This week’s band of the week are the brummie trio of Mark Tromans (vocals, guitar), Craig Taylor (bass), and Mark Sheehan (drums/percussion) also known as Attica State (formerly Sons of Gossamer). Attica State’s sex-soaked guitar riffs, perfect harmonies and cogent songwriting make this young band a powerful contender to be the next hot British band.
Some have compared them to The Beatles, but it would be The Beatles after being bitten, chewed, swallowed and digested by Nirvana. Listening to Attica State’s dirty, sweat-stained, growling sound is a bit like watching the birth of the next alt.rock gods. The way they combine vocal harmonies with grinding guitar riffs and lusty, pity-me-not lyrics is a wonder to behold. And this week they are releasing two new singles “Comes And Goes” and “You Don’t Need It”, both are hooky, dirty, guitar driven tracks.
Drummer Mark Sheehan recently agreed to a chat with me, and this gregarious, lively, outspoken mouthpiece with a strong Birmingham accent was a good laugh. I caught him between football (soccer) and a night out with the boys, and we discussed the new singles, his band mates and getting pissed (British euphemism for drunk) in Birmingham.
How did Attica State become a band?
The lead guitarist and the bass player, Craig and Mark, have been playing together since school. When I was at college I met Craig — when we both worked in ASDA (grocery store chain owned by Walmart) funnily enough. I was singing in a band at the time and they asked me if I could play the drums and I said no but because I got with them so well they asked me to learn and so I did. And we went from strength to strength, from there. We got our own studio in Birmingham city centre, and then we started practising and went from there.
And now you are signed to an indie label?
Yeah, we are signed to Rebellion Records, which is a new label in the Midlands (a region of England) and we’re the first band to sign with them, so it’s all fresh and new. It’s quiet exciting at the moment. We are going to be releasing our first single the on the fifth of May.
Tell me about your first single.
It’s going to be a double A side. The two songs are “You Don’t Need It” and “Comes And Goes”. We couldn’t decide which one was better. We are getting lots of reviews on both of them, and lots of people choosing each one so we decided to release it as a double A side.
Who wrote these songs? How does your songwriting process work?
Normally, the guitarist (Mark Tromans) will come in with a few chords
and we’ll just start jamming from that really. And things will just develop from that. And then he will start putting some sort of a vocal over the top, singing any old words really just to get a melody going. We just keep jamming and he takes it away and he comes back with some lyrics for it. It develops that way really. They just come out of jams.
Your single is released on the fifth of May correct? What are you hoping it will do?
Really, obviously we would love it to sell loads. (laughs) But, it’s really to get Attica State out there. To get as many people into the band as possible, create a fan base. For future releases, so we’ve got people who are wanting more music from us really and who are just interested in us really.
How long has Attica State been together?
All in all, probably about four years. For the first year maybe two it was more just a fun thing, jamming and playing gigs, but we wasn’t taking it seriously. As time went on and we realised we were getting good reactions and a lot of people were getting into the band and asking for more stuff we started taking it seriously. For the past two years really we have been going at it full steam.
So tell me about the guys in Attica State.
We’ve got Mark Tromans whose the guitarist/ singer.
You told me earlier that he is a genius.
Yes! Genius close to madness kind of guy. (laughs) He amazes me, he’s got like a symphony in his head. I can’t believe where some of the ideas come from. He’s just an immense talent. There’s something about him like an aura about him, that people can… I don’t know; everyone’s interested in him.
Then there’s Craig the bass player. He’s sort of the political one in the band. Quite outspoken in his views and the way he will start to get under people’s skin in some way. But I think you need that in the band, you need someone who is slightly political.
And what about you, what’s your position in the band?
(Laughs)I suppose, I’m the one that organises things, I guess. I’m sort of the people person and the person who gets things going and in place and makes sure everything is staying together. So I’m doing all the boring bits.
So are going to release a whole album or just this single?
It’s initially going to be this single. We are currently recording the album. We’ve just set up our own studio. After working with loads of producers and coming out just thinking that they are just not getting the band, we’ve decided we would create our own studio. So we’ve just, just finished building it. We just started demoing new tracks for the album and then we will record it properly.
What do you want for Attica State in the long run?
Overall we just want to connect with as many people as possible. To get our music out there and totally make a living from it. So we can just do exactly what we love, what we enjoy doing and do it all the time.
So you mean touring and getting shagged? (laughing)
Yes basically. (laughs) And drinking a lot. No, no it’s about the music. The rest is just the cream.
If you would like to experience Attica State’s lusty, dirty rock and roll sound you can visit their MySpace space or their website. You can purchase Attica State's new singles at Rebellion Records online shop.
In the UK you can also purchase them by texting to 78789
Indie rebellionrecords 1 (for You Don't Need It)
Indie rebellionrecords 2 (for Comes and Goes)
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