Music / Spotlight
Spotlight: The New Cut
Formed in early 2021, The New Cut are a relatively new band on the Bristol music scene. But despite their age, the band have already made a splash.
Following a headline gig at the Louisiana and a supporting gig with English punk rock band Buzzcocks, the Bristol/Brighton band are going from strength to strength.
Their debut EP, Merrywood, is due to be released on Wednesday with a headline gig at The Exchange later this month to celebrate the release.
is needed now More than ever
Where in Bristol are you based?
“Student life gets you moving around quite a lot. At the moment, we all live together in Totterdown.”
How would you describe your music?
“Our manager tasked us the other week to try and think of five words to describe our music. We landed on post-punk, grungy, clunky, twangy and DIY (which I guess the last one counts as three words in its own right).
“Collectively we struggle with musical identity so we’d like to just say ‘evolving’ for now. We’ve hit a vein of a kind of post-punk/alternative rock sound but we don’t want to constrict ourselves to one area for the future.”
What influences your music?
Flick: “I personally like a lot of Fontaines DC’s music, I take a lot of influence from their riffs with cool sounds and pedals. I also like a lot of Bloc Party for their guitar parts in their album Silent Alarm with two different catchy riffs put together to sound cohesive. I like dat.”
Henry: “My dad played in a band in the 80s and came into contact with a lot of punk, post-punk and grunge of which his influence has been handed down to me. I’d say bands like Wire and The Monochrome set personally, but I think as a unit we steer more towards contemporary bands like Parquet Courts, Do Nothing and Fontaines DC.”
Rachel: “Personally I have a lot of post punk, grungy and riot grrrl influences with my music. I really love clunky bass and I find most of my inspiration from bands such as Gang Of Four, Squid, Egyptian Blue and Parquet Courts, although in contrast one of the most influential bassists for me has to be the late Audun Laading from the band Her’s. I believe you can hear his influence on my bass playing in our track Train of Thought.”
Morgan: “Peer pressure.”
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What’s your favourite memory of your career so far?
“We have been very lucky with some of our experiences so far. Each milestone has been really exciting for us and has pushed us more and more.
“Some that jump to mind immediately would probably be our first headliner at The Louisiana or the time we ended up supporting Buzzcocks at Thekla. All of our released/soon to be released tracks have been recorded at HUMM studios. Dom and the rest of the guys there have been really great to us and we’ve really enjoyed our time there, as well.”
What’s the response been to the music/art you’ve put out there so far?
“We think positive? It’s hard to tell at this stage because we don’t think we’re big enough to attract many vocal critics.
“We think it’s important to recognise the really encouraging and nice people we’ve met so far, of which there have been a fair few. We are always really grateful for the support we’ve had, even if we are too socially illiterate to be able to take compliments in a non-awkward way.”
How have you found breaking into the music industry for grassroots artists?
“We are having a lot of fun at this stage. When you’re a small artist you get the feeling that anything could happen, even if it never does.
“Local venues and bands have been very good to us, giving us support slots when we first started out and helping us with headliners when we have been ready for it.
“We’re forever grateful for the help we get behind the scenes. We have started working with some management now and they have been really good to us. Bristol has a very strong music community that we are grateful to be a part of.”
Where’s your favourite place to perform and attend a gig in Bristol?
“We couldn’t possibly pick one, there are so many fantastic venues. The Louisiana, Crofters Rights, Thekla, the list could be endless.
“We do, however, secretly rate venues based on their toilets and, if we are going by that metric, it’s probably The Louisiana first and Crofters Rights dead last (sorry Crofters – I hear they have new ones now that are very nice).”
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Who’s your dream artist to work with?
Henry: “I hope to not sound too morbid but I’m afraid most of them are dead. Out of the alive ones, however, I think possibly Parquet Courts would be a great artist to collaborate with, maybe a band like BODEGA as well who look really fun live.”
Morgan: “I’d have to go with Bloc Party. I love their Silent Alarm album as well as A Weekend In The City, both are absolutely banging albums.”
Flick: “I’d like to work with Kings of Leon, I really like their early stuff like Aha Shake Heartbreak, it’s a great album. I also really like Sorry and Do Nothing, I think they’d be very cool to work with.”
Rachel: “At the moment two bands I’d personally love to work with are Lime Garden and Egyptian Blue, everything they both release become my new favourite tunes. I’d also love to work with Parquet Courts, Sorry, Dry Cleaning, Folly Group and Do Nothing. The list is endless and I could keep going on talking forever as I’m sure the rest of the band know. So I’ll leave it at that.”
Who have you got your eye on at the moment? Are there any artists you think deserve more appreciation/acknowledgement?
“It’s a hard question to answer because every band that we gig with should have more recognition. The answer for this question could be everyone we’ve had support us and everyone we’ve supported. Tokyo Toy Company and Morpheus and The Broadcast are supporting us at our next gig and we think they’re great!”
What’s next for you?
Our EP: “Merrywood comes out on the April 12. It features our two latest singles Reclamation and Stephen Gerrard is my Dad with a studio version of The Family Business and a track called Train of Thought.
“We also have a fun festival season lined up. We are playing Great Escape in Brighton first and then loads more that haven’t been announced yet.”
Tickets for The New Cuty’s gig at The Exchange on April 30 can be found at hdfst.uk/E86484
Main photo courtesy of The New Cut
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