: Larkins (EP Launch) // The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 05.08.15". The Indiependent. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "BBC Radio Manchester - BBC Music Introducing in Manchester, Larkins". BBC. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ Walters, Sarah (2016-10-01). "Meet Larkins: the band who could be Manchester's next arena act". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "LARKINS Release Video for New Single 'TV Dream'". GIG GOER. 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "Larkins". Albert Hall Manchester. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "LARKINS Announce New Album, 'Larkins: Live At The Albert Hall, Manchester' - Watch Video | XS Noize | Online Music Magazine". www.xsnoize.com. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "Larkins' 'Hit and Run' EP Is the Perfect Mash-Up of the Old, New, and Unexpected". Atwood Magazine. 2020-02-14. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "Larkins Supply A Brand New Anthem With 'Hit And Run'". Clash Magazine. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "Indie-Rock Newcomers Larkins Break Down Their Electric New EP 'Hit and Run'". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ Larkins - TV Dream (Reading + Leeds 2019), retrieved 2021-09-20
- ↑ "Larkins Break Down Brave Faces & Get Real About Modern Life on "Are We Having Any Fun Yet?"". Atwood Magazine. 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ Bocci, Maria (2020-04-27). "Larkins show off their sonic storytelling on "Are We Having Any Fun Yet?" [Video]". EARMILK. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
- ↑ "Larkins: "As An Artist You Have to Use Your Platform for Good"". Enfnts Terribles. 2020-06-13. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ "Interview: Larkins". The Courier Online. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ "Larkins 'Not Enough Love' | Kings of A&R". kingsofar.com. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ "Larkins | Primary Talent International". primarytalent.com. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ "BBC Music - BBC Music Introducing, On The Playlist: Larkins - TV Dream". BBC. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/larkins/status/1213132921487450112/photo/2
- ↑ "Who to watch out for in 2020". One Unique. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
This article "Larkins (band)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Larkins (band). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
