Frontiers

Nottingham band Frontiers promise big things for 2012.

The band was hand-picked by Perry from Janes Addiction to support the band back in September, they have also supported The Chapman Family, toured with We Are Scientists, performed at Dot To Dot and Beach Break Live to mention a few gigs!

Working with acclaimed Arctic Monkeys and Pulp producer Alan Smyth, Frontiers have also performed on the BBC introducing stage at Leeds and Reading.

We caught up with Frontier’s Guitarist Charlie to find out more!

How did working with Alan Smyth come about?

Completely by chance actually! Another band put us in contact with him after we asked their opinion on where to record our first set of demos and since working with him we’ve never looked back really! He has a very unique method of production which works well for us, and so we have built up a very good working relationship with him over the years.

How did you find performing on the BBC Introducing stage at Leeds and Reading?

As young as we were, playing there was pretty surreal. It was a huge honour to grace that stage and we can only thank BBC Radio Nottingham for getting behind us and putting us forward. It’s something we will all look back on and pinpoint as one of the highlights of our live careers.

What has been your favourite gig you’ve played to-date and why?

This is a difficult question to answer as last year particularly there were so many live highlights. I think one of our standout performances was at The Great Escape. It was our first time playing the festival and we fell in love with it straight away. When you walk round the streets of Brighton the whole place has this incredible buzz surrounding it – very similar to The Camden Crawl. We played at Komedia downstairs to a busy crowd and just loved every minute of it.

You were hand-picked by Jane’s Addiction to open their comeback show, did you ever imagine something like this would happen to you?

Music is very unpredictable. We’re not surprised by anything anymore to be honest. Alex and I were on the way to the pub on a Friday evening when we got a call from our management saying that we would be playing at Koko on the Tuesday. Apparently Perry had got hold of a couple of our tracks and loved our sound. It’s as simple as that really! They’re lovely guys and we can’t thank them enough for the opportunity to play a sold out Koko!

Who would you cite as your biggest musical influence?

Each different band member has their own personal influence, but there several bands and artists we collectively admire. We cite Radiohead as one of our biggest influences, as they have paved the way for alternative rock bands over the past 20 years and proved that having great songs is the most important aspect of being in a band. As well as listening to alot of 80s bands like The Cure, Depeche Mode and Pixies, more recently we love bands like The Horrors, Wild Beasts and The Twilight Sad.

Which track would you say best showcases the band?

In Pursuit is probably the track that is most representative of what we’re about. The idea of blending soaring guitars with pummeling bass and drum sounds is what we try to achieve with our sound, and this song captures that well. Saying that we feel every song we write showcases a different aspect of what we’re about – if we’re not happy with a song we’ve written it gets discarded pretty quickly! We’ve been described as being ‘very self-critical’.

How would you describe a live set from the band?

It’s hard for us to describe what our live performance is like, as it’s very different being onstage and hearing yourself than it is front of house. One thing we always bring to our live performance is energy and passion – no one wants to go and see a band who look disinterested! We tend to adopt the clichéd philosophy of treating every gig as our last, purely because it makes you play your best and adds to the atmosphere.

What can we expect from the band in 2012?

As stated earlier, music is very unpredictable and anything could happen this year. What you can certainly expect from us however, is a release in the coming months and lots of gigging in the meantime. We have been working extremely hard over the past few months and we have plenty of new material on its way!

You can find out more about Frontiers at their Official Facebook page now!